Prayer:
Prayer is like a seed of faith, just as the parable of the Kingdom that Jesus our Lord and Saviour taught in Mark 4:30-31.
Any action we do to expect a result is like a seed that is sown (applied it). Now prayer has a two edged side; the first is; prayer itself is a sign of faith; secondly prayer is an action of sowing your faith. It means that a result or a harvest is expected from it.
When we pray we are sowing so that in the passage of time we will see results or our prayers. The reason for this is that God hears a prayer offered in faith from His children. God, during the time of prayer speaks to us about our sins and in that time of prayer we repent and become clean before Him. That act of repentance then guarantees our prayer to be prayed according to God’s will. If any prayer is offered according to God’s will it is answered straightway. However, the manifestation or the arrival of the physical signs in the earth is determined only by God’s sovereignty. His sovereign will judges the accurate times and also looks into the readiness of the heart of man to receive and handle the results of the prayers.
When we pray in most cases God has answered and the subsequent prayers although we keep asking, in fact they are good for our own spiritual growth and transformation in becoming like Christ. That is to say our hearts begin to grow in the knowledge of God and are prepared to see the results of our prayers. This is the one hand.
On the other hand it is about the nature of spiritual warfare, where the demons resist letting the angles deliver the results to us. Through persistence we see a break through. In this regard Jesus taught the disciples that at times fasting is essential to see some great break through. The spiritual atmosphere has infestation of demonic forces which has the capabilities to pretend that they are from God. Therefore for a Christian to really have that awareness or discernment a higher spiritual discipline is necessary, which includes fasting and temperance.