Latest / truthunedited / The Shocking Truth Some Prayers Go Unanswered
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What if some prayers don't make it past the ceiling?
- 0:03Your praying, pouring your soul into every word, believing God's
- 0:08ear is near. We love to say God hears every prayer.
- 0:14It's a life line when life feels heavy. But Psalm
- 0:17sixty six doesn't play it safe. It says it plainly, terrifyingly.
- 0:22If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord
- 0:25would not have listened Verse eighteen. This isn't a skeptic speaking.
- 0:31This is a worshiper, a man who knew the presence
- 0:34of God, who lifted up his voice in praise, who
- 0:37had tasted deliverance and knew what it meant to be heard.
- 0:42And still he knew there was a line, not a
- 0:44line of perfection, but a line of posture, a line
- 0:48between the humble and the hardened, between the one who
- 0:51falls into sin and runs to repentance and the one
- 0:56who cherishes it. That word cherish is haunting. It means
- 1:00to treasure, to guard, to protect and justify it, to
- 1:03make room for something destructive, and call it yours. And
- 1:08God says through the Psalmist, if that's your heart, I
- 1:12will not listen. This is not about weakness. This is
- 1:16not about struggling with temptation, crying out for help, falling
- 1:21and rising again. God welcomes the broken. He bends low
- 1:25for the humble, but he will not bend for pride
- 1:29that cloaks itself in prayer, for lips that say Thy
- 1:32will be done, while hearts whisper, But not that Lord,
- 1:36not that part of me. This truth recks our safe religion.
- 1:41It shatters the myth that spiritual activity always equals spiritual access,
- 1:46because there is a kind of praying that Heaven ignores,
- 1:50not because God is cruel, but because He is holy,
- 1:54and what he longs for is not eloquence, it's surrender.
- 1:58So the question confronts us, are we praying with clean
- 2:01hands in an open heart, or are we trying to
- 2:04hold God with one hand and our secret sin with
- 2:07the other. Because prayer is not just about speaking to God,
- 2:11It's about positioning ourselves before him. And if we come
- 2:15cherishing what he died to destroy, he may let us speak,
- 2:20but he will not answer. By the end of this teaching,
- 2:23you'll see prayer for what it really is, not just
- 2:26a request line, but a relational altar, and you'll never
- 2:30approach it the same way again. If this is already
- 2:33stirring something in you, you're not alone. So many of
- 2:37us were never taught what Psalm sixty six reveals so
- 2:41clearly that access to God is sacred and our hearts
- 2:45matter more than our words. If you're new here, this
- 2:48is Deep Bible Stories where we dive deep into the
- 2:51Word with trembling reverence. We've explored the crushing beauty of Romans,
- 2:57the cosmic vision of Ephesians, the Fire of Isaiah, and
- 3:01the storms of Psalms forty six, and every book in
- 3:04the Bible to help you go deeper and grow closer
- 3:07to God. You can explore our full video library on
- 3:11our website, where everything is distraction free and organized to
- 3:15walk you through the Word at your pace, and if
- 3:18you prefer to study on your own or lead a group,
- 3:21we've also created e books based on our most powerful videos,
- 3:26designed to guide you step by step into deeper study, repentance,
- 3:31and revelation. We are here for one reason, to help
- 3:35you get closer to God, not just know about him,
- 3:39but hear him, feel him, walk with him. Everything you
- 3:44need is in the description below, and if you believe
- 3:47in this mission, share it because someone else is praying
- 3:51into silence, and may not know why. Now dash, let's
- 3:55get into the word. He didn't just cry out and hope.
- 3:58And he cried out. God listened. Come and hear, all
- 4:02you who fear God, And I will tell what He
- 4:05has done for my soul. I cried to him with
- 4:08my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. Truly,
- 4:11God has listened, He has attended to the voice of
- 4:15my prayer Psalm sixty six, sixteen through twenty. This is
- 4:19a voice speaking from the other side of silence, a
- 4:23man who knows what it means to be heard by God,
- 4:26because he's been to the edge of despair and he's
- 4:30walked out the other side with a testimony in his lungs.
- 4:33But notice how he starts, Come and hear, all you
- 4:38who fear God. That's the first key at not all
- 4:41you who are curious, not all you who are religious,
- 4:44but all you who fear God. Because fear, right fear,
- 4:48is the soil in which real prayer grows. Not terror,
- 4:52but reverence. Not distance, but all the kind of fear
- 4:56that knows. This God I speak to holds galaxies in
- 4:59his palm and still bends to listen. And this Psalmist
- 5:04invites us into something radical, not just an emotional cry,
- 5:09but a life style that opens Heaven's ears. Look at
- 5:13the posture worship. I praise was on my tongue. He
- 5:17didn't just plead, he exalted. He came not only with requests,
- 5:21but with reverence, repentance. If I had cherished sin in
- 5:25my heart, the Lord would not have listened. He examined himself.
- 5:29He confessed. He didn't try to hide shadows in a
- 5:33room filled with divine light testimony. I will tell what
- 5:37he has done for my soul. He didn't hoard his encountery.
- 5:41He shouted it, because when you know you've been heard
- 5:44by God, you can't stay quiet. This wasn't just a
- 5:48private transaction. It was a holy eruption, the kind of
- 5:52prayer that breaks chains in secret and calls the fearful
- 5:56into boldness. And here's the mystery. This access was not earned.
- 6:00It was welcomed. But it was welcomed on God's terms,
- 6:04not ours. And what are those terms? A heart that
- 6:07fears him, a mouth that exalts him, a soul that
- 6:11doesn't cling to sin, a life that gives him glory.
- 6:14This is what it means to pray like the Psalmist,
- 6:18not shallow words flung upward in crisis, but a surrendered
- 6:22life that God can't help, but lean in toward. Blessed
- 6:26be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or
- 6:29removed his steadfast love from me Psalm sixty six, Column twenty.
- 6:34That's the goal, not just answers, but nearnescent, the assurance
- 6:38that when your voice rises, it's met by the God
- 6:41who listens, not because he must, but because he delights
- 6:45to draw near to those who truly seek him. So
- 6:49ask yourself, if your prayers feel powerless, dry, or ignored,
- 6:54have you checked your posture? Because Heaven doesn't respond to volume,
- 6:58it responds to a hinement. There's a reason Psalm sixty
- 7:02six doesn't say if I had committed sin, It says
- 7:07something far more haunting. If I had cherished sin in
- 7:10my heart, the Lord would not have listened Psalm sixty six,
- 7:15Colon eighteen. The Hebrew word here means to regard value
- 7:19or hold close with intention. This isn't about slipping in weakness.
- 7:24It's about sin. You welcome, sin, you hide, sin you protect.
- 7:29Cherished sin isn't what you fight it, it's what you
- 7:31feed it's the part of your heart you won't surrender,
- 7:35the grudge you've nurtured so long it's become a pet,
- 7:38The lust you've renamed struggle but never actually resisted, the
- 7:43bitterness you've spiritualized as discernment, the compromise you've wrapped in
- 7:48Christian cliches, And what Psalm sixty six teaches is shocking
- 7:53that sin, when cherished, can silence the voice of prayer,
- 7:57not because God is petty it, but because God is wholy,
- 8:00and when we cling to what he died to destroy,
- 8:03we sever the intimacy that prayer depends on. This is
- 8:07the danger few dare to name. In modern Christianity. We've
- 8:11traded conviction for comfort. We've called grace a license instead
- 8:15of a rescue. We've said come as you are, but
- 8:18refuse to leave changed, so sin becomes not something to flee,
- 8:23but something to manage, to explain, to cherish, and prayer
- 8:28becomes powerless because you can't walk into the throne room
- 8:32of a holy king while hiding a dagger behind your back.
- 8:35The cherishing of sin is not about falling, it's about choosing.
- 8:41It's the internal agreement that says this is mine, and
- 8:44I won't let it go no matter what God says.
- 8:49And here's the terrifying reality. You can cherish sin and
- 8:53still go to church and still raise your hand, still
- 8:56pray eloquent prayers. But Heaven may be deaf to it
- 9:00because God will not be manipulated. He doesn't negotiate holiness,
- 9:04and he doesn't respond to rebellion rapt in religion. But
- 9:09there's good news in this warning. It means there's a
- 9:13way back. The Psalmist doesn't say if I had sinned,
- 9:16God would have abandoned me. He says if I had
- 9:20cherished it. So what if you stop cherishing it to day?
- 9:24What if you didn't justify it but confessed it. What
- 9:27if you stopped explaining your sin to God and instead
- 9:31let him cleanse you from it? Because that's who he is.
- 9:34If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
- 9:37to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
- 9:40all unrighteousness. First John one nine. Not just pardon us,
- 9:45cleanse us, remove the stain, restore the line of communion.
- 9:50Prayer is not shut down by imperfection, it's shut down
- 9:53by defiance. So here's the question, is there anything your
- 9:57cherishing that Jesus was crucified to free you from Because
- 10:02cherished sin is the quiet assassin of prayer, and repentance
- 10:07is its only antidote. We imagine prayer as a constant,
- 10:11open line, like a spiritual nine one one always answered.
- 10:16But scripture shatters that assumption. Behold, the Lord's hand is
- 10:21not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear dull
- 10:25that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a
- 10:28separation between you and your God, and your sins have
- 10:32hidden his face from you so that he does not
- 10:35hear Isiah fifty nine one through two. Let that sink in.
- 10:40This isn't a limitation of God's power. It's a statement
- 10:44about his holiness. The problem isn't his distance, it's our defiance.
- 10:49We don't lose access because God turns cold. We lose
- 10:52access because sin builds walls between hearts that were meant
- 10:56to be close. This is the hidden cost of iniquity.
- 11:00It doesn't just corrupt the soul, it severs the line.
- 11:04If one turns away his ear from hearing the law,
- 11:08even his prayer is an abomination Proverbs twenty eight nine.
- 11:13Yes you read that writer, an abomination, not just ineffective
- 11:17and not just delayed, but offensive, because to knowingly reject
- 11:22God's voice and then expect him to listen to yours
- 11:26is not prayer. It's manipulation. God is not mocked. He
- 11:30cannot be deceived by words, divorced from submission. And if
- 11:35that sounds harsh, listen to the prophets again. Then they
- 11:39will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them.
- 11:42He will hide his face from them at that time,
- 11:45because they have made their deeds evil Micah three four.
- 11:50This is not a God unwilling to help, it's a
- 11:52God too pure to bless rebellion. These passages don't mean
- 11:56God rejects the weak. They mean he resists the wilfully hardened.
- 12:01It's not the sinner who grieves their sin that God
- 12:04distances himself from. It's the one who refuses to grieve
- 12:08it at all. And yes, this affects urgent prayers too.
- 12:12You can be in crisis, you can weep, you can
- 12:15scream for intervention, but if your life is still bowed
- 12:18to your own will rather than his, the heavens may
- 12:22remain silent. Because prayer is not a button we push.
- 12:26It's the language of relationship and God's ear is always
- 12:30attentive to the humble, the broken, the contrite, the ones
- 12:34who say, search me, God, cleanse me first. What does
- 12:38this mean for us? It means that the loudest part
- 12:41of your prayer life might not be what you say
- 12:43to God, but what you're withholding from him that sin
- 12:47you've made peace with, that pattern. You won't confess that
- 12:50place where obedience still feels optional. That's the dam and
- 12:54until it's broken, the flood of God's nearness may never come.
- 12:58But here's the beauty. I Confession clears the air, Repentance
- 13:02breaks the wall, and every time a heart turns back
- 13:05to him, he listens, He forgives, he restores the sound
- 13:10of Heaven's voice. You're not disqualified by failure, You're only
- 13:14distanced by refusal. So what needs to come down to day?
- 13:18Because God is still speaking and he still listens, but
- 13:23not to proud resistance, only to surrendered sons and daughters
- 13:27who say, whatever separates me from you, take it. I
- 13:31want to be heard again. There's a kind of prayer
- 13:34that doesn't have to shout, It doesn't demand, it doesn't posture,
- 13:39It simply bows and Heaven listens instantly. The Lord is
- 13:44near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in
- 13:48spirit Psalm thirty four eighteen. You don't have to be eloquent,
- 13:53you don't have to be impressive. You just have to
- 13:56be honest and lo because the kind of heart that
- 13:59God draws near to isn't the one that feels worthy.
- 14:04It's the one that knows it's not. These are the
- 14:07ones I look on with favor, says the Lord, those
- 14:09who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble
- 14:13at my word Isaiah sixty six, colon Ti. Think about
- 14:18that God who holds the galaxies, God who commands angels
- 14:22and parts, sees God who needs nothing and owes nothing.
- 14:26He favors the trembling heart, not the powerful, not the
- 14:29put together, not the always right, but the one who
- 14:32trembles at his word, who reads his commands not like
- 14:36suggestions but sacred revelation, who treats prayer not like a
- 14:41routine but a miracle. That's who gets access. God deposes
- 14:46the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Draw near
- 14:49to God, and he will draw near to you James
- 14:54four six to eight. Don't miss the order here. Before nearness,
- 14:58there must be humbling for grace. There must be submission.
- 15:02Before God comes close. Something in us must go low.
- 15:06Because prayer is not just communication, it's position. It's not
- 15:11only what comes out of your mouth. It's how your
- 15:13heart stands before a throne. Some come in with entitlement
- 15:19and leave unheard. Others come in with desperation and find
- 15:23the king already waiting. So what posture do you pray from?
- 15:27Do you tremble or demand? Do you surrender or self excuse?
- 15:32The ones who move heaven are rarely the ones with
- 15:34the most theology. They're the ones with the most humility.
- 15:39The tax collector beating his chest, the woman weeping at
- 15:43Jesus feet, the leper falling on his face, the thief gasping,
- 15:47Remember me, that's the prayer God cannot ignore. That's the
- 15:51cry he draws near to, And that's the kind of
- 15:54heart he still responds to to day. So if your
- 15:57prayers have felt empty, if the heavens have gone quiet,
- 16:00don't shout loud us kneel lower. The doorway is still open,
- 16:04but it's narrow when you must bow to pass through it.
- 16:07Because what God is after has never been performance, It's
- 16:12always been posture. We have e books available on our
- 16:15website to help guide your deep Bible studies, especially when
- 16:19it comes to spiritual disciplines like repentance, intimacy, and prayer.
- 16:25Each one was created to help you go deeper, not
- 16:28just learn more, because truth doesn't transform until it's surrendered
- 16:33to We raise our hands, we sing the words, we
- 16:38post the verses, and yet God says, I hate your worship.
- 16:41I hate I despise your feasts, and I take no
- 16:44delight in your solemn assemblies. Take away from me the
- 16:48noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps.
- 16:52I will not listen, But let justice roll down like waters,
- 16:56and righteousness like an ever flowing streams five twenty one
- 17:01to twenty four. This is one of the most terrifying
- 17:04passages in scripture because it shows us that God does
- 17:09not accept all worship. Not then, not now. Why Because
- 17:15the hands lifted in praise were the same hands that
- 17:19neglected justice. The same mouths that sang to Heaven were
- 17:23silent when evil triumphed at the same hearts that recited
- 17:26sacred lyrics were filled with sacred lies. Worship without obedience
- 17:31is noise, and God says, turn it off. This isn't
- 17:35just old Testament fire. God spoke it again through Isaiah.
- 17:39When you spread out your hands, I will hide my
- 17:42eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I
- 17:44will not listen. Your hands are full of blood Isiah
- 17:48one fifteen. Yes they were still praying, still attending the feast,
- 17:53still doing the motions of devotion. But behind it corruption
- 17:58in justice, secret comprom sin. They'd made peace with it,
- 18:02and God's response wasn't to try harder. It will stop pretending.
- 18:06Because if your worship doesn't flow from a life of surrender,
- 18:10it's not worship its performance. This is where we must
- 18:14confront the sickness of modern Christianity. We've learned to sing
- 18:19louder than we repent. We've built atmospheres of passion without
- 18:24foundations of purity. We love the sound of worship, but
- 18:28we resist the life of worship. And yet God is
- 18:31still saying, don't bring me your songs if your life
- 18:34mocks them. So ask yourself. Do your hands match your voice?
- 18:39Do you lift them high in church but use them
- 18:42to scroll into sin when no one's watching? Do you
- 18:45cry out to God in public but refuse to obey
- 18:48him in private? Do you speak of revival, but ignore
- 18:52the call to righteousness. God doesn't need louder music. He
- 18:56wants clean hands and a pure heart. He wants worship
- 18:59the rises from a life that's bowed low. Not perfection,
- 19:04but alignment, because the worship that God receives must come
- 19:08from the altar of a surrendered life. Who may ascend
- 19:12the hill of the Lord, who may stand in his
- 19:15holy place, he who has clean hands and a pure
- 19:18heart Psalm twenty four three to four. Worship doesn't begin
- 19:22with music, It begins with repentance. So if your worship
- 19:26feels dry, if your prayers feel ignored, if your hands
- 19:30feel heavy when you lift them, ask God to search you,
- 19:34not just your playlist, not just your emotions, but your life,
- 19:38because he doesn't want the noise. He wants you. Jesus
- 19:42didn't say if you pray enough, I'll answer. He said
- 19:45something far more costly. If you abide in me and
- 19:49my words, abide in you, Ask whatever you wish, and
- 19:53it will be done for you. John fifteen seven. This
- 19:57is where prayer stops being religious rhetoric and becomes a
- 20:01relational overflow. Because for Jesus, prayer power wasn't about passion
- 20:07persistence or posture. It was about proximity. Abide in me,
- 20:13live in me, Remain with me. Let my life become
- 20:16your source. It's not mechanical, it's organic. The branch doesn't
- 20:20beg the vine to produce fruit. It simply stays connected
- 20:25and fruit comes naturally. The same is true with prayer.
- 20:28The closer you are to Jesus, the more your desires
- 20:32reflect his, the more your requests align with Heaven, the
- 20:35more your voice carries the echo of divine authority. Why
- 20:40because you're not just asking for things, you're asking from
- 20:44within the relationship. And that's why Jesus could say something
- 20:48so bold in First John three. Whatever we ask, we
- 20:53receive from him because we keep his commandments and do
- 20:57what pleases him First John three twenty to. This isn't legalism,
- 21:02its alignment. Obedience is not about earning answers. It's about
- 21:07removing barriers. When you live in rebellion, your requests are
- 21:11often rooted in self. When you live in surrender, your
- 21:15requests are shaped by God. This is why Jesus could
- 21:18pray in the garden, not my will, but yours be done.
- 21:22Because when you are fully abiding, obedience isn't restriction, it's freedom.
- 21:27You no longer ask for what feeds your flesh. You
- 21:30ask for what fuels the kingdom. So ask yourself. Are
- 21:33you asking from distance or from nearness? Are your prayers
- 21:37flowing from a heart in step with God's commands or
- 21:41just hoping for mercy despite your resistance. Abiding is not perfection,
- 21:47its presence. It's choosing to remain where Jesus is, to
- 21:51obey because you love, not because you're afraid. Jesus said, plainly,
- 21:56if you love me, you will keep my commandments John
- 22:00fourteen fifteen. That's not control, that's intimacy. Prayer that shakes
- 22:05Heaven doesn't come from louder voices. It comes from submitted hearts.
- 22:10So if your prayer life feels dry, you don't need
- 22:14more emotion. You need deeper abiding. Because Jesus isn't calling
- 22:19you to formula, He's calling you to fellowships. Stay in him,
- 22:23let his words stay in you. Then ask, then watch
- 22:27what happens. There's a kind of prayer that stops Heaven
- 22:30in its tracks. A whisper that carries more weight than
- 22:34a thousand shouted hallelujahs, a sentence that Heaven leans into
- 22:39here every time. It's not complex, it's not poetic, it's
- 22:44not even long. It's the prayer of a humbled heart
- 22:47that says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. But
- 22:51the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not
- 22:54even look up to Heaven, but beat his breast and said, God,
- 22:58have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that
- 23:01this man, rather than the other, went home justified before
- 23:04God Luke eighteen thirteen to fourteen. That man had no resume,
- 23:10no spiritual performance, just one thing, repentance. And Jesus said
- 23:15that was the man God listened to. Because God doesn't
- 23:19respond to pride dressed in church clothes. He responds to
- 23:23the one who brings him not just words, but a
- 23:26surrendered heart. This is the prayer God loves to hear,
- 23:30not the proud voice demanding blessing, but the trembling voice
- 23:34that says, cleanse me, change me, bring me back. Repentance
- 23:38is not a one time apology. It's the door to
- 23:41real communion. If we confess our sins, He is faithful
- 23:46and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
- 23:49us from all unrighteousness. First John one nine. This is
- 23:54the miracle of the gospel that every time you confess
- 23:57in truth, he forgives in fullness, not because he has to,
- 24:02but because he wants to. God is not repelled by
- 24:06the broken. He's repelled by the stubborn. He doesn't turn
- 24:10from the guilty, he turns from the proud. This is
- 24:14why David said, after his own darkest failure, when I
- 24:18kept silent, my bones wasted away. Then I acknowledge my
- 24:23sin to you, and you forgave the guilt of my
- 24:26sin Psalm thirty two three five. And confess. Sin rots
- 24:31the soul, it silences joy, it fractures communion. But confession
- 24:37clears the line, It breaks the wall. It restores the
- 24:40sound of Heaven's voice. You don't need to wonder what
- 24:43God's will is for your return. He's already made it clear.
- 24:48Return to me, and I will return to you Malachi
- 24:52three seven. No penance, no performance, just honesty. Repentance is
- 24:57not about groveling, It's about coming. It's the one prayer.
- 25:02God never ignores, the one cry He always hears, because
- 25:06when your heart returns, he runs to meet you. So
- 25:10if your prayer life feels cold, if his presence feels far,
- 25:14don't try harder come, lower, repent, confess, return. He's not
- 25:18waiting to punish, as he's waiting to restore, and it
- 25:22starts with a whisper. He's always listening for God, have
- 25:26mercy on me. There's a boldness some believers carry into prayer,
- 25:31not arrogance, not entitlement, but confidence rooted in righteousness. Not
- 25:36a righteousness they earned, but one they've chosen to walk in.
- 25:40And scripture is unashamedly clear. The eyes of the Lord
- 25:44are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to
- 25:48their cry. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them.
- 25:52He delivers them from all their troubles Psalm thirty four,
- 25:56fifteen seventeen. There is power in the prayers of the righteous,
- 26:00not because they are perfect, but because their lives are aligned.
- 26:04They walk in the light, they repent quickly, they obey willingly,
- 26:07and when they cry out, he listens. This is not favoritism,
- 26:12it's covenant. God doesn't ignore the prayers of the broken.
- 26:15He rushes to them, but he does draw near in
- 26:18a particular way, to those who walk in obedience, to
- 26:22those who fear Him, to those who live not just
- 26:25to receive, but to reflect His holiness. That's why, James
- 26:30says what many try to soften. The prayer of a
- 26:33righteous person is powerful and effective James five sixteen. Not
- 26:40all prayer is equal, Not all intercession carries the same weight.
- 26:44Not all cries shake Heaven equally. Righteousness matters. This is
- 26:49not workspace religion. This is spiritual reality. Because a life
- 26:54yielded to God doesn't just produce good behavior. It produces
- 26:59heavenly access. It carries authority, It commands attention, It echoes
- 27:04with the purity that draws the ear of the king.
- 27:08Not because righteousness impresses God, but because righteousness removes what
- 27:13offends him. So ask yourself, do you live in such
- 27:17a way that Heaven leans in when you speak? Is
- 27:20the consistency between your requests and your lifestyle? Are you
- 27:24walking in the light that you are asking God to
- 27:27shine through. You don't have to be famous, you don't
- 27:30have to be a preacher, you don't have to be flawless,
- 27:34but you do have to be surrendered, because there is
- 27:37a difference between a life that's cleaned up on Sunday
- 27:41and a life that walks with God every day. When
- 27:44the righteous cry out, Heaven moves because their voices don't
- 27:48rise from rebellion, but from relationship. This is the invitation
- 27:52of Psalm thirty four. God's ears are attentive to the righteous,
- 27:57not distracted, not busy, attentive. So walk in the light,
- 28:01keep your heart clean, guard your life with reverence. And
- 28:05when you pray, expect answers, because you're not crying out
- 28:09into the dark. You're speaking to the God whose ear
- 28:12is already inclined waiting for your voice. We treat prayer
- 28:17like a ritual. Heaven sees it as a battlefield. We
- 28:21speak casually, Heaven listens strategically. Hell trembles when it's real.
- 28:26But that's the problem. Too much of what we call
- 28:29prayer to day is hollow, scripted, emotionally safe, spiritually empty.
- 28:34And yet God still searches, still looks for something deeper.
- 28:39And I sought for a man among them who should
- 28:41build up the wall and stand in the breach before me,
- 28:44for the land that I should not destroy it. But
- 28:47I found none Ezekiel twenty two thirty. Can you feel
- 28:51the ache in that God was ready to show mercy,
- 28:55but no one prayed with fire, No one stood in
- 28:58the gap, no one contended, no one cared enough to
- 29:01plead This isn't poetic drama. This is divine reality. Prayer
- 29:06is the battlefield where history turns. The soul that prays
- 29:10with full surrender becomes the place where Heaven touches Earth.
- 29:14But half hearted intercession it's noise in a war zone.
- 29:18Paul didn't say pray casually. He said, put on the
- 29:22full armor of God, take up the shield of faith,
- 29:25take the sword of the spirit, and pray in the
- 29:28spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and
- 29:31requests Ephesians six thirteen to eighteen. Because you are not
- 29:36walking into a quiet room. You are walking into war.
- 29:40Every time you pray with authority. Chains rattle, walls shake,
- 29:45angels are dispatched. Demons flee, but only when your heart
- 29:49is in the fight. Casual prayer doesn't break strongholds. Rehearsed
- 29:53phrases don't move Heaven. God doesn't respond to laziness masked
- 29:57in liturgy. He responds to fire. The kind that comes
- 30:01from someone who's grieved sin and pleaded for souls. The
- 30:05kind that refuses to accept what Hell has declared final.
- 30:10The kind that doesn't tap out after one unanswered cry,
- 30:14but presses in like Elijah again and again until the
- 30:18drought breaks and the rain falls. Prayer isn't filler in
- 30:22the Christian life. It's the front line, and God is
- 30:26still asking will someone stand in the gap? So ask yourself.
- 30:30Have I been treating prayer like a formality? Do I
- 30:33rattle off requests while the war rages outside my window?
- 30:37Have I lost the sense that every word carries eternal weight?
- 30:41The days are evil, the war is real, and the
- 30:44lukewarm cannot survive it. It's time to stop praying like
- 30:47spectators and start praying like warriors. Because when you really pray,
- 30:53you become part of Heaven's advance. And that's why the
- 30:56enemy wants to keep your prayer life cold, not because
- 30:59it's in a active but because when ignited by surrender
- 31:03and faith, it's unstoppable. Sometimes you don't know why Heaven
- 31:08feels distant. You've repented, you've prayed, you've fasted, and still
- 31:13silence and no breakthrough, no clarity, no sense of God's nearness.
- 31:17What then, that's when you stop trying to fix the
- 31:20problem yourself and start praying like David. Search me, O,
- 31:24God and know my heart, try me and know my
- 31:27thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in
- 31:30me and lead me in the way everlasting, Psalm one
- 31:33hundred and thirty nine, Verses twenty three to twenty four.
- 31:37This is one of the most dangerous prayers in the
- 31:39Bible because it doesn't just ask God to act, It
- 31:43asks God to expose. David didn't assume he was clean.
- 31:47He didn't declare I've done my part. He said, God,
- 31:51you search me. If there's something blocking your presence, show me.
- 31:56This is how you clean the spiritual atmosphere of your life.
- 32:00Stop managing your own diagnosis and invite the Holy Spirit
- 32:04to do the deep work. Because some of the most
- 32:06dangerous sins aren't the obvious ones. Thither ones we don't
- 32:10even know. We've justified bitterness. We've renamed boundaries jealousy. We've
- 32:16cloaked in concern, fear. We've disguised as wisdom, pride, we've
- 32:20mistaken for spiritual maturity. That's why David didn't say, remind
- 32:25me what I already know. He said, reveal what only
- 32:29you can see. This is how you break through spiritual resistance.
- 32:34You invite inspection, You give God full access. You stop
- 32:38hiding and start listening. And here's what happens when you do. One,
- 32:43hidden sin comes into the light. The Holy Spirit isn't vague.
- 32:48He convicts with precision, not condemnation. He names what you've
- 32:52left blurry. He calls what you've minimized sin, not to
- 32:57shame you, but to free you. Two, the lies you've
- 33:01believed gets shattered. Many spiritual blockages don't start with behavior.
- 33:07They start with belief, the lie that God's holding out
- 33:11on you, the lie that your past disqualifies your future,
- 33:15the lie that you're beyond help, beyond hope, beyond use.
- 33:19When God searches your heart, he doesn't just remove what's wicked,
- 33:23he renews what's wounded. Three, Your prayers shift from resistance
- 33:30to access. Once the blockage is identified and released, Suddenly
- 33:35the sealing cracks, the silence breaks, Heaven speaks again. Because
- 33:40God never turned away from you, but sin, hidden or known,
- 33:45turns us away from Him. So if you're unsure what's
- 33:48blocking your prayers, start here, not with more striving, but
- 33:52with surrendered searching. Open your Bible, open your journal, open
- 33:57your soul, and pray. Search me, O, God, don't be
- 34:00afraid of what he'll reveal, that be afraid of staying
- 34:03in the dark, because what he brings to light, he
- 34:06also brings to life. And once he searches and cleanses,
- 34:11you'll pray with new clarity, new boldness, the new fire.
- 34:15We say prayer is a conversation, but for many it's
- 34:18become a monologue. In the dark. We speak, we wait,
- 34:21we plead, and nothing. But maybe the silence isn't rejection.
- 34:26Maybe it's invitation, an invitation to examine, to repent, to return.
- 34:33Psalm sixty six eighteen wasn't written to scare us. It
- 34:38was written to wake us. If I had cherished sin
- 34:41in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Not
- 34:44if I had sinned, we all have. But if I
- 34:47had cherished it, clung to it, defended it, hid it
- 34:51like treasure. That kind of sin builds a wall between
- 34:54heaven and the heart, not because God moved, but because
- 34:58we did. And yet the promise remains. The Lord is
- 35:02near to the broken hearted. Draw near to God, and
- 35:06he will draw near to you if we confess our sins.
- 35:11He is faithful and just to forgive. He still listens,
- 35:15but only when we truly draw near. So right now,
- 35:19it's not about praying better, it's about getting lower. The
- 35:22power isn't in your volume, It's in your honest if
- 35:26there is nothing you've done that he can't forgive, and
- 35:29there is no stain too deep for his blood to cleanse.
- 35:33But the lie that keeps him out is the lie
- 35:35that says I can keep this part hidden. You can't,
- 35:39and you don't have to. Let nothing stand between you
- 35:42and his voice. Let's pray, Father. We come not with
- 35:46polished words, but with open hands. We confess we've cherished
- 35:50what you despise. We've justified what you bled to destroy.
- 35:55We've praised you with our lips while hiding rebellion in
- 35:58our hearts. But to day no more, we bring every
- 36:01hidden thing into the light, every secret sin, every cold habit,
- 36:06every compromise we once called harmless. Search us, o, God,
- 36:10reveal what we can't see, Name what we've renamed, break
- 36:14what we've defended, and lead us not in religion, not
- 36:17in ritual, but in the way everlasting. Make us clean,
- 36:22not just for forgiveness, but for fellowship. We want your
- 36:26presence back, We want your voice again. We want to
- 36:30pray and know you here. So we draw near, not
- 36:33with pride, but with trembling love, because we know you
- 36:37still listened, and you still forgive, and you still restored.
- 36:41Let nothing stand between us again. In Jesus Holy Name. Amen.
- 36:47If you made it to the end of this teaching
- 36:49on Psalm sixty six, thank you. It means you're not
- 36:53just curious, you're hungry for truth, and that's rare. Our
- 36:57hope is that this didn't just inform you, but awakened
- 37:01you a reminder that prayer is holy, that God is listening,
- 37:05and that sin is serious. If this blessed you know,
- 37:09there's more waiting add free distraction free on our website.
- 37:13Every book of the Bible, every prophecy, every topic organized
- 37:18to walk you deeper. And if you prefer to study offline,
- 37:22we've turned some of our most powerful videos into ebooks
- 37:26perfect for devotionals, teaching, or personal revival. We're not here
- 37:31to go viral. We're here to go deeper. And if
- 37:34that's your heart too, welcome your part of this family. Already,
- 37:38you can support the mission by sharing this video, subscribing,
- 37:43or exploring the links below. Every clique helps keep the
- 37:47word alive and help some one else find what you
- 37:50just did. May God speak to you even after this ends.
- 37:54May you carry what you've learned into your prayers, your days,
- 37:58your decisions, and may you never forget. He still listens.
- 38:02You're still called. The Altar is still open. This is
- 38:06deep Bible stories, where the Word explained like never before.