Shalom, beloved righteous ones of God! Shalom, and an overflowing, unlimited measure of God’s unmerited and unearned favour!

“God! Why don’t You answer my prayers?” — this is the question God has to hear from people most often! Including from Christians.

I want to share with you what God once showed me personally. Last summer I was still going to a traditional church, trying by my own efforts to persuade the pastor and everyone else about grace! A useless occupation, I can tell you.

It happened to me during worship. The band started singing a song asking the Holy Spirit to come down on the earth and fill everyone. I somehow felt uneasy, because this song did not agree with grace at all, and I heard the Father’s voice in my heart: “This prayer will never be answered, because the outpouring of the Holy Spirit already happened on the day of the first Pentecost.” And I remember what is written in chapter 2 of the book of Acts: “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…” [Act.2:16-18]. Then I saw (it was some kind of inner vision) the whole first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians, as if on a scroll, and I could clearly see everything written there, every verse. And God gave me this understanding: in the first half of this chapter Paul tells the believers in great detail who they are in Christ, when they became that, why and for what purpose, and what they have in Him. And in the second half Paul prays for them, that the Lord would enlighten the eyes of their hearts so that they would see all THIS. And suddenly it became clear to me! THE REASON GOD DOES NOT ANSWER SOME PRAYERS IS THIS: HE HAS ALREADY ANSWERED THEM!!!

In Christ He has already answered all our prayers; we just don’t see it, because we look with our fleshly eyes. But we need to look with the eyes of the heart, which need enlightening, and we need an intimate, close knowledge of the Lord through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. That is when we will begin to see, feel and experience what a glorious inheritance the saints have, and everything else [Eph.1:17-20].

By the way, a little later, when we were studying this letter at a meeting, we looked at these verses in Greek. It turns out that the word translated “knowledge” in verse 17 is the Greek word epignosis, which means close, intimate knowledge — not just information, but the way a husband knows his wife intimately. And in verse 18 the word “know” is completely different in Greek — eidenai, meaning to see, feel and experience for yourself! That is, when, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of revelation and wisdom, we come to know the Lord very closely, we will see and practically experience in our lives all the blessings He has for us, the saints, and His great power!

There is another passage of Scripture that the Holy Spirit often reminds me of:

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us; by me, Silvanus, and Timothy; was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
–2 Corinthians 1:19-20

My dear, beloved brothers and sisters! Look at your whole life from the point of view of Christ’s finished work on the cross! As Jesus was dying on the cross, He cried out: “It is finished!” What was finished? His work for our salvation was finished, or, to put it in modern language, COMPLETED, and this salvation was God’s plan for us before the foundation of the world [Eph.1:4]. In fact, the letter to the Ephesians says a lot about the mystery, which is God’s plan for Christ to come to earth and fulfil all God’s plans for our salvation and blessing. Here are verses that say God has ALREADY blessed us with everything:

“as His divine power has given to us ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue…” [2 Pet.1:3].

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us ALL THINGS?” [Rom.8:32].

“that you were enriched in EVERYTHING by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that YOU COME SHORT IN NO GIFT, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ…” [1 Cor.1:5-7].

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with EVERY spiritual BLESSING in the heavenly places in Christ…” [Eph.1:3].

Anticipating a possible question about the last verse, I will say right away that, first, everything in our life is spiritual, because we are spiritual beings who have souls and live in a body. And second, God has “…raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” [Eph.2:6].

So in Christ God has already answered absolutely ALL our prayers. He has one answer to EVERYTHING: Christ!

Is there no peace in your heart today, because something is troubling you?

Here is God’s answer: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the PEACE of God (shalom), which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds THROUGH CHRIST JESUS!” [Phl.4:6-7].

The peace of God will keep you in the understanding that there is nothing to worry about, because Christ on the cross COMPLETELY finished His work for your salvation, including salvation from anxieties! And the solution to what you are worried about already exists and is ready to be revealed as soon as you trust Him completely!

Or if you have financial difficulties, the answer is also one: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet FOR YOUR SAKES HE BECAME POOR, that YOU through His poverty MIGHT BECOME RICH [2 Cor.8:9].

Health problems? I think you know the answer: …And by His stripes we are healed [Isa.53:5].

Jesus is God’s answer to all our needs and desires; He has been given to us as our Righteousness, our Peace, our Faith, our Provision and Health! Just always come to Him, the Source of all this, and you will never be disappointed.

There is one more thing: we often seek what He has, rather than Him Himself. And this is one of our mistakes! Seek Him Himself. I pray that God will give you a thirst for Christ Himself, because HE HIMSELF, personally, is the Answer to everything! I am absolutely not condemning anyone, I am simply urging you: dear ones, this matters a great deal. The thing is that Jesus Himself lives inside you; it is His life that flows through you, and you can see it manifested only by seeing His grace: HE has already FINISHED everything on the cross, and there is nothing left for us to do but to rest and receive Him Himself with gratitude!

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things shall be added to you” [Mat.6:33].

And God’s righteousness is Jesus, so together with Him we have been given EVERYTHING!

I also want to point out that life in grace is not so much our outward life — although, as we see from Scripture, it shows itself outwardly in an abundance of blessings — but still, it is more of an inner state. Recently I looked at the life of the apostle of Grace, Paul: his outward circumstances were very changeable. As he himself wrote: “… for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” [Phl.4:11-12].

And then he sums it up: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” [Phl.4:13].

And by the way, the letter of joy, to the Philippians, was written by Paul in prison. Just think about it: how powerful the revelation of grace is, that Paul, sitting in prison, did not give in to despondency, but could not only rejoice himself, but also teach others to do so!

Dear saints! Let us live not by the sight of our fleshly eyes, which cannot see beyond visible things, but let us live by faith, which can see beyond the visible, by trusting that God has already done, completed and finished everything and has fully provided us with everything we need (and more) through Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, by grace, not of works…

By all this I am not saying that we don’t need to pray, but understanding this truth will change our attitude to prayer too, and make it thankful fellowship with a loving Father, rather than constant begging because we don’t really believe and trust that He heard us the first time.

I believe that this truth will show you even more how free we are in Christ to live in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, regardless of outward circumstances. After all, they are only facts, but we have the truth of God Himself: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” [Col.1:27]!

With love in Christ, sister Nina.