The following is a list of questions I ask myself (all based on the scripture) if I am sensing any distance from the Lord when I pray. It is amazing how often when my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling that one of these will show me what is in the way.
1. Am I Clean before the Lord?
Isaiah 59:1f – “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” I John 1:8f – “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
2. Am I in Communion with others?
Matthew 5:23f -“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 6:14f – “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
3. Am I Confident in God’s Word?
Luke 11:9-13 – “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
4. Am I Committed to God’s Will? 1 John 5:14f – “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
5. Am I Centered in the Holy Spirit? Romans 8:26-27 – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”
6. Am I Concerned for God’s Glory? John 14:13f – “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me.
Rev Ran 🙂