heaven's tree book club

Introduction
This is a very short introduction to the next book that I will spend the next seven or so days with,. The book is called Answered Prayer Guaranteed (Price, 2006). The introduction itself is only three pages but what follows is several long chapters for a book around 200 pages. What I got from the previous book is that God desires to bless us for the sake of His goodness and glory. The sad tragedy as I see it is that most churches and most Christians do not experience power in prayer nor power in their Christian lives. I have been praying for a while now to experience a vibrant faith and a victorious Christian life. For far too many years, I have been feeling defeated and discouraged. I have been to many lifeless churches throughout California, New York, and Vancouver, British Columbia. There are many Biblically sound, doctrinally correct churches, but the tragedy seems to be that the more the Bible is taught in the church, the more lifeless the church. I had been to a very conservative church in New York where the senior pastor stated that the Bible was studied in church and in house fellowships 28 times a week in that church. I had been to their young adult group for eight weeks. It is true, the preaching and teaching of the Bible was solid, but the level of spiritual maturity and God's presence was minimal at best. It is not to say that we are content with lifeless Christianity. I think many of us simply don't know how to cultivate a vibrant faith. I woke up this morning with a good amount of sleep. I actually woke up after my mom which rarely happens. I usually have a good amount of energy, but today has really been discouraging. Concerning breakthrough in employment, my application for certification had still not been processed by HR even though it should have been last Friday. I wnet online to look at positions and actually finally found about five that are somewhat local, Chico, Uba City, Sacramento, and Fairfield. However, all require many more years of experience I do not have. Concerning ministry, a man who asked that I meet with him this week concerning ministry opportunities has not responded to me for three days. Concerning healing, I feel the same as I did yesterday which is no improvement. Concerning singleness and healing, I had yet again another dream, but have not heard back in two days now. Our joy must be independent of situations, but nevertheless, circumstances sometimes can make us very discouraged. I live from day to day with a lot of discouragement, and long for the day when I can begin to experience victory in my Christian life. So the author begins with the question how do you pray.
   
 "Well, I get down on my knees or go into my room and..." Wait, that's not what I meant. I mean, what method, what process do you use to pray? Are your prayers answered? How do you know? There is a popular saying among pastors today that states, "God answers all prayers, but sometimes God says yes, sometimes God says no, and sometimes God says wait." Doesn't that seem like an odd form of answer to you? I mean, if you order a Big Mac at McDonald's, and you pay your money, you expect a hamburger. Barring the extremely unusual situation that McDonald's runs out of meat or french fries, once you pay your money, no isn't an option, and, for most people, wait isn't an option either.
Is it true that no and wait acre God's answers to prayer? If not, are you getting what you pray for? And if you do not get what you pray for, why not?
Next to the salvation experience and receiving the Holy Spirit, there is no issue in all of a Christian's spiritual life that is as critical as getting prayer rightl Yet you'd be amazed at how many people don't know that not only are there different kinds of prayers, but also that you can no more use the wrong prayer to get a certain result than you can use a Phillips head screwdriver when you need a hammer. Prayer permeates a Christian's life. It should be the first thing a Christian does in the morning, and it should be, as Paul commanded, done "without ceasing" during the day.
Unfortunately, most Christians are not informed that there are different types of prayer and that there is a proper formula for praying, so they attempt to use flowery language capped by a catch-all phrase, "If it be Thy will." People who do this are well meaning. They are sincere. But usually they are sincerely wrong, and they rarely get prayers answered."

I have often heard this answer to the question of answered prayer. God says yes, no, or wait. The author proposes that this answer is ridiculous. The burger analogy is quite vivid. When we go into a fast food restaurant and order and pay we have an expectation that our order will process and we will have our food,. There is no uncertainty about this. There is certainty and the expectation it will happen. I think what the author is proposing is that there should be certainty with prayer. I am guilty also with saying "if it be Your will" and when younger and even sometimes now being very wordy and flowery in my language. I accepted Christ and was discipled in a church here men and women prayed like poets and it sounded really nice to the ears and thought if I pray like that, God likes that kind of prayer. We pray and just hope that God will answer without the certainty of knowing that He will.  
"I want to share with you one of the biggest blessings of my life: God's instruction manual for prayer. This is not some gimmick. Don't think for a moment you are treating God like a supernatural candy dispenser. Quite the contrary, the principles I am going to share with you involve taking God at His Word. They require that we "put up or shut up" with our faith. That's why some people resist what I'm about to tell you, because it's all about faith—faith, and knowing God's promises.
There is a way to pray so that you know God hears you and has already answered your prayer. There is a way to pray in faith—all the time—a way to get answers. And no isn't an answer."
Prayer:
Father, I begin a new journey today. It is really a continuing of the last journey and this is the journey of prayer. I still continue to pray for breakthrough in my health and healing, in my employment, ministry, and life purpose as well as breakthrough in my singleness. So often there is so much uncertainty that we know that You hear prayer or that even You answer prayer. Father, the request the disciples made is the same one I make now. Lord, teach me to pray.