Why we do not receive:'Our souls are more important than the world riches'

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-4) James in his epistle, describes some of the reasons why certain believers do not get the answers to their prayers. In the beginning of the above passage, he points the readers to negative feelings such as anger,covetousness and jealousy.

But towards the end of the passage, he mentions something very important: -You do not have because you do not ask -You do not have because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Note as well that James letter was not addressed to pagans but to Jewish Christians who were dispersed throughout the world due to persecution. Why does it happen that God does not allow certain believers to have their prayer requests answered? I will shell out the response to this question in a short comprehensive analysis:

In Matthew 7:21, Jesus tells us that only those who do the will of the Father shall enter Heaven. Our life in Heaven is by far more important than what we could hope, want or desire on earth. This explains why He sent His Son Jesus to die so that no one perishes (reference John 3:16). And yet, on Judgement Day, many will go to Hell simply for not doing the will of God. On every believer,God has designed His will. The same will is the destiny or purpose that the believer is supposed to live. The provision God sends in the life of a believer is meant to support the accomplishment of His will. But this is the problem: 'certain believers use the provision from God on things other than His will'. This poses a great risk for their soul, because in Matthew 7:21, Jesus said that only those who do the will of God shall enter Heaven. As a result, when God sees that the misuse of His provisions will lead a believer towards Hell, He (God) shuts the Heavens and stops providing. He acts this way because our souls are much more important than anything else, after all He sacrificed His Son for us... Let me illustrate this with an example by using a fictive character named 'Bobby': ' Bobby is a Christian believer. A few years ago, God ordered him to study medical sciences but instead Bobby decided to study law. Few years later, Bobby becomes a lawyer, gets married and settles in his life. He used God's provisions meant to pay for his medical studies on 'law studies instead'. Suddenly, as his life goes on, his law practice does not function anymore,he does not get clients, he can barely get by... God decided to stop the provision in Bobby's life, because every provision was supporting a destiny that Bobby was never supposed to live. God wanted to use Bobby in the medical field. Based on Matthew 7:21, Bobby is a candidate to hell and God stops the provision in order to stir Bobby towards the right path...Bobby'soul is more important to God than his career. After all, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul? (reference Mark 8:36) Unless Bobby catches a 'wake up' call, he will forfeit his soul...' When I use the term provision, I do not only refer to just 'gold,money or silver'. In my text, the word 'provision' refers to any manifest blessing from Heaven; it could be 'good health',food, intelligence, relationships, protection, money as well, and many other forms of manifest blessings. For the sake of keeping certain believers souls on the road to Heaven, God is willing to stop the provision from raining. Certain believers get sick, because they used their good health to commit sin and hurt people. Certain separated couples do not experience the blessings they used to have, because God is working at getting them together by shutting the heavens (reference Malachi 2:13-16). For certain believers, nothing works anymore, because if God keeps responding favorably to their prayers, they will use their gifts to support a lifestyle opposing God's will. Certain believers died before their time, because if God had to add another day in their lives, they would use it on a lifestyle that would lead to hell. Notice that James wrote: 'When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.' The word 'pleasure' does not only refer to the commonly publicized vices but it is inclusive of ALL our desires that work against the will of God for our individual lives and not just vices. A believer may not be committing any specific vice and yet through his/her disobedient lifestyle, he/she may go to hell. A quick note on tithing and offering: I have seen people believe that their tithing, offering or their gifts will be enough to wipe out sin in their lives. This is a seriously dangerous way of thinking. The passages of Matthew 5:23-24, Malachi 2:13-16, 1 Samuel 15:22, all clearly explain that God prefer a lifestyle of obedience and holiness above sacrifice (tithes,offerings, gifts). As much as our giving matters, it does not act as 'wiping clothe' that erases disobedience. I have seen certain believers act that way: 'they clearly choose their own path while knowing the will of God and then, in order to intentionally 'buy God' on their side, they give large amount of money to ministries. No my friend, your soul must reach Heaven. Giving is good but we all have to align our lives with the will of God. Does God's tactic always work? No. Unfortunately, God's tactic does not always realize the original intent of saving His people because of an element called 'free will'. The story of the prophet Jonah clearly illustrates the point of my article: 'Jonah was a prophet, a gifted believer like many of us. One day, he receives an order from God to preach to a city called Nineveh, but instead, Jonah refuses and goes to Tarshish city. He even pays a boat ticket to travel to that city. Please note that during that time, prophets were working at full time basis for the Lord. And Jonah takes the money (or the blessing) he receives through his ministry to finance disobedience! In his tactic, to get a believer on the right track, God removes protection on Jonah's life by sending a storm during Jonah's journey. It prompts the sailors ,he traveled with, to throw him in the sea. In the sea, a fish swallowed Jonah. For three days, Jonah stayed in the fish. On the third day, he makes a prayer of repentance...Some people would have repented on the first day, and some would have even repented in the boat before being thrown in the sea. It took Jonah three days to repent. In the same way that Jonah was reluctant to change, we sometimes persist in our disobedient lifestyle even when God shuts the Heavens. Our free will gets the best of us... If Jonah had not repented, he would not have gone back on the right track. God's tactic of shutting the heavens is also a sign or a 'wake up' call to get us back on the right track to Heaven and away from hell. Unfortunately, certain believers persist. They are the ones who go to church and say 'lord,lord' but refuse to do his will. They are the churchgoers who will go to hell unless they repent and submit to the will of God. Ask and you will receive always: We don't receive from God because we use the provision to support a disobedient lifestyle but if we align our life with the will of God, we will receive as John wrote in 1 John 3:21-22: 'Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.' In God's eyes, reaching Heaven is more important than gaining the world and its riches.