Regarding "clearly answered" prayers: What about the occurence makes it so clear they were answered?

Question

Looking for specifics here, people.

An answer to my last question mentioned that sometimes it takes months for a prayer to be "clearly answered".

How does it become clear that God answered your prayer?

Answer 1

I was the one who said that. It can happen in many ways. Each of us hears God differently. For some, it is a scripture. For others, they look to hear God's answer through those they are called into fellowship with (confirmation of 3 or more as long as it is in line with scripture.) Some hear God through dreams. Some hear Him when they feel a sense of peace or spiritual release. Some learn to hear the "still small voice" of scripture. Some have more bold encounters with God through visions.

This certainly isn't a comprehensive list, but these are some of the more common ways that people hear God.

Answer 2

This is an extreme case, and probably not what you are looking for tho...

One day, Pastor was giving a message, and during the message, he thought of a lady in the congregation (everyone knew that she was diagnosed with leukemia, and had been struggling for a long time with treatments). He stopped the sermon and said, "I feel like God wants us to pray for So and So." So the congregation came around her and prayed. She said that she felt an overwhelming warming sensation overcome her whole body. When she went to her next doctor appointment, she said, "I want you to run some tests, because I believe that God has healed me." They did, and the doctors could not find any cancer in her body.
This was a clearly answered prayer. I think when God does answer a prayer, he makes it known that he is doing something. So there is no doubt.

Now, why does God heal one person, and not everyone. I don't know. My Pastor doesn't know, and neither does the fortunate Lady who was healed know.

Answer 3

It's good to understand that Earth time is not Home time...Here our lifetime may last 70 yrs., but this is hardly a day on the Homefront...so do not measure your answers by time. It is your soul sounds that tell you when you have had "divine intervention"...the clearer we "hear", the more it upcites our human vehicles--kind of a clash of inner & outer forces.

The clearest "feeling" is like time stopping for a second...you feel light as a feather, then a warm chill runs from your insides out...you may even shiver & get goose bumps. This is your spirit Self--what you really are, being ecstaticly joyful with appreciation, in the body it is encased in...the spirit will not leave the body during consciousness (under normal circumstances, of course)...simplest way I can put that.

And by the way, God rarely, if ever, intercedes in your lifetime choices & creativities...you can thank your multitude of Angels, your Guide, & on rare occasion, the Goddess side of the Godhead, for your "miracles"...they happen everyday, we just hardly notice the "little" things they do.

Good Journey!!!

Answer 4

There's a great contrast between the previous secular life and the new Christ-centered life that can't be ignored. Christians can look back and see the difference. When we lived without God, we weren't really living. Nothing was right. Some of us didn't even realize how hopeless and miserable we were. After we met Christ, we came alive. We talk to God and he responds so often that it cannot possibly be written off as chance. That's something you won't understand unless you've experienced it. But that is the answer to your question - We know our prayers are answered because we've met him and we know, to some extent, how he works. We know he's not a vending machine and that it is US who submit to HIM, not the other way around. When he does answer we know it because we recognize his fingerprint. Only those who know him can see it.

Answer 5

It becomes clear, when someone is willing to ignore reason, and rely sole on faith. That is the only time 'clarity' is involved, and it is not based on anything tangible.

There may be people in CA who were having tremendous problems with money and debt, who were praying for a way out. The fires, could have engulfed their home so that insurance and emergency funding will clear them. That may be considered an answer to prayer, but for the thousands of homeless Californians without insurance, it was a curse.

There is no 'clear' answer to prayer, it is all subjective. Allah, God, Zeus, Leprechauns and potatoes all answer prayer in the same way.

Answer 6

It is different for every person. I have prayed for something that took 15 years to actually know if my prayer was answered. It was.
God has spoken to me.
Prayers are answered in all kinds of ways.

Answer 7

people pray to god to heal their sickness and yet they go to a doctor for medicine; when they are healed they give a halleluiah to god but they got the cure from the doctor. How is that answered prayer? Does prayer without faith count? Is a partial healing answered prayer? How can you pray to something that may not be listening anyway? The bible says god is no respector of persons so what makes you think you are sooooooooooooo special that god considers your prayers over someone else's?

Answer 8

well lets say i asked for guidance on how to deal with a situation, like a coworker.

later that evening, i see an article or have an idea of what to do.

i recieved the guidance, prayer is answered.

you can call it god if you want. that works.

lets say i prayed for patience. i pursue patience in my life. later i notice a time when i did have more patience (for example with my step-grand-son) i know the prayer is answered.

Answer 9

I could imagine this happened...

A German was thinking... dang Jews, I wish they would all just die.

Then Hitler comes along and voila, the Jew-hater's prayers were answered.

That is how Christian's prayer works... if you pray enough, things are bound to work out in your favor... maybe even more than 50% of the time!

Answer 10

Nothing is ever clear when dealing in the God business. Everything you do, think, believe etc... Always comes back to that silly thing called faith.