Is It Then Possible If I Do Not Cooperate with God in Prayer for a Thing, to Thwart the Will of God from Happening Concerning That Thing?
1) Direct Answer
No—you cannot overthrow God’s sovereign purpose. But yes—if you refuse to pray, you can forfeit or delay the manifestation for yourself, invite chastening, or be passed by while God fulfills His will through another.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- God’s sovereign counsel stands: “No purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2); “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10); “None can stay His hand” (Daniel 4:35).
- Yet God ties many outcomes to prayer and faith: “You have not, because you ask not” (James 4:2). In Nazareth, “He did not many mighty works… because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).
- God looks for intercessors to stay judgment: “I sought for a man… to stand in the gap… but I found none. Therefore I have poured out My indignation” (Ezekiel 22:30–31).
- Intercession changes what we experience: Moses stood in the breach and God spared the people (Exodus 32:11–14; Numbers 14:19–20).
- If one vessel refuses, God raises another: “If you hold your peace… deliverance… shall arise to the Jews from another place; but you… shall be destroyed” (Esther 4:14).
- God sometimes permits a lesser path when men resist His higher will (Numbers 22; Psalm 106:15; 1 Samuel 8:7,22), but that does not overturn His ultimate purpose.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Think of two levels. God’s unchangeable purpose cannot be stopped. But your share in that purpose often comes through the door of prayer. If you won’t use the key, the door may not open for you—yet God will still open a door somewhere to complete His plan.
- Prayerlessness doesn’t make God weak; it simply rejects the very means God ordained for you to receive. That’s why Scripture says, “Ask,” and warns that unbelief can limit what God does in a place.
4) Reinforcing Statement
So don’t stand aside and lose your portion. Pray the promise. God will do His will—but He calls you to be the vessel through which it comes.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Does God ever change His mind about His Word?
65-0418E §96
But God's little group is his bride, centered on that Word. May the dear heavenly Father ever keep you stabilized right there. Don't you never move from that Word. You may bless, you may... God may heal your sick. He may heal your sick baby, He may heal your husband, your wife, He may heal your mother, somebody else. You may jump at his Spirit and dance up and down. Remember, the rain falls on the just and the unjust, just the same. But when that seed's laying there, it's either ordained or it's not ordained. And i...
An Exodus
56-0615 §80
And I want to know, my sinner friend, if you'll just raise up your hand to Christ just now, and say, "By this, Brother Branham, I ask you to pray for me as a sinner. I want to meet God in peace." Will you raise your hand? God bless you. God bless you. Someone else? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. How many here is without Christ, without being born again? Raise your hands. God bless you. If you believe He hears my prayer... Do you really believe it? Every person in here that desires me to pray for you,...
A Paradox
65-0117 §10
But it's much better, if you're not in that emergency state, that you---that you will just take your creeds, and your beliefs, and just push them aside a few minutes---just long enough to listen to what the scripture says, and then what God does about what He promised. And that'll build faith. And you won't even need to be in a prayer line, or no one pray for you. You're already healed, if you could just believe it, see. And that's the purpose of it, is to let you, is to bring in conscious to you, that what Jesus h...
Trying to do God a service without it being God's will
65-1127B §60
Now, but God has His Word set, and has in all ages. His foreknowledge has caused Him to set in the church, and in the people, certain things that He did from the beginning. And then the gospel that's being preached to that age is only revealed to that certain people. The rest of them don't see it. See? "Thank thee, Father, thou has hid these things from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and reveal it to babes such as would learn." That's predestination. Not that He did it by, you say, "I'll choose you, and don't ch...
Does God ever change His mind about His Word?
65-0418E §105
That's truly my prayer, till we meet again. God bless you. And now I'm going to ask our precious Brother Neville if he'll dismiss this fine congregation. God love you, each one. I'm so thankful to have people like you all. What would my message be if I had nobody that believed it? And there's people here, you'd die for it. May God help you, each one. My prayers are with you, my blessings go with each one of you. May you not forget that you're part in that resurrection. The quickening power is now in you. It's all s...