How do we pray about the plan of God for our lives? Jesus gave us a startling promise concerning prayer. He said, abiding in Him and His Words abiding in us makes answered prayer a done deal (John 15:7). According to Jesus, praying about the plan involves something called ‘abiding’ in Him. What does it mean to abide in Him? Part of abiding in Him involves the discipline of waiting upon God. Praying about the plan entails waiting on God for His direction. We want to successfully fulfill His will, we must learn the secret of waiting.

Abiding in the Life of Elijah

1 Kings 18:36–38 (ESV)
36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

• If we time this prayer out, that is if we take out a stopwatch to time how long this prayer took Elijah to pray, we will find that it took him about fifteen seconds to utter these words to God.
•  Was Elijah so spiritual that all it took him was fifteen seconds to ‘slap’ heaven and earth together?
• Or did Elijah practice the fine art of abiding?
• Mark it down, fifteen seconds was not how long Elijah prayed about the fire.

1 Kings 18:42–45 (ESV)
42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. 43 And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. 44 And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’ ” 45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

• Did you notice how Elijah prayed and waited for the rain to fall?
• The Bible says that he prayed seven times.
• He prayed and he waited. He prayed and he waited until the rain fell.
• Note an additional difference between these two accounts:
• Praying down fire could represent a single manifestation of the Spirit of God.
• Praying down rain could symbolically represent a continual manifestation or outpouring of the Spirit such as you see in revivals or in this coming last day move of God (James 5:7, Acts 2:16-21).
• It’s one thing to call down fire; it’s another thing to pray for rain!
• There is coming a Great Outpouring of the Spirit of God.
• It is described in Acts 2 where all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• This outpouring, where world leaders have to be positioned and detailed events have to come into manifestation, (see  ‘How the Road Was Opened for Jesus to Go to Calvary ‘) will not happen with fifteen second praying. that kind of stuff happens in the abiding, in the waiting on God.

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.

• One key to answered prayer, according to Jesus is abiding.

DEFINITION: abide/μένω/menō – to remain, stay, to wait for.

• When people hear the words ‘Abide in me’, they think that means ‘stay saved’. But, it does not mean that because this scripture is in the prayer domain. The verse is about prayer and praying. It is a conclusion to Jesus whole discussion about abiding.

John 15:1–8 (ESV)
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

• The fruit talked about here is not the fruit of ‘good works’ or doing good things or ‘witnessing’. The fruit that Jesus is speaking of is prayer fruit!
• Is your prayer life bearing fruit?
• The fruitfulness of the prayer life depends on the ‘abiding’.
• To the degree that you ‘abide’ is the degree that you bear fruit.
• This waiting on God is not a formula for prayer – it is not an ‘okay now what do I do next’ type of thing
• Waiting on God is the natural conclusion that you come to when you understand your dependence on God.
• When you understand that you need His help in order to bear fruit in prayer, in order to pray effectively, you have made a great step forward in the prayer life.
• Because we are limited beings, we do not know often times how to pray as we ought.
• The connection that we have to the vine is a statement of our utterance dependence on Him in this prayer domain.
• You could read John 15:5 this way and you would not do injustice to the verse…

John 15:5 (ESV)
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing in this realm of prayer.

• This is all that Romans 8:26 is saying to us…

Romans 8:26 (ESV)
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

• Do you want some help?
• The only way you are going to know what to pray for and not be just spouting out things, spouting out your own ideas of how you think the plan of God should be, is to abide in Him.
• Abiding in Him has an element that the Bible calls waiting upon the Lord.
• That is wait on Him until the Spirit tells you what to pray or leads you where you need to go in the prayer realm.

Prayer and Being Led by the Spirit

• We should not talk about being ‘led by the Spirit’, and then ditch that idea when it comes time to pray.
• Prayer is one of the main areas where being led by the Spirit should be understood and developed.
• Being led by the Spirit should be prominent in the prayer life.
• In fact it is one of the best ways to learn to be led by the Spirit.
• Ask Him for His guidance when you pray.
• Many times we are nothing more than LAZY prayers.
• We pray as a religious exercise and all the while we mask our hearts in front of God.
• We do not want to expose ourselves to Him or to anyone else for that matter.
• We hide our feelings behind our religion.
• Our mindset has turned us into mechanical prayer people instead of Spirit led prayer people.
• No, learn to express all your heart to God.
• Be open and passionate in your praying.

Prayer Should Be Passionate!

Hebrews 5:7 (KJV)
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

• Prayer is talking to God
• When we ‘talk’ to our spouses about issues that we feel deeply about we do not lack passion – we tell our significant other exactly how we feel.
• Why don’t we do that with God?
• This two type of living is nothing more than religious junk.
• We are one way with people and another way with God.
• Tell Him how you feel!!!

• Elijah said to God ‘Look I am the only one left – they have killed everybody else – God told Him – ‘There are 7000 left who have not bowed to the image of Baal.’
• If Elijah had been mini mouth about that and just walked around with that thought in his head – feeling that issue but never expressing it – he would have never have found out about the 7000 who had not bowed their knee and he would have walked around with this ‘O woe is me’ complex.
• But because he blurted out – he found it out!!!
• Some of you just need to unload your baggage to God. Just let it fly!!!!!

Waiting on God or Abiding Scriptures

Isaiah 30:1–3, 15, 18 (ESV)
1 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; 2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

• You can see some of the essential components of this abiding prayer.
• You see God’s desire for Israel was
  • to rest,
  • to get quiet,
  • to trust and
  • to wait
• …rather than just to go jumping off in a self-picked direction
• I think that you can see the importance of getting direction from Him and not just jumping out on your own.
• This is not fifteen second type of praying here…
• So let’s introduce a prayer concept into your spiritual vocabulary.
• When you think about prayer, when you think about the leadership of the Holy Spirit, when you think the plan of God… think about this phrase ‘praying to pray’.

Praying to Pray

• Pray to get direction so that you can pray.
• When you have an issue to pray about, say something like this, ‘Lord show me how to pray about this’ or ‘Lord give me some direction about how to go about praying about this issue.’
• And then what do should you do? – try waiting!!!
• Here are some verses to help you with this idea.

Habakkuk 2:1 (KJV)
1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, And will watch to see what he will say unto me, And what I shall answer when I am reproved.

John 2:5 (NKJV)
5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

• You will be much more effective if you pray according to God’s understanding instead of yours.

General Thoughts on Waiting

• Waiting is a part of everyday life.
• We wait in lines:
  • in order to purchase groceries;
  • to be served at popular restaurants;
  • to be attended to in a bank;
  • at stop signs and traffic signals;
  • at amusement parks;
  • to see a play or film.
• We must also wait for flowers to grow and bloom;
  • for babies to be born;
  • for wounds to heal;
  • for bread to rise and cheese to age;
  • for children to mature;
  • for friends to call;
  • for love to deepen.
• As much as life is about getting things done – life also is about waiting.
• The average human spends 62 minutes a day waiting.
• In 70 years that amounts to 3 years’ worth of waiting.
• Another interesting statistic in this modern computer age…
• According to efficiency experts, the average computer user spends 9 minutes every day waiting for files and web screens to download.
• And just to have a little fun, the average husband waits (how long) for his wife to get ready? (if you think I am filling that number in, you must think I am nuts!).
• The point is, we spend a great amount of our life simply waiting on life to happen but it seems when it comes to God, we want our answers and our problems solved at the snap of a finger.

Psalm 37:7
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

• Waiting on God is simple.
• Sit down, be quiet and wait.
• Then ‘whatever He says to you, do it’. That is abiding in Him.
• Waiting on God is quieting the soul.
• The soul consists of the mind, the will, and the emotions.
• Part of waiting on God is causing your soul to calm down so that you hear Him.
• Sometimes it takes quite bit of time to get to the point of quietness
• Waiting on God is waiting in your time of prayer in His presence. While you wait, you silence your mind and you put your concentration on your heart or spirit man and observe what goes on down there.
• What is He saying to you?
• Is He saying anything in your heart?

Psalm 62:1
1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

• Notice the companions of ‘waiting’ – here the companion is salvation
• DEFINITION: salvation – help, deliverance, prosperity
• Salvation or deliverance comes as we wait upon Him
• Salvation is not necessarily in our taking the ‘bull by the horns’ and doing something, it is in the waiting before God
• My soul waits in silence for what God is going to do in my life – what salvation God is going to bring – salvation comes from God and is entirely His work – rather than what I can muster up on my own and to that end I wait on what the Lord is going to do.

Psalm 25:1–5 (ESV)
1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

• Notice the two areas that are connected to waiting
• Instruction – ‘teach me your ways’
• Guidance – ‘Lead me’

Valuable Lessons from the ‘Waiting Room’

• When you ask the question, ‘What do you want me to pray about today?’, that question is based on an understanding of Bible authority.
  • That men have authority because Jesus gave it.
  • That God does nothing in the earth until that authority is exercised.
  • Prayer gives God permission to move.
• God given authority is one the most powerful weapons on planet earth.
• Authority stops demons dead in their tracks and demons run this world’s system.
• It is important that we do not pray shot-gun prayers.
• There is an element where you must understand the tremendous power at your disposal. True power must always be under control.
• Christians are shooting off their faith gun without direction – without waiting for God’s direction and that’s why sometimes you say things and they don’t work!
• God created the heavens and the earth with words. God said let there be light. We have had valuable teaching on our ability to speak words of faith.
• How come when I say ‘Let there be light’ nothing happens?
• Power must be under control – it’s because ‘I said’ let there be light. Did you wait on God about that? Did the Lord tell you to say that?
• Be led by the Spirit of God and wait for His direction.
• When God doesn’t say something (in your time of waiting) to you that means that He IS saying something to you
• One of the main things that He is saying to you is ‘Everything is okay’.
• I have leaned back on this many, many times – If I have waited on God, If I have gotten quite before and given Him an opportunity to speak to me and He doesn’t say anything than I know that everything is okay because if it wasn’t okay – He would have said something to me.
• Mothers quit worrying about your children, if God is not saying anything to you about your kids, that means your kids are okay. I don’t care what it looks like… the Bible is right…
• If you raised them in God its okay –
• The Psalmist waxed eloquent in the 139 Psalm – he said, “where can I go to get away from your Spirit? If I go to heaven, you are there. If I go to hell, you are there.”
• I do not care what road my kids go down, when they get to the end of the road they are going to run into God. All roads that my kids ever travel will dead-end in God.

Waiting on God is Trusting God

• What if He doesn’t say anything to you? – the answer will stretch you here – if He does not say anything then you do not do anything! You do not pray anything. You just wait.
• That’s trusting God because you know something needs to be done here and instead of doing something on your own you are trusting Him and doing nothing!
• The question comes ‘How long do you wait’? The answer is however long it takes.

Waiting On God and ‘Nothing Happening’ are Not the Same Thing.

• If you pray and have a season of waiting before Him and He does not say anything to you during that time that does not mean that nothing occurred during that time of waiting.

Isaiah 64:4
4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

• Waiting on God and doing nothing are not the same thing.
• Understand that God is always moving.
• He is acting on your behalf while you are sitting in His presence not saying anything, not praying anything, or not doing anything.
• We think many times that it is our great praying and our great words that get the job done but here God is moving for you while you are in a holding pattern before Him.
• It takes a measure of faith to operate this way. That faith expresses itself this way, “Lord you know that this situation is occurring (maybe it’s a personal situation that you need direction in or maybe you are praying for a world ruler or someone in authority) and I need direction to know how to pray. I just trust you for this while I wait before you.”
• Here is a Bible verse for those who wait on God…

Isaiah 49:23 (NKJV)
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers; They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

Isaiah 40:29–31 (ESV)
29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

• This famous verse on ‘waiting on God’ indicates that during times of waiting there can be transformations taking place in your life.
• Strength renewal and replenishment come into your spirit when you are in His presence waiting upon Him.
• You need these times more than you realize, more than you know.
• The New Testament version of Isa. 40:31 is found in the book of Acts

Acts 3:19–20 (ESV)
19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,

• Here are some more ‘waiting on the Lord’ verses.
• Jesus waited on His Father in prayer.

Matthew 26:37–42 (ESV)
37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

• The term ‘watching’ is a descriptive way of saying ‘waiting on the Lord’. You might ask, “What was Jesus watching?”
• Some people ‘watch’ TV
• Some people ‘watch’ movies
• Jesus ‘watched’ or observed His own spirit to see if God would say anything to Him. Jesus immediate concern at this point was this question, ‘Is there another way than Calvary?’
• He waited on the Father God to see if He would say anything to Him about that.
• Note what happened…

Luke 22:41–43 (ESV)
41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.

• Notice the ‘strengthening’ occurred during the watching and the waiting which is Isa. 40:31 that we looked at above!
• The strength Jesus received that day, by waiting on God is the strength that carried Him all the way through to Calvary!

Call to Action:

This method of praying is largely unpracticed by many believers. Giving yourself to it will yield rich rewards. Being still and being quiet and listening for instruction in prayer causes one to both grow in Him and be fruitful for Him. Practice this discipline. Start by waiting in His presence for a few minutes each day and gradually increase the time. Listen for Him and observe the promptings in your heart.

Question: What other lessons have you learned about waiting on God? Please share them. I, as well as other readers, would like to know and learn also. Please leave you comment in the section below.