THE PRAYER OF FAITH

prayer-of-faith

Friends, this is instructional for praying this type of prayer:

The prayer of faith, also known as a petition prayer, is the prayer that most people think of when they use the term "prayer." Petition prayer is between you and God. It is you asking God for a particular outcome, for something or someone.

The key verse for the prayer of faith is Mark 11:24, in which Jesus says, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

The rule to consider here is when you pray, not after you pray, not when you feel something, not when you see something. When you pray (the moment that you pray) you must believe that you receive what you asked for.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Your faith is substance, it is something real, something tangible. It is evidence of things you cannot see.

Notice that Mark 11:24 does not say when you will actually see the result of your prayer. It does not tell you how long it will take for that prayer result to appear, and this is where many Christians get hung up.

God lives in one eternal now. There is no past or present for Him. But we are temporal beings who live in the context of time.

When you pray in faith, God immediately gives you what you prayed for—in the spirit realm. But in the natural world, due to a number of factors, it may take time for the answer to manifest itself.

God answers prayers, and He will answer your specific prayer in line with His Word, but it is your faith that brings that answer out of the spiritual world and into the physical world. How many times in Scripture does Jesus say to someone, "According to your faith"?

He referred to peoples' faith constantly, and even though it was His power that healed them, He always credited their faith with being the catalyst. In fact, when Jesus went to His hometown, we are told that "He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matt. 13:58).

Did Jesus suddenly lose His power on that visit to Nazareth? No!

His power never changed. What changed? It was the people's level of faith mixed with His power.

There is a simple spiritual explanation for this. God will not do something against your will. God cannot violate free will. If you don't have faith to do something, He won't arbitrarily override your lack of faith.