And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

The Apostle John shows us how to have absolute confidence in God through prayers that bring results. He is simply saying that if we pray in line with or in agreement with God’s will, God hears us, and therefore we can rest assured that our petitions (or prayer requests) will be answered. The lesson here is that if we want answers to our prayers, we must learn to secure God’s attention by praying according to His will.

According to the Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament, the Greek word for will, "thelema", also includes to mean: a determination, purpose, command, desire or pleasure. The easiest way of knowing His will (determination, purpose, command, desire or pleasure) is by going to the written Word (His revealed last will and testament for mankind).

Praying according to His will (or Word) gives confidence that He hears us because:

1. God is a God of integrity. His Word is His bond, His covenant, His commitment to us, and that what He has promised, He watches over to fulfil. The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times (Psalms 12:6). They are perfect, sure, right, clean, true, righteous (Psalms 19:7-9); for ever settled in heaven (Psalms 119:89); magnified above the name of God (Psalms 138:2); honourable (Isaiah 42:21); and sent to heal and deliver us from our destructions (Psalms 107:20). In Psalms 89:34 God promised not to break His covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of His lips. Jesus said that they are spirit and life (John 6:63); Paul confirmed it is quick, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12); and Peter called it exceeding great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4).
2. Petitions based on the will, and not the need, is evidence that you honour and believe the integrity of His eternal Word.
3. This kind of praying prevents us from praying amiss (James 4:3).

To get Him to hear us, it is imperative therefore that we approach Him on the basis of His Word, and not our need.

Psalms 8 and 68 shows us that David prayed according to the Word. In Psalms 8, he quoted from Job 7:17-18 and in Psalms 68:8, Exodus 19:18 is quoted. In another Psalm, after praising God for His Word, he prayed, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalms 19:14).

When God decided to destroy the Israelites for the sin of making and worshipping the golden calf, Moses reminded God of His covenant - "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people" (Exodus 32:13-14).

In I Kings 8:25-26 we notice Solomon reminding God of His covenant: "Therefore now, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father".

Is God forgetful that we have to remind him of His Word? No, certainly not! Psalms 105:8 tells us that God remembers His covenant for ever and His Word to a thousand generations. Reminding God of His Word or praying according to His Word is merely an act of expressing our faith and confidence in the integrity of His Word (Numbers 23:19, Isaiah 55:10-11), thereby pleasing Him.

Even Peter, John and the early church prayed what was written in Psalms 2:1-2: "And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ." (Acts 4:24-26)

A careful examination of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples shows that it is based according to the revealed will of God in the Old Testament. Jesus’ statement that He did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil it, verifies this (Matthew 5:17).

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. (Luke 11:1-4)

In Jeremiah 31:9, God through this prophet said that He is a father to Israel. Jesus taught us to address God as OUR FATHER.

2 Chronicles 7:14 tells us: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land". Therefore, our Father, IN HEAVEN.

According to Psalms 111:9, holy and reverend is His name, and Leviticus 22:32 says that God must be hallowed among the people. Consequently, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.

Isaiah prophesied:"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this" (Isaiah 9:6-7). Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream was "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Daniel 2:44). This confirms that Jesus’ next statement YOUR KINGDOM COME is according to the will of God.

The Old Testament is full of God’s promises of healing, prosperity, redemption, forgiveness, love, mercy, grace, victory, success, freedom and blessings for His people. His next item on the agenda was YOUR WILL (WORD) BE DONE (FULFILLED) ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

God’s divine providence is ample in the Old Testament. We read in Deuteronomy 8:3-4: "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years". Hence, GIVE US OUR DAILY BREAD (spiritual and physical needs).

FORGIVE US OUR SINS is in accordance with Psalms 32:5: "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin", and Psalms 25:11: "For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great".

God said: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:17-18). That’s why we pray AS WE FORGIVE OTHERS.

The promise of deliverance in Psalms 91:15, "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him", is the basis for the next statement LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

Another point of importance in the prayer that Jesus taught is the words, "When you pray, say".

Say, does not imply "repeat these words after me every time you pray". If it did, then it would be in contradiction to His statement "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking" (Matthew 6:7). Neither is there any evidence in the gospels of Jesus repeating the words of Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-13 in His prayer, but what is evident, is that He:

1. addressed His prayer to the Father in heaven - John 17:1, Luke 10:21, John 11:41-42;
2. showed reverence for the name of God - John 17:6,11,12 & 26, John 12:28;
3. rejoiced in prayer that his disciples were victorious over satan (Luke 10:1-21), which signified that the disciples were having a foretaste of Kingdom life (Matthew 12:28);
4. prayed for the will of God to be done - Matthew 26:39,42,44;
5. believed for His needs to be met supernaturally (the feeding of five thousand) - John 6:11;
6. prayed "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" - Luke 23:34 (as there was no need for Him to pray "forgive me of my sins" because He knew no sin); and
7. prayed against temptation and for protection from evil. John 12:27: "Father, save me from this hour" (the hour of testing and trial) and John 17:15: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil".

The words of Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-13 are not even repeated in the prayer of the early church (Acts 4:23-31), nor in Paul’s prayers recorded in his epistles (Ephesians 1:15-23, Philippians 1:9-11,Colossians 1:9-13). We must understand that Jesus was not teaching a religious recital, but rather the basic structure or framework within which to pray. In other words, He was giving us a model prayer.

If God knows what things we have need of, even before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8,32), if God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us (Ephesians 3:20), and if we are already blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), then why do we have to pray? What is the purpose of prayer? The answer is in the word "say". We say prayers to release our faith to receive. Hebrews 11:6 tells us: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". From Hebrew 11:1, we know that faith is a substance, a spiritual force. We learn in Matthew 8:5-13 (the story of the centurion) that faith is released and measured by the words of our mouth and it materialises our hope, desire or expectancy. With that in mind, let's look at Mark 11:23-24: "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain [the obstacle], Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them". Jesus first spoke about the power of faith filled words purposefully spoken to obtain a desired end result. He said that if we say and believe what we said shall come to pass, we will have whatever was said. He then used the conjunction therefore to join His next sentence (verse 24) with what He explained in verse 23. In essence, by the use of the word therefore, He implied that if you say your prayer and believe that you receive what you said or asked for, you would receive the answer.

"Say" has reference to words of the mouth and words are an expression of your faith (what you believe in your heart). Let's take a look at some of the scriptures that shed light on Mark 11:23-24, with regard to faith and words.

"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken [words]; we also believe, and therefore speak [words]." (2 Corinthians 4:13)

"But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach [words]; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth [words] the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession [words] is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:8-10)

"... for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh [words]" (Matthew 12:34). Whatever is in abundance in your heart (faith, love, fear, worries, doubt, evil, etc), will proceed out of your mouth. Your words can either defile, or sanctify you and bears proof of whether or not you are walking in faith and His Word.

"And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say [words] unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20)

The reason for prayer is clear - it is a means of communicating and expressing our faith to God through words, which are in agreement with His written will (1 John 5:14).

Also notice, that in Mark 11:23, Jesus said "and shall not doubt in his heart". Did you know that doubt deprives us from living in the blessings of God? The first thing that satan attempted to do was to get Eve to doubt God’s instruction. Genesis 3:1-6 says: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." Ever since that day, satan has become the master of deception, sowing seeds of doubt in us, to discredit the integrity of God’s eternal Word, so that we disinherit the promises of God’s blessings. In response to John’s doubtful question, when he was in prison, as to whether or not Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus said "... blessed is he, whosoever shall not [have doubts about me or] be offended in me" (Matthew 11:6).

In Hebrews 3:7-19, we realise that we can provoke and grieve God with unbelief. After the resurrection, Jesus rebuked His disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mark 16:15) and said to Thomas "because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29). We must learn to believe God’s Word, no matter how impossible our problems appear, because Isaiah 55:10-11 tells us "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it". We must fight the good fight of faith, against the spirit of fear and doubt that robs us from living in the blessings of God.

Another scripture, which sheds more light on the word say, is Luke 17:5-6: "And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you".

The commission to the apostles from Jesus was: preach the Kingdom of Heaven, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out devils (Matthew 10:7-8). On more than one occasion (Matthew 17:14-21, Matthew 8:23-27, Matthew 14:22-33), we find the apostles not able to perform like their mentor, Jesus Christ, because of unbelief. Hearing words like these from the lips of Jesus all the time - "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth; O faithless and perverse generation; O ye of little faith; I have not found so great faith; according to your faith be it unto you; thy faith hath made thee whole; great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt" - obviously, the apostles wanted more faith.

Interestingly, Jesus did not pray or lay hands on them for an impartation or transfer of faith. Why? Because "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). The apostles had enough faith because they were exposed to the teaching and preaching of Jesus all the time. Their problem was in releasing that faith.

Jesus answered, "if you had (He already told them once before in Matthew 17:20, if you have), faith (the substance or spiritual force) as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you".

The grain of mustard seed was not used to illustrate the size of faith, because twice Jesus expressed disappointment with the size of their faith. In Matthew 8:26, "He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm". The other reference is found in Matthew 14:31 "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

Instead, the grain of mustard seed was used to illustrate the power and potential of faith like that of this seed. In the creation account of vegetation in Genesis, we learn that God created grass, herb, and fruit tree. According to Matthew 13:31-32 a mustard plant is classified as a herb: "Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof". Notice the supernatural ability of the mustard plant, naturally a herb to produce seeds for condiments, but it grows beyond its limitation into a tree (apparently up to three metres in height) with branches, to provide shelter for the birds. Such is the power and potential of our faith, it can take us beyond our natural ability into the supernatural, if we dare to live by it, as it is written the just shall live by faith.

Nobody was given the opportunity to choose the environment in which they prefer to be born in, we may or may not be responsible for our circumstances, but thank God, He did not leave us destitute. He gave us His faith (Romans 12:3) and Word (2 Peter 1:3) to change the course of our destiny, according to His predestined plan for our lives.

The faith that comes from hearing the Word of God, when released through the words of our mouth, is powerful enough not only for use in prayer, but also to exercise your authority over your obstacles "ye might say unto this sycamine tree [the obstacle, a deep-rooted mulberry tree], be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you".

Demanding a land plant to grow in the sea is naturally impossible, but Jesus used this illustration to show the power of faith. In Mark 9:23, Jesus said, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth". Again in Matthew 17:20, "for verily I [Jesus] say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain [the obstacle], remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you".

The release of your faith, through the words of your mouth, puts you in a place of authority over your obstacles, because Jesus said that the Sycamine tree should obey you.