Let’s get right to the point. There are four things you can pray for that God always answers with a yes. Here they are:
- To know God
- To become a spiritual man or woman
- To resist temptation, and
- To be filled with the Holy Spirit
How do we know that God will answer yes? Because the scripture says so.
First, God’s desire is that we come to know him. John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” To know God is the chief aim of Christianity. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20).
Second, God wants you to become a spiritual man or woman. He wants you to grow in spiritual matters that you might become like him. “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Consider I Peter 2:2, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.”
Third, God wants you to resist temptation and will give you the power to do so. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (I Corinthians 10:13).
Fourth, God wants you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is critically important because it is the Spirit’s power that enables you to beat any temptation. The Holy Spirit is the secret to living a faithful Christian life. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).
Now, though these things are true, there is one thing that can inhibit the answer to these four prayers.
Sin.
You cannot become a truly spiritual man or woman with unrepentant sin in your life. Sin separates us from God, damaging our knowledge of him. Sin is the very enemy of a spiritual person, as the mind set on the flesh is death (Romans 8:6). Sin does not resist temptation, it eggs it on. It’s desire is to master you, but you must master it (Genesis 4:7). And if we entertain sin in our lives the Holy Spirit will only being doing one thing in your life-—urging you to repentance.
If sin is the barrier that keeps you from experiencing these four things, then repentance is the wrecking ball that knocks the wall down. Repentance is the necessary essence of the spiritual person. Repentance is the restorative to a temptation succumbed. Repentance empties the soul from the effects of sin, restoring the filling of the Holy Spirit so that you may operate as a spiritual person, experiencing God’s pleasure and power.
If you know of no unrepentant sin in your life, then pray these four prayers. God will answer you, transforming your life over time and the application of God’s word in your life. And that’s a guarantee.
