Can prayer change God's will?

Question

Can prayer and praying for others change God's will? Looking at Genesis 18 I see God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah out right. Then Abraham pleads with God to spare the towns if righteous people are found there. God and Abraham continue to negotiate in this story so it appears that God changed his mind or did he. The towns were destroyed, but the righteous were spared after Abraham's pleading.

Was it God's will for Abraham to plead for the people he did not even know? We are called to pray for others in the new testament, so we do out of obedience to the word. The question comes down to,(A) do our prayers change God's will or how God reacts to us humans? or (B) Do our prayers simply set God's plan in action? Any thoughts?

Answer 1

Depends somethings are written in stone and some things aren't
for example in the bible God would send a prophet to a king and would pronounce judgment on the king from God then the king would cry and repent and ask for forgiveness
and God would relent and show mercy on them

so yes but it depends.

Answer 2

Contrary to popular beliefs, God does not KNOW the future; he directs history toward achieving his plan. And so, the future is not yet written.

Now if you read a little further in Genesis, about how the angels dealt with Lot, it appears that God was going to destroy Zoar as well as Sodom and Gomorrah. But Lot got his way through pleading. Later, after Lot left Zoar, it was destroyed.

Also, you can find in 2 Kings 20:1-11, that God had told Hezekiah that he was going to die. Yet he prayed fervently, and God relented and gave him an extra 15 years of life.

When God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the people of that city fasted, and God relented of that destruction.

Reading the story if the Exodus, God denotes that it should have taken the Israelites only about 11 days to get to the Promised Land; and it appears that that was his original intent. But when Israel showed that they were not ready to trust God, he changed his plans and had them wonder in the desert for 40 years.

And when God was going to destroy all of Israel and raise up a nation from Moses, Moses prayed, and God relented (Exodus 32:7-14).

If God didn't sometime relent of his specific plans, what would have been the purpose of Jesus' prayer that he not go through with the "Passion?"

Jesus knew that God sometimes changes his plans. There are many instances where God changes his intended actions for the sake of the prayers of his saints. If only people would READ the Bible, they would know the lies about God that some religions perpetuate. God IS merciful and flexible.

Answer 3

God will do what he wishes however remorse, sorrow, pleading,prayer has been known to change the outcome of some situations. Recall a prophet that was trying to escape from given a country bad news, something about in the belly of a whale for three days, anyways he finally gave the news to them and they repented, sack clothe, constant prayers and god had mercy - spared their town.

Answer 4

you could say that God is a sucker for heartful repentance.

look at the story of Jonah to see an event where a town was scheduled to be destroyed, but with warning, the town changing and not needing to be destroyed.

God knew that sodom and gomorrah were not going to be able to be saved. he entertained Abraham's appeal to demonstrate the point, thats part of the whole point of the story.

Jonah is really quite the other side of the coin of this point.

Answer 5

It hinges on whether or not we have choice.

If God gave us the power to choose, that implies that he chose not to control everything and therefore he cannot know the future.

It he already knows the future, then he didn't really give us the power to choose.

If we have a choice, then God doesn't know the future and prayer could induce him to influence things in some way.

If he already knows the future, then he already knows what we will pray and what the outcome will be, so prayer can only make us feel better, not influence the preordained future.

I think God would be terribly bored if he knew everything already, so I believe that he did give us the power to choose. Thus, prayer can have an effect on the future.

Answer 6

While I do not believe that our prayers can ever change God's will, I do believe that prayer can change the outcome of the event. God's will will always take place, the end result may be different though (as in Sodom and Gomorrah).

Answer 7

No. you can never change the will of God. But, God can change our circumstances in life, no matter what they are, when we pray and Ask HIm to do His will to protect us and save us, and give us direction. THe HOly Spirit is the voice of God and will show us all we need to know, if we will only hear and obey the word of God. God never changes His mind, NEVER. BUt at times, it may seem God is doing something and then changed. No, His will is the same and what He does will lead to the same outcome, when we hear and obey the voice of God. The circumstances change, but not Gods will.
Yes, prayer can change how God reacts to us. SUrely, becuase when we pray and allow HIm to take care of us according to His word and will, then our circumstances will change. Our prayers set Gods plan in action, you are correct. God will not activate this plan until we call on Him , ask and believe and then continue to obey. GOd is there ready to bless us, but we must pray to activate those gifts.
Its just how HE worked it all out, and its awesome. IF we arent involved in our own life, or Gods, why would we think God will involve Himself in our life LEts get in covenant with God. Its the only way to peace, joy and love and everlasting life.
God bless you for the question....

Answer 8

God's will will always happen, but prayers will make the difference in the means that he knows what we are going to pray even before we do it. God's will will never violate His gift of free will for us, of course within His limit of the free will for us.

Answer 9

I know the two angels who rescued Lot and Co. went ahead of the Lord. Perhaps God's will was to rescue Lot and Co. before he even spoke to Abraham. But it can also be argued that he made his will known to the angels as he spoke with Abraham.

Answer 10

Tough question, The Bible says "I knew you before you were in the womb" so God already know what our next thought, action, etc will be, I don't think it changes God's will if everything is already pre destined. I hope this helps, take care.