Hear His Call

 

God speaks to His children through His Word, His creation, and through His orchestration of details in His universe to send us a direct message that the unsaved might interpret as “coincidence.”

But with God there are no coincidences, for He works all things together for our ultimate good and for His glory Romans 8:28). It is always better to listen to His still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12) than to ignore it, as He may be forced to smack us with a baseball bat just to get our attention!

Once we are saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), God speaks to us through His Word, whether we read it in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16), hear it preached from the pulpit (Romans 10:14-17), sung in a Christian song Ephesians 5:19, or brought to our remembrance by the Godly counsel of a brother or sister in Christ Proverbs 27:17. His written Word came directly from His Son, the Living Word (Hebrews 1:1-2).

The beauty and complexity of God’s creation should reveal His existence even to the unsaved, for the heavens and earth declare the handiwork of the supreme Intelligent Designer (Psalm 19:1), so that even unbelievers who have not heard or read Scripture have no excuse to doubt Him (Romans 1:20). God often speaks to believers by lifting their spirits with a cheerful bird song or beautiful flower blooming through a crack in the pavement, by reminding them of the Gospel through specific creations that reflect it, or even by a juxtaposition of seemingly random natural elements or circumstances that tell us His will in unique messages intended for our eyes and ears only.

When we clearly hear His voice in these ways, we ignore it at our own peril. How can we be sure the message is from God? He cannot lie (Titus 1:2) or change (Hebrews 13:8), so we know that God will never speak against His own Word. Any message that contradicts it must come from our own flesh or from Satan, and not from Him.

When we pray to God to hear His will, follow and obey Him, He will give us peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4: 6-7), for He is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). Feeling at peace about a difficult decision is a confirmation that we are trusting God to lead us in His perfect will, and not relying on our own “wisdom,” resources or strength (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Often God calls His children to change direction even when they seem to be fruitful in their current situation or ministry. The founding pastor of the church my husband and I joined after we were saved had grown that church from a small gathering in his home to a much larger congregation. Many souls had been saved under his powerful preaching and many believers were nurtured, schooled, comforted and strengthened through his role as devoted and loving pastor.

Despite his fruitfulness in that church for many years, he felt God calling him to change direction. He left to become a founding member of HELP Ministries, which now supports and trains more than 400 native missionary pastors in 48 countries on five continents! Untold numbers of souls have been saved in these native churches and through evangelistic journeys and church planting!

And the souls he “left behind” at his former church also flourished under the new leadership of the youth pastor who took the helm as undershepherd. This great man of God grew and matured in the Lord, leading countless souls to Him, feeding, training, befriending, teaching and loving his flock, and acquiring a large church campus, building a large new sanctuary and fellowship hall, and growing the church spiritually, physically and financially. Although God called him home at the age of 40, after a short but agonizing bout with widespread lung cancer, his legacy in the hearts and minds of his congregation, and the crowns he won to lay at Jesus’ feet, cannot be underestimated.

He was a great blessing to us, and we are forever thankful for the spiritual growth and opportunities to serve that we experienced under his leadership. I sang solo specials and in the choir and taught a ladies’ class, while my husband served as a greeter and usher, and helped in the sound booth.

After we had been members for 12 years, one day the new pastor preached on Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

As we drove home, past a neighboring church that we passed nearly daily in our travels, my husband wondered out loud whether God might be calling us to serve Him in our “Jerusalem”—this church right around the corner from our house.

We discovered that the church had gone through difficult times because of many leaders and members dying or moving away, and we strongly felt led to help that church by transferring our membership and looking for new service opportunities there. It was a difficult decision, as we loved our church family and pastors and were thankful for our ministries. But we trusted God to lead us according to His perfect plan, and as we drove to the new church one Sunday morning we prayed that He would make His will crystal clear.

As we pulled into the church parking lot, we were surprised to see the pastor, whom we had met only once before, coming out to greet us warmly. I asked him about openings in the music ministry, and I was shocked when he said, “Would you like to sing a special today?”

Even more surprising was when he asked if I would like to start a ladies’ class. I was silently thanking and praising God for these opportunities, and for giving us these confirmations that this new church was indeed His will for us.

But God answered our prayers exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ever imagine or think! (Ephesians 3:20). As we walked into the sanctuary for the first time, there on the back wall greeting all who entered there was a huge banner with the full text of Acts 1:8, the very verse that had led us to this church in the first place!

God doesn’t ask or expect us to always understand His plan, to know how He will provide us with opportunities, or to anticipate our destination. All He asks is obedience, for us to take that first step of faith just as Abraham did when God told him to leave behind his country, idols, power and wealth and to set out for the Promised Land (Genesis 12:1-4). May we always hear, follow, and obey His call, for we cannot begin to imagine the countless blessings (1 Corinthians 2:9) with which He will reward our faithfulness!

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  

Copyright 2025 Laurie Collett

How Does God Answer Prayer?

God, knowing and anticipating our needs, always answers the prayers of His children who are right in their heart attitude toward Him (Isaiah 65:24). We must not approach Him in rebellion or lusting after the flesh (James 4:3), but rather in humble submission, earnestly seeking God’s will and His face (1 Chronicles 16:11; Psalm 27:8; 105:4). God expects us to pray to Him to provide for us, protect us, and guide us in all that we do (Proverbs 3:-6). If we don’t pray, we should not be surprised that our prayers are not answered (James 4:2). 

 

As we pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, helping us to pray in accordance with God’s will even when we don’t know what to ask for (Romans 8:26). He will teach us to trust Him Proverbs 3: 5), deepening our faith (Mark 11:22-24) as we accept that He knows what we need before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8), and that He will give us what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11).  God in His wisdom will provide what we need, even if it isn’t what we think we want (Luke 11:9-13; Matthew 7: 7-11).  

 

Sometimes He answers “Yes,” sometimes “No,” sometimes “Yes, but in the right time,” and sometimes “No, because what I want to give you is even better than what you have asked for.”  He may answer “Yes” immediately if we delight in the Lord, resulting in Him giving us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). In other words, our love for and joy in the Lord lead us to desire His perfect will, which is the best blessing we could possibly receive, and a blessing that He Himself is delighted to give us. His mind does not change, but our desire does because our mind becomes conformed to His will (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16). 

 

When we have a specific request for God, it is our human nature to want our needs satisfied right away. Yet God’s perspective on time is quite different from ours (2 Peter 3:8), and what appears to us to be a delay actually serves to strengthen our faith in His Word. God promised Sarah a child when she was already old and barren, but He saw fit for Isaac to be born nearly 25 years later! (Genesis 18:9-15). 

 

One Sunday afternoon after choir practice eight years ago, I prayed my usual quick Sunday afternoon prayer that I would be filled with the Spirit for singing in the evening service. I felt that God was saying “Yes” to that prayer, but I also had a sense that there was something else He wanted me to do. “Lord, please show me what that is,” I prayed. Moments later, the associate pastor was waiting for me in the hallway to ask if I would teach a ladies’ Sunday school class! God answered that prayer immediately, resulting in my teaching God’s Word weekly to this day! 

 

Yet on another occasion my husband and I had been praying for a long time over whether or not to prepare for a particular opportunity that might or might not come to pass. One day while praying about this I suddenly felt the burden of doubt lifted from my shoulders, and I had the clear sense that God was saying to prepare, for the opportunity would indeed arise. I ran excitedly to my husband to tell him the news, but little did we know that the promised opportunity was three years down the road!  When it did come, though, it was definitely worth the wait and preparation! 

 

It pleases God to give good and perfect gifts to His children (Luke 11:13), so if we ask Him to meet our needs in accordance with His perfect will, we can expect to be blessed. The clearest example of this is the sinner’s prayer, which is one prayer God will always answer “Yes!” because it is His perfect will that all should be saved. When the lost person realizes he is a sinner (Romans 3:23), turns away from his sin, and trusts in Christ as the Son of God, the perfect sacrifice for our sins (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) Who died on the cross, was buried, and rose again that we also may have eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), God will save him (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13).  

 

Prayer always blesses us. However, the blessing we receive from prayer may not always be what we had prayed for, and it may even seem to our limited vantage point to be quite the opposite. When our beloved late Pastor was diagnosed at age 40 with lung cancer that had spread to the brain, bone and liver, our church experienced a great revival as we all prayed for his complete and rapid healing. As a church body, we felt that surely God would answer our prayer for him to continue his inspired and Godly leadership of his church and family, with two young sons and a third on the way. 

 

God did answer our prayer for perfect healing, yet not in the way we had hoped, when He called our beloved Pastor to Himself six short months later. We continued to proclaim “We Choose Faith,” knowing that God had worked through this situation in countless ways, including 83 young people surrendering their lives to the Lord after they heard our Pastor’s testimony, and his daily journal, which was posted online and later published as a book, leading unknown numbers to Christ. We acknowledged that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9) and thanked Him for our closer communion with Him through prayer, and yet there were times of sadness and questioning God. 

 

When we ask for healing of our loved one who is sick, and that person dies, we may despair that God has not heard our prayer or cared enough for us to answer it as we had hoped. Yet if that person was saved, God has indeed given him perfect healing and perfect peace, and He will use the situation to bring good into the lives of others in ways that we cannot begin to understand until we reach glory (Romans 8:28). 

 

Paul asked God three times to take away his “thorn in the flesh,” a physical ailment that brought him great distress, but that kept his pride in check. God said “No,” because the lesson Paul learned of God’s grace being sufficient was a far greater blessing than physical healing would have been. This lesson enabled him to rejoice and be fruitful even when imprisoned, abandoned, and in other dire straits, because he was relying on God’s strength instead of trusting in his own flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). 

 

God the Father even said “No” to His own Son when Jesus asked that if it were possible, that the cup of suffering would pass from Him. Yet the Son yielded to His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39). Just as God said “No,” to Paul because He had a greater good in mind, so was this the case when He said “No” to Jesus. Christ’s perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins was necessary for our forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life with Him (Hebrews 10:10-14; John 3:16). 

 

The parallel account in John 17 of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane on the night He would be arrested is sometimes referred to as the Lord’s Prayer because it is the Lord praying for what He is about to face, and for all of us. It is a beautiful example of intercessory prayer and of His self-sacrificing love, for His focus was not on His ordeal to come, but on our salvation, eternal security, and keeping us from evil. 

 

God sometimes says “No” to us, allowing us to go through illness or other storms of life because they bring us closer to Him. If we seek His perfect will, He may sometimes calm the storm, as He did for His disciples in the boat on the troubled sea (Matthew 8: 24-27). 

 

But at other times, His perfect answer to our prayer may be to calm us instead, bringing us the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), the fellowship of His suffering that conforms us to the image of His Son (Philippians 3:10), strengthened faith, and wisdom and compassion to help those going through similar trials 

 

Thank God for His infinite wisdom and infinite love, so that He answers our prayers in the best possible way! Have faith when you pray that God will answer your prayers with His perfect love, wisdom, and power; satisfy your needs; and grant your desires according to His perfect will. 

 

© 2014 Laurie Collett

Reposted from the archives

 

 
 

How Does God Answer Prayer?

Photo by Toby Hudson 2009

God, knowing and anticipating our needs, always answers the prayers of His children who are right in their heart attitude toward Him (Isaiah 65:24). We must not approach Him in rebellion or lusting after the flesh (James 4:3), but rather in humble submission, earnestly seeking God’s will and His face (1 Chronicles 16:11; Psalm 27:8; 105:4). God expects us to pray to Him to provide for us, protect us, and guide us in all that we do (Proverbs 3:-6). If we don’t pray, we should not be surprised that our prayers are not answered (James 4:2).

As we pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, helping us to pray in accordance with God’s will even when we don’t know what to ask for (Romans 8:26). He will teach us to trust Him Proverbs 3: 5), deepening our faith (Mark 11:22-24) as we accept that He knows what we need before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8), and that He will give us what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11).  God in His wisdom will provide what we need, even if it isn’t what we think we want (Luke 11:9-13; Matthew 7: 7-11).

Sometimes He answers “Yes,” sometimes “No,” sometimes “Yes, but in the right time,” and sometimes “No, because what I want to give you is even better than what you have asked for.”  He may answer “Yes” immediately if we delight in the Lord, resulting in Him giving us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). In other words, our love for and joy in the Lord lead us to desire His perfect will, which is the best blessing we could possibly receive, and a blessing that He Himself is delighted to give us. His mind does not change, but our desire does because our mind becomes conformed to His will (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16).

When we have a specific request for God, it is our human nature to want our needs satisfied right away. Yet God’s perspective on time is quite different from ours (2 Peter 3:8), and what appears to us to be a delay actually serves to strengthen our faith in His Word. God promised Sarah a child when she was already old and barren, but He saw fit for Isaac to be born nearly 25 years later! (Genesis 18:9-15).

One Sunday afternoon after choir practice eight years ago, I prayed my usual quick Sunday afternoon prayer that I would be filled with the Spirit for singing in the evening service. I felt that God was saying “Yes” to that prayer, but I also had a sense that there was something else He wanted me to do. “Lord, please show me what that is,” I prayed. Moments later, the associate pastor was waiting for me in the hallway to ask if I would teach a ladies’ Sunday school class! God answered that prayer immediately, resulting in my teaching God’s Word weekly to this day!

Yet on another occasion my husband and I had been praying for a long time over whether or not to prepare for a particular opportunity that might or might not come to pass. One day while praying about this I suddenly felt the burden of doubt lifted from my shoulders, and I had the clear sense that God was saying to prepare, for the opportunity would indeed arise. I ran excitedly to my husband to tell him the news, but little did we know that the promised opportunity was three years down the road!  When it did come, though, it was definitely worth the wait and preparation!

It pleases God to give good and perfect gifts to His children (Luke 11:13), so if we ask Him to meet our needs in accordance with His perfect will, we can expect to be blessed. The clearest example of this is the sinner’s prayer, which is one prayer God will always answer “Yes!” because it is His perfect will that all should be saved. When the lost person realizes he is a sinner (Romans 3:23), turns away from his sin, and trusts in Christ as the Son of God, the perfect sacrifice for our sins (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) Who died on the cross, was buried, and rose again that we also may have eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), God will save him (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13).

Prayer always blesses us. However, the blessing we receive from prayer may not always be what we had prayed for, and it may even seem to our limited vantage point to be quite the opposite. When our beloved late Pastor was diagnosed at age 40 with lung cancer that had spread to the brain, bone and liver, our church experienced a great revival as we all prayed for his complete and rapid healing. As a church body, we felt that surely God would answer our prayer for him to continue his inspired and Godly leadership of his church and family, with two young sons and a third on the way.

God did answer our prayer for perfect healing, yet not in the way we had hoped, when He called our beloved Pastor to Himself six short months later. We continued to proclaim “We Choose Faith,” knowing that God had worked through this situation in countless ways, including 83 young people surrendering their lives to the Lord after they heard our Pastor’s testimony, and his daily journal, which was posted online and later published as a book, leading unknown numbers to Christ. We acknowledged that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9) and thanked Him for our closer communion with Him through prayer, and yet there were times of sadness and questioning God.

When we ask for healing of our loved one who is sick, and that person dies, we may despair that God has not heard our prayer or cared enough for us to answer it as we had hoped. Yet if that person was saved, God has indeed given him perfect healing and perfect peace, and He will use the situation to bring good into the lives of others in ways that we cannot begin to understand until we reach glory (Romans 8:28).

Paul asked God three times to take away his “thorn in the flesh,” a physical ailment that brought him great distress, but that kept his pride in check. God said “No,” because the lesson Paul learned of God’s grace being sufficient was a far greater blessing than physical healing would have been. This lesson enabled him to rejoice and be fruitful even when imprisoned, abandoned, and in other dire straits, because he was relying on God’s strength instead of trusting in his own flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

God the Father even said “No” to His own Son when Jesus asked that if it were possible, that the cup of suffering would pass from Him. Yet the Son yielded to His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39). Just as God said “No,” to Paul because He had a greater good in mind, so was this the case when He said “No” to Jesus. Christ’s perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins was necessary for our forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life with Him (Hebrews 10:10-14; John 3:16).

The parallel account in John 17 of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane on the night He would be arrested is sometimes referred to as the Lord’s Prayer because it is the Lord praying for what He is about to face, and for all of us. It is a beautiful example of intercessory prayer and of His self-sacrificing love, for His focus was not on His ordeal to come, but on our salvation, eternal security, and keeping us from evil.

God sometimes says “No” to us, allowing us to go through illness or other storms of life because they bring us closer to Him. If we seek His perfect will, He may sometimes calm the storm, as He did for His disciples in the boat on the troubled sea (Matthew 8: 24-27).

But at other times, His perfect answer to our prayer may be to calm us instead, bringing us the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), the fellowship of His suffering that conforms us to the image of His Son (Philippians 3:10), strengthened faith, and wisdom and compassion to help those going through similar trials

Thank God for His infinite wisdom and infinite love, so that He answers our prayers in the best possible way! Have faith when you pray that God will answer your prayers with His perfect love, wisdom, and power; satisfy your needs; and grant your desires according to His perfect will.

© 2014 Laurie Collett