I have heard preachers and teachers state that if you have enough faith you can move mountains. Just because Scripture says it, does not mean that it is a promise that God must keep.  Apparently, no one has that kind of faith or if they do, they haven’t asked God to move a mountain lately.  We all know He can, but that is not an unconditional promise.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t need huge earth movers just people with a lot of faith.

Most of God’s promises in the Bible are conditional but a few are unconditional.  For example, John 3:16 is unconditional and applies to everyone.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Or, Acts 2:38 – “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  Regardless who you are or what you have done this is an unconditional promise.

A conditional promise is found in Philippians 4:19 – “ And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”  Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  You can see these are conditional promises.  If you are not doing God’s Will, you may not enter heaven.

God is under no obligation to answer any prayer of a non-believer except those like the unconditional ones above.  God does not guarantee He will answer the prayers of a believer if they don’t meet certain qualifications.  He requires our obedience, faith, living a holy life according to His Will, and patience to trust that He will answer.

What is needed to receive what Psalms 37:4 says?  “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  This is a conditional promise requiring that we have a close personal relationship with Him.  Knowing Him well will give us comfort, pleasure and satisfaction.  It suggests that we are willing to trust God with everything we have.  It is believing He can care for us more than we can care for ourselves.

If you accepted Christ a few years ago and have failed to grow spiritually, chances many of your prayers may not be answered. I believe the Bible is very clear that most of God’s promises are conditional and His only obligation is to believers who are putting Him first in their lives. That does not mean He will not answer your prayer, it is just not a guarantee.  Many teach if you have enough faith your prayer will be answered.  It takes more than faith.

Have you heard preachers on TV say if you will send them seed money, God will increase your wealth?  If you refuse to take responsibility and be accountable for how you live, if you fail to study His Word and become knowledgeable or ignore Biblical facts, what do you think God’s answer might be?  Is He going to make you prosperous because you sent someone money?   God is not obligated as His promise is conditional?

God requires that we learn His Word.  How else would we know whether we are living a holy life?  Have you been redeemed and are you righteous?  You may have received the Holy Spirit but have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?  Are you aware of a power received from the Holy Spirit?  Do you have supernatural experiences or unexplainable occurrences from time to time?  It may not be luck or a coincidence but God intervening.

Do you realize all of the many promises God gives to those who have a deep personal relationship with Him?   Are you willing to make the effort to improve your spiritual standard of living?  God does not want us to remain baby Christians throughout our adult life.  He does not want us to fail to mature and be unproductive children.  How do most parents feel about their children who intentionally fail to get an education and are unwilling to get a job?  If they are physically and mentally able, they are that way because we gave them more than we should have or we lacked adequate discipline.  We were enablers and made them unwilling to develop, mature and become independent.  Isn’t God smarter than we?  He is not going to hurt us by answering prayers that will make us overly dependent to a fault.  But He will answer the prayers of those doing their best and continually progressing to spiritual maturity.

Scripture says to examine yourself.  Are you consistently striving to become more spiritual and enhance your relationship with Him?  Should God be answering your prayers?

There is a different aspect to prayer.  Sometimes God will answer prayers in order to build our faith and bring us closer to Him.  I have found the more times I have seen prayers answered the greater my relationship with Him grew and the more spiritually mature I became.

Sometimes we may feel so unworthy that it is difficult to believe that God really loves us enough to answer our prayers. There can be times when we may least expect God’s to answer our prayer and He does.  The more we see the Holy Spirit working in our lives, the greater we can be motivated to study His Word and pray.  God knows what it takes to encourage us.  So never give up and pray with the faith to believe your prayer will be answered.  God doesn’t want us to fail.  But sometimes we are so tempted by the world that we chose worldly pleasures over God.  This does not please God.  So if we want our prayers constantly answered, we must do as Scripture says.

There are thousands of supernatural experiences where lives were saved by angels or individuals were involved in accidents and came out of cars totally demolished and not having a scratch.  God works in many mysterious ways.  Most often these supernatural events change the lives of people.

This message is not about what God can or will do, but about: Is God obligated to keep a Biblical promise.  Not if it is a conditional promise.  But unconditional promises—yes.

Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  This is an unconditional promise that you can count on!