BLOCKAGES IN PRAYER

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1 Peter 3:7; Psalm 66:18; Matthew 5:23-24

MEMORY VERSE

For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

1 Peter 4:12

Lesson Prepared by: krisha of Solomon Wisdom FB page

Introduction & some lessons are taken from: https://www.truthfulwords.org/articles/prayer.html

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

INTRODUCTION:

Blockages mean an act or instance of obstructing: the state of being blocked. When your arteries and veins are being blocked and the flow of blood couldn’t pass through, it may cause hospitalization and even death. This needs remedies to avoid the worst situation.

The normal Christian life is a life of regular, daily answer to prayer. In the model prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray daily for bread, and expect to get it, and to ask daily for forgiveness, for deliverance from the evil one, and for other needs, and daily to get the answers they sought.

That is the way Jesus Himself lived—in daily unhindered communion with the Father, so that He could say to His Father and our Father, "I knew that thou hearest me always" (John 11:42). And all the teaching of the Lord Jesus about prayer shows that we too have a normal, day-by-day unhindered intercourse with God, asking and receiving, seeking and finding, knocking and having God open to us. He plainly said, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). When we are told in James 4:2 that "ye have not, because ye ask not," it is proper to infer that God intended asking to be followed by having and that the Christian in the will of God can live day by day in the fullness of the joy of having his prayers answered.

It is perfectly normal for an obedient child to ask for food every mealtime and get it, get all he wants, and eat until he is perfectly satisfied. And using that figure the Saviour said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:11).

A depositor whose account is in good condition normally has every check he draws honored by the bank. Then why cannot a child of God day by day draw on the bank of Heaven, have his prayers answered as a matter of course, as a daily business? He can! When a Christian fails to have his prayer-check cashed, he should regard it as proof that something is wrong that needs attention at once.

When I turn faucets in the bathroom or kitchen, I expect water to pour forth every time. If I turned the tap and water did not come, I would be surprised. Also, I would know that something radically was wrong and I would immediately set out to find out why the water did not run. If I press a light switch and the light does not shine, or if I plug in an electric motor and there is no power, I know that something is wrong, dead wrong, that the connection with the powerhouse is broken; and I set out to find what is wrong and to remedy it. Just so, every Christian ought to be in daily communion with God and ought to live the joyful life of answered prayer. And when anything hinders his prayers the Christian ought immediately to be able to find out what is wrong and get it remedied.

Now the Scriptures above, at the head of this chapter, indicate that there are sins which hinder the prayers of Christians, the sin that turns God's face away so that He will not hear, yea, sins which make it so that God cannot, in righteousness, heed the cry of His own child, whom He loves! We are not left in the dark about these sins. God, in His wonderful love has shown us in the Bible the things that grieve Him, the things that make it so He cannot answer fully our prayers.

Often we pray for daily bread or for other daily necessities, such as money for rent, or for a job, or furniture or clothes, things for which God tells us to pray; and yet no answer comes. Christians often pray for the conversion of loved ones, pray for revivals, pray for help in temptation; all matters about which every Christian certainly has a right to pray, matters about which God has declared in His Word that He is concerned, and which He is anxious to give us; and yet Christians often do not get the answer to their prayers. Why? The answer is that many good prayers cannot be answered by a holy God because of sins in the life and heart of the one who prays.

It may be that you have some of your prayers answered, or think you do. The dear Lord, who "sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" (Matt. 5:45), and is "kind unto the unthankful" (Luke 6:35), may give you many things that do not come because He respects your prayers and answers them, but because of His infinite mercy which is poured out even upon the vilest sinners. The God who still gives breath to the murderer still gives food to the man who never prays, the God who gives all the bounties of nature to a sinning, Christ-rejecting race—that God still loves and cares for His children even when they live in sin and grieve His heart.

So perhaps what God has been doing for you when you prayed was not at all the answer to your prayers but just such mercies as His infinite Love and goodness provide for the most wicked of His creatures.

Often we are painfully conscious that our prayers are not heard. Last night a man said to me as we parted at the close of the service in a great rescue mission, "Preacher before you sleep I wish you would pray for me. My prayers never get higher than my head. God won't hear me." Is that your case? Do you feel, even as you call on God, that He is not pleased, that He will not hear, that there is no likelihood of your receiving the thing for which you ask? Then, oh, how important it is to clear the line between you and God so He will hear you. How important it is to confess and forsake everything that grieves the dear Holy Spirit and shuts up Heaven to your prayers and stops God's ears!

Let us now prayerfully examine the Word of God and search our hearts to see why our prayers are hindered, and why God does not answer to give us what we ask.

LESSON POINTS:

1.      FAMILY DISCORD AND STRIFE (1 Peter 3:7)

“Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

Here God speaks to the wife about her duty to the husband. And in the matter of getting your prayers answered, it does not matter, says the Lord, what kind of husband you have; you must obey him, you must be subject to him. A woman must be subject to her husband, or her prayers are hindered. He may even be an unsaved man, one who will not obey the Word of God, who will not listen to the Bible, will not attend church; and yet a Christian woman is to be subject to such a husband, says the above Scripture, that her prayers be not hindered.

It is even inferred that the wife's prayer for the salvation of her husband may be blocked by her own disobedience. A woman may seek to use her influence with her husband by adorning her body, by the plaiting of her hair, by the wearing of gold, or by her neat and attractive dress; but the Lord here says that these things are not to be the beauty, the adornment, the attraction of a Christian woman. And they will not win her husband; they will not get her prayers answered. Rather, every Christian woman is to have that "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (verse 4). It is not wrong to plait the hair, or wear clothes; but the only ornament to win a husband for God is the ornament that will cause God to answer prayers, the ornament of a meek, obedient spirit.

In this matter, Sarah, the wife of Abraham, is held up as an example. She called Abraham lord, as she obeyed him. And God gave Sarah a baby when she was ninety years old, wonderfully answering her prayers. And so, argues the Word of God, Christian women, if their prayers are not to be hindered, must be subject to their husbands.

Many a Christian woman has wept as she told me how earnestly she prayed, how diligently she attended the house of God, how eagerly she did church work, and God seemed not to hear her prayers about an unsaved husband or son or daughter! It is a remarkable fact that in nearly every congregation of Christians are godly women, women who pray, who read them Bibles, who live lives more or less separated from worldliness in general, and yet who cannot get their prayers answered for the conversion of their loved ones. "Why? Why?" the cry comes.

The answer is not found in the public church services. The answer is not found if you watch such good women singing in the choir, teaching in the Sunday School, attending Bible conferences, giving money to the poor. No, no! Our sins and hindered prayer are primarily home-sins. The sins of Christians who hinder their prayers and stop Heaven, and shut the ears of God and grieve Him till He turns His dear face away from His own born-again children are not most often the sins of the tavern, nor of the dance floor, nor of the theater. They are not public sins so much as private sins. They are not the sins in the church so much as in the homes!

You remember Achan and the wedge of gold and the two hundred shekels of silver and the Babylonish garment which he stole—treasures dedicated to God. When the curse of God was pronounced upon all Israel, Achan finally admitted, "They are hidden in the earth amid my tent, and the silver under it" (Josh. 7:21). Achan's sin was not public. Others never dreamed of it. It was home-sin.

And, a dear wife who reads this, if you are guilty of this horrible sin of rebellion against the one whom you took with solemn vows as your husband, to honor, love and obey, then that sin today hinders your prayers! That rebellion is the secret of why God has turned away His face and many of your prayers go unanswered.

Rebellion is the sin of fallen angels. Rebellion is the sin that damns every Christ-rejecting sinner. Rebellion against authority is the heart of all crime, and every criminal in a penitentiary has been guilty first not of murder, nor of theft, but has been guilty first of rebellion against authority. This was the sin of the prodigal boy. Rebellion is the very heart of all sin. Dear Christian wife, God says to you that if you will not be subject to your husband that your prayers are hindered.

I dared not use this Scripture without an honest interpretation of it. The meaning surely is clear. Rebellious wives have their prayers hindered.

And again, He says, "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." Husbands, too, have their prayers hindered if they do not deal with Scripturally with their wives.

Husbands are (1) to dwell with their wives "according to knowledge," that is, based on an understanding of the Scriptures relating to husband and wife. (2) "Giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel," and (3) "as being heirs together of the grace of life." Husbands, then, should take the place accorded them in the Scriptures as heads of the home, high priests unto God, responsible for the home and for the children, like Joshua, who said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," for "the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church" (Eph. 5:23). Husbands are to "rule over" their wives (Gen. 3:16). A husband who does not dwell with his wife according to the knowledge of the plain command of Scripture is likely to have his prayers go unanswered, hindered.

A husband is to remember that he is stronger than his wife. His life should be an example to his wife. The husband should be able to explain the Scriptures to his wife (1 Cor. 14:35). The heavy

responsibilities of earning a living, of disciplining children, winning the family to Christ, of religious instruction in the home and the family—these heaviest burdens ought to fall heaviest on the husband's shoulders. The man who shirks and avoids such responsibilities, leaving them for the weaker partner, sins before God and will have his prayers hindered.

And the husband should feel as one with his wife, one flesh. "No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherished it" (Eph. 5:29). The husband is to love the wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.

And this general surrender to God's pattern for the place of the husband in the home is essential to the full, happy life of daily answered prayer. The slacker husband will find that his prayers are hindered.

Discord in the home grieves God. And if there be children that rebel against parents, let them know that such rebellion turns away from the face of God and stops His ears and hinders their prayers.

If an old-time revival of Bible Christianity can be had in the homes, how blessed, how far-reaching will be the results! Heartfelt surrender to the will of God and obedience to His plan in the home is more important than any kind of public worship or any duties of citizenship. The hindrances to prayer are often in the relations of wives and husbands and of children and parents in the home.

2.     DEBTS UNPAID, OFFENDED BROTHERS UNRECONCILED (MATTHEW 5: 23-24; MATTHEW 18: 15-17)

If a wife's prayers are hindered by the sin of rebellion against her husband and the husband's prayers are hindered by not taking his Scriptural position in the home and concerning his wife; it is also true that every wrong against others which is not made right stands between the Christian and God to hinder his prayers.

This must be the meaning of our Saviour in Matthew 5:23,24 when He said:

"If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hat ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first, be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

Are there things you need to pay and brothers you need to be reconciled?

(Give examples)

3.     UNFORGIVENESS GRIEVES GOD AND BLOCKS PRAYERS (MARK 11:24-26)

The cornerstone of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ died for sins. Jesus Christ paid for sins. Jesus Christ forgives sins. If you do not understand forgiveness enough to forgive others, then your faith is so small that it is equivalent to unbelief. In that case, don’t expect any prayers to be answered except prayers of confession.

“This is how you should pray: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. For if forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:12-15)

And when you stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses (Mark 11:25-26)

In Matthew 18:21-35 is the following remarkable the teaching of our Saviour about the need for Christians to forgive others and of how God hates the wicked sin of unforgiveness.

Have we honestly search our hearts? Is there any the root of bitterness, any of the sin of unforgiveness in your heart blocking your prayers?

(share example if time permits)

4.     COVETOUSNESS PUTS ONE UNDER CURSE, BLOCKS PRAYER (COL3:5, 1 TIM.6:10, MALACHI 3:7-9)

Covetousness, too, is a most respectable sin and is found in the "best families." But it is a sin that God hates terribly. It is literally idolatry (Col. 3:5), and the covetous man is an idolater (Eph. 5:5). And God's Word says that "the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10), that is, literally, that the love of money can lead to every kind of sin in the world.

Now the Scripture expressly says that covetousness is a sin that shuts the Heavens against the Christian. In Malachi we read:

"Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation" (Mal. 3:7-9).

Here is a startling statement that men actually rob God. They do it in tithes and in offerings. The tithe is the Lord's; not to give it is to rob God. The offerings also are the Lord's; not to give them also robs God. And the Lord says, "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation."

Because of this sin of covetousness, the land of Israel was under a curse, the whole land. God had withheld the rain. He had not heard their prayers. They were under a curse, and could not get the things they desired from God. And God gave them a challenge in the following verses:

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts."

The simple matter of forsaking covetousness and bringing the tithes and offerings which He had expressly commanded as a token of His ownership of everything would enable God to hear their prayers, to bless their crops, and to pour out such blessings as they would not even be able to receive! The insect pests would be rebuked, the rain would come when needed, and it would be a happy land, God promised, if the people would prove God on this matter of tithes and offerings.

Many, many Christians have their hearts so set on material possessions, on money, on business that God cannot answer their prayers. Are our prayers blocked by this sin? Would God have to say to you, “Ye are cursed with a curse because ye have robbed me”?

5.     SELF-WILL, REBELLION AND DISOBEDIENCE (1 SAMUEL 15:3, 22-23)

Self-will is another horrible sin which means that God cannot have His way in your life and cannot give you His best. I recall the case of Saul, the first king of Israel, who was commanded to go out and utterly destroy the Amalekites. God said to him, "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass"! (1 Sam. 15:3). If that seems to you a hard command, then I remind you that you do not hate sin as God does. This wicked, idolatrous nation had long deserved extermination. God's long-poured-out mercies had been rejected. If any of the nations were left alive, they would be a temptation and snare to Israel. Even their property should be destroyed as an awful reminder to Israel of how God hated sin and was certain to punish it.

But Saul came back leading King Agag, alive, behind his chariot and with a great number of sheep and oxen as a spoil, which he said he intended to offer as sacrifices to God. But, oh, how the wrath of God mounted up against Saul for his disobedience! Hear what God said to him through Samuel.

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king" (1 Sam. 15:22,23).

Immediately thereafter Saul pled with Samuel to go worship with him. Saul admitted his sin. He even laid hold upon the skirt of Samuel's mantle, as Samuel turned indignantly away, and rent the mantle. Despite all Saul's professed repentance, God rejected him as king. David was anointed to take his place, and Saul went steadily downhill until his suicidal death in disgrace, with his sons, who but for Saul's self-will might have reigned after him.

How moving is the story of how Saul tried to pray, but because of his self-will, his disobedience, God would not hear! God said to him, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." God does not want our money nor our work nor our promise one half as much as He wants our hearts surrendered to the will of God, and an obedient surrendered spirit. The Lord said through Samuel, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." Rebellion, stubbornness, self-will in dealing with God is certain to block the answer to our prayers and shut up Heaven against us!

Once we know the will of God on any subject, it is disobedience and rebellion to continue to pray for God’s will on that subject. This will hinder our prayers. We need to obey God and please him for our prayers to be answered.

What the wicked fears will come upon him, But the desire of the righteous will be granted. (Proverbs 10:24)

6.     A DISINCLINATION OR INDIFFERENCE TOWARDS THE BIBLE (PRO.28:9, JOSHUA 1:8)

Proverbs 28:9 is a most searching Scripture. There God says, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination."

If your prayer is an abomination to God, then any happy fellowship, and oneness of purpose, any communion between you and God is hindered.

Note that the Scripture does not refer primarily to infidels. One does not need to say that the Bible is false, that Christ was not born of a virgin, that He did not rise from the dead, that there is no real Heaven or a literal Hell to come within the scope of this great hindrance to prayer. No, if only your heart is turned away from the Bible if you have a disinclination to read it, if it is not interesting to you if you do not meditate on it prayerfully, joyfully, then your prayer is an abomination, says God's Word.

Throughout the Bible, God stresses the fact that there is a close connection between the Word of God and spiritual prosperity. For example, Psalm 1:1-3 tells us of the blessed man who shuns evil companions,

"His delight is in the law of the LORD, and in his law doth he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Day-by-day blessing from God, spiritual prosperity, Christian fruit-bearing all depend upon delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on it day and night. Knowing the Bible is not enough; reading the Bible is not enough; blessing depends on delighting in it and meditating on it.

7.     UNCONFESSED SINS (PSALM 66:18)

The Apostle John spent most of his life encouraging saints to have a relationship with God. In 1 John 1, he reminds us that our relationship with each other depends on our relationship with God. These relationships depend on the kind of lives we’re living in. If we’re living in unconfessed sin, we cannot be living in close intimate relationship with God.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: (Psalm 66:18 KJV)

Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. (Isaiah 59:2)

Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

8.     UNBELIEF AND DOUBT (HEB. 11:6; MARK 11:24)

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

If any of you needs the wisdom to know what you should do, you should ask God, and he will give it to you. God is generous to everyone and doesn’t find fault with them. When you ask for something, don’t have any doubts. A person who has doubts is like a wave that is blown by the wind and tossed by the sea. A person who has doubts shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord. A person who has doubts is thinking about two different things at the same time and can’t make up his mind about anything. (James 1:5-8)

CONCLUSION:

Are your prayers hindered? Well, thank God, there is a remedy. The hindrances can be torn down. Even this very day you may feel again the smile of God's face and hear the whisper of His Spirit and know that there is nothing between you and God.

In John 1:9 we are given this blessed promise, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Confession—that is the remedy for your sin.

I think that an honest confession of sin would involve the following matters:

First, an honest realization in the heart of one's failure and sin. Confession cannot be simply a matter of the lips. For the mouth to say, "I have sinned," when the heart still says, "But it was not very bad, and it was not altogether my fault," it is not a true confession of sin. Another way to say this is that the Christian must honestly judge his sin in the light of God's Word and the revelation of the Holy Spirit of how God feels toward the sin.

Second, honest confession would involve a penitent heart and sincere repentance (2 Cor. 7:10).

Third, a confession, in the sense that is meant in I John 1:9, would involve a simple faith that God is willing to forgive and cleanse us as He has promised.