Why is God not answering my prayers? This message is for those who know what the Lord requires but wants to live life their way. This is for those who know what to do, but refuse to do it. It’s for those who believe that God is obligated to do what He’s said even though they’re serving Him in name only. Christians without Christ. Do you know anyone like that? Or is it you?
We’re living in a time where the Church looks more like their other father than their Heavenly Father. Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that they served their father the devil. They tried to counter by saying they were not illegitimate children because they had faithfully kept the law. But their hearts were so far removed from the Author of the law that He stood in front of them and they didn’t recognize Him. That’s what religion produces. Offspring that are spiritually blind. Self absorbed and well educated in biblical knowledge with no real change. God isn’t welcomed into His own house, He may keep His Name on the building to attract business, as long as He keeps His opinion to Himself. We tell Him to look the other way while we desecrate His pulpit and water down His Word.
We should know by now that the church isn’t a building, the church is us. Jesus didn’t die for a building. The gates of hell will only prevail against us if we ignore the One who has built His Church on the revelation of who He is. Jesus The Christ Son of the Living God. What do we have today? On a typical Sunday morning everything is so scripted that if He can’t work with the schedule too bad. There’s no room for Him to move among us. So people come sick and leave sick. They come burdened and leave burdened. If you don’t have your own personal daily encounter with Jesus, you will dry up sitting in God’s house. God will judge His Church, but He’ll never punish the righteous with the religious.
Ezekiel encountered a group of church folks. They were doing their own thing. Everything God opposed they embraced. God was just a convenience for them. They sought Him on their terms not His. We are there today. We want His hands not His heart. We want the goodies without the submission. We treat Him like a servant instead of a King. He’s holy. He’s powerful! He’s almighty God! We’re worshiping Satan and thinking we’re worshiping God. That’s what Jesus told the Pharisees. Self will, self promotion, self confidence, self righteousness, is satanic in its origin. There’s nothing godly about self. God will not respond to flesh. He’s Spirit, and those who worship Him must follow the order of the Spirit. Doing you, no matter how well you do you, doesn’t suit what He requires.
“They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!” Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill Me, a Man who has spoken to you the truth He got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.” They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.” “If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love Me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on My own. He sent Me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with Me. Can any one of you convict Me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.” John 8:39-47 MSG
Pride is the invisible dragnet with which the devil captures the most confident of God’s people.
The hardest people to communicate truth to are religious people. The ones with all the answers. You try to correct errors and they quickly respond with “I know that.” That’s why church people are walking through the front door out the back door and into hell. People who enjoy living a compromised lifestyle will never truly meet Jesus. They love the world more than they love Jesus. They want just enough religion to pacify their consciences and just enough of the world to satisfy their lust. But we serve an all or nothing God. He’s not into sharing His glory with anyone or anything. You may pray long and loud, but the answer will elude you. The only answer you’ll get is a leanness of soul and spirit.
“On August 14, during the seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, some of the leaders of Israel came to request a message from the Lord. They sat down in front of me to wait for His reply. Then this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, tell the leaders of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: How dare you come to ask Me for a message? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will tell you nothing!’
Ezekiel 20:1-3
So are you waiting for an answer from the Lord while you do your own thing? Ignoring His warnings and corrections. Living by the dictates of your fleshly desires? God owes us nothing! Still He has given us everything. How do you repay His goodness towards you? He extends mercy by prolonging your life, even in your rebellion. Giving you an opportunity to make a u-turn before it’s too late. The Bible is very clear on what pleases the Lord.
“If someone claims, “I know Him well!” but doesn’t keep His commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.”
1 John 2:4-6, 15-17 MSG
It’s time to change course. Make up your mind one way or the other. If Jesus is Lord, serve Him! If the world is your god, serve it! But for heaven’s sake don’t make a mockery out of that which is holy. Don’t give mixed messages to the world. Don’t tell anyone you’re a follower of Jesus until you truly are! Make a decision and stick with it. It’s your choice. But please don’t make a mockery of what is the most beautiful life changing experience for those who are truly living for Jesus Christ. Don’t be a hypocrite blaming God for unanswered prayers when you know the haphazardly lifestyle you’re living in. Be honest with yourself and others. Until you do, the answer from the Lord is very clear.
“Should I allow you to ask for a message from Me, O people of Israel? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will tell you nothing.”
Ezekiel 20:31b NLT
See also Isaiah 1
Written by permission of the Holy Spirit
W. Tennant
September 17, 2021