Prayer Requires Holiness

1986

Prerequisite number 3 is holiness. It’s easy to fall back on the idea that the holiness of Christ is all we need. And that’s not true. That’s not true. Let’s read the word of God. 1 John 3:22 says, “We receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him.” It doesn’t say we receive anything we ask because we ask in the name of Jesus. It says, “because.” In other words, the reason we receive from Him anything we ask is because we obey His commands and we do what pleases Him. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Without obedience to the commands of God, our prayers are not going to be answered and our souls are not going to be saved. The Bible is very clear on that. Jesus was very clear on that. In James 5, “The effectual, fervent prayer of (what kind of man?) a righteous man avails much.” If you want to avail much in your prayer life, and I think you do, then your life needs to be one of righteousness. As John said, “…obedient to the commands of God.” You have to be walking with God.

Some other verses you can look up later: Deuteronomy 1:45; 1 Samuel 14:37; 1 Samuel 28:6; Psalm 66:18; Proverbs 1:28; Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 1:15; Micah 3:4; Zechariah 7:13; 2 Chronicles 7:14. We remember in John 15:10, “If you obey my commands, you remain in my love.” That’s conditional. If you obey my commands, you remain in my love. Isaiah 59:1-2 God said, “My arm’s not too short to save. I’m strong enough. I’m big enough to save you, but your sin has caused Me to hide My face from you and to turn My ear away from you. Because of the sins in your life, I will not hear your prayer.” It is very important that we be obedient to God.

Now there is an interesting paradox in all of that, and that is that it is impossible to live a holy life apart from prayer. You know that. You’ve tried it. You’ve tried. You’ve struggled with things and been unable to overcome those things. If you went back to one of the root causes, you’d find that it is a lack of submission and reverence in prayer. You can’t live a holy life apart from prayer. In fact, if you were to try to analyze the thing, I think you would see that a holy life is not nearly so rare and it’s not so difficult—it wouldn’t be nearly so difficult if our prayers weren’t so superficial and weak and sparse in the way that we pray them. That holiness only comes from the power of God. It doesn’t come from your own desire to be holy. It comes from God touching your life.

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” no one can be holy and walk with God apart from the Spirit of God. So we really need to draw on God’s power. We need to pray. You’re not going to be holy apart from prayer, but on the other hand, unless you are growing in holiness your prayers aren’t going to be effective. Unless you’re obedient to the commands of God, God’s not going to hear your prayer anyway. So you’ve kind of got both sides of the coin there. There’s a third side to the coin too, maybe it’s the edge—and that is that if you are growing in holiness, you will be drawn more and more and more into prayer. God will draw you and drop you to your knees more and more regularly. You won’t need to plan to tithe of your time if you’re growing in holiness. You will be drawn to God in prayer automatically. You will find yourself unable NOT to pray as you grow closer to God.

If you’re not growing in seeing supernatural answer to prayer, look in your life for gossip, for slander, for fits of rage, (or temper tantrums might be a more meaningful way of saying that) look for selfishness, look for materialism or laziness or any of those things. Look for those disobediences in your life and know full well that God will not hear your prayer unless you’re dealing with those things. It’s not saying that you have to be perfect, but you better be striving to be perfect. You better refuse to be disobedient. You better be confessing those things and actively forsaking those things in order for God to hear your prayer. That’s what’s necessary for God to hear our prayer. So prerequisite for answered prayer is to be growing in holiness.