So, there is a struggle in prayer: to discover His will. For God will never grant a request that is not in line with His will. If we read the story of Israel’s demand for a king, we see that God indeed granted their request. But during that king’s reign, Israel’s prosperity declined until it suffered destruction. That concept should not be applied to us exactly as it happened then. That event occurred under the Old Covenant, which emphasized the law, whereas we, as New Covenant people, must understand God’s will. When the Lord says, “That day I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you,'” it seems as if God allowed people to err and then ultimately cast them away when they can no longer be corrected. But remember this relates to Old Covenant people; New Covenant believers have the guidance of the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit’s leading, we should be able to sense what the Lord feels.
As Christians, we should be able to discern whether our request is approved by God or not—whether it pleases Him, serves His interest and glory, or merely serves our own interest. The problem is that sinful people who do not grow often cannot distinguish between need and desire, between necessity and image-building. As a result, what we ask is often not a real need but self-gratification or appetite (James 4:1–3). When the Lord says “seek,” we must seek His will, and when He says “knock, and the door will be opened,” it means God will surely respond. If Old Covenant people—still worldly—tended to ask for physical needs, ambitions, goals, and normal human desires, New Covenant people should ask in accordance with the mind of Jesus.
If it is taught that in Christ all our requests become easier to grant, that teaching can damage believers’ lives. In Christ, we are called to be God’s children with His character; therefore, we must not present requests carelessly because we are bound to the lifestyle standard we must wear. Luke 16:12 says, “And if you are not faithful with what belongs to another, who will entrust to you what is your own?” “Our own possessions” here refers to what will belong to us in the new heaven and new earth. Right now, everything belongs to the Lord. The requests we make are actually part of the process of stewarding the Lord’s possessions. On earth, we are not owners but stewards or managers of God’s property.
So how do we manage what we currently have—and what may be entrusted to us in the future—to steward God’s possessions? We must use heavenly management. The principle is that everything now belongs to someone else—God—while “our own possessions” we will receive in the new heaven and new earth. Therefore, we must not and should not force particular requests, because all things belong to God. The universe belongs to God, this world belongs to God, what is in our hands today belongs to God, and whatever will be entrusted to us later also belongs to God. Thus, we must manage everything for His purposes. That is why we need to build a dialogue with God to understand His heart so that our requests align with His will.
Matthew 7:9–11 says, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will I give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” No father would give a stone to his son who asks for bread, or a serpent when the son asks for a fish. But if what we ask would harm us, God certainly will not give it. Everything must run rightly and in accord with an understanding of truth. Therefore, we must not assume we have a right to have our prayers granted and our desires always fulfilled. If we think that way, we treat God as if He does not know what is best. Hence, we must understand His will, and to do that, we must sharpen our spiritual sensitivity; that sensitivity comes from learning truth, which demands sacrifice of time, effort, and thought, so that every request we present to God is something we have seriously brought before Him.