Here are five elements that the Bible says are essential to having God both hear and answer our prayers. If we do these things we can be sure that our prayers will be answered. That is not to say that we can use these principles as spiritual "magic charms" to make God accomplish our will on earth. The whole point is to accomplish His will on earth as it is in heaven. Thus, central to praying properly is the idea of aligning our hearts and minds with the heart and mind of God. He will then enable us to pray rightly, properly, and in accordance with His will.

1. Faith

Mark 11:22-24 says, "And Jesus answered saying to them, 'Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be taken up and cast into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.'" The principle here is that we must have faith that we have received what we have asked of God in order to receive it. There is no room for doubt (see James 1:5-8). This kind of faith is not forced or contrived, but it flows from a heart and mind that is abiding in Christ (John 15:7).

2. Persistence

Luke 11:5-10 says, "Then He said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him"; and from inside he answers and says, "Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything." I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.'" The clear lesson in this story is that God honors persistence in prayer. If we want to see answers to our prayers, we need to tarry in prayer, not just one time, but over and over again, not losing heart all the while.

3. Without Ceasing

1 Thessalonians 5:17 gives us another qualification for answered prayer. It says that we must "pray without ceasing." This command is echoed in Ephesians 6:18 which says, "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." Since Jesus Himself wasn't literally praying constantly but only at certain times, it would be unwise to conclude that we should spend our entire lives actively praying. The idea here is that everything we do, say, and want in life must be filtered through the will of God according to the grid of Scripture. This will require that we are faithful to make time to pray because we will realize that prayer is inseparable from a lifestyle that depends fully on Christ.

4. Righteousness

James 5:16 says, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." The principle which this passage exposes is that the church's prayer, as well as the individual's, is hindered by the presence of unconfessed sin. If we want to discern the will of God and pray rightly, we must first confess our sin to God and to those whom we have sinned against.

5. According to God's Will

1 John 5:14-15 says, "And this is the confidence that we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." To pray according to God's will is to pray according to what God wants done. This is something the Spirit of God will enable us to do (see Romans 8:26-27) if we are humble and willing to listen and be changed according to the Scripture.

Answered prayer is possible and the desire of God, but we must do it God's way by His Spirit and according to His Word and guiding principles therein. May God make us effective and powerful pray-ers.