Can I Get My Will Done With Prayer? by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Will of Man in Prayer

A case study: King Hezekiah. When the prophet came and told him he was going to die, Hezekiah prayed — and God extended his years by fifteen. In the New Testament, Jesus described the persistent widow before the unjust judge in Luke 18. The question this raises is: can human will, pressed through prayer, get something God did not originally intend?

The answer must be handled carefully because a teacher has a responsibility — you do not present possibilities that will hurt people. You present possibilities that will protect them and strengthen their walk with God.

Every example in scripture where people pushed through with their own will, it did not end well:

• The children of Israel asked for the Law — it became a burden.
• They asked for Saul as king — it ended in tragedy.
• Hezekiah's extended years — produced Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings in Israel's history.

What Luke 18 Is Actually Teaching

Luke 18:8 — "When the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?" That faith means persistence on what they heard. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. So the importunity of prayer — the pressing in again and again — is staying on a promise.

The parable should not be understood as pressing your personal will on God. It should be understood as pressing for justice on what God has already covenanted. The widow is pressing for what ought to be, not demanding what she wants.

Importunity in prayer is staying on a promise — not muscling through your own will.

The Power and Danger of the Human Will

The will is an extraordinarily powerful thing. It is the very faculty God gave humanity that makes disobedience possible. Disobedience means picking what God said not to pick — and you can, because you have a will.

The will can answer its own prayers. It can generate what looks prophetic. It can produce dreams and visions that feel entirely real — until they break. People later say, "That was not God," only after the consequences arrive.

In Numbers 13:33, the spies said, "We were like grasshoppers in our own sight — and so we were in their sight." From the moment they accepted that identity, they projected it onto others. That is the power of the will. What you accept about yourself, the world receives about you.

The will that is surrendered to God's will is the most powerful posture a person can take.