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GOD DOES ANSWER PRAYER!
Posted On 12/27/2007 11:58:42 by Penpower

God Answers Prayer



2 Kings 20:1-11 (NRSV)




1In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” 2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: 3“Remember now, O LORD, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah prince of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. 6I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” 7Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of figs. Let them take it and apply it to the boil, so that he may recover.” 8Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” 9Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: the shadow has now advanced ten intervals; shall it retreat ten intervals?” 10Hezekiah answered, “It is normal for the shadow to lengthen ten intervals; rather let the shadow retreat ten intervals.” 11The prophet Isaiah cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

Do we believe God answers prayer? I ask if ‘we’ believe, because I need to be included in the challenge of the message. When I ask, “Do we believe God answers prayer?” I don’t think I am wrong when I say, “We all answer, ’Yes, we believe God answers prayer.”


But, if you stop and think about it carefully, when we pray, for most of us anyway, there is a block in our spirit that hinders our absolute faith that God answers prayer. Jesus exposed this block in his disciples in Matthew 6:30 (NRSV)




But if God so clothes the grapples of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?


Matthew 8:26 (NRSV)




And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.


Matthew 16:8 (NRSV)




And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread?


Matthew 14:31 (NRSV)




Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”


Jesus ask His disciples “why did you doubt?” I am sure He is asking us the same question as we wring our hands waiting for an answer to our prayers.


Think about it, why don’t we believe and expect God to hear and answer our prayers.


You might be surprised at how many of us have difficulty believing God will hear and answer prayer because some pastor told us God doesn’t answer prayer.


I heard that gasp. You ask, “When did a pastor ever tell us that God does not answer prayer?”


When a preacher stands in this pulpit and says that God decreed everything that happens before He created the world. Now if God decreed before the foundation of the world that we will get sick on such and such a date and we will die on such and such a date, then prayer does not and cannot change things. What will be will be. Why trouble we the Lord with our prayers, if God determined the answer before He created the world, and before you ever prayed?


When William Carey heard God’s call him to India as a missionary, he presented his case to the Baptist Association who were Hyper-Calvinists. The Moderator answered Carey, “Sit down young man. When God wants to save the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine.” This is why Primitive Baptists don’t do missions or soul winning. And this is why they are disappearing from the face of the earth. If they obeyed Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19-20 (NRSV)



19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

they would be supporting missions throughout the world and they would be witnessing to their community and they would have many more churches than they do.


By the same logic, why pray? If God wants you to be well, He will heal you without prayer or a doctor or any intervention by man.


But our text this morning teaches that God answers prayer. It teaches that prayer does change things. It teaches that prayer can change the Mind of God.

The Prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.”


Did God lie through the Prophet Isaiah? Did God determine before the foundation of the world that Hezekiah would die?


Circumstances may tell you that you are sick unto death. Your doctor may say to you, “You have only 6 months to live.“ God, through the Prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah, “...you shall die; you shall not recover.” “Did God determine before the foundation of the world that Hezekiah would be sick and not recover? Did God determine before the foundation of the world that you would be sick unto death today?


We have known circumstances to be wrong. We know that things are not always as they appear. I have known Doctors to be wrong. But God said to Hezekiah, “...you shall die; you shall not recover.”


I have never known God to be wrong. The fact is when God, through Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “...you shall die; you shall not recover.” Hezekiah was sick with a terminal disease. He was not going to recover. Neither God nor Isaiah were in error. Hezekiah was sick and he was not going to recover. God said it and that settles it.


But Hezekiah prayed. God changed His mind. God repented. Pray changes things. Prayer changes God’s mind.


Now this was not the only time God was influence by prayer to the point of changing His mind and repenting. The prayer of even lost people brought God to repentance and He changed His mind. Listen to these Scriptures:


Jonah 3:1-10 (NRSV)




1The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” 10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.


Notice that God sent Jonah to Nineveh the second time. We all know what happened the first time God sent him to Nineveh. Jonah went AWOL! God changed Jonah’s mind. After God got through with Jonah, Jonah was glad to go to Nineveh. God sent Jonah to Nineveh and Jonah preached what God told him to preach: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”


God and Jonah were not telling a lie. They were not mistaken. In forty days, Nineveh would be destroyed. Nineveh was lost.


Notice that Nineveh repented:




6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind;

Nineveh said, “Who knows? God may relent and change his mind;...” These lost Ninevites prayed sincerely and repentantly. These lost people had enough faith to believe that God may relent and change his mind;...” “The Bible says:




“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.”


Don’t tell me that God never hears the prayer of lost people. He heard Nineveh and God repented of what He had determined to do: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” God didn’t do what He said He was going to do. He changed His mind. He repented. Prayer changes things. Prayer can change God’s mind.


Someone may say, “Well, it takes a lot of faith the change God’s mind. Well, just how much faith did Hezekiah have? He had enough to pray. The Bible says:




“Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: 3“Remember now, O LORD, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.”

Notice how quickly God changed His mind--how soon God repented. The Bible says:

4Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah prince of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. 6I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.”

God answered before Isaiah could leave the King’s court.


Now, just how much faith did Hezekiah have? Well, he had enough to pray, but he was slow to believe God’s answer. The Bible says:

8Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” 9Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: the shadow has now advanced ten intervals; shall it retreat ten intervals?” 10Hezekiah answered, “It is normal for the shadow to lengthen ten intervals; rather let the shadow retreat ten intervals.” 11The prophet Isaiah cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow back the ten intervals, by which the sun had declined on the dial of Ahaz.

Even though the God told Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; indeed, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. 6I will add fifteen years to your life.”, Hezekiah wanted a sign to prove that God would heal him. It only takes a little faith to change God’s mind.


This is an Old Testament illustration of what Jesus taught in Matthew 17:20 (NRSV)




“He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”


It doesn’t take much faith to move God into action. It doesn’t take much faith to change God’s mind. Prayer changes things. Prayer changes God’s mind.


Are you sick today? Do you have pressing problems that are disturbing your peace? Did God decide before the creation of the world that you would be sick today or you would have distressing problems at this time?


Did God fix your health and wealth before He created the world?


According to our text, God fixed the sickness and death on the day Isaiah said, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.”


Can God unfix what is fixed though prayer?


Let us listen in on the prayer of Hezekiah again:




Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD: 3“Remember now, O LORD, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.

James says in James 5:16 (NRSV)




Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

The KJV translates that verse:



“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

I heard a preacher say one time, “I never ask God for anything twice because that is not faith.” Now that sounds right, but I am not sure it’s Scriptural. Listen to Jesus. He said in Luke 18:1-7 (NRSV)




“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?”

If this unjust judge took this lady’s case because she “kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.“, how much more will God attend to His children’s prayers who cry unto Him day and night. God grants justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? I am going to ask God for what I need day and night until He answers me.


We often quote Matthew 7:7 (NRSV)




“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

The Greek literally means “Keep on asking and Keep on searching and Keep on Knock and you will receive, find, and the door will open.


Yes, God answers prayer. Pray changes things. Prayer changes God’s mind. Things happen as a result of prayer that would not happen with out prayer.


Someone has said, “More things are accomplished through prayer than this world ever dreamed of.”


Will you pray and ask Jesus to save you today? Don’t hesitate to come and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.


Will you pray and ask Jesus to heal you today? Don’t hesitate to call for the elders of this church to anoint you with oil.



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