Today, we look at the second category of prayer:
2. A Prayer of Faith: Jesus said, "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." This verse describes the prayer of faith. One needs to grasp the idea that Jesus' Words are spiritually alive and not dead; John wrote that Jesus spoke these Words to His disciples and He speaks them to His disciples today. The word "believe" means to "believe, have faith in, trust." What are we to trust in? We are to have trust in Jesus' Words; we are to believe that what He said in this verse is in fact His Words as recorded by John; and if so, they are eternal Words that can be relied on. The word "believe" is a verb in the present tense, imperative mood and active voice. This means that it is a command to do something which involves continuous or repeated action. This means that you are commanded (not requested) to believe and keep believing until you receive the answer to your prayers knowing that if they are according to His Word, the result is guaranteed. It should be recognized that it is quite impossible to command someone to have a mental belief, but it is obviously possible to command someone to act faithfully, i.e. to demonstrate trust. We are to continue to act faithfully regardless of our perceived response to our prayers from a Sovereign God. We are to continue to trust in God's Word even when the circumstances look contrary and this will be observable through our actions. The prayer of faith is to stand in agreement with God’s Word notwithstanding the observable. It is most important to understand the necessity of corresponding actions with prayer. Our standing in agreement with God is not motionless. There will be no faith without action; mental assent is insufficient alone.
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