Tell God What You Need

Nothing can keep God from providing for you, and helping you. Psalm 57:3 says, “He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me… My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.” Isaiah 41:10 says, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” When God hears one of his children cry out for help nothing can keep him from coming to their aid. Nothing! But you say sometimes I pray and nothing seems to happen, help does not come right away. Let me tell you something, just because you don’t see it coming does not mean it isn’t. Let me give you two scriptures that illustrate this.

Look at Daniel 10:12. Daniel began praying for wisdom to understand a dream that God had given him. Daniel was so distraught by what he saw that he fasted and did not even perfume himself. The first day went by. Then a second. Then a third. This continues for three whole weeks! Then while Daniel is walking down the streets of Babylon along the shore of the Tigris River, an angel appears to Daniel and says,

Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer.

The moment Daniel started to pray, God heard His prayer and set in motion the forces of the spiritual realms to answer Daniel’s prayer. But Daniel did not know what God was doing until the angel of God revealed it to him. To the human eye it appeared that a lot of time and effort and self-denial was being answered with God’s silence, but what we learn is that Daniel’s consistent and persistent prayers were of great import in the spiritual world. In the next verse the angel continues, “But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.” There was spiritual warfare being waged behind the scenes. And the clear implication is that it was Daniel’s praying for three weeks that were used by God to be the occasion of Michael’s coming to overpower the spirit of Persia, that this angel might be free to come to Daniel and give him the interpretation of his vision.

And consider 2 Kings 6:15-17. The king of Aram wanted to attack Israel. But every time he made plans, the Lord revealed his plans to Elisha who told them to the king so that Israel was always ready to counter Aram’s armies. The king of Aram was furious and asked who among his men was committing treason by helping Israel. They told the king that the problem was not a traitor, but the prophet Elisha in Israel who was hearing everything from God. The king of Aram found that Elisha was living in Dothan and sent his army to surround the city. This time they did.

Elisha had with him a servant. This servant had no doubt been with Elisha as he received all these communications from God with which his master successfully warned the king of Israel and foiled the armies of Aram. But this day, the servant woke up and went to the window and was shocked by what he saw. The city was surrounded by a huge army of Aramenians. The armies of Israel were nowhere in sight. We read in 2 Kings 6:15-17,

When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha. “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” Then Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!” The LORD opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

To the human eye things looked grim. They looked impossible. They looked like God had left His servant Elisha to be killed. But when you saw the situation with spiritual eyes, you saw that nothing could be further from the truth. This army that looked so invincible was about to get creamed by the heavenly armies of God the Father Almighty. It did not look like God was working, but God was as active and protective as ever.

Nothing can keep God from providing for you. There is no power than can stop Him, or hinder Him, or trick Him.

Jesus promised in John 14:14 to provide for you saying, “Ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father.” Nothing can stop God from providing all that we need in order to do everything He has planned for us to do and to become all He wants us to be in Christ.