Who’s Saying “No” Me or God?
No, Maybe, Wait
I Prayed and God Let Me Down – Part 2
We have been led to believe that God answers yes, no and maybe. Actually, our belief in how God responds is a little worse than that: no, maybe, and wait. The excuse we get from others for Him saying “no” is that God wants us to grow. Has anyone ever said that to you? It is interesting that we make excuses to solidify the fact that God didn’t answer a person’s prayer. That is the reason we get most often.
I want to challenge that. I want to ask you a question. Who says that God says “no?” I want to challenge our thinking on this question. For this is “next level” prayer. How can we take our thinking to the next level when it comes to God answering prayers? In this lesson, we must address the issue of when we have prayed, and God let me down. We are going to need to question this concept, being that it is normal and average thinking. “Common” thinking will have us put some things on God that are not totally in His character or in His nature. Here it is, somebody told you that God says “no.” He says maybe and rarely does He say “yes.” The more I think about this and ponder it, I do not know if these statements are actually the case. I am beginning to believe that someone has pulled the wool over our eyes. The goal of this lesson is to dispel the myth that God answers “no” more than He does “yes” and leaves you so fired up that you never believe that God will say “no.” The scripture says believe and you will receive [1], you have not because you ask not [2] and ask anything according to His will [3]. These phrases give the notion that God wants to say “yes”, and He wants to do it as much as you will ask. Can we get started?
More “NOs” Than “YESes”
Why is it that we believe that God gives more NOs than he does YESes? Why do we think God does not want to grant us our request? Who led us to believe that? Why is it that people believe they will receive fewer answered prayers than they do unanswered prayers?
You have heard me say this a time or two. The average person gets 10% of their prayers answered while 90% go unanswered. Well, in “Next Level Prayer”, our goal, our thoughts, and our belief is that you should receive 90 plus percent answered prayers and 10% (rare case) unanswered prayers. If you have made it this far in these teachings on next-level prayer, what you have found is that your prayers are being answered. If you pray and continue to pray as described in this material, you get more answered prayers than you get unanswered prayers. This particular lesson will debunk the myth that God says “no”, at least “no” to the majority of your request. That is just not true.
Did You Hear Him Say “No”?
Did God really say “no”? Did you hear Him use those words? The question I must ask you is this. If you prayed, did you hear God tell you “No”? If He told you “No”, what went along with His response to you? Next question, if he said “no”, did you ask Him why He said “no”? To get a “no” means you must have been talking to Him anyway and while you are talking can you get “the why” that goes with the “no.”
You see, sometimes it is as if we are trying to make God look bad. We say stuff like this, well I prayed, and God didn’t answer my prayer. Let me ask you another question. Why would God not answer your prayer?
That puzzles me. When Tamia, and our daughter, would ask me a question that I might answer in the negative, not giving her what she wants, she won’t settle for “no” even if she has to come back later to revisit the question. She was preparing for her school’s homecoming dance, and she wanted to put possible dates (boys) before me who might be interested in escorting her. She knew it was not going to go well, but she was prepared.
Unfortunately, I was not prepared. She led into the conversation with this. Dad, I have vetted some people, and these are the best candidates. In other words, she knew that if she vetted them first, I would be okay. Now that aside, when I said “no,” she did something interesting that we do not do when it comes to God. If God says “no”, we do not obtain His input nor do we do what we can upfront. Instead, we accuse Him of simply saying “no.”
If He did say no, did we go back and say, hey daddy, why?
“Why? why not?”, she said to me. Why not this one? This question opens the door for me to explain so that she is not still waiting on my response. In this way she could alter her actions, or change her direction, or shift gears. In other words, ask God how could I be off? When was the last time God said “no” to you and you went back to ask Him, why God?
Why not this time?
Why is it taking so long? Why?
Why are you not here?
Why are you not listening to me?
What have I done?
How have I bruised our relationship?
What’s going on?
I do not believe in that nonsense that just says “no.” If He tells you “No”, I’m certain He will tell you why.
Did you hear Him use those words when you asked Him? Did you hear Him say “no” and If He did, why wouldn’t you be okay with that? Challenging.
We are going to debunk this myth, stop blaming God, and put a halt to making God look bad. Because we didn’t do what we were supposed to do, we went down this path. In fact, we probably didn’t ask Him in the 1st place. Some people are telling us that they prayed, and God said “no”, but the truth is she or he never asked in the first place. Because most prayers fall short of asking Him anything at all, we fail to follow what the Bible says in that “we have not because we ask not.” [2] It also infers that when we ask, we ask amiss; we miss it. [2] We don’t even ask it, right? When did you practice how to ask? When did you learn how to ask? Maybe there is a problem with how you are asking or not asking.
If you ask with the right motives and the right intentions, God does not say “no”. In fact, I believe it is quite difficult for God who loves you, to say “no” to you. Therefore, it is hard for you to get a “no” out of God. It is quite difficult. It might be almost impossible in some respects for God to tell you “No!”
Think About the Question
Now, if God told you no, what was the question you asked? Think about the question. What did I ask God for God to say “no”? Am I asking God to give me something that is going to harm, hurt, take from me, knock me off my feet, or have some negative impact on my future?
We must always think about the question. If He says “no”, not now, not this job, not this decision, not this home, not this car, not this whatever, not this decision, then you need to say, well, why not God? Or better yet, okay, God “no” to that one. Followed by your next “ask.” Which decision should I be making? It’s time out for playing around. When we talk about things, this serious like prayer, we are talking to the almighty God of the universe, the creator of Heaven and Earth.
Here’s what I don’t like, and do not approve of. We have become okay with people running around telling us that God said “no”, He said “maybe”, and He said not now, without giving you a response or a reply. Don’t miss this, God so specific. When you go back in scripture and you look at the encounters people had with God, He is specific. Go this way, do this. Think of how specific He was with Moses. This is how specifically He wants to be with you.
Has God ever asked you to do something, and you didn’t do it? How many times have you done this? Are you more constant at not doing what He asks or are you constantly following His directives? Have you made a habit of not listening to what God says when you have boots on the ground? BTW – this is normal, and we need to go to the next level. So why is it we get so upset when we ask God to do something, and He doesn’t? Every time He asks us to do something, and we do not, here is what we miss out on. We miss out on the “yes” God wants to give us for a “no” we gave ourselves. This is next-level prayer.
Question: What was the last “yes” you received from God?
[1] Mark 11:24 NLT, Bible.com, accessed November 3, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/MRK.11.24.NLT
[2] James 4:2-3 NKJV, Bible.com, accessed November 3, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/114/JAS.4.2-3.NKJV
[3] I John 5:14-15 NKJV, Bible.com, accessed November 3, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/114/1JN.5.14-15.NKJV
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
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