Ron Dunn Podcast - If God Doesn't Answer

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

For too long we have lowered the standard of God down to the level of our experience. It's our experience that is wrong, not the wrod of God.

I think probably the greatest problem in prayer is not unanswered prayer, it's unoffered prayer. For the majority of Christians, unoffered prayer is one of the greatest sins that Christendom is committing today. You have not because you ask not. Verse 3 gives to us the second problem. You ask and receive not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your pleasures or desires. You ask and receive not. You ask and receive not One of the most frustrating experiences

That the Christian ever knows Very frustrating To come into a room at night And flip on the light switch And the lights not come on Very frustrating to get into your automobile In the morning or tonight after church And turn the key and nothing happens

But when that happens You don't say that electricity is a failure and that Benjamin Franklin got shocked for nothing and all that he did was just a complete failure. And if your automobile won't start, you don't say the automobile industry is a failure. You know there's something wrong in your car. And if your lights don't turn on, there's something wrong with your system. There's a short circuit somewhere. And one of the most frustrating experiences that a Christian can ever know is to hear a series of messages like we've been hearing and say, I believe it. I'm going to try it. And then to pray for something and pray believing and thank God for the answer and then not receive the answer.

Well, listen, when that happens, don't think that the promises of God are a failure. And don't think that God didn't mean what he said and didn't say what he meant. And as we've said all the way through this series, let's understand that God always says what he means and always means what he says and that we want to bring the level of our experience up to the level of God's word. I think that's my birthright as a Christian and I've made up my mind not to settle for anything less. I am going to have what this book says I ought to have. It's my birthright. God says I can have it. I'm going to have it. God says I'm more than conscious through him that loved me. I'm going to be and if have it, I'm going to have it. God says I'm more than conscious through him that loved me, I'm going to be. And if I'm not, I'm going to know that it's my experience

that's wrong, not the word of God that's wrong. And for too long we have lowered the standard of the word of God down to the level of our experience. We have prayed and have not received the answer, and so we've said, well, I must have read it wrong. Maybe God doesn't really mean for us to ask specifically. Maybe really God didn't mean exactly what he said. But I think we do well to operate on that assumption, God did mean it, and God did say it, and that if my experience and the word of God do not coincide, it's my experience that's wrong and not the word of God.

And you know, there is a wide gap between our experience and between the promises of God. And what the church has done is lowered those promises of God. They've spiritualized them. They've explained them away so as to make them conform with the experience of modern day Christianity. Well, I want you to know I'm after what God has for me, and I want my experience to conform and to be lifted to the level of God's promises. When God says it, it's mine. It's mine. God has to keep his word. And if when I pray God does not answer it's sinful for me to say God really didn't mean it or maybe he meant something other than what he said. Well, what happened?

Why is it that God does not answer? And I've already had a number of you come to me and say preacher I did everything you told me to do I prayed for this certain thing and I really believed God was going to answer and give me what I asked for and I even thanked him for it in advance I believed I already had it

and I acted like it was so when it wasn't so so that it would be so I believe what you said Jesus said believe that you've got it already and you'll get it. And I didn't get it. What happened? When you pray and God does not answer, what are we to do? Well, you need to sit down and take stock. Take inventory. And you need to look in three directions. We're going to see tonight why sometimes our praying fails

and why it is sometimes God does not answer or God does not seem to answer. And when you pray, pray believing, you just know God's going to do it. You believe he's going to do it and he doesn't. What's the explanation? Look in three directions. First of all, look at yourself. Look at yourself. The cause of failure may be in your manner of living. It may be in your manner of living. Sin always short-circuits our prayer life. It is the life that prays. My prayers are offered to God from the platform of the life that I live.

And you cannot separate the person you are from the prayers you offer. And if the person offering the prayers is not what he ought to be, then no matter how much that prayer is according to the will of God, no matter how much faith you have, God will not answer that prayer. Listen to what the prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 59. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot say, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. That's not the problem. What is the problem? Here it is. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. Now let me stop here for just a moment and clarify

something. We get into a big discussion once in a while over this matter does God always hear us God may not always answer but he always hears us well now it is true that God always hears us in the sense that he hears the sound and hears the word but the Bible equates God hearing with God answering now you may say that God always hears us he just doesn't sometimes answer, but the Bible never uses that terminology. Now it is true that God always hears with his hearing what we say, but the Bible considers refusal to answer, refusal to hear. See, he says so that he will not hear.

And so if God has not answered my prayer, God has not heard my prayer. God just refuses to listen to me. He could hear me, but he refuses to listen to me. And if I come to God from a platform of disobedience, if my life has in it some unconfessed sin that I know about, and yet I have failed to deal with that sin, God refuses to hear me. In Micah chapter 3, God over and over again makes the statement that he will refuse to hear the people when they call unto him. And he mentions several reasons, and all of them have to do with the way they have been living, with the manner of life. In 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7, it says, if a husband doesn't dwell with his wife according to knowledge, that means if he

doesn't treat her like he knows he ought to, his prayers are hindered. His prayers are hindered. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11, verse 24 and 25, that if I have ought in my heart against someone and I pray and yet I do not forgive that person, then God will not hear and God will not answer. So when you make your prayer to God and you prayed believing and yet there's no answer, the first thing for you to do is to look at yourself. The manner of living may be wrong. The manner of living may be wrong. Let's read another verse. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 21 and 22. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. There is a condition

of answered prayer. We are receiving the things that we have asked of him. Why? Because we are keeping his commandments and we are doing the things that are pleasing in his sight. And I want you to notice that the word doing his commandments, keeping his commandments is in the present tense which indicates a habit of life a fellow that just once in a while obeys the lord and a lady that just once in a while does what is pleasing in god's sight has no right to pray it is a life that is characterized by obedience it is a life that is characterized by doing the things that are pleasing in his sight. Many times God will not hear us and God will not answer because of the wrong manner of our life.

That's the first place to look. You may have short-circuited your own prayer because of some sin in your life that you have not dealt with. Maybe there needs to be reconciliation made and you've not affected that. God will not hear. Let's remember it is the life that prays. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The prayer of a man who is not righteous personally, who is not practicing holiness of living God will not hear his prayer but maybe it's not wrong manner of living it may be the wrong motive in praying that keeps God from hearing our prayer let's go back to James chapter 4 and that third verse where he discusses the problem of unanswered prayer. He says, you ask and receive

not because you ask amidst that you may consume it upon your lust. Now the word lust is not a bad word in the New Testament. It simply means your desires, what you want. And here's what the writer is saying. Many times you ask, you don't receive because you have asked amiss. You've asked for the wrong reason. The only reason you're praying is a selfish reason. You're praying for wrong motives. I remember a number of years ago, there was a wife who had a lost husband. And oh, she wanted her husband to be saved.

He drank quite a bit, and she thought it would be nice if he didn't. He wouldn't come to Sunday school with her on Sunday morning. She thought it would be nice if he did. I mean, other husbands came with their wives, and she thought it would be nice if she had a good Christian husband, someone to go to church with her on Sunday morning. So she asked the church to pray with her on Sunday morning. So she asked the church to pray that her husband would be saved. Well, God heard the prayers of the church and he was saved. And man, was he saved. God just gave him a dose of it. He not only got saved,

he got excited about being saved. He began to tithe to her consternation. He began to come not only on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Sunday school, training union, Wednesday night, visitation. Every time there was something to do in the church, he wanted to be there. You know what she said? This is her exact words. She said, I just wanted him to be saved. I didn't want all this other stuff.

She had a wrong motive in wanting her husband to be saved. I know sometimes some people have prayed, Pastor, will you pray that God will give me an increase in pay? And I cannot really pray that God will give them an increase in salary because they're not honoring God with the money they do make. I've been asked at times to pray that God would heal somebody, and I've not been able to pray that because if God healed them,

all it would mean was an extenuation of their godless life. You know, there was only one time in the New Testament where somebody asked Jesus for help and he refused them. Anytime somebody came to Jesus and said, Lord, would you do this for us? Would you meet this need? Would you help us? Jesus always answered and always met the need, with one exception. You know who that was? The thief on the cross.

The thief on the cross said, if thou be the son of God, save thyself and us. And Jesus didn't even answer him. He refused to hear. Why? Why didn't Jesus take mercy on that thief and save him physically? Because there was no repentance in that thief. He wasn't sorry for his sin. If Jesus had answered that man's prayer, all it would have amounted to was giving that man more years of godless living. And Jesus refused to answer it. What is the motive you have in your prayer? Jesus tells us the motive of praying in John chapter 14 and verse 13. And if you shall ask anything in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. Your prayer must be linked to divine necessity.

Your prayer must have as its motive the glory of God. You know, I have had to purify my own motives in praying for revival. Why did I want God? Why do I want God to pour out His blessings upon this church? So I can write about it in the Baptist Standard? So I can go to the pastor's conference and say, Man, you should have been in our church yesterday. So we can get up and talk about our church?

Listen, you'd better be careful about the motive in praying. God knows your heart, and He will not hear the prayer that is offered from a wrong motive. What is the motive in that prayer? Why do you really want God to answer that prayer? James says, you ask and receive not that you may consume it on your love. You ask amidst. You ask amidst. And sometimes God does not hear and answer our prayer because we're praying from the wrong motive. All right, first of all, when God does not answer, look to yourself for the explanation.

The second place to look is to look to your prayer. Look to your prayer. Now let's read 1 John chapter 5. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us if we ask anything according to his will he hears us god will not hear that prayer if it is not according to his will no matter how much you believe and you know i've had people come to me and say, Preacher, I just don't understand.

I prayed for this thing, and I really believed that God was going to give it to me, and I even thanked Him in advance for giving it to me, and I really prayed, and I really prayed, and I really believed God was going to give it to me, and He didn't give it to me. Why didn't He? Well, it may be because that prayer was not according to His will.

Sometimes people say, I asked God to heal me and I believe that God was really going to heal me. I've had several people say this to me in the past few weeks. I was sick and I really believed God was going to heal me and He didn't. Tell me why. It wasn't God's will. Now it doesn't say in the word of God that it is God's will that every person be healed. You say, well, I thought healing was in the atonement. It is. So is sinless perfection. So is glorification. So is heaven in the atonement. But we haven't experienced everything that Jesus bought for us on the cross yet.

And I find nowhere in the word of God where it teaches that in this present life, it is always God's will that we be physically whole. I cannot find that anywhere. And you can believe all you want to, but if that petition is not according to the will of God, then God's not going to hear it. Now, when we preached on faith, I said again and again that faith must be founded on the facts of the Word of God. Some of us think we have faith when all we really have is power

of positive thinking. We say, I believe that if I believe it hard enough and just pump up my faith muscles and just really believe that I'm going to get this, that I'll get it. Now that is not faith. That is not faith. Faith is obedience to the Word of God. It is founded on the facts of the Word of God. And sometimes you ask God to do something and you really believe it's his will, he doesn't do it, it may be that you read the signs wrong. You're not infallible. I am not infallible. There will be times when you will misread God's signs and you will be mistaken about something being according to the will of God. And I'll tell you another reason. The thing we're praying for may be ultimately according to the will of God, but here's what we do. We say, Lord, I want you to save such and such. And then we begin to outline

how we want God to save him. And we say, Lord, I want you to bring him to church next Sunday morning so he can be saved. God doesn't bring him to church next Sunday morning. You say, what happened? God didn't hear my prayer. I thought it was God's will that every person be saved. It is, but it may not be God's will that that person be in church next Sunday morning. I have had to discipline myself to let God do it the way he wants to do it instead of trying to outline his business for it. I have every right to ask in prayer that God will bring about the salvation of a person, but I do not think that I have a right to tell God every step and how to do it. Sometimes you've had financial needs, and you've said, Lord, I want you to give me a new job.

And you really believe God was going to give you that new job because that would meet your financial needs, and God didn't give you that new job. Well, you said, I thought it was God's will that he meet all of our needs. It is, but it's not necessarily God's will that he meets your needs through a new job. He may want to meet it some other way. He may want to show you how you can cut back and economize a little bit so you can live within what you make. You see, God has promised to meet our needs. That's enough for me. That's sufficient. But what we do, we go beyond the revealed word of God and sometimes we outline how we want God to meet our needs and you have

no right to do that. So if God does not hear your prayer and you do not receive the answer, look to the prayer. You may have prayed wrongly in that what you specifically asked for was not according to the will of God. Now the third place to look, look to God. The explanation of why you have failed to receive what you asked for can be found many times and most of the time in God. Because sometimes God answers the prayer differently. God answers the prayer differently. A case in point is Paul's thorn in the flesh. God met his need, didn't he? Didn't God meet his need? Didn't God bring him to a place

of glory and victory and even giving a shout of victory? But he did it differently from what Paul expected. Now you may be praying that God will bring about the salvation of your child or that God will bring about the salvation of a loved one or a next door neighbor. And you may think that God is going to do it in a certain way. It may be that God is answering that prayer differently. I have found that God operates many times this way. He takes the obvious and reverses it. Have you ever noticed that? He takes the obvious and reverses it. I mean, it's just obvious that if he was going to send his son, the Messiah, he would come as a king, as a prince in a noble birth.

That's the obvious way for him to come. God reverses it. Well, it's obvious to me that if God is going to pick a nation through which to display himself, he's going to pick a strong, powerful nation. God takes the obvious and he reverses it. Well, it's obvious to me that if God, if the Lord Jesus Christ is going to put the salvation, the gospel message of the world in the hands of a group of men, he's going to pick well-educated men, wealthy men, men of power and prestige and influence. That's obvious, isn't it? Isn't that what we look for in our churches today? God takes the obvious and he reverses it so

he can get the glory. God many times takes the obvious and reverses it. This is why the prophet Isaiah says, His ways are above our ways. His thoughts above our thoughts. Sometimes God answers that prayer differently. And we're not going to take the time tonight, I wish we had the time, just to explain and give some illustrations of how God has answered prayer differently. There have been times when I have prayed specifically

that God would do something in my own life or God would meet a need in the life of this church, and I have had already in my mind a vision of how God was going to do it. There have been problems in our church, and I thought the problem was somebody else. So it was somebody else. And I said, now, Lord, I want you to change that person. You know what God did? He changed me. Now, God solved the problem but he answered it differently he answered it differently and sometimes God is working on a different thought level and time level and method level than we're praying on he's answering our prayer but he's doing it differently but not only sometimes are our prayers answered differently. They're sometimes delayed.

They're many times delayed. You know, we're impatient people, and we think that when we ask God to do something, He's going to have to do it right then. But Jesus said, God said, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. God many times answers our prayers later that He might answer them better.

Do you remember over in the Old Testament, Hannah was barren? And to the Hebrews, for a woman to be barren was a sign of God's judgment upon her. And Hannah went to the temple one day and she was so overcome with the desire to have a son that she prayed and prayed and prayed. God answered her prayer, but he answered it years later. You remember in Luke chapter 1 when the priest Zacharias is in the temple offering there the sacrifice and the angel of the Lord comes and says, Zacharias, thy prayer is heard.

You're going to have a son. Now, Zacharias was not praying for a son in that temple, was he? Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were years past the age of childbearing. Zacharias wasn't in that temple praying for a son and yet the angel came and said thy prayer is heard you will have a son what prayer was he talking about a prayer they offered to God way back yonder

when they were young and you know I bet they thought God just hadn't heard them I'll bet Zacharias and Elizabeth lost a lot of confidence in God at times

well we prayed that God would give us a son. We really believe it's his will. We believe he's going to do it. We have faith. And the years pass, and the years pass, and the years pass, and they get too old to have children. Well, I guess God just, somehow we must have read the scripture wrong.

And the angel said, Thy prayer was heard, and it's in the past tense. It means the minute you offered that prayer, God heard it. But the answer was delayed. Years. Why? So that God might answer it better. What if God had answered the prayer of Zacharias and Elizabeth when they first offered it? They'd have had a son, but it'd just been another boy.

Now they've got John the Baptist. Now they have the forerunner of Jesus. Now they have the last Old Testament prophet, you see. God answered it better. Why didn't God answer Hannah's prayer immediately? Well, if he had, she would have had a son, and she would have been happy. But God waited untilrael needed a prophet

and he gave hannah samuel answered it better answered it better i can think of the times that i've gotten impatient with the lord and i prayed and prayed and believed that god was going to hear and i knew i was praying according to the will of God because it was in the book. God didn't answer and God didn't hear. Why did God delay that answer? He told me he might answer it better. Oh, I want to praise the Lord tonight for not listening to me sometimes.

Oh. You know, one of the greatest days of my life was when I discovered the Lord could do more better with my life than I could. More better. The Lord could better run my life than I could. I can't tell you how many times in years past I've sat down

and almost with a pencil and paper plotted out my life and my ministry and the Lord, here's what I want, this is what I want to be, and this is what I want to do, now would you please do it? And then grown impatient and rebellious when he didn't do it that way and yet God's answered my prayer but he's waited longer than I thought he should

and he's answered it sometimes differently but it's always been better listen I want you to know tonight God always has his best for you God always gives his best to you God never gives you second best I don't know what it is that God has given you tonight

and I don't know what it is that God has brought into your life tonight but you're never going to know victory in your life and confidence and walk in faith until you come to see that whatever it is it's God's best for you Thomas says God is only good to Israel he's never bad to his people whatever God is to me

it's good from my limited viewpoint it may not look good but it's God's best it's God's best brother God's not going to slight me he's not going to give me second best he's not going to give me scraps

he's going to give me his best he that spared not his own son shall he not by him also freely give us all things if my heavenly father loved me so much he would give his only son to die for me why in the world do i doubt and blaspheme his name by doubting that what he's given me isn't good god may not answer my prayer the way I think he ought to, and he may not answer it when I think he ought to, but I want you to know if God delays in the answer, he delays so that he might answer it better. You know, there was a time when I was an evangelist and I wanted to get back into the pastorate, and there was a church I wanted. Man, I wanted

to pastor that church and i prayed and i prayed and i really believed god was going to let me pastor that church and he didn't and he didn't i can't tell you how terrible i felt how angry with god i became but you know if god had answered that prayer i I wouldn't be here tonight, Pastor in this church. Boy, I'm glad. I'm glad he answered it better. He waited a couple of years to answer, but I'm sure glad he waited. He delayed the answer. Why? So that he might answer it better. Lord, help me to, help me to learn that lesson. Help me to learn the lesson, to trust you, to be patient, to realize that you're my Heavenly Father who loves me and you're only good to me.

And if you delay meeting my needs and if you delay granting my request, if you delay giving me the desires of my heart, it's only because you love me and you've got something better for me. Listen, friend, if God didn't give you that job you were praying for, it's because he's got a better one for you. If God didn't give you that thing you desired, it's because he has something better for you. If God didn't give you that thing you desired, it's because He has

something better for you. God withholds one thing for us in order that He might give us something better. That's the way my Lord is. He's my Heavenly Father. And so sometimes when you pray and you just are dead certain

that God's going to give you what you ask for you know sometimes God delays in giving us children he waits until we're better equipped to be mothers and dads and sometimes he has to wait until we get spiritually

well and spiritually mature enough to be the right kind of parent. God works everything out. God is maneuvering affairs in life and circumstances for his glory and for my good. And so if you've prayed for that thing and you know it's according to his will and you know your heart is right and you know your motive is right, you want him to be glorified, and yet you've not seen the fulfillment of that answer, you do what Hebrews 4.14 says.

You hold fast your confession. Believe God. If the answer is delayed or different, it's because it's better. Whatever God's going to give me tomorrow, it's going to be this bad. Look to yourself. It may be the wrong manner of life. It may be the wrong motive of prayer. Look to your prayer.

Your specific request may not be according to the will of God. Look to God. He may be answering it differently. He may be answering it later that he can answer it better. Let's pray together.