To Hear or Not to Hear

I stated in one of my past sermons that God does not hear the prayers of an unrighteous person unless it is a prayer of repentance. I cited Psalms 66:18 and Isaiah 59:1-2 in making this claim.

Some doubted whether this assertion was valid, asking for instance, "What if an unjustified sinner was praying for the salvation of a lost person?" Then another question was raised, "Would God not hear and answer that prayer?"

What do you think?

We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will.

John 9:31

Seems pretty cut and dry...

God hears the cries of the righteous

It is a hard thing to swallow. Although, if we are living outside of God's will, how can we pray within his will?

I take it by the term " hear " we suggest - answer?
Because if we don’t, I think it is obvious that He hears all things… calls from the sinner or saint, and that He even vibrates the waves that transmit in the air. ( I heard someone say that all things, even matter, are simply only vibrations ) But if we mean to suggest that in saying “hearing” we mean “answering,” and that the question is whether He answers the sinner and unrighteous, well…

There is only One that is righteous... and merely as we become one with this One - our heart will desire and yearn ( pray for ) for the same things that His does. until that Day, I speak a foreign tongue to our Lord and He doesn’t hear in order to answer. and if God hears the prayer of repentance from an " un-righteous " someone, it is only because HE positioned that prayer and yearning ( desire ) inside that one. Maybe completely unknown to the person.
So, certainly, God is only able to " hear " the prayer He speaks through you, in a tongue that your heart only whispers when it burns within from a flame lit via the Spirit.

Not produced from our natural lips, and undetectable to our natural ears… a prayer from and a prayer for Him only.

Yes, I would say that "hear" would mean "answer."

God hears everything, even the sounds that no super hearing devices on earth can detect.

But does God answer the prayer of the unrighteous?

well, my point was - God ONLY hears a prayer that flowed "through" a person... originating in God not the person. whether the person is Righteous or Not.


Prayer is the whisper from hearts subdued,
Minus the arrogance flesh accrued,
With rev'rent devotion now bedewed,--
Prayer is the tongue of the life renewed.

Prayer is the pouring out of desire,
The searching flame of our inward fire,
Seeking the way that doth lead up higher,--
Prayer is the longing God did inspire.

I may be missing something here, but why does God even interact with His creation? If God gives us the thoughts to pray or please Him, then we do them... what true fellowship/relationship is that? Seems so static, robotic, and canned.

Makes is sound like maybe God is having conversations with Himself. He makes us speak and then He answers Himself? Again, maybe I am missing something, but I think God is a little bit more dynamic than that. Maybe.

Great is the mystery and the wonder of it, but the apostle Paul explains in I Cor. 6:17 that "He that is joined unto the Lord IS ONE SPIRIT."
and - I am crucified but I live, but just in case you don't understand the mystery of it, it's really not I that is living, but Christ lives in me – the true personality within is Christ.

it has been the intention from the beginning for God to FULLY and effusively inhabit and engulf His temple -- not that HE forces us to pray a specified prayer to Him, but that He joins us in a fusion where we are so much in union with Him that we by our ( new ) nature pray His prayers ...

our natural, outward man was never suppose to pray to God - that man is suppose to " in dying, die."
but God's ( new ) people will have God's very spirit, Leading in ALL ways.
and it will be like Jesus use to say -the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

John 17:3: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

We get to know God and His Son- this is eternal life. Sounds like a relationship. Yes, we have been crucified with Christ... and we relate to Him.

Maybe a better analogy would be marriage. A husband and wife become one. Two identities and personalities blended together as one. A mystery.

Or God walking with Adam in the cool of the day. Relating. Learning. Growing in intimacy. Relationship.

Please pray that I might walk closer with God than anyone else!

what a great picture of words - bride and groom, father and son, head and body... even sun and moon.

the relationship is there, no doubt. i mean God really does want a relationship and a lover, so that we can in return relate Him towards the earth, Just like the moon shines forth the light of the sun upon the earth, in our relationship with Him we shall do likewise.

but what i am merely trying to say is: as our relationship with Him grows - it is Him in us that is growing... or to say backwards: we are decreasing.
and the moon doesnt create its own light, it reflects it, the light reflecting off the moon is always the light of the sun - because the earth can never directly look at the sun - it hurts to bad.


kinda of a interesting side note : Adam walked with God in the cool ( the word is Spirit ) of the day.

I would agree that we must decrease and He must increase.

The irony of it is that as we lose ourselves in Him, we actually become more fully human, more alive... what He created us to be!

One other Scripture from Psalm 34 that I found on God hearing the righteous...
“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

Austin:

check out this site:
http://personman.com/infinite-punishment

for some great intellectual and spiritual sharpening.

cool dude...

i like sites like this - you know - they have a lot of good points?

Just came across this in Proverbs:

Pro 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.