The Prayer God Promises to Answer

In The Prayer God Promises to Answer – Hosea 14, we explore a unique moment in Scripture where God doesn’t just call His people to return — He gives them the exact words to say. Hosea’s story, marked by a heartbreaking marriage to an unfaithful wife, mirrors God’s relentless love for a wandering Israel. Despite betrayal and repeated backsliding, His desire is to heal, restore, and love freely. In Hosea 14:2–3, God outlines a prayer that reaches beyond actions to transform the very nature of our hearts. This episode unpacks the difference between sin and iniquity, the necessity of tearing down idols, and the power of offering God the praise that’s rightfully His. Whether you feel distant from God or stuck in cycles you can’t break, this prayer is His invitation to come home — with the promise that He will answer.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the Press Movement Podcast. Let's hop over to the book of Hosea.

There's only one prayer we're going to be covering in Hosea, and I cannot believe we are only weeks away from making it to the New Testament. For those of you that have been following this podcast, we have been going through virtually every prayer in the Bible, and it has been a way to study nearly the whole Bible. And now, as we approach the New Testament, I'm just really excited to see what we'll learn next.

So, from the book of Hosea, the prayer is in Hosea chapter 14, verses 2 and 3. It says, The name Hosea means deliverer. He was the son of Biri, which means my well or my fountain. We truly don't know much about him except for it is commonly assumed that he was from the north, northern Israel, and he would have been familiar with the conditions that Israel was facing, the evil conditions.

He would have understood where they were as a people, how far from God they had gotten. Some believe that this book is a book of allegory, and I believe you'll see why as we talk about it. I didn't mean to laugh, but if it's not allegory, this is one of the most disturbing stories in the Bible.

Because the way this book starts is that the Lord commands Hosea to marry a woman of whoredoms. He's basically marrying a prostitute, and he is commanded to have children with this person. He does that, and the Bible just records their interactions with one another and their children.

If you look in chapter 1, the first child she had was a boy, and his name was Jezreel. He was called that because the Lord said, So he named his son according to how God was going to take vengeance and destroy Israel. Then he has a daughter, and his daughter's name is Lorahama, and this name was chosen because the Lord said, He says, I will have mercy on the house of Judah.

After Lorahama, his wife has another baby, Loahmi. Loahmi is a boy, and his name was chosen because God said, His name was chosen to symbolize rejection from God. As you look at the book of Hosea, you see how his wife steps out on him.

She goes back to her old ways, goes back to her old life, and yet he's constantly pursuing relationship with her. I don't know if this is a book of allegory or if it's literal that the Lord had him do this, but I will say that when you're in a good, healthy relationship, the man does want to take care and protect the woman that God has given him. He wants to be a provider, and he wants to care for you, and he wants to have you to himself, and that's really what you see with Hosea, what he's trying to be to this woman, but she wants to chase other things and people who will just use her in her old life.

It kind of reminded me of a show that I watch on occasion, and it's a very G-rated show, but in it, the woman had been in a life of prostitution, and a man, a good man, chooses to marry her, and it's a very, very old show. They don't show any scenes of intimacy or even in the conversation, the way they handle this is delicately, but what you still see out of this woman is how she eventually leaves her husband to go find herself, and she takes the child with her because she's restless. She's used to her old way of life.

God chose this path for Hosea because He was showing Hosea what He was feeling in regards to the children of Israel, how many times they chose not to be cared for, not to be protected, not to be provided for because they just wanted their old way of life, and yet God keeps reaching for them. Chapters 4 through 13 really describe the backsliding or the cheating that the people of Israel did on God and the idolatry and how the people mingled with things that were anti the Lord, and He keeps coming for them with threatenings and exhortations. In other words, He's angry, but He's in love.

I think it's so amazing that God looks at us like that, that He can be angry with us. He can have every reason to walk away, but when He looks at us, He's still in love, and so even in His anger, there's a love attached to it. There's an underlying love that guides how He handles us, and that is what is demonstrated in the marriage of Hosea.

I wonder how many of us would be willing to enter a relationship and stay committed to a relationship where somebody's not committed to you. Now, some of us have done it where you've been cheated on or circumstances have come about, but to know going in that this is the way it's going to be, they're never going to be faithful, they're never going to be steady. Most of us would not sign up for that.

Most of us, that would be something we wanted changed before we got into the relationship, before we fell in love, but God has entered a relationship with us knowing that there would be some unsteady times. There may have even been some cheating on our parts, and yet He still chose us, and no matter what, He really, really, really wants to be in a relationship with you. Now, I think as we get into the New Testament, we'll also see God has some stopping points where He's done, and He's really, really done, but in Hosea chapter 14, that's not the case because after this whole chapter, He's now getting to the place where He wants them to turn, and He's not just telling them to turn, He's giving them the how to do it.

He gives them the prayer when He says in verse 2, here's what you say to me, take away all iniquity. First of all, Lord, clean me up, and iniquity is different than sin. Iniquity is a noun.

Sin can be an action or something you do. It can even be a mistake, but iniquity is more a state of being. It's evil, perverse, faulty.

It's guilt or the punishment of iniquity. He's saying, change my state of being. Ask me to change how you are.

When you start to feel like I can't be committed to God, I can't be steady, it's okay to ask Him to change how you are. Then He says, and receive us graciously. In other words, be kind as I'm changing.

God, you be kind. He tells them that says, so will we render the calves of our lips. That word calf is actually a calf, like a bull, bullock.

But it's saying, promise Him then your sacrifice. Promise to give Him the praise. Promise to give Him the glory.

And then it's time to deal with the things you set up in His place. You have to realize Asher is not going to save you. In this instance, Asher is Assyria.

He says, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. You are our gods. They would have thought, Assyria, this country's big.

They're tough. They're going to help us out. And they made their own gods and said, these are powerful beings.

But He's saying, everything you put in my place, everything that's taken my seat, tear it down. This prayer stands out to me, one, because it's scripted for us. It's telling us what God wants when you're really trying to run back to Him.

When you're done with the alternatives and you're done with the backsliding, you're done with the up and down, you're done with the cheating. One, you turn and you ask Him to take away not just the action, but the nature that caused the action. And you ask Him to receive you graciously.

You ask for mercy and you sacrifice to Him what's His, with the fruit of your lips and your actions. And you recognize the things that I tried to use as a substitute, that I tried to make strong in my life. They're not strong without you, God.

I don't want them. They're not even competition for you. And He knows how to find the ones who are fatherless, who have no direction, have no support, no safety.

Whatever you've been going out looking for, He says, I'm the one that those people find mercy with. And He gives them the prayer, planning to answer it. I just think that's amazing.

In the New Testament, we'll see that the Holy Ghost makes intercession for us according to Romans 8. Sometimes with groanings and utterings that we can't even explain. It talks for us. It gets in the middle.

Here, they didn't have the Holy Ghost in that form yet, where it came and dwelt inside you like it did after the book of Acts. But what they did have was a script, a prayer He planned to answer. He said, when you come to me this way, I'll heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely for my anger is turned away from Him. He makes it very clear here that when you keep backsliding, when you keep finding yourself slipping away, one, you need to be healed. To me, that is so amazing and comforting and loving because He could say judged because you don't make sense.

But instead, He says healed. And He plans to love or healed you, to heal you, to love you. And all you got to do is choose Him and follow the script.

I hope this has been encouraging to you. I hope you remember that prayer reaches every single situation. So keep pressing.

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Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer. It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

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