Another class of people whose prayers the Lord will not hear is the selfish heart who prays with the impure motive of gratifying lustful pleasures of the flesh. James 4:3 reads, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” The King James translates it, “…that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Many people who profess to be a Christian think that God wants us to be wealthy, healthy, and saved and all that remains is our prayer of faith. However, the stress, the context of Paul’s prayers, and the character of all teaching is on the spiritual.
If we were to compare the prayers of Paul for saints, his words were predominantly spiritual requests. It had nothing to do with owning cars, houses, businesses, etc. For example, he writes Rome that his prayer is for their salvation (Rom. 10:1). He prays for the spirit of unity among saints (Rom. 15:5-6), spiritual wisdom, and knowledge of Christ (Eph. 1:17-19, Col. 1:3-14), for spiritual joy and peace (Rom. 15:13), spiritual maturity (2 Cor. 13:7-9), purity (Phil. 1:10), an enlightened heart to know the hope, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his great power for us who believe (Eph. 1:15-23), to be strengthened with power (cf. Eph. 3:14-21), to know the love of Christ and grow in discernment, and to be filled with the fruit of righteousness (Phil. 1:11). The reason for this is because our affections are on things above (cf. Col. 3) as our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). This spiritual realm is where the fight is waged. Life is short-sighted and empty to live in the carnal, material world. This is also why the Bible is such a unique book.
Furthermore, the carnal man is always positioned to be the opposite of the spiritual man. Paul explains it in Romans 8:5-8. It reads, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Several examples show that gifts from God are not in accordance with the carnal. When Paul speaks of blessings and gifts from God, he speaks of spiritual gifts. In 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, we read, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” They didn’t lack in any gift, but these gifts were spiritual gifts but physical gifts. To the saints in Galatia, Paul prays that Jesus Christ be with their spirit (Gal. 6:18). Ephesians 1:3-10 opens with, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” He tells the Philippians, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Phil. 4:23).
Therefore, when a carnal mind prays for the request of a carnal heart, his prayers are not heard by the eternal divine Spirit.