In today’s podcast, we want to look at some reasons prayer is unanswered. Or, we could say it this way – why some fail to receive from God. William Wilberforce and some of his contemporaries started enormous social reforms in England. This group accomplished it by dedicating a significant amount of time to prayer and consistently devoting three hours to prayer each day. They organized Christians throughout the country to unite in special prayer before critical debates in Parliament. They knew and persistently proved the power of prayer. William Temple replied to his critics who regarded answered prayer as only coincidence, ‘When I pray, coincidences happen; when I don’t, they don’t. Our Lord’s disciples’ request is probably our most needed prayer: “Lord, teach us to pray.”¹ So, that’s a terrific testimony to the power of God’s Word. You can receive answers to prayer. But, what’s the deal when you don’t receive an answer, when you pray and nothing happens? Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How to Get to Be the Strong Man God Wants You to Be

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Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

To consistently receive from God, you must consistently be fully persuaded concerning God’s Word.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Share a testimony about how the Lord God helped you to receive from Him. Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Second Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. #S10-50: Why You Shouldn’t Be Quickly Shaken by Prophetic Happenings [Podcast]
2. #S10-049: Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope
3. #S10-048: Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way [Podcast]
4. #S10-047: What Does a Spiritually Healthy Jesus Follower Look Like to God? [Podcast]
5. #S10-046: Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 42 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Prayer

Let’s pray.

Now Father God, thank you for the plain laws that you have established in the world that you created. Help us today to renew our thinking to these laws so that we can think like you think and act like you act. Show us what we need to know in these areas in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Podcast Notes

Why Some Fail to Receive from God: Quickly Shaken

• We are once again in the second chapter of the book of Thessalonians.
• In a previous podcast, I read the entire second chapter but focused mainly on verse two.
• I didn’t finish what I wanted to share so let’s head out again and see how far we can go.

2 Thessalonians 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

• If you listened to Season 10 Episode 50, we told you that the Greek word ‘quickly’ pertains to a very brief extent of time, with a focus on speed of action.
• Quickly means super easy, or hastily.
• So, a few of the Thessalonians were ‘shaken in mind’ rather easily.
• The Greek Word ‘shaken’ means to disturb inwardly.
• We could say ‘to cause to waver.’
• Putting this together.
• Some of the Thessalonian believers had gotten inwardly disturbed.
• They wavered and quickly — that is, with speed and haste, turned from Jesus.
• This same thing happened among the Galatian believers and Paul addresses that in his letter to them.
• They quickly, easily, hastily, with a focus on speed of action, abandoned Jesus.
• It astonished Paul how quickly this departure took place.
• The Apostle Paul, in Second Thessalonians, tells us the reasons behind the quick shaking of people in this church.
• Some taught that the day of the Lord had come.
• That’s what verse two says.
• Now, this was erroneous teaching, and some believers swallowed this hook, line, and sinker.
• Paul wanted to correct this uneasiness that this false teaching had produced and return the saints to a place of comfort and trust.

Why Some Fail to Receive from God: Not Making the Word Yours

• If you want to receive from God, you need a personal relationship with His Word.
• You have to know it for yourself.
• Your faith must be personal, not a piggy-back faith.
• People fail to receive because they never made the Word of God their own.

Acts 17:10–11 (ESV) — 10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

• These Jewish synagogue attenders in Berea did what those in Thessalonica did not do.
• When they heard the message of Jesus, they searched the scriptures to see if what they heard about these verses was accurate.
• They first had the right attitude — they searched the Word with eagerness.
• The Greek here for ‘eagerness’ is a word that means ready, willing, or exceptional interest.
• These in Berea didn’t just hear a message — they leaned into it.
• But, they didn’t just wolf down what they heard like a dog who hadn’t eaten in three days.
• No, they ‘examined’ the scriptures.
• The Greek word ‘examine’ means to engage in a careful study of a question, or to question.
• You see, they took these verses and asked questions of the text.
• They examined the scriptures.
• They asked questions of the scripture — it didn’t say they spent all their time asking Paul or the members of his evangelistic team questions.
• They examined the scriptures themselves.
• It didn’t say they examined Paul.
• These people in this synagogue in Berea engaged in a careful study of the Word.
• When you do this, the Word becomes yours — it’s no longer the word that the Pastor, the teacher, the book you read, the tape you listened to — it’s no longer their words or thoughts.
• No, you have seen God’s Word for yourself.
• You know God cannot lie.
• You know He is not a man who can tell any mistruth.
• We can totally depend on everything the Lord said because it is true and right.  * You should not base your faith or make potentially life-altering decisions because of what you heard someone say about the Word.
• Right now you are listening to me teach.
• That’s good — what I am doing?
• I’m endeavoring to point you in the right direction in this second chapter of the second letter to the Thessalonians.
• You’re hearing me break down the contents of Paul’s letter.
• Word definitions? I’m handing those to you.
• Why am I doing this? — maybe you don’t have the tools to find this out.
• But, here’s the question — how are you capturing the information you are hearing so that you can examine the scriptures on your own as the Bereans did?
• Are you taking notes on what you heard?
• Could you be listening to the same material several times to make sure you remember where to look?
• Are you writing the scripture references and then doing some personal study to see what the Spirit of God would show you?
• Are you asking questions like how does this apply to me personally?
• Do you keep some kind of notebook where you write what strikes your heart as you hear the Word?
• There are more avenues of involvement but I trust you get the point — you must own the Word and work with it.
• You see, people hear what a minister or teacher says and they think they understand what they said.
• And they try to act on it what they thought they heard and end up falling on their face.
• The failure happened because you tried to construct a house without laying the foundation first.
• You’ve got to get in there and do the digging of your foundation yourself.
• You must own the Word yourself.
• Every person has to do this.
• If it’s in one ear and out the other, there’s a chance you won’t receive.

Why Some Fail to Receive from God: The Medium of Podcast

• Well, okay — maybe you’re not where you can write any of this down.
• You could be listening to this podcast while driving your car and you’re not able to jot down anything that ministered to your spirit.
• No problem — we provide the show notes for you at emeryhorvath.com.
• Look them up.
• Show notes are the transcript of the podcast.
• You’re listening to Season 10 episode 51.
• All you have to do to get the notes to what you are hearing right now is to go to emeryhorvath.com – [spell this out].
• There are several ways to access the podcast once you get there.
• You can look at the front page – it shows the last twelve podcasts from the latest, which is on top going back twelve weeks.
• So, you have three months’ worth of podcasts just by punching in the web address emeryhorvath.com.
• Another way to access this podcast is by looking at the very top line of the webpage.
• The first tab is the ‘HOME’ button.
• Next tab in is ‘ABOUT’, which will give you a little bio information.
• The third tab in says ‘PODCAST’ and it will you give you linked access to over 480 podcasts.
• We tried to make it easy for you to get the Word.
• People like uncomplicated.
• But none of this ease will make the Word of God work for you.
• That you listened to the podcast is not enough.
• That you read the transcript won’t be the deciding factor that causes a manifestation of God’s promise.
• This can be a tool towards this end, but there are some other things that you need to do.
• You must make the Word of God your own.
• It doesn’t matter that countless other people have done just what I said here.
• They stood on Bible promises after examining the scriptures to see if these things were so.
• When they did that, answers to prayer just popped up seemingly out of nowhere where.

John 15:7 (ESV) — 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

• Let’s go on to the next reason people fail to receive from God.

Why Some Fail to Receive from God: They Are Not Fully Persuaded

• To consistently receive from God, you must consistently be fully persuaded concerning God’s Word.
• What might those convictions look like?
• One gentleman penned these words this way.
• The Bible says it. — I believe it and that settles it for me.
• God is right — He is always right.
• His Word is right — it’s always right.
• These convictions must become your unwavering persuasion.
• Are you fully persuaded that what God said, He will perform for you?

Romans 4:15–21 (ESV) — 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

• Do you want to receive from God?
• Then do not allow unbelief to make you waver.
• You can’t just do this one time.
• Being continually persuaded — not allowing unbelief to make you waver must be your everyday position.

John 3:14–15 (ESV) — 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

• Whoever believes in Him has eternal life.
• Here’s what you must know about these words.
• The Greek word ‘believes’ is in the present tense — meaning the way of believing is one of continual action.
• You can now translate this verse in this manner: ‘Whoever continually believes has eternal life.’
• You must believe and keep on believing.
• You must not waver because of unbelief today, tomorrow, and the next day.
• So, if you are taking a stand on a Bible promise and waiting on its fulfillment, then your position is to believe and keep on believing — stand and keep on standing — do not waver and stay in that mode.

Why Some Fail to Receive from God: Don’t Blame God

• If there’s a Bible promise that you are struggling to receive, don’t blame God for the struggle.
• Your struggle does not invalidate the truth of God’s promise.
• Don’t ever say that God’s promise is not for you.
• Your struggle moment is not the truth standard.
• If you blame God, what have you really done?
• Someone got healed and you didn’t — so it must not be for me?
• You may not realize this but you just accused God of playing favorites.
• Something that He never does.

Romans 2:9–11 (ESV) — 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

Acts 10:34 (ESV) — 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,

• Partiality means respect of persons. The Greek word is made up of the word for “face” and the verb “receive” the compound word meaning, “to receive face.” Literally translated, the verse reads, “For there is not receiving of face in the presence of God.” That is, God does not receive anybody’s face.
• He’s not going to treat one person differently than another because of their status or their lack of status.
• Faith is the only differentiator.
• If one leans on the Lord — leans on His Word — believes that He receives — that promise will be His.
• If one leans on the Lord — but really doesn’t — if he says that he believes and receives but doesn’t — that promise will not be His.
• Status means nothing.
• Then someone receiving a blessing from heaven should make you ecstatically happy.
• Because, bottom—line, what that means is that is available for you.
• You can still know what God’s will is by looking at how He blesses anyone around you.
• If you’re not connecting with a Bible promise, ask the Lord to show you where you are missing it.
• God doesn’t miss it — never, ever, ever but, we do.

Why Some Fail to Receive from God: They Don’t Understand the Struggle

• Here’s another reason people do not receive.
• They don’t understand the struggle — or they misinterpret things amid the struggle.
• Receiving from God has its challenges.
• The challenge is that your thinking is wrong and needs to be adjusted.
• When you are first getting started, understand that there is a struggle involved.
• You know, we mentioned in a previous podcast about ‘working out your salvation with fear and trembling.’
• Each believer has to work out their salvation.

Philippians 2:12 (ESV) — 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

• The words salvation means deliverance.
• The Greek word ‘work out’ means “to carry out to the goal, to carry to its ultimate conclusion.” We say, “The student worked out a problem in arithmetic.” He carried the problem to its ultimate conclusion. This is the way it is used here. They exhorted the Philippians to carry their salvation to its ultimate conclusion, Christlikeness.²
• Understanding the struggle means working out the math problem.
• If you are seeking healing from the Lord and are having trouble realizing the manifestation of health in your body, you know where the work lies.
• You must work out the math problem.
• Constantly worried about the future?
• Having trouble casting your care on the Lord as 1 Peter 5:7 instructs?
• Workout the math problem.
• If you’re not hearing God speak in your heart, work out the math problem.
• If you’re having trouble forgiving people, work out that math problem.
• The answer to these varied problems is in the Word.
• Work it out.
• We could also say all of this another way: sometimes before manifestation comes, adjustments must be made.
• How’s that work?
• These adjustments are what I call ‘the struggle.’
• It’s the time you spend looking at the Word, praying about the Word, — and, asking the Holy Spirit questions.
• Why didn’t I receive — I know I believed?
• Where did I miss it?
• The promises of God are not automatic.
• We must make course corrections.
• Walking by faith is like navigating a ship.
• To get to your destination, you must adjust.
• How do you know what those corrections are?
• It’s different for different people.
• God’s Word is not a slot machine — put in your request and out comes the jackpot.
• Now, after you work with these things for a while, and your faith develops, receiving gets easier.
• And with that, here’s the Quote of the Day.
• George Mueller, the famous apostle to the orphans of England, said the following.

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to get a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.³

• And we could add this to the end of this — ‘and the less we receive from God.’
• That’s the point of this lengthy quote.
• You must stay with things.
• People quit too easily.

George Muller said that the most important part of prayer was the fifteen minutes after he had said “Amen.”

• Where did he learn that?
• By navigating the struggle.
• And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

This story is told by the captain of a ship on which George Muller of Bristol was traveling. During his life, he received over 1,000,000 pounds from the Lord, without advertising—every penny came as an answer to prayer.

“We had George Muller of Bristol on board,” said the captain. “I had been on the bridge for twenty-four hours and never left it and George Muller came to me and said, “Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.” “It is impossible,” I said. “Then very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years; let us go down into the chart room and pray.”

• Where did such confidence come from?
• Did he get here overnight?
• The story continues:

“I looked at that man of God and thought to myself, “What lunatic asylum can that man have come from, for I never heard of such a thing as this?” “Mr. Muller,” I said, “do you know how dense this fog is?” “No,” he replied, “my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.”

• Is Mueller just being religious here?

He knelt down, and he prayed one of the most simple prayers. When he had finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. “As you do not believe, He will answer, and as I believe He has, there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.” “I looked at him and George Muller said, “Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years and there has never been a single day when I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, and open the door and you will find the fog has gone.” “I got up and the fog indeed was gone, and on that Saturday afternoon George Muller kept his promised engagement.”⁴

• Someone said, ‘I wish I could do that.’
• These kinds of answers to prayer don’t come by wishing.
• Can we say this yet another way?
• We must own our faith failures.
• I’m talking about being precise.
• You know when I brew tea, I am precise about it.  * I take those loose tea leaves and I weigh them on a scale – 15 grams.
• The water gets measured out precisely — 40 ounces.
• The water is brought up to the right temperature – 190 degrees for a white tea.
• The hot water and tea leaves are married together for a precise time — two minutes.
• If you’re not so precise, if you go three minutes or four, you end up with bitterness in your tea.
• What happens if everything is as it should be?
• You get a consistent, can I say repeatable, cup of tea every time.
• I do coffee the same way because the same principles apply.
• Weigh it up — time it out.
• If I got a bitter cup of tea or coffee, I go back and look at what I did wrong.
• What I don’t do is come to conclusions like the tea is bad or you win a few, lose a few, or maybe it’s not God’s will that I have a good cup of tea today.
• Instead of concluding, I look instead for the correction.
• Because I did the research — I spent the time to understand what it takes to make a smooth cup of tea.
• I put in the research to know how to make a good cup of coffee that I drink black because it tastes good instead of piling in the sugar to offset the fact that I wasn’t precise.
• Be precise in your believing.
• Follow the instructions just like God’s Word said and you will have a consistent faith experience — a consistent believing that you receive.
• And you won’t go off and say it’s not God’s will that I have my healing today.
• Instead, I say that Jesus Himself took my infirmities and bore my sicknesses, and by His stripes, I was healed.
• If I was healed, I am healed.
• I won’t go off and say that it’s not God’s will that my needs are not met according to His riches in glory.
• I won’t say that junk because my believing lines up with His instructions.
• And because I put in the work — I did the research — I followed the recipe, I got a consistent experience.

Now, Father God, thank you for your Word. We want a consistent faith experience. That’s our heart’s desire. We have no greater joy than to hear from you — then to see you in action. Thank you for opening our understanding in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

• Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why Is the Root of Bitterness Lethal?

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