When To Do When God Says No
You may have heard a sermon or read a book regarding what to do or how to pray when God says “No.” This confuses many people and they struggle with understanding why God did not answer their prayer.
One of the biggest lies we hear is “God did not answer my prayer, so I guess He is saying no to my request.”
What does the Word say about that? In Mark 11:23-24 and numerous other scripture references it says, “For verily I say to you, that whoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be cast into the sea, and SHALL NOT DOUBT IN HIS HEART, but shall believe that those things which He said shall come to pass, you shall have whatever he said.”
We are NOT trying to manipulate God into answering our prayers to our liking but we ARE standing on what the Word has already promised us.
Confident Expectation Of God's Goodness
Repeat that out loud: It is not wishful thinking but my confident expectation of the goodness of God.
If you pray the answer (which is the God-given promise) as found in the Word to address whatever you are praying for, and you do not waver in your faith, then you can expect God to fulfill what He has already promised.
God makes provision. God gives us the promises. God only asks us to BELIEVE Him.
It is NOT wishful thinking but the confident expectation of the goodness of God.
God’s timing is not our timing. When God promised me that I would be healed of uterine cancer and have a baby, should I have stopped believing that promise after a few months? A few years?
NO.
I never stopped believing that God would do what He said He would do. My only job was to believe it, thank Him for it, and stand on the healing verses He gave me – every single day.
God Cannot Lie
It would have been a lot easier to say, “Well, I guess I heard God wrong or maybe He changed His mind, or maybe it wasn’t God’s will after all.”
God’s Word is His will. God cannot lie. If we are praying the Word then we are praying His will. By saying that it wasn’t God’s will then we might as well say we don’t believe the Word.
We do not need to fret about when it will happen – our job is to believe that it will. This is where we can get excited – in the confident expectation of the goodness of God.
If I had quit trusting God, I know I never would have received total healing or the fulfillment of the promise that I would have a child. My daughter now has children of her own – another fulfilled promise because we chose to trust God and His Word.
The doctor who told me that I would be dead within two years did not know my God – or the extent of my faith. God is my healer, my restorer. In over 40 years, I have not had a cold or the flu. I understand what it means to walk in divine health – not because I am special but because I choose to believe what God has promised in His Word.
Every single day I thank God for His provision in my healing and how many people have been blessed by this miracle story.
Excellent article Carol. Thank you and you are looking radiant in all your videos lately! In regards to your comment “My only job was to believe it, thank Him for it, and stand on the healing verses He gave me – every single day” have you done a video or blog on understanding this more? I am confused about asking/seeking/knocking and fasting and praying and battline versus resting in His promises and what they look like in comaparison or together and if there are different seasons of this? Are you able to give little more detail once you got promise what you did/said on daily basis that wasn’t you working for it but resting in it? thank you for any additional insight you have. God bless you!!!
Thank you Stacy! Yes, there are several videos on this subject. Go to my YT channel and click on videos at the top and you will see all of them. Then scroll through and you will see many of these to help you to understand how to pray the answer instead of the problem. Praying the answer is praying the promise in a prayer of thanksgiving. All the promises are in the Word. When one becomes ‘alive’ to you – get it deep in your spirit. Thank God in your prayers for His promises and that He said thus and so in His Word and you are choosing to believe it. If you need more help you can email me as well.