God is a holy God, and the priest stood in the holy place to come to Him, for there he was in the pace of fellowship with God. There he was occupied only with spiritual things and worshiped the Lord. This is the place where prayer ascends to God and gets through to Him. To get our prayers answered we must spend time in fellowship with God "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (Jn. 15:7). This takes time. It means shutting ourselves up alone with God, spending time alone with Him in prayer, fellowshipping with Him, delighting ourselves in the Lord. It means to "set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:2). This is talking about sitting together in "heavenly places in Christ Jesus " Eph. 2:6). We have been raised into the heavenlies; but only as we enjoy this fellowship and spend time there in spiritual things will we see God answer our prayers.
A person can be in fellowship with another person but because they are hundreds of miles apart, they are not having fellowship with one another. We may be in fellowship with God, having no unconfessed sin in our lives, yet we do not spend time in the holy place, fellowshipping with Him. Therefore, we do not get whatever we ask of the Lord. We need to abide, to dwell, and to spend time in God's presence to get our prayers answered.
Being in the holy place also depicted being in God's will. When God told the priests to go into the holy place, He said, "And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon" (Ex. 30:1). It was God's will for the priests to go in and offer up incense. To get our prayers answered, we, too, must be in God's will, and we must pray in His will. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth us, and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (1 Jn. 5:14-15). Until a person has learned to pray in God's will and according to God's will, he will not see his prayer answered. There must be submission in the heart and mind of the believer when he prays. If the Lord Jesus is our Example, as He is, then we also need to be able to pray from the depth of our heart, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Lk. 22:42b). We must subject our personal desires, ambitions, pleasures, and everything else to God's perfect, sovereign will so that we will trust God "that all things work together for good to them that love" Him (Rom. 8:28). If we get our prayers answered, it must be according to God's will, in the holy place, in fellowship with God, with no unconfessed sin in our lives.
"Americans have the watches; Africans have the time." WOW "Take time to be holy"
Yesterday, I handed a lady "Your Ticket to Heaven" she snatched it out of my hand and said emphatically, "I need that" and turned away. It was obvious she did. She will read it
"My son, forget to my (word) law but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee" Pro 3:1, 2.
