There are two things that fascinated me for a long time: one, hearing God when I pray, and two, understanding what God is thinking when prayers are unanswered.
My quest to figure out these two mysteries revealed a painful reality that made me cry like a baby. For a long time, I never shared the revelation with anyone because I feared that they might not believe me.
I was also concerned about the proverbial “throwing pearls before pigs” from Matthew 7:6, which says, ‘Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.’
The few times I tried sharing the revelation, I landed in trouble, and that really scared me. Eventually, I kept the revelation to myself and embarked on a mission to see the truth of the revelation.
Here is what I did. I observed how people prayed in church and analyzed their lives to see if what the Holy Spirit told me was true. Everything turned out to be true, and it really bothered me.
Even though I was doing my best to keep the revelation a secret, I knew I couldn’t keep it forever. With each passing day, I was in pain, watching my brothers and sisters struggle blindly with prayers.
When curiosity meets its answer
Just as I expected, the tipping point came one Sunday when I was in church. I used to attend a church where prayers were fervent. People would pray in tongues and receive messages from God.
This was happening almost every time we gathered for a service. On that particular Sunday, that was the case.
We used to pray for different needs every Sunday, but of course, there were some needs that were recurring almost every week. One of the most frequent prayer requests was for people praying for jobs.
On that particular Sunday, this was one of the prayer requests. The pastor was seemingly frustrated with this particular prayer request. Before praying for the people, he spoke a bit, and from his speaking you could clearly tell he was frustrated.
The most frustrating thing was that people were coming for prayers to get jobs, but there were barely any testimonies of people getting jobs.
After speaking, the pastor requested for anointing oil to be brought so that he could anoint the people and pray for them.
I was standing in the congregation, wondering why God, who created the whole universe, could not give people jobs once and for all.
Two things crossed my mind. Either God was unable to give people jobs, or He had a good reason for not giving people jobs. But obviously, I knew God cannot lack the power to give people jobs.
The only explanation was that there was a reason why God was not giving people jobs, and I wanted to know that reason.
When the pastor began praying for people and anointing them, I prayed in tongues, desiring to know why God was hesitant to give people jobs.
As mentioned before, this request required the two things that fascinated me about prayer: hearing God while praying, and understanding the mind of God when prayers were unanswered.
That day, my curiosity was rewarded handsomely.
The painful reality
Shortly after I closed my eyes and began praying in tongues, I felt a deep sorrow come over me. It was sudden and overwhelming. I began crying uncontrollably, although I couldn’t tell why I was crying.
About a minute later, while still crying, I heard a peaceful voice in my heart. This was not an ordinary voice that you hear with your ears.
It was like a deep thought, although I knew it was not my thought. It was so fresh, the same way you feel a fresh mint feeling in your throat.
Here is what the voice spoke:
“My son, they want a job, but those jobs will take up their precious time, and they will have no time for Me. I have called them to trust Me to provide for them, but they don’t believe I can provide for them without a job. I will prolong their wait for a job so that those who are understanding among them may come to Me.”
When I heard these words, the sorrow I had increased dramatically, and with it, the weeping also increased.
After crying for another three to four minutes, I composed myself and sat down. Immediately, I began thinking about the words I had heard.
The Holy Spirit began explaining those words to me. He gave me several points, and with each point, He gave me a scripture.
Holy Spirit explanation
The first scripture was Proverbs 14:29: ‘Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.’
With it, the Holy Spirit told me that the believers who were seeking jobs lacked understanding, and as a result, they were very impatient.
He further said that God is doing all He can to get them to gain understanding so that they become patient, according to Proverbs 4:7. ‘The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.’
“But, they do not want understanding. Because they have rejected understanding, the Lord has rejected their prayers.” The Holy Spirit said.
Then the Holy Spirit gave me another scripture in the book of Hosea 4:6 that says, ‘my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.’
Hearing this first revelation brought me to tears. Yet there was a more severe revelation coming.
The Holy Spirit continued by giving me another scripture in the book of Jeremiah 9:24. ‘but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord , who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.’
Then He explained to me that God takes no delight in people who have no desire to understand Him. Unless a person desires to understand and know God, none of his prayers will be answered.
Lastly, the Holy Spirit gave me Numbers 14:33–34. He then explained that God will keep those people jobless the way He kept the Israelites in the wilderness until they turned to Him.
The last revelation stunned me and got me really scared. I had never thought God could be that severe.
The soft crying became so loud that everyone in church turned to look at me. But I couldn’t help myself. I felt such pain as I had never felt before.
Because of the nature of the revelation, I was too scared to share it with anyone.
Today, I have shared.