Prayers : Part 19

Today, we continue our discussion of the prayer of faith, also known as petition prayer. Prayer is one the most specific ways that God reveals himself to us or, stated another way, for us to come into the knowledge of God. God has one purpose for prayer – for Him to answer. However, the enemy works overtime to keep us deceived into not receiving from God. God intends that we receive whatever it is we ask for when we pray, which is why the enemy works hard to warp people’s perceptions so that they stay away from the prayer of faith.

You must believe that you receive when you pray.

The prayer of faith springs from Mark 11:24. When you pray the prayer faith, you are not simply asking God for something, you are making a demand upon God for something in the face of a hostile enemy. When you pray the prayer of faith, you must believe that you receive what you “demand” from God at the very moment you pray. Believe is the same thing as faith in the bible. We must make faith a verb in the context of the Word. What must you believe (or faith)? That you receive at that moment the desires you are praying about. You cannot believe that you receive from God before you pray. You cannot believe that you receive from God after you pray. If you do, your prayers won’t be effective. You have to believe that you receive what you pray for by faith when you pray.

How do you know whether you are in faith when you pray? The first test is you only ask once for your petition (Matthew 6:5-8). Praying over and over is proof that you that you did not receive when you prayed. You should never be tempted to ask again if you received when you prayed. The second test is that you should act like you already have what you requested from God. You should be bold, confident and, most importantly, excited! If you are truly a faith person, you don’t get excited when the thing you prayed for manifests in the physical realm. Faith is acting on what you believe (James 2:17). Therefore, your excitement comes from receiving your request when you prayed. In other words, if received by faith when you prayed, you don’t talk about what you don’t have. You are excited because you already have it.

Faith is all-important in our relationship with God.

In Hebrews 11:1, hope is the same as expectation. Therefore, faith is the substance or materiality of things expected. Why are things expected? They are expected because God has already provided. Faith also is the proof or the evidence of things not seen. You have to “see” by faith. This means you see what is in the spiritual realm and ignore what is in the physical realm. You cannot reject your faith because if you do, then the thing that you prayed for won’t manifest in the physical realm. Before what you prayed for shows up in the physical realm, you have to be prepared for people asking if you are going to be a faith person. You have to be ready for people asking you questions like, “Where is that thing you prayed for?” You cannot get distracted by other people’s questions. To walk by faith, you have to be blind to everything except God. There is power in faith because we are putting our confidence in God to produce the things that we request from Him.

Faith needs to be more real than the things we request.

Living a lifestyle of faith means that you don’t waste your time explaining yourself to other people, you don’t worry about other people’s opinions and you don’t try to fit in. You must have faith as your substance or evidence. God makes affliction work for you when you become a believer, but only if you look at the things which are not seen (2 Corinthians 4: 8, 17-18). Faith works for us as long as we are not conformed to the world (Romans 12:2). You must ignore the facts in light of the truth of the Word of God. Faith should be more real than the things we see. The promises of God are “eternal.” The time while we wait works for us. Faith is what keeps a person going, not things.