Marching Orders #224... "The Doors and Keys to Answered Prayer

LET THE

SONSHINE

..."Your eyes light up your inward being.

A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul."

Luke 11:34a

© PrayerVine Int'l

P.O. Box 675

Whitehouse, TX 75791

The Doors and Keys to Answered Prayer

I've heard all sort of answers to that question; some say that it is communicating with God, talking to Him, asking and receiving, praise, intimacy... I'd like to offer a definition for your consideration based on the following Bible verse:

"And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us; And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." I John 5:14,15

It used to puzzle me that Jesus had to pray... Jesus, the Son of God, sent to earth by His Father to die on the cross for our sins. He came to earth in God's will, to accomplish the will of the Father to reconcile us to himself. He has said that He only spoke those things which the Father told him. He also said that if you saw Him, you saw the Father. It puzzled me that, in a sense, God the Son had to pray to God the Father. Then I realized that Jesus was born in a human body...He came to earth not as an angel, with no self-will, or deity, without the ability to sin, but as a human.

We are not puppets in God's hands, and neither was Jesus. Jesus, just like us, had the ability to make choices. We see that as He struggled in prayer in the garden just before He chose to be crucified for our sins. In Matthew 26:36-45, when the disciples fell asleep instead of praying, we find Jesus praying, "Let this cup pass from Me....O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." What was Jesus really saying here? Wasn't Jesus implying...(My paraphrase)...Father, I want your will to be done. I came to earth for this very purpose...now that we are at the threshhold of my dying on the cross, I haven't changed my mind.Isn't He saying?..."I give you permission to do what we both already know that you want to do. I will die for the sins of mankind because this is Your perfect will." God gives us free will choices...not only hard ones, but good and easy ones too.

One time as I was praying I saw some doors in heaven ...they were labeled with these blessings...

PROVISION HEALING MINISTRY LOVE FORGIVENESS

The peculiar thing about the doors was they had locks on this side. I was the one who had the keys to unlock them. Behind the doors was God's will for me and my life.. I unlocked the door marked "provision" and coins of gold came tumbling out. I found myself asking the Lord what all that meant, and here are the thoughts that came to me:

"I will never force anything upon you that you do not want. I have already made provision for your every need. It awaits here for you, but you must ask Me so that I can give it to you. Prayer is giving Me permission to do what I already have planned for you and your life. Ask anything in accordance to my will and it shall be done."

WOW! That is exactly it...I thought. Prayer is giving God permission to do His will in our life. Even Jesus had to give Him permission to allow Himself to be crucified. Even though it was the perfect will of the Father, God would not have allowed Jesus to be crucified unless, through prayer, Jesus gave Him the permission to do so. I hope that you are grasping what I am attempting to say here... When I realized this, my entire life changed. I no longer worried about wasting God's time with little prayers. I began praying about everything, realizing that He was waiting to give me "whatsoever I would ask" as long as it was His will for me... my life began to drastically change for the better...

No one has ever gotten saved without asking (or giving God permission) to save them.

Healing takes place when we, or our loved ones ask God to heal us.

No person has been baptised with His Holy Spirit without asking to be filled. (In accordande with Luke 11:13)

I could go on and on here...but, to receive anything from God, I am convinced that we have to ask...to grant Him permission to do what He already wants to do. This is a very humbling thought, but unlike the devil who forces all his obscenity, addictions, sickness, perversion, hate, and sin upon us, our Father God gently, and so very patiently, waits to give us what we ask for.

I used to do a radio talk show where people gave testimonies about the things that God did for them, and I used a theme song with these words, "He was there all the time, waiting patiently in line." Nearly every person that came on the program said something to this nature: I tried everything imaginable to get off of drugs, (or) we went to counselor after counselor to restore our marriage, (or) we lived in poverty (or) every doctor had given up hope, etc., and then I FINALLY turned to God in prayer. Yes, it was then, after they gave God permission to deliver, heal, and restore, that their answers came. Don't you think He deserves to be asked first and not last? He loves us as a father loves his child, but more so, and it is His good pleasure to give us the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.

When we pray and the answer has not come, it could be we did not have the right key, or we have asked amiss to consume it on our own lust, or God knows something that we don't realize yet and He has a more perfect or better plan. When this happens, we must ask that His will be revealed and done in our lives. But Jesus Himself has said that He gives us the right keys when we ask in His perfect will:

"And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever doors you lock on earth shall be locked in heaven; and whatever doors you open on earth shall be open in heaven!"

Matthew 16:19 L/B

For myself, I was locking God out of my life in some areas.I felt I wasn't deserving enough, or that maybe He didn't want me to have certain blessings, so I left the doors locked from this side. Finally, after seeing that vision, I began to pray...nevertheless, not my will be done, but Thy will be done. And doors began to open and blessings began to be poured out upon me to where I can hardly contain them all. What a blessing it is for me to write these lessons for you...I receive such joy from it...but for many years I had the door to ministry locked.

Won't you open up your heart and let the Sonshine in? Won't you use this information as a key to a fuller, happier life in Christ Jesus? He loves you and wants to bless you today...

Yours in Him, and He in me,

Marlene \o/

MARCHING ORDERS #224

The Lord God says, “I am ready to hear . . . prayers for these blessings.”

The reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it.

Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds. If only you will knock, the door will open.

We are sure of this, that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we really know he is listening when we talk to him and make our requests, then we can be sure that he will answer us.

If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask him; he will not resent it. - Only test me! Open your mouth wide and see if I won’t fill it. You will receive every blessing you can use!

Jesus told . . . their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes.

The eyes of the Lord are intently watching all who live good lives, and he gives attention when they cry to him. Yes, the Lord hears the good man when he calls to him for help, and saves him out of all his troubles.

You will present your petitions over my signature! And I won’t need to ask the Father to grant you these requests, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me.

(Living Bible)

Ezekiel 36:37.

James 4:2.

Matt. 7:7-8. - I Jn. 5:14-15. - James 1:5.

Ps. 81:10. - Luke 18:1.

Ps. 34:15, 17. - Jn. 16:26-27.

If you'd like to subscribe to our mailing list e-mail me, Marlene, at PrayerVine@aol.com.

back to the Catalog

.Back to the main page

Although copyrighted to prevent altering or reproducing for profit, you do have permission to forward all letters you receive from PrayerVine, without altering, to your friends, and make copies for your personal use.