Covenant, Mercy and the Prayers God Answers
By Francis E. Madojemu
Everybody prays.
The saint prays.
The sinner prays.
The person who has walked with God for fifty years prays, and the person who has ignored Him for fifty years may suddenly pray when the aircraft begins to shake.
People pray in churches, mosques, shrines, bedrooms, hospitals, prisons, boardrooms and battlefields. Some pray from faith. Some pray from fear. Some pray from habit. Some pray because every other option has disappeared.
But if everybody prays, what does God hear?
That question arose during a conversation about covenant. The proposition was forceful: God deals with humanity by covenant, and anything done outside covenant receives no response—not even an emotional one.
The argument seemed to fit several important Scriptures:
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”
— 1 John 5:14
It also appeared to fit Jesus’ teaching about asking in His name, abiding in Him and allowing His words to abide in us.
But then other Scriptures complicated the argument.
God heard Hagar.
God heard Ishmael.
God responded to Nineveh.
Cornelius’ prayers and alms came before God before he had received the gospel through Peter.
The publican in Jesus’ parable cried for mercy and went home justified.
The cries of Israel reached God while many of the people remained deeply compromised.
Does God hear only people in covenant?
Does He hear people because of covenant, because of mercy, because of repentance, because of someone else’s intercession—or because He is sovereign and compassionate?
And if He hears, does hearing always mean granting what was requested?
The problem is not with Scripture. The problem is that we have compressed several biblical meanings of “hearing” into one.
To understand prayer, we must separate them again.
GOD HEARS EVERYTHING—BUT DOES NOT RECEIVE EVERYTHING FAVOURABLY
God is omniscient.
There is no sound He cannot detect, no thought He cannot know and no cry hidden from Him.
“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.”
— Psalm 139:1–2
Therefore, when Scripture says that God does not hear a prayer, it cannot mean that the sound failed to reach His awareness.
The language is relational and judicial.
To “hear” can mean to attend favourably, accept, acknowledge or respond. We use similar language when someone says, “The court heard my appeal,” or, “At last, the government heard us.”
We do not mean that sound waves only just became audible. We mean that the matter received attention and action.
Scripture uses hearing in both senses.
God is aware of every prayer.
But He does not approve every request.
He does not endorse every motive.
He does not enter every religious arrangement people devise.
He does not bind Himself to act contrary to His character, His word or His redemptive purpose.
This distinction protects us from two opposite errors.
The first says:
“God hears everybody, so sincerity is all that matters.”
The second says:
“God hears only covenant believers, so the cry of anyone outside covenant is meaningless.”
Neither statement is large enough for the biblical evidence.
This does not mean that every object of prayer is equally valid.
The prophets of Baal cried from morning until evening on Mount Carmel, but “there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded” (1 Kings 18:29).
Scripture consistently rejects idolatry. Sincerity cannot transform a false object of worship into the living God.
God may mercifully begin drawing a confused seeker who does not yet understand Him. But that mercy leads towards truth; it does not certify every spiritual belief as true.
COVENANT GIVES ACCESS AND CONFIDENCE
The gentleman who raised the issue of covenant had identified something essential.
God is not a spiritual force to be manipulated. Prayer does not work because we discover the correct emotional intensity or verbal formula.
Biblical prayer rests upon a relationship that God Himself establishes.
Under the new covenant, our access to God is through Jesus Christ.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us.”
— Hebrews 10:19–20
Christ is not merely an example of prayer. He is the basis of our access.
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
— 1 Timothy 2:5
To pray “in Jesus’ name” is therefore not to attach a religious signature to the end of a request.
It is to approach the Father through Christ’s person, work, authority and representation.
It means we do not appear before God on the strength of our performance.
It also means we cannot honestly use Jesus’ name to pursue something opposed to Jesus’ character.
Covenant gives the believer something stronger than the vague hope that a distant deity might take notice. It gives access, belonging and confidence:
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
— Hebrews 4:16
But confidence is not control.
Covenant is not a contract by which we force God to implement our plans. It is a God-established relationship in which He brings us into His purposes.
Prayer is therefore not primarily our tool for using God in our lives.
It is one of God’s great tools for drawing us to Himself, developing us and fulfilling His purposes through us.
“IF WE ASK ACCORDING TO HIS WILL”
John writes:
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
— 1 John 5:14–15
This is not a minor condition added in small print.
“According to His will” is at the centre of Christian prayer.
Where God’s will is clearly revealed in Scripture, we pray in agreement with it.
We can pray confidently for wisdom, holiness, forgiveness, the advance of the gospel, deliverance from temptation, justice, compassion and the formation of Christ in His people.
Where the specific outcome has not been revealed, praying according to His will means requesting honestly while remaining surrendered.
Jesus modelled this in Gethsemane:
“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
— Luke 22:42
This was not unbelief.
It was perfect faith.
Faith is not forcing ourselves to believe that God must choose our preferred outcome. Faith is trusting God enough to place even our strongest desire beneath His wisdom.
Paul asked repeatedly for the thorn in his flesh to depart. God did not grant the request as Paul framed it. He answered with sufficient grace and strength made perfect in weakness.
David prayed and fasted for the life of his child. The child died.
Moses asked to enter the Promised Land. God refused that specific request.
These prayers were heard.
They were not granted in the requested form.
Therefore, an answer may be:
Yes.
No.
Wait.
Not in that form.
I will give you grace for what I will not remove.
I will change you before I change the situation.
Here is the instruction through which My answer will come.
We must not define divine hearing so narrowly that only the answer we wanted can qualify as an answer.
And when we do not know what to pray, we are not abandoned:
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought…
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
— Romans 8:26–27
Our confidence does not rest upon always possessing perfect information. The Spirit helps our weakness and brings even our groaning within God’s redemptive purpose.
HAGAR, ISHMAEL AND THE GOD WHO HEARS
Hagar is one of the strongest challenges to the claim that God has no response to anyone outside covenant relationship.
Hagar was Egyptian, enslaved, exploited within Abraham’s household and eventually driven into the wilderness.
In Genesis 16, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring and said:
“Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.”
— Genesis 16:11
The name Ishmael means “God hears.”
Later, when Hagar and the boy were in the wilderness and their water was exhausted, Scripture says:
“And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her,
What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.”
— Genesis 21:17
The detail is important:
God heard the voice of the lad.
Ishmael was Abraham’s son. God had already promised Abraham that Ishmael would be blessed and become a great nation. In that sense, the hearing of Ishmael was connected to God’s word concerning Abraham.
But Scripture is equally careful to distinguish blessing from the specific covenant line:
“And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful…
But my covenant will I establish with Isaac.”
— Genesis 17:20–21
Ishmael was blessed because God is merciful and because God had spoken concerning Abraham. Yet the particular covenant line through which the redemptive promise would advance was established through Isaac.
Therefore, the story does not prove that covenant is irrelevant.
It proves that covenant does not imprison mercy.
God can act mercifully towards someone outside the covenant line while remaining faithful to His covenant purpose.
Hagar was not invisible because she occupied the wrong social or ethnic category. God saw her affliction.
Ishmael was not ignored because he was not Isaac. God heard him where he was.
NINEVEH: GOD HEARS REPENTANCE
Nineveh had no covenant comparable to Israel’s.
It was a violent Gentile city whose wickedness had come before God. Jonah’s message was an announcement of judgment, not a promise of automatic preservation.
But the people believed God, humbled themselves and turned from violence.
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way;
And God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
— Jonah 3:10
The text does not say God merely heard their words. It says He saw their turning.
Their fasting did not purchase mercy.
Their repentance responded to warning.
This is an essential distinction.
God’s mercy does not excuse evil. It interrupts destruction and opens a door through which people can abandon evil.
Nineveh demonstrates that God can respond to the humility and repentance of people outside Israel’s covenant community.
But it also shows that desperate religious activity without turning would have been insufficient.
God was not impressed by hunger alone.
He was looking for the abandonment of violence.
CORNELIUS: PRAYER THAT LED TO THE GOSPEL
Cornelius provides another important example.
He was a Gentile centurion described as devout, God-fearing, generous and prayerful.
An angel told him:
“Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.”
— Acts 10:4
God plainly received favourable notice of his prayers and generosity.
But the answer did not bypass Christ.
God instructed Cornelius to send for Peter. Peter came and preached Jesus—His life, death, resurrection and lordship. While Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard.
Cornelius teaches us that God may respond to a sincere seeker by sending more light.
His prayers were not presented as an alternative route to salvation. They became part of the divine arrangement through which the gospel reached him.
The answer to his prayer was not:
“You are moral enough already.”
The answer was:
“Send for Peter.”
God’s mercy met Cornelius where he was and led him to Christ.
FOUR WAYS SCRIPTURE SPEAKS OF GOD HEARING
The biblical evidence suggests at least four distinct dimensions.
1. God hears universally because He is omniscient
No prayer, thought, curse, confession or cry escapes His awareness.
2. God hears covenantally
He gives His people access and confidence based upon His promises and, under the new covenant, through the blood and mediation of Christ.
This is not merely awareness. It is promised relational access.
3. God hears mercifully
He may respond to distress, repentance and sincere seeking even before a person understands covenant fully.
Hagar, Nineveh and Cornelius belong here.
The tax collector who cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” also went home justified rather than the self-righteous Pharisee.
4. God hears judicially
Sometimes the “prayer” is not even an organised petition. It is the cry created by injustice.
Abel’s blood cried from the ground.
The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah came before God.
The cries of oppressed Israel reached Him in Egypt:
“I have surely seen the affliction of my people… and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.”
— Exodus 3:7
This is profoundly important for leaders.
The poor may have no microphone.
The victim may have no access to the court.
The oppressed worker may not know how to formulate a theological prayer.
But injustice itself creates a cry that reaches God.
These are not exceptions to a biblical rule that God only hears covenant people.
They are different expressions of God’s knowledge, covenant faithfulness, mercy and justice.
DOES GOD HEAR SINNERS?
One sentence is often quoted as though it settles the entire question:
“Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”
— John 9:31
The immediate context matters.
These are the words of the man born blind as he argues with the Pharisees about Jesus. His reasoning reflects a genuine Old Testament principle: God does not endorse persistent wickedness simply because the wicked person uses religious language.
But the sentence cannot mean that God never responds to any sinner under any circumstances.
If God could not hear a sinner’s cry for mercy, no sinner could ever call upon Him for salvation.
Jesus Himself described a tax collector praying:
“God be merciful to me a sinner.”
— Luke 18:13
Jesus said that man went home justified.
The distinction is between a sinner turning towards God and a sinner attempting to recruit God while protecting rebellion.
God hears repentance.
He does not endorse hypocrisy.
He receives the person who comes empty-handed for mercy.
He is not obligated to support the person who wants divine power without divine government.
WHEN GOD SAYS, “I WILL NOT HEAR”
If God sometimes responds mercifully to outsiders, it is equally clear that He sometimes refuses the prayers of people who claim to belong to Him.
This should make the Church tremble.
Bloodshed and oppression can make worship unacceptable
“And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you:
Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.”
— Isaiah 1:15
God then commanded them to cease evil, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, defend the fatherless and plead for the widow.
They did not need a more powerful prayer meeting.
They needed repentance.
Refusing God’s Word damages our own petitions
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”
— Proverbs 28:9
This produces a terrifying symmetry:
People want God to listen to words from them while refusing words from Him.
Zechariah describes it even more sharply. God told the people to execute true justice, show mercy and compassion, and stop oppressing the widow, orphan, stranger and poor.
They refused to hear.
Then God said:
“As he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear.”
— Zechariah 7:13
Cherished sin obstructs communion
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”
— Psalm 66:18
This does not mean a person must become sinlessly perfect before praying. If that were true, no one could pray.
It means there is a difference between struggling against sin and deliberately protecting it.
Selfish motives corrupt requests
“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
— James 4:3
God is not obligated to finance our envy, pride, competition or appetite.
How we treat people affects our prayers
Peter instructed husbands to honour their wives, “that your prayers be not hindered” (1 Peter 3:7).
This destroys the illusion that spiritual activity can be separated from relational conduct.
A person cannot mistreat someone made in God’s image and assume that religious language will compensate for it.
These passages show that covenant identity is not permission to live without repentance.
Covenant gives access.
It does not make hypocrisy invisible.
CONDITIONS—OR THE CHARACTER OF A LIVING RELATIONSHIP?
Scripture associates effective prayer with several realities:
Asking according to God’s will — 1 John 5:14.
Abiding in Christ and allowing His words to abide in us — John 15:7.
Faith rather than divided dependence — James 1:5–8.
Obedience and a clear conscience — 1 John 3:21–22.
Right motives — James 4:3.
Forgiveness and reconciliation — Mark 11:25.
Honour within relationships — 1 Peter 3:7.
Humility and repentance — Luke 18:13–14.
Persistence — Luke 18:1–8.
But these must not become a mechanical checklist by which we purchase answers.
Prayer is not a vending machine into which we insert faith, fasting and good behaviour until the desired result falls out.
These “conditions” describe the character of a living relationship with God.
Abiding changes what we desire.
Scripture reshapes what we request.
Repentance removes what we are defending against God.
Forgiveness opens the hands we had closed around offence.
Faith transfers confidence from our method to God’s character.
Persistence keeps us present long enough to be formed, instructed and prepared.
WHAT ABOUT SECOND CHRONICLES 7:14?
Few promises are quoted more often in national prayer:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
Then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
— 2 Chronicles 7:14
The principle is powerful, but the context matters.
God was speaking to Solomon concerning Israel, the temple, the covenant and specific covenant judgments such as drought, locusts and pestilence.
It is not an automatic constitutional guarantee that if a group of Christians holds a national prayer meeting, God must immediately repair every modern state.
Nevertheless, it reveals enduring truths about God:
He calls His people first.
He requires humility, not national superiority.
He asks them to seek His face, not merely His intervention.
He requires turning from wickedness, not simply speaking against other people’s wickedness.
The verse begins:
“If My people.”
National prayer must therefore begin with the Church’s repentance.
We cannot quote the promise while avoiding its verbs:
Humble. Pray. Seek. Turn.
CAN SOMEONE STAND IN THE GAP FOR ANOTHER PERSON?
Yes—but we must define what intercession can and cannot do.
Abraham interceded for Sodom.
Moses stood in the breach for Israel.
Samuel prayed for the nation.
Paul prayed for churches, leaders and people who opposed the gospel.
Intercession can restrain judgment, create time for repentance, open doors, send labourers, bring protection, release wisdom and participate in God’s purposes for another person.
But an intercessor cannot repent in another person’s place.
Moses could plead for Israel, but the people still had to respond to God.
Abraham could intercede for Sodom, but his righteousness could not make Sodom righteous.
Ezekiel 14 gives a severe limit: even if Noah, Daniel and Job were present, their righteousness would deliver themselves, not an unrepentant generation.
At certain moments, God even told Jeremiah not to pray for the people because persistent rebellion had brought the nation to a point of judgment (Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14; 14:11).
Standing in the gap is real, but it is not magic.
No human intercessor can become the atoning mediator.
Only Christ can occupy that place.
“Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
— Hebrews 7:25
We participate in intercession.
Christ alone carries redemption.
WHEN THE PRAYER HAS BEEN HEARD BUT THE ANSWER IS DELAYED
Not every delay means refusal.
Daniel prayed, and the messenger later told him:
“From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard.”
— Daniel 10:12
The words were heard from the first day, yet the manifestation of the answer was delayed.
This teaches us not to interpret silence too quickly.
Sometimes God is working in circumstances we cannot see.
Sometimes opposition is involved.
Sometimes people must be positioned.
Sometimes the answer is growing while we are growing.
Sometimes we need discernment to recognise an answer that arrived in an unfamiliar form.
Persistence is therefore not an attempt to wear down a reluctant God. It is a refusal to abandon trust while His purpose unfolds.
WHO IS INSTRUCTING WHOM?
The material in my teaching titled Instructions—Prayer brought the question into focus:
Who is instructing whom?
When God comes to people in Scripture, He frequently brings a message, command or assignment.
When we come to prayer, however, we can spend the entire time giving God instructions.
We tell Him whom to change.
We tell Him what to remove.
We tell Him when the answer must arrive.
We tell Him what success should look like.
But Acts 13 presents another pattern:
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said,
Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
— Acts 13:2
They ministered to the Lord.
The Holy Spirit spoke.
They received an instruction.
They fasted and prayed further.
Then they obeyed and sent the men.
The answer to prayer was an assignment.
This is where strategic prayer begins.
Prayer should move:
From burden to revelation.
From revelation to instruction.
From instruction to obedience.
From obedience to fruit.
Poju Oyemade is quoted in the presentation as saying:
“Prayer by itself will not produce the results; prayer gives birth to the intelligence required, and acting on that intelligence brings about the results.”
The sentence requires balance. Prayer is more than a method for producing intelligence. It is worship, communion, confession, petition and intercession. God can also intervene sovereignly beyond anything we do.
But the central warning is necessary:
We must not use prayer to replace obedience.
We may ask God to transform a city, and He may answer by instructing us to teach children, train workers, mentor entrepreneurs, strengthen marriages, protect the vulnerable, investigate corruption or build an institution.
If we refuse the assignment, we may continue holding prayer meetings about an answer God has already placed inside an instruction.
PAUL PRAYED FOR THE PROCESS
Another insight in the presentation comes from Jonathan Graf’s observations about Paul’s prayers.
Paul often prayed for the spiritual process that would produce the desired result.
For the Philippians, he desired discernment, purity and fruitful living. But he prayed that their love would abound in knowledge and depth of insight so that they could discern what was best.
This is different from praying only for outcomes.
We pray:
“Lord, give me a good marriage.”
Paul’s pattern might lead us to pray for the love, wisdom, patience, courage and self-control through which a good marriage can be built.
We pray:
“Lord, remove corruption from Nigeria.”
Paul’s pattern might lead us to pray for transformed desires, courageous truth-tellers, wise institutions, public discernment, honest judges and believers who cannot be purchased.
We pray:
“Lord, make the Church powerful.”
Paul’s pattern might lead us to pray for revelation, holiness, love, endurance, unity and obedience.
God does not only give outcomes.
He develops people capable of carrying them.
THE PRAYER GOD ANSWERS MAY BE THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES US
We often approach prayer as a way to persuade God to change circumstances.
But prayer is also where God changes the person who is praying.
He corrects our motives.
He enlarges our compassion.
He exposes cherished sin.
He replaces panic with trust.
He shows us what we already possess in Christ.
He teaches us what to ask.
He gives instructions we would not have received while speaking continuously.
This is why Samuel’s response remains one of the purest prayers in Scripture:
“Speak; for thy servant heareth.”
— 1 Samuel 3:10
Prayer has not reached maturity when God has heard everything we want to say.
Prayer matures when we become ready to hear what He wants to say.
HOW SHOULD WE PRAY?
We should pray because Christ has opened the way.
We should pray honestly, because God already knows the truth.
We should pray according to His revealed will and surrender what He has not revealed.
We should pray with faith in His character rather than faith in our technique.
We should repent where our conduct contradicts our petition.
We should forgive, honour people and examine our motives.
We should persist without assuming that delay means neglect.
We should make room to listen.
We should write what God impresses upon us and test it by Scripture, the character of Christ and wise discernment.
We should obey the instructions we receive.
And we should measure our own obedience and its fruit—not measure God as though He were our employee.
The strategic prayer cycle is therefore:
PRAY → LISTEN → DISCERN → OBEY → REVIEW THE FRUIT → PRAY AGAIN
SO, WHAT DOES GOD HEAR?
God hears every sound because nothing is hidden from Him.
God hears His covenant people through the access established by Christ.
God hears prayers offered according to His will.
God hears the cry of repentance.
God may respond mercifully to the distressed and the sincere seeker.
God hears the cry generated by oppression and injustice.
God may refuse the prayers of religious people who protect violence, oppression, selfish motives and deliberate disobedience.
God may hear and say no.
God may hear and say wait.
God may hear and give grace instead of escape.
God may hear and send a person.
God may hear and give an instruction.
God may hear and begin by changing the one who prayed.
The decisive question is therefore not only:
Does God hear me?
It is also:
Am I approaching Him through Christ?
Am I asking according to His will?
Am I protecting something He has told me to abandon?
Am I willing to receive an answer different from the one I designed?
Am I listening for His instruction?
And if He speaks, will I obey?
Everybody prays.
But prayer is not proved by the number of words we direct towards heaven.
Its fruit is seen in the person we become, the instructions we obey, the compassion we demonstrate and the purposes of God that take form through our lives.
Perhaps the final question is not merely:
“What does God hear?”
Perhaps it is:
WHEN GOD ANSWERS, WHO IS LISTENING?
QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL AND CHURCH REFLECTION
- When I say that God “heard” a prayer, do I mean that He granted my preferred outcome, or that He received and answered it according to His wisdom?
- Do I treat covenant as confident access through Christ or as a contract for controlling God?
- Is there any instruction from God that I have replaced with repeated prayer?
- Are my motives consistent with the request I am making?
- Is the way I treat my spouse, family, employees or vulnerable people hindering the integrity of my prayer life?
- Have I mistaken delay for refusal?
- What process should I pray for—not merely what outcome?
- Does our church create enough room to listen, discern and obey after praying?
- What measurable fruit of compassion and obedience has our prayer produced?
- If God answered our prayer with an assignment, would we recognise it as an answer?
