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Oftentimes the reason our prayers are not answered, is because we are unknowingly living in disobedience to God's Word.

One major area of disobedience is our not being properly in place within GOD'S ordained government upon the earth. If we are not meeting with the brethren on a regular basis and walking in "koinania" fellowship with them (and God); and/or are not submitted to our husband (if applicable); and/or are not submitted to our pastor (if we are not a married woman); and/or our pastor is not submitted to a higher spiritual authority (i.e a true apostle); then we have little-to-no chance of obtaining the victorious Christian life.

Is it of little wonder why the church is mostly impotent today?

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 Brotherjim
  True, unanswered prayer can often be attributed to these things you mentioned. I dont think that there are any apostles in our world now though, so that is irrelevant to the pastors(elders) who are always odd numbered so as to come to answers from within.

 Prayer is a fundamental part of any assembly of believers being lifted up and blessed by God. I think what you are really getting at is the lack of blessing an assembly will feel if the Bible is not being opened and read in its entirety. If the Bible is not seen as a whole, then different parts will be given priority. If this happens then souls are simply not aligned right to begin with. They may be saved, but if they are not aligned right in they're gathering with an assembly then yes they may not be asking for the right help from God.

 Prayer itself, however, is grown in private. It is not a word but an expression of need from a soul to its God. Prayer is spoken of in a natural sense from the world, but the world doesn't understand what it is saying. The nature of prayer is the expression of need. Those who have never had a prayer answered are not yet saved. Even the work of salvation is the answering of a prayer, which shows prayers nature. We are told to pray in a closet, and many descriptions in the Bible show people getting on their knees in reverance. So we know that prayer is a serious matter in its appearance, but it is a "genuine matter" to the person.
 
 We are given pictures of how people pray to help us when we are young in faith, which I am, so I know the struggle to understand prayer. Prayer itself is "the expression of need" (even in worship we come as undeserving saved ones.) I cannot repeat the "expression of need" enough. A Christian that is going to genuinely open they're heart to God, is also one that bends down figuritively regardless of the situation.

 It is the attitude that a person brings in prayer. I remember praying out loud when I was unsaved, walking down my street begging for God to make me want salvation. It was all I knew as a possibility for getting saved, I was outrightly against God, and yet knew only he could soften me. I was approaching in need.

 When I got saved I was rejoicing so much. What I did not know is that the simple faith I used to accept the Lord Jesus Christ's finished work for myself, was the same faith that was going to be grown day by day as a christian. Do we remember that day of salvation? We remember all the days of agony, and think, "why did I waste so much time, it was so easy!"

 "For by grace are ye saved through faith" - If after you get saved you look at the word "saved"(which is what takes place) and change it, it can become this.
 "For by grace are ye helped through faith"   that is prayer

 Our prayer life needs us to be as active as we were in salvation. What did you do in salvation? Nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ did it all. I speak not in riddles, my understanding Gods grace is bound in my simple faith. If I dont have faith in Gods sufficiency, then my prayers will not be answered.

 And as brotherjim said earlier, there is also the matter of asking amiss. Sometimes you seek a certain help, but God wants you to pray for patience. Just keep on, and pray for more help in prayer day by day.

 God bless.

Wow. This was a great post. Thank you!

Incorrect: it most certainly is relevant.

The entities of the world are not some new invention of mankind - "there's nothing new under the sun." Our earthly chain of commands are modeled after the Heavenlies.

The company that you work for - assuming you do, would not be very successful for very long if it did not have at its head a CEO who, first, established the overall vision of the company, and, two, delegated how that vision is to become reality to the management and rank and file.

Likewise, each generation of the church was intended to have true apostles, genuine prophets, etc. To the apostles are given to know the mysteries of the Gospel kept well-hidden from the world and that part of the church which lives like the world - which be most. Without the apostles, there is no Vision of what the heart of the Heavenly Father wills to do in the world. (Prophets can only offer small slivers of the Vision, except when they are submitted to an apostle, from whom they will obtain the overall Vision.)

There most certainly are God-appointed apostles in the world today, but you will not find them on the popular Christian TV shows, neither find their books on the best seller list nor see them listed at the paid top of internet pages when you surf the search engines. They are kept hidden from all those except to whom the Lord wills to reveal them.

We most assuredly better at least hope there are apostles today, otherwise the church has no chance of escape from its present state of being nearly totally impotent.

There is one mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus...

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I'm just wondering, are you in the "shepherding" movement, brotherjim...?

No. (Didn't that fail yet?)

There is a hierarchy man wills to lord over others, and then there's a spiritual hierarchy that God has elected and ordained. Only disobedience to the latter will disqualify us from the victorious Christian life now, and [at least] the fulness of eternal rewards later.

Kindly keep arrogance out of any future posts, as its very difficult to answer you when such stares God and me in the face. (Prov. 6:16-17a, etc.)

Please.

Thank you.

(And if you could delete the rolling teddy bear, I know the Lord Jesus would be greatly blessed - as would I.)

[Allegedly] In His Love, Meekness and Long-suffering for you, bro. jim

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Utoh.  Me tinks brotherjim mad at me...

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The boys went down to the basketball court last night to shoot some hoops.

A couple of hours later, Bamm-Bamm called me to say “Dad, you better get down here, Bubba hurt his leg.  He’s laying on the ground and he can’t get up.”

I jumped in the truck and drove down to the courts to find Bubba sitting there on the ground beneath the basket.

I walked up to him and asked “What’s up, Bubba?”

He replied that he had gone up for a rebound and when he came back down he landed wrong and twisted his ankle.

He was hurting pretty bad and wasn’t sure whether or not he had broken his ankle or just sprained it, either way, it hurt too bad for him to walk on it.

We got him into the truck and I took him to the hospital to have it checked out.

Well, the doctor said he didn’t break it but he did sustain a bad sprain.

They put him in a soft cast and told him to stay off of it for a few days.

When we got back home I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat out on the deck in the yard to watch the fireworks off in the distance.

As I sat there I thought about Bubba and the trip to the hospital.

Then I started to think about all the trips to the hospital I’ve made over the years raising these 3 boys of mine.

Between the 3 of them and all the sports they’ve been involved in over the years I’ve had more than my fair share of trips to the hospital.

I sat there reminiscing over all the times I’ve had to take one of them there to get stitched up or for a broken bone.

Then I remembered the very first time I had to take one of them to the hospital.

It was a hot summer day and my two youngest boys were out in the yard playing.

Little Durango came running in the house and said “Dad, come quick, Bamm-Bamm fell out of the tree and I think he broke his arm.”

Sure enough, out there under the tree laid Bamm-Bamm and one look told me that Little Durango was right.

On the way to the hospital I asked Bamm-Bamm, “Why were you climbing that tree?  Haven’t I told you a hundred times that I didn’t want you climbing that tree?  Didn’t I tell you that the branches were too weak and that you’d fall and get hurt?”

“Yea”, he replied.

“So why were you doing it then?”  I asked.

“I didn’t think I’d fall, I thought you were just saying that.” Bamm-Bamm said.

Well, as I recalled that little incident this morning I thought about how Bamm-Bamm decided to do as he pleased concerning climbing the tree . . .

How he ignored what I had told him because it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

Then I thought about how it is with us at times . . .

How sometimes we sit back and ask “Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?”

And I realized that it isn’t that God doesn’t answer our prayers . . .

It’s that sometimes we just don’t accept the answer because it’s not what we wish to hear.

Our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us, and although we may not always understand why a prayer is answered in the way it is, we must trust that the Lord knows what is best for us.

If we pray for healing for a loved one and the prayer isn’t answered in the way we wish it to be answered . . .

We must trust that if the Lord knows what is best for us, that he knows what is best for each of his children.

We must trust that whatever way our prayers are answered, whether favorably or not, that the Lord’s answer fits into His divine plan for our lives.

Faith goes beyond reasoning . . .

Faith is trusting in the Lord and living according to God’s will.

Just a thought!

Durango