The royal official said to Him, Sir, come down before my little child dies. Jesus said to Him, Go, your son lives. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way.... his slaves met him and said that his child was living... and he believed, he and his whole house.
–John 4:49-50, 51b, 53b
What, then, is the purpose of prayer? The purpose of prayer is to have a two-way conversation with God. Prayer is to speak and listen to God. Through prayer we speak to God, sharing with Him our thoughts, desires, concerns, and requests (Philippians 4:6). Through prayer He also shares with us His thoughts, desires, concerns, and requests. Our need is to believe that whatever He says is true and trustworthy.
It's imperative that we believe God's word whenever it comes to us. That's because if we don't believe then His word won't be fulfilled. It's not that He can't do it, but it's that He won't unless we believe. We can infer that if the royal official hadn't believed Jesus' word then he would have gone home and discovered that his son was still sick. Was it because the Lord's power wasn't enough to heal the sick child? Of course not! It would have been because of the official's lack of belief. Jesus makes this point very clear in the following verse:
...and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.
Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, let it be done to you.
And their eyes were opened...
–Matthew 9:28-30a
This brings up an important point, which is that God's word doesn't only come to us through our individual prayer/conversations with Him. A response from the Lord to our prayers often comes to us when we read the Bible. This shouldn't be a surprise since the Bible is often called the word of God. As we read the Bible, certain verses or phrases will often jump off the page and we have the sensation that this is God's current speaking to us! What should we do in such an instance? Believe it! It is our believing of His word when it comes to us that makes it our experience. He says, "Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28)." Can it be so simple? "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever... (John 4:14)" Never ever thirst again? "...the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7b)." Every sin? Really? Well, if we doubt in our hearts then His word will not become our experience. Believe His word!
Lastly, God's word can also come to us through other people. We need to be clear that God can speak through anyone. It could be a heart-to-heart fellowship with a fellow believer or it could be a piece of unsolicited advice from an unbelieving co-worker. Both could be the Lord's present speaking to us. What we need to do is discern whether what we've heard is the His speaking or if it's simply man's opinion. We do this by having a prayerful spirit as we listen to others. "Lord, is this you speaking? Is this what you're saying to me?" When we're clear that what we've heard is the Lord speaking to us, then all that's left to do is believe what He has said and praise Him for it.