12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have   chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 ” If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and  My people who  are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 ” Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer  {offered} in this place. 16 “For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

• The place God chooses for a house of sacrifice is a clean, pure heart.
• Heavens that are shut up are evil, impure hearts that cannot hear God’s voice.
• God hears our prayers and forgives and heals only “if” we humble ourselves, seek His face and repent of our sins.
• Seeking God’s face symbolically refers to listening to his spoken voice.
• Wicked ways refer to the sin of religion.
• The house that is consecrated is the clean, pure heart of a New Covenant disciple.
• The land that is healed is evil, impure hearts.
• See the Place Where God Will Place His Name.

12 Who is the man who desires life And loves {length of} days that he may see good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil And your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. 15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are {open} to their cry. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, To cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 {The righteous} cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

• The life to be desired is the spiritual life attained by people who hear God’s spoken voice.
• To keep the tongue from evil and speaking deceit means means to avoid preaching, teaching and practicing religion because religion is sin and religion is deception.
• God’s eyes are on the righteous (i.e. New Covenant disciples) and He hears their cries for deliverance from oppression by religious people — especially religious leaders.

18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. 19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. 20 The LORD keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.  

8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.

29 The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

Here is what ADONAI says: “Observe justice, do what is right, for my salvation is close to coming, my righteousness to being revealed.” 2 Happy is the person who does this, anyone who grasps it firmly, who keeps Shabbat and does not profane it, and keeps himself from doing any evil. 3 A foreigner joining ADONAI should not say, “ADONAI will separate me from his people”; likewise the eunuch should not say, “I am only a dried-up tree.” 4 For here is what ADONAI says: “As for the eunuchs who keep my Shabbats, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant: 5 in my house, within my walls, I will give them power and a name greater than sons and daughters; I will give him an everlasting name that will not be cut off. 6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to ADONAI to serve him, to love the name of ADONAI, and to be his workers, all who keep Shabbat and do not profane it, and hold fast to my covenant, 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

God outlines here many of the conditions by which He draws His people close to Him on His Holy Mountain and by which He accepts their offerings – including the offering of prayer:

• See Sabbath, Fasting and Rest and the Third Commandment for understanding of fasting.
• Loosening the bonds of wickedness means to set people free from religion.
• See  Messiahs,   Religion is the Enemy and Religion is Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction.
• These scriptures confirm what God said in Isaiah 56:1-7 regarding the benefits of holding to His Sabbaths.
• Giving yourself to the hungry means to speak for God to people who cannot hear his spoken voice.
• To call out for God means to desire to hear his spoken voice.

21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, `YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and `Whoever commits murder shall be to the court.’ 22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, `You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, `You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. 25 “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. 15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

See this link for more about Jesus’ works.

In the Bible, names usually have meanings that reflect character. So, when we are told to be “conformed to the image of His son” (Romans 8:29), we are being told to be conformed into the “character” of Christ. And, with respect to prayer, being in His character is a condition for answered prayer. To be in His character, we always need to be ready to die to our old sinful character of practicing the sin of religion.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

See Love and this link for understanding of love.

There are several concrete manifestations to abiding:

• Bear much lasting fruit. See this link for understanding of fruit.
• Show that we are New Covenant disciples .
• Hear and obey God’s commands.
• Remain in Jesus’ love
• The joy that is in Jesus is in us fully.
• Love one another by laying down our lives for one another
• Show that we are friends of Jesus by doing what He commands us to do.
• Hear/learn what Jesus heard/learned from His Heavenly Father
• Love one another.

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance   have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect   and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded   man, unstable in all his ways.

With regard to prayer, the common interpretation of this scripture is that people should ask God for wisdom about the topics for which they should pray. This is a wrong interpretation.

What we should ask for is wisdom to interpret the spiritual meaning of literal scripture. See Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 1, Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part and Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 3.

Basically, what we should ask for is the ability to hear God’s spoken voice. This is the marker of New Covenant disciples .

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Public confession and repentance for practicing the sin of religion is a precondition of answered prayer. Righteousness of both the one who is prayed for and the one who is praying is necessary for effective prayer.

See Sickness, Disease, Blindness, and Deafness for understanding of sickness and healing.

See this link of what it means to be raised up.

See Messiahs for understanding of anointing.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

Having God’s truth in us is the same  thing as having his laws written on our hearts.

The sin which we will deny is the sin of religion.

19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him 20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

See this link for understanding of conviction of sin.

14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

God’s will is fulfilled when his laws are written on our hearts. Before that happens, God does not listen to our prayers. After his laws are written on our hearts we pray according to the terms of the The Lord’s Prayer.