Prayers God Won’t Answer
God answers prayers, but He doesn’t answer ALL prayers. The following are prayers that God will NOT answer, no matter how sincerely you pray them.
Asking God to Do What He Already Did
MOST prayers for healing offered in churches fall into this category. People make the #1 mistake when it comes to healing by asking God to heal themselves or others. God has already done His part when it comes to healing. Now we must do ours by receiving the gift that Jesus has already paid for. Asking God to heal, even sincerely, is expressing unbelief in 1 Peter 2:24. God doesn’t need to do what He already did. It is no different than praying, “God, please save my uncle.” (Many people make the mistake of praying that, too!) God already did everything He needs to do about your uncle’s salvation through Christ. Now someone has to tell your uncle the gospel and he has to act on that knowledge and receive Jesus as his Lord. God won’t just swoop down from heaven and save your uncle, and He won’t just swoop down from heaven and heal him, either. Unless there is a special manifestation of the Spirit, healing is received by faith, and faith comes by hearing the Word of God, not being prayed for. Your unsaved uncle needs to have someone share the Word with him. Sick people need to have someone share the Word with them about healing.
Asking God to Do What You’re Supposed to Do
Nothing will happen if you ask God to cast a demon out of someone, because YOU are supposed to do it. You have the authority to do it, but that also means that you, not God, have the responsibility to do it. Jesus told His disciples to HEAL the sick, not PRAY FOR the sick. He gave them power to heal all diseases. As His disciples today, if we won’t act on God’s Word and pray “the prayer of faith” and lay hands on the sick so that they recover, God won’t do it for us. It is useless to pray, “God, make the devil go away” when He told YOU to resist the devil. If you don’t do it, God won’t do it for you. It’s not His job to resist the devil in your life. Praying “God, give me more faith” is also useless because faith for healing comes from hearing God’s Word, and it is YOUR responsibility to read His Word so that your faith has something to attach itself to. Praying, “God, stop my flesh from flaring up” would be another useless prayer because it is YOUR responsibility to keep your flesh under.
Prayers to Override Someone Else’s Free Will
You cannot successfully ask God to “make” a particular person marry you, or “make” someone get saved. That person might love sin and not want to get saved. Likewise, you cannot “make” someone get healed. Some people like having something to complain about, others don’t want to lose their disability checks, some are just tired of fighting chronic illness and some want to die for other reasons instead of being healed. You cannot force your will on other people.
I have met people who did not want to be prayed for because they just wanted to die. You cannot pray for their healing when they don’t want it. Most of the relatives will still pray for the person’s healing because they don’t want to lose that person, and they’ll ask you to “agree” with them for the person to live. But if the person wants to die, you can’t override his free will and “force” him to get healed. What if the person is still in the prime of life? I’ve met such people. Some people get to the point where they’re basically committing “Satan-assisted suicide” by not fighting. As tragic as that is, you can’t override their free will. Remember that Paul had a choice whether to depart and be with Christ or continue on (Philippians 1:23-24). The rest of us have the right to make that same choice. God gives you the right to make choices – even ones that are not His best plan for your life. He sets before you the way of life and the way of death and tells you to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19-20), but He won’t make that choice for you.
Prayers to Determine God’s Stand on Doctrinal Matters
You can do what Paul did and pray that you would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God so that the Holy Spirit will open up God’s Word to you. You cannot rightfully pray to ask God where He stands on a certain issue unless you’re praying for Him to show His stance to you through His Word. For example, you would not pray to find out if homosexual activity is OK, if abortion is OK, if shacking up (thus giving the appearance of evil) is OK, if everyone is saved because Jesus died for everyone, and so on, and then go by what you “sense” God’s answer is. Many have been led astray by a fake “voice of God” that was really the voice of Satan when they prayed prayers like this, and the “voice of God” told them something that was contrary to the written Word of God.
You NEVER, EVER get your doctrine from impressions in prayer! You only get doctrine from the Word! If any voice tells you something, know enough to check it out with the Word before believing or acting on it. Satan tries to appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), but his lies will never pass the litmus test of God’s Word.
Any Prayers Contrary to Scripture
You can’t ask God to kill the man next door because you wish you could marry his pretty wife. You can’t ask God to make your wife drop dead so that you can end your marriage without divvying up your assets or paying alimony. You can’t ask God for creative ways to get back at people who have wronged you. You can’t “believe God” for a huge financial harvest if you haven’t planted any financial seed. Prayers asking God to do what He already did and prayers asking God to do what you’re supposed to do would also fall into this broad category.
Prayers of Unbelief
James made it clear that you must not expect your prayers to be answered unless they are offered in unwavering faith (James 1:5-8). Those awful religious “if it be Thy will” prayers are in this “unbelief” category, as are beggy, pleady prayers beseeching God to do something about your healing. The disciples had no success casting out a demon when they were in unbelief. God nowhere states that the prayer of unbelief will heal the sick, but He states that the prayer of faith will (James 5:14-16). If you don’t know God’s will about healing you, don’t pray about your healing until you do know what His will is from reading His Word. Otherwise, you’ll be like most people, wasting your time praying in unbelief. When you’re sure about what His will is, you can pray in faith, believing that you receive your healing when you pray (Mark 11:24).
Unspoken Prayer Requests
If you aren’t praying with your mouth, you aren’t really praying. While God does know what you’re thinking, just thinking prayer requests at God is not prayer. For example, you could never be saved if that’s your unspoken prayer request, because your MOUTH must “confess unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). No mountain will move if you just think at it – it can’t read your mind, so you have to SPEAK to it.