Firstly, bear in mind that what you don’t know or fully understand, you can’t deploy or utilise effectively. A matter is only a mystery for as long as something about it is not yet known or properly understood. The difference between the results commanded by Mr. A and Miss B is not just in their environment but in (and not just who they are, but) what they each know and deploy. Scripture says God’s people suffer not because circumstances are too hard but because of the requisite knowledge they lack (Hos. 4:6).

When you go in to pray with mere religious assumptions that you know what you want to pray for and how to go about it, you will very likely leave with the cycle of confusion and guesses between what is accurate and what’s not. Because: what you need to pray for might be more than what you know as a need; how you are probably going about it might be different from how you ‘should’ go about it.

Secondly, you need basic ‘prayer education’. This might not sound popular to many Christian folks, and I don’t know if many churches or religious gatherings teach such, but I know I have read them in books. Different authors can’t just be ‘accurately guessing’ on the same matter. Get yourself books on How to Pray. Read, read and read again; then follow them one at a time again as a student going in between lines. Effective prayer particularly.
There are many reasons people miss out on receiving answers in prayers, I have a few here:
● People are in a rush, they are impatient.
● People pray with emotions instead of with faith.
● People pray just with words of the pastors/prophets instead of with the Scriptures.
● People generally assume they know God’s will regarding a matter they are praying for, hence putting prayer pressure on a matter they are yet to be certain on Divine will.
● People limit their prayer points/needs/approaches to some ‘prayer booklets’ which have been tailored by an author somewhere, hence their true prayer needs are masked.
And so on…
There are many things that will be solved if people will choose to gain prayer education. A lot is taught on prosperity and deliverance as well as positive confessions and mindset, but people have to take personal steps to learn some basic things on prayer for themselves. Prayer is not just learnt by praying, you learn it by understanding and applying the protocols of prayer. This is why most ‘prayer warriors’ are not necessarily the best prayer coaches. The Word coaches you. They may teach you stamina in prayer, but as for accuracy and effectiveness, not really. Get it right: you need stamina to draw from the enduring impact of tarrying in prayer, but how good does it do you to tarry with ineffectiveness? However, it would be a blast to combine accuracy with stamina.
An example of a benefit of prayer education: “I love the Lord” is not saying the same thing as “I love you Lord”; and “He is Lord of all” is not saying same thing as “You’re the Lord of my all…”
Now, while you might think prayer is in the heart and that God sees your heart, don’t also forget that prayer is to be spoken and not thought or imagined. While teaching them on prayer, Jesus said ‘when ye pray SAY…’ (Lk. 11:2)
Referring to my examples above; between ‘I love the girl’ and ‘I love you girl’, which is more intimate and likely to bring results? Professing ‘He is Lord of all’ is an acknowledgement while ‘You’re the Lord of my all’ is not just a confession but a statement of surrender. However, these nust be real in the heart as they sound on the lips to be true worship. You see, because we understand less, we apply less, hence we see less results. This is what most people use in almost every aspects of their prayer lives – guesses and assumptions! This misunderstanding impairs faith. And you wonder why sometimes you get results and other times you hang! God is not a gambler, and does not give a Word He’s not ready to uphold. Humans miss it from their end.
Finally (though there are more not covered here), misappropriation of scriptures! Taking scriptures out of context to make them say what God is not saying! I think those in the ministrations of the prophetic often fall short in this aspect. The Word is not your word; it’s God’s Word! Manipulating it to suite your demands is wrong use of the Word. Never in scripture does He promise to back His Word taken out of context. You may press, and even linger, but if you are ‘out of joint’, my dear sorry, you won’t have His backing. Your expectations will crash! Simple. Most of the times you felt God failed you is because you didn’t think well. It’s actually ignorance that failed you.

Faith is not a feeling, but can be expressed in feelings. So, that you have a very strong feeling about a matter does not mean you have strong faith about it. Faith is a resident conviction on a matter, that can push you to act. But actions don’t necessarily mean active faith. Exuberance is also not faith. Enthusiasm is as well not faith. These all may be stirred by faith, but faith is not necessarily stirred by them. You can’t stir faith by faking things. Only the Word stirs faith. Without the Word, you may have mere motivation. But faith is a grip, not just a motivation. And like I say often: when you will experience faith it will be clear to you that you never really had it all the time you thought you did.
So while you want to throw in the towel, I advice that you channel that energy into prayer education. Prevailing prayers are lacking more today than they were three decades ago. We have more ‘outsourcing’ of our spiritual responsibilities now than before, because people are reluctant to learn the art (not just the act) of prayer.

(Meanwhile I have a short voice note on this matter you can listen to via this link: https://clyp.it/y1qg1zno)