Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it
and found nothing on it but leaves,
And said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”
Immediately the fig tree withered away.
And when the disciples saw it, they marveled,
saying,“How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you,

If you have faith and do not doubt,
you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,
but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’
It will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer,
believing, you shall receive.”

 (Matthew 21:18-22)

Promises like the one above seem so out of reach for us ordinary Christians that we either skip over them or explain them away. Better to put the promise in the basement than to have to live within range of its mocking voice.

Great news! We’re unlocking the basement door and letting this great promise out. Look what happened to personal friends of mine once they put the contents of this book [this article is an excerpt of my book, You Can Get Answers to Your Prayers] into action.

Your Dental School Application is Denied…
Unless You Know How to Pray

 John is a wonderful Christian. He’s smart, too. He graduated with a double major from Georgia Institute of Technology. But sometimes no matter how smart you are, it’s not enough. You see, his passion was to become a dentist and periodically provide free dental services as a medical missionary. Standing directly in the path of this God-given dream was a mountain. The name of this mountain was Dental School Rejection.

He applied to many schools and was denied. His Dental Admission Test scores were decent. They were within the range of others who had been accepted. He was at a complete loss as to why he was being rejected. Of course, many people are not accepted into dental school. It’s a normal part of life. The question, however, was as a son of God was he subject to this limitation?

John came up for prayer about this matter one evening at our church. I shared with him that he wasn’t subject to this limitation because God could overrule everyone who was denying him. I shared with him how I had gone directly to God many times when the mountain had said no and ultimately God had overruled the mountain. I told John to cry out to God and to thank Him for removing the mountain even before there was any natural evidence that it had been removed.

I then instructed him to go right back to those dental schools that had rejected him. I told him that because of his prayers, God could do one or more of several things to get him into dental school. He could change the hearts of those who had denied him. He could replace those people with others who would accept him. He could create a new program that would provide him a slot. Or He could do that God thing He does so often and baffle our minds with His creativity and power.

We went over Scriptures like Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Which you do not know. Think God opening the Red Sea to save the Hebrews from the Egyptian army (Exodus 14). Think Jesus multiplying a few fishes and loaves of bread to save thousands (Matthew 15:32-38).

There is no way you or I would’ve imagined either of those moves by God. His influence, power, and creativity are infinitely beyond our ability to figure out. That’s why we shouldn’t spend too much time considering how difficult it would be for God to answer our prayers. Our part is to ask; His part is to answer.

Oh, and I guess you’ve figured out John’s story. The school coincidentally started a new program that allowed him to be accepted. He starts dental school next month!

Oh, how I love those coincidences!

You’re Stuck at This Financial Level…
Unless You Know How to Pray

 Kenny and Abbey are wonderful Christians. They’d been dating for quite a while. Marriage was definitely an item of interest for them both. However, Kenny’s financial history and status, and his career path had built-in challenges that Abbey felt should best be changed prior to them getting married.

The mountain was that there was absolutely nothing in Kenny’s past or anticipated future to give them a realistic reason to think the situation would change for their good. So Abbey listened to my teachings about pressing in to God in prayer. She discussed this with Kenny and they agreed to change the situation through prayer. You know what’s coming now, don’t you? Yep, another coincidence.

It took about two or three months of them crying out to God and using the twelve elements of prayer listed in chapter one. Wouldn’t you know it? A friend of Kenny learned through a friend that there was a great job coming open at one of the major airlines. Kenny’s friend lobbied heavily to get his friend to consider Kenny.

In a little while Kenny was hired. Today he walks around with a permanent smile on his face, happy with his beautiful bride, Abbey, and gushing about his high salary and great benefits. Think of it. Decades of financial ruin and dead-end jobs spectacularly turned around through a few months of intelligent, fervent prayer.

In the following chapters, we’ll dissect the anatomy of prayers that are spectacularly answered. You’re going to learn exactly how to imitate others who receive great answers to prayer.

You’re next in line to receive your own, precious child of God!

Lessons Learned That I Can Use Now

Lesson One. Other Christians are getting spectacular answers to prayer and so can I!

Lesson Two. No doesn’t have to remain no if I know how to pray!

Practical Exercise

1. Look at your prayer list. After reading about God so dramatically answering other people’s prayers, do you need to add anything to your list?
2. Use your imagination to think of “coincidences” that could bring your prayers closer to becoming reality. Write the coincidences down. God has unlimited creativity; so He doesn’t need the coincidences you write down. But keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t be surprised if He uses a couple of them just to let you see He’s with you.

If you liked this excerpt of Eric’s book, You Can Get Answers to Your Prayers, please share it with someone on social media. And if you like spiritual warfare novels, click on the graphic below for a wild ride!

This was article two of a 14-part series on prayer. The next article in the series is Honestly Recognize the Mountain, but Compare It to God’s Ability. You may read the previous article here.

If you are interested in Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare & Supernatural Ministry, read more about it here and visit the school’s Facebook group here.