How should we pray and make requests to receive an answer from God more quickly? What should we do? Are there people who receive answers to their prayers more quickly? What did you do to receive an answer?
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Doesn’t God always answer prayers. His answer is either yes, wait or no. When asking, we should ask for that which we are certain is in His will. With some things, It’s hard to know if it’s His will for us or not. When I pray for something like that, I’m just letting Him know what I would like, and mostly what I would like is His will in the matter.
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Prayer is not “instant mash” or microwave spirituality. Scripture presents prayer as perseverance, dependence, submission, and communion with God, not a formula for fast results.
Jesus Himself taught persistence in prayer:
“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).
Consider also the widow who kept pleading before the unjust judge (Luke 18:1–8), and the friend knocking at midnight (Luke 11:5–13). The emphasis is perseverance, not instant gratification.
Daniel prayed and fasted for three weeks before receiving an answer:
“From the first day that you set your heart to understand… your words have been heard… The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days” (Dan. 10:12–13).
Even Paul pleaded repeatedly concerning his thorn in the flesh:
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this” (2 Cor. 12:8).
Sometimes God answers immediately, sometimes progressively, sometimes differently than expected, and sometimes withholds according to His wisdom.
Scripture also gives conditions and hindrances regarding prayer:
Pray according to God’s will
“If we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14).
Ask in faith, not double-mindedness
“Let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (James 1:6).
Abide in Christ
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).
Sin can hinder prayer
“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18).
Husbands can hinder their prayers by mistreating their wives
“so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7).
Wrong motives hinder prayer
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).
Are there believers whose prayers seem especially effective? Scripture says yes - but not because they possess magical power. Rather, they are righteous men walking closely with God.
“The prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).
Elijah is then given as the example, yet James immediately reminds us:
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17).
The difference was not superhuman spirituality, but fervent dependence upon God.
So what should we do?
Pray persistently (Luke 18:1)
Pray humbly (Luke 18:13–14)
Pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14)
Walk in obedience (John 15:7)
Trust God’s timing (Eccl. 3:11)
Cast your anxieties upon Him (1 Pet. 5:7)
Continue steadfastly in prayer (Col. 4:2)
And remember: sometimes the answer is delayed because God is shaping the believer more than merely granting the request. Prayer is not only about receiving things from God - it is about being conformed to Christ through dependence upon Him.
J.
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That God is a magic Genie that grants our wishes is perhaps not the best way to approach or learn about God.
Psa_111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
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I’m not sure that there’s a special way to get a quick answer. God does what’s best for you and works on His time.
Amen Brother, aint that the truth. I’ve had quite a lot of prayers answered and so He has done all that and more to me when answering.
Probably the most exasperating thing to hear is, …just a minute…because when He says that it might be a couple years.
I remember one man’s testimony, IIRC he was praying and the Lord answered him and said I am going to do this for you, and told him what he would do for him. And the man heard the Lord and believed Him so He became patient with the Lord…and the Lord did what He said He would do, 28 YEARS later! Wow that seems like a long time to wait.
Sometimes I have prayed about something and perhaps asked Him a question, and I got no answer at all. No voice. No unctions, nothing. I kept praying. Stil no answer. I continued to pray while wondering why the Lord wasn’t giving me an answer. I think it was about two weeks and one morning I got up and decided to read some of the word that I had been neglecting. So I flipped open the Word and I flipped right to the exact page and verses that totally answered my question! He wanted to answer me through scripture!
Other times He has not answered my questions, just total silence. So I figured that I must be on a need to know basis and I didn’t need to know? One time I remember He answered my prayer to Him but told me I asked the wrong question and then He promptly changed the subject on me to what I should have asked which was more important than what I did ask.
@Emre
I hear your struggle, and I commiserate with your discomfort. I’m sorry in one sense for your difficulty, but in another sense, I am happy for you.
As God, The Holy Spirit, bears His Holy fruit in our lives, we are assured that it is His fruit to display His Glory. His fruit is the expression of His character. His fruit is easily recognizable, His fruit is always appealing, His beautiful fruit always looks like love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.
We recognize His Holy fruit in our “longsuffering” (patient endurance, peaceful trusting without visible results, calmness while waiting, assured expectation). Patience is a glorious aspect of God which He is gracefully and faithfully demonstrates by putting our willingness to wait on Him on display. Waiting is one of the most glorious facets of our salvation; to patiently hold on to His faithful words through struggle and hardship is a glorious demonstration of a true disciple.
Our world can feel like a roller-coaster ride, no doubt. But, as a rider, you have a choice. Either bury your face in your hands, cry out for comfort, and hope it will all be over soon, or throw your hands in the air, look all around you, and thoroughly enjoy the full thrill of God’s sanctification in you.
A quick answer is surely more comfortable for you, but a period of faithful waiting and trusting is more testimonial of God our Father.
KP
I think we’d all like there to be a formula for prayer—do A, B, and C to get a quicker answer. God does hear all our prayers and he will give an answer, but it may not be quick and it may not be the answer we were hoping for. We can know, though, that he is working all things for our good and his glory.
Perhaps this article may be helpful to you:
We can’t, or maybe we can but it must be a fervent prayer. Very fervent.
One time the Lord answered a prayer for me, and it was fairly quickly and I felt good! Praise the Lord! So my colleague and a Brother in Christ came over so I gave that testimony to him. Not bragging, just, proud of the Lord and grateful. My friend loved it and said…
right now he is in dire financial straights so is going to pray about it and get help from the Lord also. So the next day after work he stopped by my house and I asked him if the Lord answered his prayer. He said, no and I don’t know what happened, I told God that I needed it before 5:30 PM tonight and the prayer was not answered. He seemed angry at the Lord! IDK.
I figured that, one does not tell the Lord, answer me before 5:30 !! Whoa. I didn’t say that to him because he was upset and needed money.
But over time, the Lord has answered a lot of prayers for me. An amazing amount of answers! He has shown me a pattern in how He answers: Last minute, never late. So many times it at the proverbial last minute, and never because I gave him a time limit! Wow.
Now we have all heard the stories about a Mother and her child struck by an auto and the child is pinned underneath the car? No one is there to help her so she lifts the car up seemingly by herself and frees the child. Right? Those prayers get answered very quickly because, well, the kids pinned under the car right now and needs help.
Some of those times, the Mother doesn’t even pray for help. nut in the fervency of her heart for her child, the Lord picks up on that and considers it a prayer or cry for help. So He answers her and she just, lifts the car off the child.
I asked the Lord about this before. He told me that even a sigh can be a prayer depending on the posture of the heart and the need. Wow, I never knew that before!
I *think* there is. I believe it has to do with how often do you spend time with the Lord talking & walking with Him. The more time you spend with Him like this the better you get at hearing His voice. I can hear Him good at times, not so good at other times. And sometimes you can ask Him something and He answers you immediately. Other times, you have to wait for the answer.
I remember one time I was praying about something, oh an overdue utility bill with a shut off notice for a certain date. Instant prayer: Lord help me! I need my electric! Send me some work! And He didn’t answer me and I didn’t get any work. The shut off date came and went. I was scared but kept praying every day. Again, no answer. Now when it was two full weeks past the shut off date and no answer, no work, no money, I got real acared about it so since I wasn’t really dodging the bill, it was just my slow season, I called the Utiity company. I said I am two weeks past my shut off date. Why is my electric still on? Are they coming today or what do I expect? (Please hold). Sha came back on and said, Oh yes Mr Edward what we did was we looked at your payment history and we can easily see that you do pay your bills if you have the money. We know you are self employed so thought you might be in a slow season so we gave you more time until work picks up hopefully…
My chin hit the floor. Utility companies are not like that. They don’t care if it’s wintertime or whatever boom the lights are out. And then I knew what happened. The Lord DID answer my prayer, but in a way that I had not expected, lol. He softened the heart of the utility company people to leave my electric on !! Praise the Lord.
I don’t know if there’s really a formula for getting answers faster.
Sometimes prayers seem to be answered quickly, and other times the answer takes a long time or comes in a completely unexpected way.
I do think prayer changes something in us, though. It can shift our perspective, calm us, or help us notice things we might otherwise miss.
And I agree with the idea that answers do not always look the way we imagined they would.
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I don’t know about a formula But I can share my experience with answered prayers. The Lord has answered many prayers from me. So many in fact that I noticed a pattern in how He answers!
The way He has answered my prayers is, last minute, never late. It’s like, He wants us to endure in faith until the last moment then He stepped in, just in time. Some prayers are answered, Right Now! Other prayers may take some time. It depends on the situation also.
Like the time I had an epileptic seizure while driving at 70mph on the highway. I felt it coming on and glanced at the speedometer (70), Looked Left/Right for traffic (rush hour heavy traffic), then I looked into the rearview mirror and saw myself losing consciousness and I knew I would be unconscious within seconds, so the only thing I had time to say was, Lord be with me…So that was answered within seconds. Lord be with me, was indeed a prayer and very fervant because I thought I was about to die.
After my accident I found out that I broke my back somehow so they put in a lot of hardware. I was in Ohio at the time and since I was busted up pretty bad, my two sons came and moved me back to Colorado with the intent that, I’d run the office and they go do the work. So there I am in Colorado and totally embracing the Lord as real and saved my life. And I was sitting there reading the word and I thought, I want to do something for God. So I prayed. Lord may I help you in any way? I can’t walk far Lord and my old replacement truck is unreliable so I don’t know what I could do for you, is there something that I could do for you from my easy chair? (I really prayed that!), and I kid you not, about 10 or 15 seconds after I said Amen, my phone rang (!!) It was an old friend that I hadn’t seen in a couple years and he asked, hey Ed you know about God don’t you? Can I come over and visit and ask you some questions about God…? I said for sure and he said he’d be over in a bit. When I went to put on a pot of coffee, I was out and drinking the last half pot. I had no money at the moment and I got the urge to pray about it but that scripture popped into my head, He knows our needs before we ask, think not what you will eat or drink or wear, the Lord will provide…So, I thought, so I don’t need to pray about it so I put it out of my mind.
Knock knock knock. He’s here. As soon as I opened the door, my friend says, Hi Ed, Oh I brought you a small gift. He handed me a 2LB bad of gourmet coffee beans !! (And I did Not pray about it or for it!) I decided not to pray because scripture says I don’t have to! So the Lord sent it anyways!
I can’t believe it, the Almighty Creator of the Universe delivered coffee to my door in less than 30 minutes because I stood on His word that I have no need to pray about that. So because of that faith, He answered it, and just in time! It was time to put on another pot and knock knock knock! My friend had no idea I was out of coffee, he just got an unction to bring me coffee, lol! Isn’t that great?! God answered two prayers (well, 1 and a 1/2 lol). I think that might be the coolest testimony I have! The Lord sent coffee to me because I didn’t pray for it! He’s done bigger things, but this was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I witnessed quite awhile to my friend and I pray to God that I planted good seeds there.
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