Answered Prayer

By: Martin Connolly | Date: 2026-01-15

Answered Prayer

             Following on from David’s final comment, “there are no unanswered prayers. God will say “Yes” or “No” or “Wait”!”, we can see that even an ‘No’ from God is an answer to prayer, as is a ‘wait’. This points to a vital component in prayer – listening. Too often we can fall into the trap of continually doing the talking. We have an example of this with Moses. People are asking him for advice and he responds:

 Numbers 9:8 “And Moses said to them, "Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you."

            ‘That I may hear what the LORD will command’. We need to know what the Lord is telling us to do. The Psalmist takes us further in our understanding:

 Psalm 130:5-6 “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word, I hope; my soul waits for the LORD more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”

              Here we see the principle of the watchman. His ‘soul’ waits on the Lord. This is an important prompt from the Spirit in the Palmist’s writing. It is not ‘I’ wait, but his ‘soul’ waits. The soul is the seat of the emotions and the will. It is an indication of our will being help ready for God’s will. As our Saviour fully understood – “Not my will but Yours’, He prayed to His Father. Likewise, He taught us to pray – “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. Secondly, we note where the Palmist waits – ‘in His Word’. A life steeped in God’s Word, is a life that has in His heart the mind of the Christ. When prayer is made the conversation is from God through His Spirit and His Word.

 Then, we can look to the prophet Isaiah, who again is listening to God:

 Isaiah 8:17 “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.”

 Isaiah 45:15 “Truly, thou art a God who hides thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. All of them are put to shame and confounded, the makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

 There is no answer from God to Israel in their rebelliousness. The prophet therefore, prays to God and expresses to God the confidence in the coming Messiah who will bring everlasting salvation.

             So far, we have the ‘wait’ and the ‘no’ in silence from God. We turn to king David who prays with thanks for answered prayer:

 Psalm 138:2 “I bow down toward thy holy temple and give thanks to thy name for thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness; for thou hast exalted above everything thy name and thy word. On the day I called, thou didst answer me, my strength of soul thou didst increase.”

 David’s heart was after God’s own heart. His prayer is that of faith in God’s provision. He had obviously, indeed as his psalms show this, called for God to strengthen him in his difficulties. God answered. There are a number of Psalms that show how God answered prayer - (Psalms 118, 119, 120 among others). David was also aware that others also had their prayers answered;

 Psalm 99:6-8 “Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the LORD, and he answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his testimonies, and the statutes that he gave them. O LORD our God, thou didst answer them; You are a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.”

             Jesus constantly prayed and the Father answered:

 Mark 7:34-35 “and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Eph'phatha," that is, "Be opened." And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”

 Mark 6:41 “And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.”

 We could fill a book on the number of times Jesus looked to His Father and had prayers answered.

 But He also said this:

 John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do because I go to the Father.”

 This is pointing to the sending of the Holy Spirit, in whose power the Church would be baptised with and every believer filled with. In that, then, there would be a greater quantity of works done in answer to prayer, as Jesus had done. In praying we are encouraged to have faith as we see in this verse. ‘..He who believes in me..”. Faith in Jesus is in whom prayer is rooted. It is in His name we see answered prayer. (John 14:14)

 This promise was seen when Peter prayed:

 Acts 9:40-41 “But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed; then turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, rise." And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then calling the saints and widows he presented her alive.

 The Lord answered” The same is found in the healing of the paralytic through the Prayer prayed when Peter and John went to prayer. (Acts 3:1ff)

 With Paul too there are encouragements:

 Acts 28:8 “It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery; and Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him.”

         Space does not allow us to quote every case of answered prayer but any study on prayer in the Scriptures will show the dynamic power of prayer. Therefore, be encouraged to listen in prayer. Discern God’s will and then respond accordingly. We end with what we started - “there are no unanswered prayers. God will say “Yes” or “No” or “Wait”!”