5 Signs God Hears Your Prayer

Sometimes when we pray, we can feel the presence of God. Other times, it can feel like we’re just talking to the air, and we wonder, does God really hear my prayers? In today’s video, I’m sharing five signs to look for to confidently know that yes, God hears you when you pray. Enjoy!

 Often, when we talk about prayer, it’s how we talk to God and even how He talks to us. But today, I want to discuss how God listens to us when we pray. 1 John 5:14 says:

A few years ago, I woke up one morning feeling discouraged. During my morning prayer, I asked God to send some encouragement. Then I went on with my day, posted a YouTube video, and even shared a clip of the video on Instagram. Then I received a phone call from a friend, however this is not a friend that would call me normally so I answered the phone to see why she called.

She told me that she saw my video, how it encouraged her, and how she loved my hair.

This was particularly encouraging for me at the time because I had recently locked my hair and so it was a different style and I was feeling insecure about it. So for her to compliment me on my looks and the content of the video left me feeling really encouraged. And in that moment, I remembered the prayer that I prayed that morning, specifically asking God for encouragement. And here it was in the form of a seemingly random call from my friend.

I told her how I prayed for encouragement that morning and what she said next stuck with me. She said, “well, you have the ear of the Father.”

And that was even more encouraging to know that God really does hear me when I pray. I want to encourage you today to know that when you pray, God hears you too. But if for some reason you are not convinced, here are five signs to know that yes, God does hear you when you pray. 

1. A Changed Heart

The first sign that God hears your prayers is a changed heart, specifically a peaceful heart. When God hears us and we focus on Him in our prayers, we will have peace. Isaiah 26: 3 says:

It's so important to remember that prayer isn't about just getting the things we want or the circumstances we want. It's about connecting with the God of the universe and when we do, we will have peace. 

I woke up in the middle of the night the other night and I was anxious. I had some concerns on my mind, and the Lord reminded me to pray about it and I did. Although things didn't change, as it was still the middle of the night, I had so much peace after praying that I was able to go back to sleep. When we pray, God's only answer isn't just to give us what we want or change our circumstances. He also wants to give us peace in the middle of whatever we're going through or facing. So when you're praying to God and maybe your circumstances haven't yet changed, or you haven't received the answer you're looking for, if you have peace, know that God hears your prayers.

2. Spiritual Growth

The second sign that God hears your prayers is that you are spiritually stronger and you're feeling closer in your relationship with God. Spiritual maturity is a byproduct of a strong prayer life. James 5:16 says:

As you pray, not only will you feel more peace as God answers, but you'll also receive more strength from Him empowering you to do things that you probably didn't think that you could do. That's God answering your prayers. That's Him giving you the strength and the courage that you need to carry on. Jesus tells us in Matthew 26:41:

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41 ESV)

As you receive power and strength to overcome temptation, to endure hardship, to persevere through challenging times, that is God answering your prayers because connecting with God through prayer gives you strength to carry on.

3. Answered Prayers

The third sign that God hears your prayers are answered prayers. God will answer our requests to Him in three ways: a yes, a no, or a maybe.

Now here's the thing; if the answer is yes and we get what we ask for, it's not a coincidence. We can know that God heard our prayers. Luke 11:9 says:

Listen, God is still in the business of answering prayers. That's just what He does. We have to have eyes to see it.

We must remember that the blessings we have now are all answered prayers. The issue is sometimes we forget. We get what we requested from God, and we carry on with our lives, and we forget that we are living with the answered prayers from years and weeks, and months ago. It's important for us to always give credit where credit is due. I want you to take time today to think about some of the answered prayers that are in your life right now that you prayed fervently for, and that God gave you so that you know that when you pray, yes, he hears you. 

As I recovered from an injury one summer, I was not able to do certain things. We had to cancel our travel and vacation, one thing that really discouraged me, particularly having to cancel my children's swim lessons because I was not able to drive them to and from the lessons. As I was sitting in our living room one day, I prayed to God that the kids would still have a good and fun summer despite all our canceled plans. And I promise you, within the hour, there was a knock at our door. It was one of my children's neighborhood friends asking if my children could come out and swim in her backyard pool. And I knew at that moment that in His own way, in His sovereignty, God was answering my prayer. 

Prayers don't always happen that quickly, but any answered prayer is always a sign that God hears you.

4. Experiencing the Unimaginable

The fourth sign to know that God hears your prayers is when you experience the unimaginable.

Ephesians 3:20 says:

Sometimes God answers our prayers, but sometimes he goes above and beyond. And it is to the point where we know this was nothing but the hand of God. In those moments, we can know that God heard our prayers.

I told you about the health challenges that I had that summer and it caused me to need to push back our Beloved Women’s conference. We thought about canceling it, but we were adamant about not doing that. Once we reviewed everything, we really wanted to push through and have this conference. But because we really weren't able to market with all the changes of moving a conference date and having to give refunds for people that couldn't make that particular date, I knew that we were going to have a financial loss as we hosted that year's conference.

I sent a video to our prayer team, letting them know my health was getting better but that we would probably incur a financial loss from the conference but we would have the conference anyway because I really trusted that God put it on my heart for us to have this conference that year. There's a purpose behind it, and God's just gonna take away. Now, I thought God would provide by allowing us to just kind of scrape by month, by month, and we would just kind of make it by financially as a ministry. You know, we'd just be kind of living paycheck to paycheck, if you will. But God had other plans. He knew that I was praying, our prayer team was praying, our conference team was praying, and 10 days before that year’s Beloved Women's Conference, a video that I shared with the YouVersion Bible app posted in their app.

Now, this app has millions and millions of subscribers. So the day that this video was posted, I didn't know it was going to be posted. I sent the video months prior, and I hadn't heard anything, so I didn't know if they were going to post the video at all or if they even received it. So when they posted it, I was surprised. My mom texted me at three o'clock in the morning like “Oh my goodness, you're in the YouVersion Bible app." We were really excited. What I didn't expect to happen was that millions of people not only saw the video, but they were connected to Beloved Women and learned about our upcoming conference. We made more sales for that conference in one day than we made all summer long.

Listen, I need you to understand that it wasn't about the money, that this testimony is about God's sovereignty and His faithfulness, and that He will go above and beyond when we pray.

5. God Promised to Hear You

The fifth way to know that God hears your prayers is that He promised to hear you. Here's the thing. Sometimes we pray, and we just don't feel God. We don't feel like He's there, but God's faithfulness is greater than our feelings. He promises to hear, He promises to listen, and His promises are true no matter how we feel.

Even if you don't feel like your heart is changed or you have peace, even if you don't feel spiritually stronger or closer to God, even if you haven't seen the answers to your prayers, and even if you haven't experienced the unimaginable, you can know that God hears your prayers because He promised that He would. James 4:8 says:

Jeremiah 33:3 says:

Matthew 6:6 says:

Our feelings are not greater than God's truth, and the Bible makes it clear to us that when we pray, God most certainly hears us. 

Now I would love to hear from you Beloved. How has God heard and answered your prayers? Let’s encourage one another in the comments. 

If you enjoyed today’s videos, will you do me a favor and share it with a friend because you just never know who might need some Beloved encouragement today? 

And for more Beloved, be sure to download the Beloved Women app available in the Apple and Google play stores for unlimited videos to learn God’s Word, grow your faith, and encourage your soul. 

As always, thank you so much for watching and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and be loved.