Answer: Hello, it’s great communicating this topic together with you! Directly speaking, the prayer in accordance with God’s will is to share the words in our heart with God. God’s word says, “What does it mean to truly pray? It means speaking the words within your heart to God, and communing with God having grasped His will and based upon His words; it means feeling particularly close to God, feeling that He is in front of you, and that you have something to say to Him; and it means being especially radiant within your heart, and feeling that God is especially lovely. You will feel especially inspired, and after hearing your words your brothers and sisters will feel gratified, they will feel that the words you speak are the words within their hearts, the words they wish to say, and that what you say represents what they want to say. This is what it means to truly pray. After you have truly prayed, in your heart you will feel at peace, and gratified; the strength to love God will rise up, and you will feel that nothing in your entire life is more worthy or significant than loving God—and all this will prove that your prayers have been effective.” God’s word tells us to open our heart to God and speak the words within to God, that is, we speak on the reality and the truth, without being tainted with any intentions, just telling God what’s in our mind and treating God as our confidant. If we pray like that, we will have peace, enjoyment and happiness in our heart, and feel God’s kindness and closeness. This is the pray in accordance with God’s will as God loves honest people, just like what the scripture says, “but let your yes be yes; and your no, no; lest you fall into condemnation” (James 5:12). God focuses on reality the most and hates falsity and lies the most. If we don’t speak the facts, then what we say to God is not heartfelt words but lies, God definitely won’t approve of it, instead He will hide His face from us.
To make a prayer in concert with God’s intention, primarily, we should be a right person before God, that is, we have to pray with a devout attitude and with a seeking and obedient heart. Only such prayer can be approved of by God. A prayer in accordance with God’s will is not for our own fleshly interests but for understanding God’s words and practicing the truth based on God’s words and acting on God’s will. Just as the Lord Jesus said, “But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), such prayer is for God’s work, for satisfying God in everything and for carrying out God’s will. Just like Peter’s prayer, no matter what he faced, he could seek for God’s will and pray to God with an obedient heart, and he even didn’t act on his own will but on the Lord’s words in food, clothing and shelter. In the end, he became the person who is after God’s heart and perfected by God. But the Pharisees are totally different. Their prayer is completely for maintaining their own status and livelihood, for exalting themselves and deceiving others. They pretended to make a long prayer in the synagogue and on the crossroad, causing others to worship and look up to them. That’s why the Lord Jesus rebuked them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation” (Matthew 23:14). From the Lord’s words, we can see the Pharisees’ prayer is hypocritical and deceitful, they just made the religious rituals and intended to let others admire and look up to them. God detests their prayer!
As such, our intention when we pray to God in everything is very crucial. If we always pray for our flesh, then it shows we are too selfish and base and it is the prayer of disobeying God. For example, some parents pray for their children to get into university, how do they pray? They pray like that: “O God, Please bestow the wisdom on my kid. You help him get in university and have a bright future…” Such prayer doesn’t accord with God’s will. If we pray like that: “O God, I’d like to bring my child before You. Whether or not he can get into university is predestined by God. If he can and also keeps following God to walk on the right path of life in the future, that would be great. But everything is in God’s hand and I’m willing to obey God’s arrangement. May God lead him!” This prayer is based on a correct intention. It is not to request God according to our own will, not to pray for our fleshly interests but to pray to satisfy God sincerely based on our reverence and obedience to God. This prayer is in accordance with God’s will.