“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” Isaiah 55:11
The Lord said one day. "I am looking for willing vessels who come in agreement with my word, so that my purposes may be accomplished on the earth". Isn't that amazing? God wants and needs us to accomplish His purposes on the earth. Better said...God requires our obedience (our agreement with His word) to accomplish His purposes which are for our good. Imagine what it would be like to know that when we pray we can have confidence knowing that He not only hears us, but that He desires to bring our prayers to pass because He loves us and He has already promised answers to us in His word.
Then one day while in a place of needing breakthrough, the Lord gave me a great understanding of this truth. Because of this, I wanted to know if I could make a handshake agreement with God. This is where I could know for sure that I could count on Him to hear and answer me - such as..."God I will do this if you do that". I know this might sound childish or even irreverent, but I needed a breakthrough and wanted the assurance the Lord would answer me. The truth is that I was dealing with some doubts and insecurities, and I was searching for more confidence in God's faithfulness. While meditating on these things, I fell asleep on my sofa with my phone turned onto auto-play listening to worship music on YouTube.
When I woke up...I heard a familiar song playing on my phone, and still weak from my nap, I could hear the chorus in the background: "Every promise is "Yes" and Amen" by Bethel Music. These fantastic lyrics would just repeat and reverberate over and over again: "Every promise is "YES" and Amen". "That's it!", I thought. Through His Word, God has already given us a "handshake agreement"! He has confirmed in His word His faithfulness to hear us and answer us. Jesus has qualified us for our "Yes" to every promise God has made. The scriptures make a very bold statement in 2 Corinthians. That this promise He makes us is: ..."Yes" in Jesus Christ"... God is glorified when we pray in faith using the name of Jesus. Let's look at this verse in more detail.
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God” 2 Corinthians 1:20
The Vision
Immediately following this scripture revelation, I saw an incredible 2-part vision. In the vision, I saw the Father on His throne and He was engaged in answering the prayers of His people. It was an amazing revelation on when, how and why God answers our prayers. I share this vision in detail below.
The First Vision:
In the first vision, I saw the Father (on His throne) beholding the prayers of His people. He was expectantly leaning down into their prayers wanting to hear the cry of their hearts. As the Father listened, I could tell by His response that He was troubled... Something was wrong. As I continued to watch him intently, His body language showed that He was grieved. I sensed in my spirit that these prayers were not faith-filled prayers being made by His people. My discernment was that He was grieving because this group of believers was praying more from a place of fear, need and separation than from a place of faith (knowing that He hears us through his Word qualified through Jesus). Then immediately I saw the Father sit back into His chair and sigh, as He stared off into the distance. He had a longing in His heart... A longing for His people to trust Him at His word. As a result, He could not answer the prayers because they were not made in a "believing" Faith.
We must come to the Father with a heart of faith and expectancy, not doubting, in order for Him to move on our behalf. Unfortunately, nothing happened in heaven in response to these prayers... not so much because God did not want to answer the prayers, but He couldn't answer the prayers because He is bound by His word. I could also sense that this group of believers all had valid needs, but they were close to "begging type prayers" and not faith-filled prayers. These believers did not have a full revelation of Gods faithfulness to His promises. "but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord" James 1:6-7
The 2nd Vision:
Suddenly, I was caught up in another vision. I sensed a new group of believers were praying, and once again the Father would lean down into their prayers... listening gracefully. This time I could tell from His body language that He was pleased with their prayers because "Faith is pleasing to God." This group was praying His word and reminding God of His faithful promise to hear their requests because of His promise made to Jesus: "Every promise is "Yes" in Christ". In the natural, this could look like declaring what the Word says about our situation, not what our circumstances are saying. Such as Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose". When we meditate on these promises we can extract our Faith from His faithfulness to His own promises made to us. Faith comes by hearing God's word. We see this also in Romans 10:17: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God".
This faith (that comes from hearing and believing the word) gives us empowerment to believe and trust God's faithfulness. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for..", and I sensed this 2nd group was praying from a heart of thankfulness and trust... believing the answer was already met in Gods Word. They were not looking at their circumstances, they were looking to God's faithfulness. They chose to walk by faith, and not by sight. The Father was pleased with their faith and confidence in His Word.
Suddenly...I saw a white being (I think it was an angel) present some kind of official document to the Father. This document represented the prayers from this 2nd group of believers. The Father then personally signs the document and immediately gave it to a host of angels that were standing nearby His throne. I sensed these angels were expectantly waiting for their next assignment. As soon as the angels received this signed document, they quickly dashed off resolutely focused on their new mission. Nothing could stop these angels from their mission to answer the prayers that were just made in Faith by this 2nd group. It was quite an incredible vision of Heaven's response to prayers made in Faith.
I pondered the significance of this document and what made it so powerful... when the Father signed the angels moved into immediate action. A few days later, I got the answer from a devotional by Craig Hill (a seasoned Christian author and speaker). In this devotional, Craig was highlighting the authority that believers have when they pray in the name of Jesus. He likened it to a Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney is an official document that gives legal power and authority from one individual to another to do something on their behalf. In other words, its delegated authority that carries the power to execute on the One in authority.
That's it! I thought. "It's a Power of Attorney!" As a result of the prayers made in Faith, God gave His Angels kingdom authority to answer the prayers. Remember Jesus said “…so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you” John 15:16. When the angels were sent off to answer the prayers of this 2nd group, they had this Power of Attorney in hand and all of heaven was backing them up. Because of the faith of this 2nd group, they moved heaven into action. Their faith (not their needs) gave the angels the authority they needed to help bring answers to their prayers. We actually co-labor with the angels when we pray in Faith and it releases tremendous power and authority on our behalf. God is faithful to His Word and He is looking for a people who will simply trust Him at his word.
Remember Abraham. His faith was tested after He was given a promise. However, he chose to believe in the impossible even when He (and Sarah) were considered too old to have children. He held onto God's prophetic promise in the midst of doubts and against all hope... notice the word "hope" here. The enemy seeks to "kill, steal and destroy" our hope during the "trials of patience" while waiting on answered prayers. We see this below in Romans...
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and....without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised" Romans 4:18-21
Did you catch that? Abraham faced the facts of his circumstances even though it was contrary to the promise God gave him. He did not waver in unbelief, because He trusted (had hope in) God at His word. He held onto God's word even through the difficult seasons of life. True Faith is always tested in patience with circumstances that are beyond our control and understanding. In James 1:2-3 it says, "count it ALL joy when you face various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." The good news is, we too can have this same confidence in God like Abraham. We know this because His word promises us that hears us when we pray according to His will.
In summary, let's consider the two following outcomes... Both groups were praying to God and both groups had valid needs that required the Lord to move. However, only one of the groups had the faith God was looking for ALLOWING HIM to move on their behalf. God responds to our prayers made in Faith not to our prayers made in desperation. Again we see this in scripture: "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind" James 1:6
"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
"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16
“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God” 2 Corinthians 1:20
It's worth mentioning here that delays will inevitably happen and in fact are quite normal, if not absolutely necessary... One thing is for sure, our faith will be tested. There is going to be enemy resistance to our prayers made in faith. Remember when Daniel prayed the answer did not come immediately. We see this truth noted in the scriptures: "Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia" Daniel 10:12-13. Its important that we don't give up and keep praying and believing for our miracle (warring and ministering angels are on the way).
Finally, the Lord told me one day: "Heaven is ready to agree with you, are you ready to agree with Heaven?" Our Father is looking for our agreement with His promises and the angels find it necessary. God is ready to sign our power of attorney and release His angels to answer our prayers. He is looking for our faith in His word in which Jesus qualified us for a "Yes". It's important that we stay resolute in our faith expecting to hear from God and expecting to receive answers to our prayers. The Lord sends His delegated authority through His angels when we pray in in Jesus' name. It's time for us to get in the word and start praying, believing and making declarations of faith! I pray that the Lord will fill your heart with His Grace and the fullness of Faith to be bold in your prayer closet. Amen?
"You may ask for anything in my name, and I will do it" John 14:14
"Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!" Psalm 103:20
"If you remain in Me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" John 15:7
One final thought. When we trust in God’s word, we are saying to the Father that we trust in His faithfulness to Jesus because Jesus is the word: "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" - John 1:14. Think about this for a minute. Is the Father faithful to Jesus? Yes! Of course! Therefore we can trust that the Father is faithful to answer every promise He has made because they are all "Yes, in Christ" (who is the word). Jesus representing 'the word' is our advocate before the Father to have our prayers answered. The more the word flows from our hearts and out through our lips, the more we look and sound like Jesus. He did give us the "power of life and death" through our words... so LET OUR WORDS BE HIS WORD! God bless you all!
Credits:
Thank you Curtis Simpson for your great help in editing this document.
