The Father’s Response (2 of 2) · Vol II: Knowing the King

Second: Persistence Aligns the Will

The persistent prayer process has a refining effect on the content of the prayer. The request prayed for the first time may be a mixture of genuine Kingdom desire and personal preference not yet fully submitted to the Father. The request prayed for the hundredth time has been examined, refined, and in some cases fundamentally revised by the process of bringing it repeatedly before Him. The disciple who asks for a person’s salvation and keeps asking through years of no visible movement may begin praying partly from evangelistic pride. By year five he is praying from grief and love. By year ten he is praying with the same longing the Father has. The persistence has changed not only the situation before the Father but the petitioner bringing the situation.

Third: Persistence Participates in Spiritual Warfare

Daniel 10 provides the most explicit biblical picture of the warfare dimension of prayer. Daniel had been praying and fasting for three weeks. An angel arrives and says: “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.” (Daniel 10:12–13) The prayer was heard immediately. The answer was delayed by spiritual opposition. The persistence of Daniel’s prayer was not changing the Father’s mind — the answer had been released on day one. The persistence was participating in the breakthrough that overcame the opposition in the unseen realm between the Father’s throne and the physical world where the answer would arrive.

The Practical Test: Four Alignment Questions

The most practical question the disciple can ask about any specific prayer is the question of alignment: Is this request genuinely aligned with the character and purposes of Jesus? Four questions for testing it:

Does this request reflect the character of Jesus as revealed in Scripture? A request for the healing of the sick reflects the character of the One who healed the sick. A request for the humiliation of an enemy does not reflect the character of the One who said to pray for those who persecute you.
Does this request advance the Kingdom or primarily serve personal preference? Personal petitions are not excluded — the Lord’s Prayer includes daily bread. But the Kingdom orientation must be present.
Does this request reflect trust in the Father’s sovereignty, or is it an attempt to force a specific outcome? Prayer in Jesus’ name is confident petition, not demand. Does this prayer leave room for the Father to give something better, or is it insisting on a specific outcome regardless?
Is this request one that the Holy Spirit is prompting? Romans 8:26–27 says the Spirit intercedes according to God’s will. The disciple attentive to the Spirit will sometimes find himself praying for something he did not initiate consciously — a prompting toward a person or situation — that turns out to be exactly what the Father was waiting to bring to pass. These Spirit-prompted prayers are the most precisely in Jesus’ name of any the disciple offers.

ACTION STEPS: WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK

1. Review your current prayer list. For each item, apply the four alignment questions. Not to eliminate the petition but to clarify it. Some prayers may need to be revised to reflect Kingdom alignment more accurately. Some may need to be replaced by what the Spirit is actually prompting.

2. Is there a prayer you have stopped praying because the “not yet” became discouraging? Consider whether the Father’s “not yet” was absence or activity. If it was activity, return to the prayer. Persistent widow. Keep asking.

3. For one specific prayer that has not been answered in the form you asked for, consider seriously whether the Father’s response might be the third mode — something better. What specifically would “something better” look like in that situation?