Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:24
This past week David and I engaged in an event requiring ongoing and extensive prayer for another. As I was talking through the specific needs one morning with David, he made this comment, “I am not just praying, I am believing”.
I was impacted once again to make sure that in times of prayer we aren’t simply found mouthing words, or even quoting what ‘the word’ says but that there is the conscious reality of believing what is being asked.
In this season where God is working to restore hearts (read, trusting God, once again) through this place of fellowship in times of worship and prayer; it is not simply a call to worship and prayer, but a call to return to Him, believing that He is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Andrew Murray wrote in his book, With Christ in the School of Prayer, ‘Before the Lord with silence in your soul, ask…’
What is really my desire?
Do I desire it in faith, expecting to receive an answer?
Am I ready to present it to the Father and leave it there?
Is there agreement between God and me that I will get an answer?
If we are not careful the worship and prayer can become a religious duty like so many others that lead to a tradition and become a form of godliness without the power. Worship and prayer must touch our hearts! God demands from each of us the faith that acknowledges He is God and there is no other before Him. Thus He says, without faith it is impossible to please Him.
Prayer has a two edged sword, dividing soul and spirit. There is the processing of the unbelief that is held in my heart. The word divides the soul (our mind, will, emotions) and what is carried in my heart. Lord I believe, help my unbelief can only be resolved through the attention I give to the renewing of mind and the condition of heart.
On a side note ~ I’ve been studying the worship of God, from John 4, in spirit and in truth. Noting from Thessalonians without a love for truth we are given over to delusion and destroyed. If, and it is, Gods word is truth, if Jesus, and He is, the way and the truth.. these must be held and nurtured daily. Turned away from looking at the perfect law of liberty and beholding Him, we begin to become dull, dull of hearing and that is a slippery slope.
So, prayer, not just prayer but believing prayer, must begin with the knowledge that what we ask is right before the Father. We know what we want, but we must take the time to consider what the Father is working in and through these moments of our lives and come into agreement with Him.
In every situation there is the trying of our faith. We are being tested and Peter wrote that in this place of believing we are to add certain qualities to our faith, 1 Peter 2: 5-8, noting that when these are possessed we are neither ineffective or unproductive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Presumption, self willed words, are iniquities that our Father will not answer. Thank God!
A prayer prayed believing doesn’t grow weary in the wait but is strengthened through our thanksgiving that we have committed this to our Father and we rest believing He is at work.
This is the work that you must do, believe…..John 6:28.
Lord, teach us to pray!