Prayers : Part 25

We continued our study of the prayer of faith, also known as petition prayer. Remember, the prayer of faith only works for you and you alone, not for anyone else. That’s because the prayer of faith is an individual prayer between a believer and God. What makes the prayer of faith work? Faith makes it work. Prayer does not make faith work. You can’t get faith by praying. If you aren’t getting answers to your prayers, don’t blame God. The problem could be that you have a hole in your faith.

Believe That You Receive Now!

The hallmark scripture for the prayer of faith is Mark 11:24: “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” As we have already learned, the key to the prayer of faith is that you must believe at the moment you pray that you receive the “things” you desire. If you do this, the consequence will be that “you will have them.” Stated another way, for a believer, to pray it is to have it. It’s that simple!

Know Your Inheritance.

A key step in the prayer of faith is that you must know your inheritance. To know your inheritance, you have to study the Word of God because it contains all of the promises that we are entitled to as believers in Jesus Christ. You can go boldly to the throne of grace when you understand your inheritance from the Word because you know how to pray in line with the will of God.

Faith is Your Proof.

Once you pray the prayer of faith, believing that you receive at the moment you pray, all you need is faith because it is your proof that you have it. The only difference between having the proof (faith) and having the thing itself is time. Here’s a practical example of how this works. Let’s say Pastor Rick is setting up an office in his home. He needs furniture for his office so he goes to the store to buy it. At the store, Pastor Rick pays for the furniture and he gets a receipt. He’s told that his furniture will be delivered to his home in the future. Immediately, Pastor Rick gets excited! Why is he excited? Because he has his receipt, which means he knows that his furniture is coming! He doesn’t focus on what he can see right now because he has his receipt. So, Pastor Rick goes home and prepares his office by getting rid of his old things to make room for his new furniture. In other words, he acts like he knows that his furniture will show up by preparing for its arrival.

It works the same way with faith. In spiritual realm, your faith is your receipt. It is your proof that you have the thing for which you prayed. If you know something is coming, you have your line your life up for what is coming. You have to do something! Because he believed that his new furniture was already there, Pastor Rick started getting rid of his old things right away in preparation for his new furniture showing up. You have to act the same way with your faith after you pray the prayer of faith. Because your faith is your proof, you have to prepare for the “thing” that is going to manifest in your life. You must act like you know that thing will manifest itself because your faith is your receipt. You have to move out the old to make room for the new. The awesome thing about God is that, while you prepare, the “thing” will show up!

Line Your Life Up With Your Faith

Lining up your life with faith requires that you keep guard over your thoughts. As 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 exhorts us to do: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Your mind is the determining factor for how far you will go in life so you must measure your thoughts against the Word of God. If your thoughts aren’t right, then you must bring them into the captivity of Jesus Christ. To do this, you must talk the Word (Psalms 1:1-3). You must meditate on the Word. As Joshua 1:8 says “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.” You can’t live your life by what you see and hear in the natural.

You cannot complain while you wait for the thing you prayed for to manifest. You have to speak the Word. For example, you have to speak Matthew 19:26, “With God all things are possible!” Nothing is more powerful in your life than your words. Hebrews 10:22-23 says “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” When you have God’s teaching in you, you will be fully assured. Having a true heart means having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water. To hold fast to your confession of faith means that you don’t confess doubt or change because of the circumstances, but you hold fast to your faith in God. You also can’t waiver because when you waiver, you cause a hole in your faith. Instead, you have to exercise the faith that you have so that your faith can increase.

You also have to carefully watch your associations in order to line your life up with your faith. Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” The people you associate with will have an impact on you, whether negatively or positively. Proverbs 13:20 says “He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.” If you a sharp and you associate with someone who is dull, you will become dull. It only takes a little bit of bad to contaminate something that is good, as 1 Corinthian 5:6 says “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” Associations are either supporting you in what you need to do or they are preventing you from doing what you need to do. The people you associate with should build you up and vice versa. God told us to be witnesses to people. Are you obeying God in your associations? To be serious about lining your life up with your faith, you must be serious about your associations.