In this the final posting of the God Is Not Listening series we will learn WHY He does not hear the prayers of those who call themselves by His name.  The answer can be summed up in one word: IDOLATRY.  In the series titled Idolatry: Mankind’s Gateway Sin (key word–Gateway), I point out that all sins are the outcomes of man’s idolatrous desires.  This is brought out in Genesis 6:5 where we find that “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only on evil continually.”  Mankind in general has not changed.  Jesus said that only a few would reverse their life’s path, enter into His church and walk His way (Mat. 7:13,14).  Many, He said, would be called to do so but few would be chosen for having answered His call (Mat. 20:16).  Idolatry is the reason for man’s refusal to answer the call of the Good Shepherd to enter His sheepfold, be groomed by Him to meet His specifications and thereby qualify for the first resurrection.  The door to Satan’s sheepfold is much easier to enter and his type of grooming is totally laissez faire–any way the sheep want it to be.  An examination of any phone book under the CHURCHES heading will reveal how popular Satan’s multiple sheepfolds (churches) are relative to God’s one sheepfold (Rom.12:4,5/ 1 Cor. 12:12-20; 14:23 /Eph. 4:4-6).  God’s church will not be listed in the phone book.

In previous postings I have mentioned the rich man who came to Jesus asking Him what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life.  Jesus told him that ONE SIN separated him from any hope of salvation.  Many find that impossible to believe.  For this reason I will direct your attention to 1 Chronicles 7:14 as I did earlier in this series.  This time we will concentrate on two words: “ways” and “sin.”  Keep in mind that we are searching for the reason why the prayers of church people are not answered.  In verse 14 we find God telling those known as His people then and now that they must turn from their wicked WAYS (plural).  Then He would hear their prayers and forgive their SIN (singular).  Again, the Lord’s “fine print” provides the key to the “headline” which is that He will hear their prayer and heal their land.

We must understand that to the Lord, one sin is the same as one thousand sins.  Sin is sin, regardless of the number involved.   Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 29:2) spiritually.  This is why that second sin is much easier than the first and the third sin is much easier than the second, etc.  The Lord’s “one sin is the same as ten sins” theme is made perfectly clear by the Apostle James in 2:10 where he tells us that to break one commandment is to break all ten of them, making one a “worker of iniquity” (Lawlessness).  Jesus said He would reject all such workers on the Day of Judgment (Mat. 7:23).  Recall that Jesus said that not one jot or tittle (smallest stroke in writing) can be changed, removed or added to His Law.  Those who observe the Sunday Sabbath are workers of iniquity in that they have removed one commandment and substituted another in its place.  Not only do they observe Satan’s sabbath, they do not observe God’s commanded Sabbath on the previous day.  As this posting will show, this amounts to idolatry in the eyes of God.

Let us now turn to another “fine print” item which will reveal exactly how God views any change in His Law.  In verse 22 He tells us that by sinning, His people prove that they have “forsaken the Lord God … and have embraced other gods, worshiped and served them ….  Therefore He (God) brings evil upon them.”  Undoubtedly they would be praying to God as He poured out His wrath on them.  Do we not see this happening today when a so-called “act of nature” befalls a community whose landscape is pocked with churches?  In the aftermath we see people who have clawed their way out of what had once been their homes while nursing their battered bodies and telling of calling out to God for protection during the tornado, hurricane, fire, earthquake, etc.  The problem is that they never ask why He sent the curse in the first place.  Why do such well-documented Biblical Truths remain unknown among those who call on the one who has supposedly saved them, asking Him to protect them?  Church people are ignorant of God’s “find print” Truths because they are not taught God’s Word, nor are they encouraged to study the Truth for themselves.  As a result, CHURCH PEOPLE HAVE NEVER HEARD GOD’S TRUTH, REJECT IT WHEN IT IS REVEALED TO THEM AND REBUKE THE ONE WHO BRINGS IT TO THEM.  AND THEY WONDER WHY THEIR PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED.  

The solution is to understand what the command: “turn from their wicked ways” (vs 14) entails.  It means to 1) do a complete “about face” and 2) begin walking forward.  The church version is 1) believe that Christ has done the about face for the salvation seeker and has therefore 2) eliminated the need for walking in the opposite way the seeker walked before getting “saved.”  Let us take a God’s-eye Scriptural view of the command found in verse 14.  It does no good to turn from going in the wrong direction unless one then walks in the right direction.  Simply believing that Jesus has already turned and has walked in one’s stead is a Satanic error.  God, through John, commanded that WE “walk (work–obey) as He (Jesus) walked (worked)” (1 Jn. 2:6).  Jesus commanded that we “… overcome (Satan) even as I overcame (Him)” in order to sit with Him on His throne in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 3:21).  The irony is that we are commanded by God to do the WORKS of Christ (obey His LAW) while being told by religionists that WORKS ARE ANATHEMA TO GOD AND THE LAW WAS NAILED TO THE CROSS.  To “turn from one’s wicked ways means to reverse course completely and start walking in the exact opposite direction as one was walking before.  Not so, say religionists, we need neither to turn around nor to walk in the opposite direction.  Why?  BECAUSE JESUS DID IT IN OUR STEAD.  All we need to do is believe that lie.

The Biblical Truth is that Jesus paid the price to make the Holy Spirit available to God-seeking men and women who would use the power of the Spirit to “walk as He (Jesus) walked” while on earth and to “overcome (Satan) as He overcame” him.  Jesus paid the price for us to receive His Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4,5,8).  We must submit to the Spirit in total obedience.  Those who do so will have their prayers answered in this life by promise (Mat. 7:7), and will rise to meet Christ in the air upon His return by promise.  As a general rule, God does not answer the prayers of those who are not His.  Jesus said: “My people hear My voice and I know them” (Jn. 10:27).  In John 18:37 Jesus said: “He who is of the Truth hears My voice ….”  The Truth is God’s Word (Jn. 17:17).  They who hear His “voice” (the Holy Spirit within) and obey it will be heard on high and their prayers will be answered for they walk in holiness.  “Without holiness no man will see God” (Heb. 11:24-27).  No holiness (obedience to the Law)=no answered prayer in most situations.  Occasionally God will answer a sinner’s prayer in order to prompt him/her to seek Him more fervently, to dig deeper into His Word with an open mind.  However, God’s act of grace (unmerited favor) normally does not result in a spiritual about face followed by a forward march.  Such an act on God’s part usually results in simply more religious business-as-usual, which results in and more unanswered prayers.  Like the cleansed sow returns to her mire and the healed dog to his vomit, church people prefer the familiar walk of the “old man” (Satan manifested in man) over the different walk of the “new Man” (God manifested in man).  Jesus walked that walk, which was why He could say, “They who have seen Me have seen the Father.”  May the world see Him in us.  L.J.