Over the years, as a minister of the Gospel and teacher of God’s Word, I have spent countless hours studying prayer, formulating lessons on prayer, and — of course — praying. I have an entire curriculum on the subject that I use when I conduct Prayer Schools throughout the year. So, needless to say, I could write for hours and hours on the subject. But today I don’t want to write for hours. I want to share just one very important truth. So here goes:
We pray for all kinds of reasons: worship, fellowship with the Lord, asking for blessings, asking for help, interceding for others. And the Lord is glad to hear from us and welcomes us as the dear children that we are. But there is one kind of prayer that pleases Him more than any others. One kind of prayer that thrills His own heart and, at the same time, opens the channel wide for His answer to get through to us. What kind of prayer always pleases the Father?
When we pray His Word, our prayers are a delight to His heart. No matter what the subject of our prayer is, when we pray the Word, we are praying in faith, because it’s His Word that has taught us His promises. Now, when I say “pray the Word,” I do not mean we have to quote chapter and verse and use King James English, reciting passages perfectly. I mean we have to know for sure what God says about our particular situation that needs prayer. And we need to come to Him with those promises or provisions in our hearts and on our tongues. We can use our own vernacular and our own way of expressing those truths and promises. But we have to KNOW what they are and base our requests on them.
The Word tells us in Hebrews 11: 6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. So if we would please Him with our prayers, they must be prayers of faith. Not only that, but Jesus made it clear in Mark 11:22-24 — as well as multiple other scripture passages — that if we would get our prayers answered, they must be prayed in faith. Then in James, chapter one, the Lord reminds us again that if we would receive anything from the Lord, we must ask in faith — nothing wavering — and in chapter five of that same book, He says specifically that it is the “prayer of faith” that will get the sick well and get their sins forgiven.
So the prayers that please God the most are the prayers that He can answer — in other words, the prayers of faith. And He tells us clearly in Roman 10:17 that faith comes only one way — by the Word of God. No problem, no trial, and no crying/whining/begging will bring faith into our spirits. Only the Word can create faith. Why? Because only the Word shows us the reality of God, to begin with — and then the reality of those things the Lord wants to do for us. The Word tells us there is such a thing as a born again experience, and we believe it. The Word tell us that we have healing provided by the stripes of Jesus, and we believe it. The Word tells us that God puts angels around us for protection, and we believe it. The Word tells us that God will contend for our lost children, and we believe it.
The only things we can have solid faith for are the things we have God’s Word on. If we try to pray for something we don’t have God’ Word on, then we are praying without faith — because there was no Word to create faith for that specific need.
I know I’m sounding a little repetitious, but so many people read right over those words in Romans 10, and they never really comprehend them. For example, I have experienced many people sharing about how they have a relative in the hospital seriously ill and they pray for God to do something to heal their loved one, but they don’t know for sure if it’s His will to do so or not. They have never actually studied God’s Word for themselves. Some years ago, they heard a minister or Sunday School teacher say that God healed people in answer to prayer, and since they are feeling desperate and helpless in this situation, they decide to say a prayer about their loved ones sickness.
But do you see, beloved, those people do not have the Word of God in their hearts. They may have the Word as far as knowing Jesus redeemed them from sin, but they haven’t studied the Word about healing, so they don’t “know” in their own hearts that it’s God’s will to heal. So they say something like, “Dear Lord, please heal my mother.” But since there’s been no Word about God’s will to heal planted in their hearts, there’s nothing there to create real faith in God’s will to heal or in the healing provided by Jesus’ suffering and death. and because there’s no Word on healing alive and active in their hearts, there’s no faith. So that prayer is simply words. There may be a little “hope” that God will hear and answer, based on what someone else said they believed. But it is not prayers of “hope” that get the results. It’s prayers of “faith” — which is knowing and being fully assured that God wants the answer to come and that He will make sure it manifests.
One of the saddest things I’ve encountered in my over 50 years of ministry is working with so many, many people who are this situation. They assume that they have “faith” just because they believe God exists — or because they have accepted Jesus as savior from their sins. But they haven’t understood or believed the Word in Romans 10, which tells us clearly that without the Word itself being implanted in our hearts, there can be no faith. We must KNOW the Word about every subject and situation that we are coming to God about.
Now, you may say, “That’s just way too much studying of the Bible.” Well dear friend, let me tell you something. God gave us the bible as our instruction manual for living this life successfully. If you want to learn to use any kind of tools or machinery or technology, you have to study the instruction manual and follow it’s procedures, or you don’t succeed at using that equipment. And the simple truth is that we are supposed to be in our Father’s Word every single day, letting His Holy Spirit teach us how to live successfully as members of the Kingdom of God while on this earth. And the word says, no faith — no pleasing God and no faith — no answered prayers.
Then there are other people who just assume that when they pray, it’s just a matter of saying the words, and then God will do whatever He wants to do. But, beloved, the Lord says otherwise. There are multiple scriptures where the Lord makes it clear that He does not always get things His way. And He also says that our unbelief or lack of faith can keep Him from being able to do what He would want to do. I won’t belabor this point with loads of references, but I will give just one, which should be enough to make the point clearly an reliably. In Mark chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 13, we see Jesus in his onw hometown of Nazareth. He has healed multitudes of people in all the surrounding towns, and He wants to heal people in His hometown. He manages to get just a few people with “minor ailments” delivered, but the Word tells us the He “could not” do any mighty works there because the people’s unbelief. Jesus Himself “could not” do what He wanted to do. We must remember that God has covenanted with the human race to work with us. And He has made the rules. We have to get into His Word and study it carefully and faithfully if we are to understand those rules and operate within them successfully/
So I’ll say it once more: We must have a Word from God on whatever subject we are praying about — in order to have the faith that Word creates. Only the prayers in which we go before God and present His own Word to Him, in confidence that He means what He says, are the prayers that we pray in true faith. And it is those prayers that thrill God’s heart. It’s His delight to fulfill His own Word, and it’s an even greater delight when His children honor Him by learning what His Word says and believing it enough to bring it to Him in full expectation of its fulfillment.
So let’s spend more and more and more time in His Word — until we know for sure what He has to say about every circumstance of life. Then we can take that precious Word to Him in prayers that thrill His heart — and that have a guaranteed answer.
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