Prayer…Part 4 – Be Careful…You Might Just Get What You Pray For!

By Patrick Hawthorne

I was writing on the will of God and just could not move forward.  The words were not flowing smoothly.  As I stopped to ask the Lord what the problem might be, I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to head in this current direction.  Actually, this is exactly what walking in the will of God is about.  It is about being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to go in the direction the Father desires.  That is how Jesus operated when He walked the earth and how we too should operate.

Back to the point, I felt that the Holy Spirit wanted me to caution you to be honest with your praying and to think about the consequences of what could happen if He grants the petition you are seeking.  I know this is an odd thing to write, but we must prepare ourselves to receive answer to our prayers.  It may just be that the answer will cause our lives to be disrupted and inconvenienced.

Let me use the focus of one of my prayers as an example.  I have been praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon my hometown and for the family dynamic to return so that men would step up in their roles as fathers and women would step up in their role as mothers.  I have been praying for the Body of Christ to wake up and to be the beacons of light to a dark world so that the lost would come to know Jesus as Lord.

Several days ago, the Lord interrupted my thoughts with a question.   “Are you prepared to be inconvenienced?”  Thoughts of people flocking off the streets into my home church and into my life played out in my mind.  I thought about how some would not smell good, some would not be prim and proper, and some would be less than desirable.  I then thought about how my casual evenings might be interrupted by a desperate babe in Christ needing emergency prayer or counseling.  Was I prepared for the midnight interruptions from sleep?

 “No Lord, I have not prepared myself.  But, to this question, help me so that I am prepared.”

Answered prayer will often cause inconvenience.  It will often cause interruption to our lives if we sincerely desire the answer to our petitions.  As I write this, my thought turns to another question.  “Could it be that we are not receiving more answers to our prayers because we are not really certain we want an answer?” Think about it.  Be blessed.