39 The Principles Underlying Answered Prayer

Copyright © 2025 Michael A. Brown

      WHEN I was a young believer in my early twenties, and had recently been filled with the Holy Spirit, a friend of mine at church gave me a copy of Norman Grubb’s book Rees Howells: Intercessor to read.

      As I slowly worked my way through the story of the life and ministry of this man of God, the Lord spoke deeply into my heart.  I was struck by the fact that this man really knew God in a practical way, and he knew how to move the hand of God in answer to prayer.

      But what challenged me the most was not simply the fact that God answers prayer, it was the sheer potential that knowing God in such a way can bring into a believer’s life.  Until that time, it was as if God never seemed to answer my prayers.  Yet the potential of walking with God and seeing him saving, providing, healing, working, moving and releasing his power in situations, in answer to prayer, was exciting and deeply motivating to me.

      After I became a student at the Bible College of Wales, although I still struggled for a time to believe that God could answer my prayers, yet I was regularly encouraged by the fact that people in the community around me received answers to prayer in many situations of daily life.  Although I had no serious pretensions of ever becoming like Rees Howells or indeed any other man of God whose biography I read, in terms of the depth and power of their prayer life, yet I determined that I would endeavour to learn the same principles in whatever depth I could in my own life.  If I was to get anywhere at all in the work of God in the future, then I certainly needed to!

      I was hungry for God, and I wanted to know him for myself in this way.  As I read the word of God and meditated on it, I realised that the men and women whose lives we read about, were ordinary people who, amongst other things, had simply learned how to move the hand of God through prayer.  I too wanted to walk through life, and to go into whatever ministry the Lord might lead me, knowing that God could answer my prayers.   I could also then disciple other believers into knowing God in the same way, so multiplying the practical potential of this truth.

      The sections below explain the basic principles that I have learned in my life in regard to answered prayer.

God’s promises are unlimited

1.      Anyone

      God has given his promises to all believers without exception.  They are all valid for every believer in Christ.  Although some believers may live closer to God and may go deeper with him in their life than perhaps others do, yet God has no favourites, and he does not discriminate between people on any basis whatsoever.  This can be seen clearly through the use of the word ‘anyone’ in Jesus’ words below:

‘“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.  “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”’ (Mark 11:22-23)

      Those whom we hold in respect to have been great men and women of God, were not anything special in and of themselves.  As I said above, they were simply ordinary people who had determined to walk with God in consecrated faith and obedience over their lifetime, and, amongst many other things, they learned how to move the hand of God through prayer.  It is this that makes them great in our eyes.  So, if we want to see God fulfilling his promises and answering prayer in our life too, then we simply need to embrace the fact that he has given his promises to us as well as to others, and commit ourselves to learning the same kind of lessons about prayer that others have done or did in their own life.

2.      Whatever and anything

      As well as the fact that God has given his promises to all believers without exception, when we examine them we can see that they apply to every area of life, again without exception.  They are comprehensive in their scope as they apply to life.  We can see this from the use of the words ‘whatever’ and ‘anything’ in the following verses:

‘Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’ (Mark 11:24)

‘And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.’ (John 14:13-14)

‘Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.’ (John 15:16b)

‘Again, I tell you that if two of you agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by Father in heaven.  For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.’ (Matt. 18:19-20)

      This comprehensive nature of the scope of God’s promises is further emphasised by the superlative language which the word of God sometimes uses.  We are encouraged to believe that God is able to do great things for us:

‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us...’ (Eph. 3:20)

‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’ (Mark 9:23)

      More than all we can ask or even imagine!  Everything!  There are no limits as to what God can do in answer to prayer.  None!  God says twice of himself in the Scriptures that there is nothing too hard for him (Gen. 18:14, Jer. 32:27).  So the scope of prayer, in terms of God’s willingness and ability to answer, is endless and its possibilities are boundless.

      Therefore, it would not be an overstatement to say that, what God is looking for are people who will simply take him at his word and begin to believe him to work according to the promises he has given.  God says what he means, and he means what he says.  His promises apply to every area of life without exception, and believing prayer moves his hand and releases his power to work dynamically on our behalf:

‘The earnest [heartfelt, continued] prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].’ (Jas. 5:16 Amplified Classic Edition)

      So if we resolve to learn the basic principles of prayer in practice, then we too will see God answering our prayers many times during the course of our lifetime, and sometimes powerfully so.

God’s promises are conditional

      God gives us many promises in his word and, as we saw above, they are limitless.  They are for every believer, and they cover every area of life and every need.  However, as we look at them closely, we find that they are conditional, i.e. they have conditions attached to them.  Although eternal salvation itself is a free gift which all believers can receive and enjoy, yet God’s promises to us in our Christian life are conditional.

1.      ‘If you…. then I…’

      This conditional nature of God’s promises can be summed up in the simple phrase, “If you… then I…”  There is a very good example of this in Exodus 15:26 where God gives the revelation of himself as Yahweh Rapha, the Lord our Healer, to the ancient Israelites:

‘If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.’ (Ex. 15:26)

      Although the last part of this verse is very well known and is quoted often by many believers, yet the first part of the verse is often left aside.  But if we look at it closely, we can see that it gives some conditions that God required the Israelites to fulfil.  God’s promise to them of healing was conditional on their listening carefully to his voice and on their obedience to his commands.

      So if we want to see God answering prayer according to the promises he has given us, then we must make sure that we fulfil any particular conditions which he has attached to them.

2.      Abiding

      In his teaching about the Vine and its branches in John 15:1-17, Jesus made answered prayer contingent in a two-fold way upon what he called ‘abiding’ (AV) or ‘remaining’ (NIV):

‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’ (John 15:7 AV)

      The Greek verb menein which is translated in this verse as ‘abide’ means ‘to live habitually with,’ and so it speaks of consistent growth in our relationship and intimacy with God, just as the union between a branch and its vine slowly grows deeper as time passes.  God never intends that our relationship with him should remain static or superficial.  He wants and desires it to continue to grow, and to become closer as time goes on.  He wants our times with him to be characterised by growing love and deepening intimacy, animated by the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit within us. He wants us to truly get to know him.  In this way, we will grow in our spiritual life, we will come to know his word and his ways better, and we will be able to discern his will better, and we can then pray accordingly.  Consequently, as we follow him in obedience through our life, we will bear much fruit for his kingdom, and answered prayer will become a regular feature of our life. God answers prayer on the basis of growing and deepening relationship.

      Furthermore, the above verse also speaks about the words of God abiding in us.  The Greek word translated as ‘words’ here is rhemata which refers to spoken words, rather than to written words.  God does not intend his word to stay simply as written words on the pages of the Bible, which we read and then quickly forget.  Rather than this, he wants his word to enter into our mind and heart on a regular basis, by reading it and meditating on it.  As we do this, the Holy Spirit within us makes the written word of God into a living and life-giving word which speaks often and deeply to us.  It becomes rooted and grounded in our life, and we begin to live according to its teachings.  It feeds our soul, builds up our spiritual life, and transforms our character.  In this way, as we seek God’s face, he will often speak specific promises and verses of Scripture into our heart which strengthen our faith.  Such rhema words, as they are called, inspire our faith and they bring spiritual breakthrough as we seek God in prayer in times of need.

The basic principles underlying answered prayer

      The following seven points are the basic principles which underlie answered prayer.

1.      Confession

      As I said in the previous chapter, the confession of any sin and/or selfish motives that we are consciously aware of within ourselves, is a foundational spiritual discipline which we should practise daily as we spend time with God.  Without such confession, we cannot enter into his presence, and our life with him cannot go forward.

      Because God is holy, he must first deal with our sin before we can enter into his presence in a tangible and effective way.  Sin is and always will be a barrier which prevents us from drawing close to him.  So it should be obvious that not confessing sin, and not putting things right with God and with one another, means that God will not hear us, and our prayers therefore will go unanswered.  The psalmist confirms this:

‘If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have heard.’ (Ps. 66:18)

      We deal with sin through confession of it, repentance from it, and forgiveness of it.  Then, in his faithfulness and love, God cleanses it away from us:

‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ (1 John 1:9)

      Furthermore, we should endeavour to keep our relationships right with other people, or to put them right, before we come to God:

‘Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with you wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.’ (1 Peter 3:7)

‘Therefore, if you are offering you gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.’ (Matt. 5:23-24)

      The apostle James exhorts us to confess our sins to one another, and then, having done this, to pray with the expectation that God will hear and answer us:

‘Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.’ (Jas. 5:16)

2.      Seek intimacy with God

‘My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.’ (Ps. 84:2)

      Because of personal busyness and endless distractions, many believers struggle to develop an intimate personal relationship with the Lord.  Their relationship with him tends to be inconsistent and somewhat hit-and-miss.  For this reason, they miss out on the greatest treasures of the Christian life.  What God does in and through us comes out of our intimacy with him.  He works through relationship.  Those who have done exploits for God have always been men and women who knew regular intimacy with him.  This really is the key thing.  If we miss it here, then, as a consequence, we miss out on much else that could perhaps have been.  Developing intimacy with him is God’s greatest desire for us.

      So we should not take for granted our relationship with God.  We should proactively work at developing it.  We should not rush in and rush out his presence.  Rather we should be free within ourselves to linger long and often with him, and to enjoy this.  There simply is nothing greater or more satisfying or fulfilling in life than a relationship with God in which we can tangibly and subjectively feel his love and his presence with us, and love him back.  We can love him, worship him, adore him, praise him, and confide in him the deepest things of our heart, on a regular if not a daily basis.

      Therefore, when it comes to prayer, and to answered prayer, it goes without saying that the inner secret of it all is developing such a regular, close and intimate relationship with God.  Without this, it simply does not work, and we bear no fruit.  Developing consistency in intimacy with God is the secret of what it means to abide in Christ, and all lasting fruit in our life flows out of this (John 15:1-17).

3.      Meditate on the word of God

      As we grow in our relationship with the Lord, it is normal not only to read the word of God, but also to meditate on what we are reading.  For the word of God to have the effects within us that God desires it should have, we should never rush through our reading of it.  We should take our time with it, and think about and meditate on what we read, even if it is only a short passage that we are reading.

      The Holy Spirit can then draw us into God’s life-giving word, and we can experience its intended effects within us.  It renews and refreshes our spiritual life; it builds up and strengthens our faith; it gives life and peace to our heart, and it transforms our mind.  Meditation on the word of God is an essential spiritual discipline which, if we practise it regularly (and combine it with practical obedience to what we have understood from the word of God) will lead to the prospering and growth of our life in Christ:

‘But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.’ (Ps. 1:2-3, cf. Josh. 1:8)

      To strengthen our faith, and to wash away doubt, fear, unbelief, and internal stress and worry, we must meditate on the word of God.  Faith is built up within us through the word of God:

‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ (Rom. 10:17 AV)

      As far as prayer is concerned, the essential foundation is to make sure that we regularly build up and strengthen our faith through the word of God, as we spend time with him.  Then when we pray, we will pray with real faith, and our prayers can be answered.

      In this regard, a useful practice that we can develop is to read through and meditate on narrative sections of Scripture where people prayed and called on God in situations, and he acted on their behalf and delivered them.  There are many such passages in the Scriptures.  The point being that, if God could act on their behalf in answer to prayer, then he can do the same for us today.  He has not changed, so, reading about what God did for them, inspires us to believe that he can do the same or similar for us too.

4.      Pray according to the will of God

      It ought to be a self-evident truth that God only answers prayer requests that are according to his will.  The apostle John affirms this, whilst also emphasising the willingness of God to answer such prayer, whereas by contrast, James makes it clear that God certainly does not answer prayers that are based on self-centred or carnal motivations:

‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.’ (1 John 5:14-15)

‘When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.' (Jas. 4:3)

      When I was a young believer, although James’ words made perfect sense to me, yet John’s seemed almost enigmatic.  How do we know what God’s will is, that we might then pray according to it?

      Over the years, I have found the answer to this question to be based on the following two related factors.  Firstly, the will of God is revealed to us in the Scriptures.  Whatever the word of God teaches us about our life shows us what his will is for us.  So, for example, it is his will that our basic needs in life should be met, if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matt. 6:33).  It is his will that we should avoid sexual immorality (1 Thess. 4:3).  It is his will for us that we should enjoy generally good health (Ex. 15:26, 3 John v.2).  It is his will that people should repent and get saved (Rom. 10:1, 2 Peter 3:9), and so on.

      So, if we are to understand what the will of God is, then we simply need to study and get to know the Scriptures as well as we possibly can.  The will of God in relation to any particular area of life, can be known and understood by doing a thorough topical study of what the word of God teaches about it.  We will pray aright, if we pray according to what the word of God teaches.  We need to obey its commandments, receive its wisdom, and believe its promises.

      Secondly, and related to this first point, we come to understand what the will of God is as we abide consistently in Christ.  As we abide, and thereby slowly build up a life of regular intimacy with the Lord, not only do we get to know his word deeply, we also get to know him and his ways (cf. Ps. 103:7).  Furthermore, as we live close to the Lord, we are also able to discern intuitively within our spirit when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and giving us inward promptings or checks in situations, particularly in terms of personal guidance (e.g. Acts 8:29, 10:19, 13:2-3). 

      As we seek God’s face regularly, we come to an understanding of what his will is, and, as our life becomes increasingly woven into spiritual union with his through our intimacy with him, our own will becomes increasingly conformed to his.  We want and desire the things which he himself wants.  And so we pray according to his will, rather than to our own, and our life bears lasting fruit as a consequence (John 15:7-8).

      Thirdly, if in any situation we do not seem to understand what the will of God is, even as we practise the above two points, then we should seek counsel from our pastor or his wife, with whom we can discuss and pray about the issue.  This should then help us to clarify our thinking and to know what the will of God is.  If we genuinely desire to know what his will is, and if we are willing to accept it, then God will be perfectly willing to show us what it is (cf. Jas. 1:5).

5.      Pray in faith

      God responds to us on the basis of our faith.  This is the condition for seeing him work and answer prayer, just as it was to receive our salvation when we first became believers:

‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.’ (Heb. 11:6)

      For example, James emphasises that the dynamic of seeing sick people healed is released by praying the prayer of faith:

‘And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.’ (Jas. 5:15 AV)

      Similarly, the gospel narratives tell us that when people came to Jesus to receive healing, they invariably came with faith in their heart and therefore with an expectation that they would receive from him:

‘He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.”’ (Mark 5:34)

‘Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored.’ (Matt. 9:29)

      However, when it comes to spiritual life and the things of God, doubt and unbelief are deeply rooted in the human heart.  They are inherent to our fallen nature, and they prevent God from working:

‘And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.  And he marvelled because of their unbelief.’ (Mark 6:5-6 AV)

‘…if anyone says to this mountain… and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’ (Mark 11:23)

      So, if we are to see God working, then we need to overcome our doubts and unbelief, and to fill our heart with faith.  How do we do this?  Very simply, by taking the time to regularly and daily soak ourselves in the word of God.  As we do this, by reading and meditating on it, the Holy Spirit responds within us and causes faith to rise up and to become strong in our heart, and our mind to be renewed.  As a result, any doubts and unbelief that we have are dissolved and melted away, and they lose their grip on us.  Then we can embrace and respond freely to God’s promises out of a heart filled with living and dynamic faith, and we will no doubt receive the answer we are seeking.

6.      Believe the promises

      As I said above, God’s promises are for every believer.  They are boundless and unlimited, and they are for every area of life.  God is pleased when we believe his word and his promises.  He has given them to us, because he fully intends to keep them, especially when human resources and skills have reached their limit and can do no more.  As someone once said, the end of man is the beginning of God.  That is when we step into the boundless possibilities of what God can do in human situations.  As the apostle Paul confirmed:

‘For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.’ (2 Cor. 1:20)

      So we need to know the promises of God; we need to declare and proclaim them over ourselves, and we need to stand on them by faith, particularly any specific promises that the Holy Spirit speaks into our heart as rhema words of faith as we seek God in times of need.

      We are always blessed and inspired when we read the biographies of great men and women of God. However, even though they did great things for God, we need to realise that it was not always so with them.  Like everyone else, they all had to begin somewhere, and in the beginning, as their biographies show, they often struggled to believe God, just like we do.  They too had to learn how to overcome their doubts and unbelief.  They had to learn to trust God first for relatively small things where they were, and then, as their faith grew and their influence expanded, they could believe God for greater things.

      We cannot believe God for great things, if we have not first learned to believe him for smaller things where we are, in the daily things of life and in the ordinary humdrum issues of weekly ministry.  With God, this is the way it normally works, and it is the way we prove his promises.  So we should not despise the day of small things (cf. Zech. 4:10).  God uses small things as our training ground in believing his promises, and then, as we grow in faith, he leads us into greater things.

7.       Perseverance

      The Scriptures make it plain that, although God does answer prayer, yet his answers often do not come immediately.

      When Daniel prayed and fasted, and set himself to seek the Lord, although his prayer was heard by God immediately, yet it was twenty-one days before the angel Gabriel was able to bring God’s answer to him (Dan. 10:2-3,12-14).  When Jeremiah prayed for God’s guidance for the people who came to seek it, he certainly got an answer from God, but only after ten days (Jer. ch.42).  When Elijah prayed that it might rain again after the drought during Ahab’s reign, he had to keep persevering in prayer.  He kept sending his servant up the mountain with the expectation each time that God’s answer would be on its way.  However, his servant did not see the rainclouds forming until he went up the mountain for the seventh time (1 Ki. 18:41-44).  Similarly, Naaman was not healed until he had bathed himself in the Jordan river for the seventh time (2 Ki. 5:10-14).

      As we grow in our understanding of prayer, it is not long before we realise that perseverance plays an important part, just as it did in the examples above.  It is through faith and perseverance, not simply through faith alone, that we inherit the promises of God:

‘We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.' (Heb. 6:12)

      We cannot afford to think that we can simply pray once about something on one occasion, and then, hey presto!, along comes the answer.  No.  Patience, waiting, and perseverance are all important aspects of spiritual life and in seeing God answer prayer.  We are to keep asking, to keep seeking, and to keep knocking (as the underling Greek means), just as the friend at midnight did (Luke 11:5-10).  We should always pray and not give up, and we should keep on believing God with real, overcoming faith, because he will certainly answer us (Luke 18:1-8).  With God, a delay is not a denial.