Contributor:
Terry Whitson
but in reality, it’s not scriptural, Father God wants us “A knowing and a praying”. As believers
we’re to know the truth and pray according to it, this is exactly what the Apostle John was
speaking of in I John 5:14-15.“This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we
ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” The Word of God is
the Will of God, once you know His Word you know His will. John didn’t say, ask if it be thy will,
he said “ask according to His will”. In order to ask according to the will of God you MUST
know the Word of God. The Good News is – you can know the will of God by knowing the
Word of God! Find out what the Word of God has to say on any specific issue, then you pray
and ask. Here’s an example of what we’re talking about, the scripture tells us “For God has not
given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind”(IITim.1:7). Now we know God’s
will concerning fear, fear isn’t of God. Therefore we pray according to God’s known will, “Fear
you be gone from me and my family in Jesus Name”! Father God hears and enforces your
prayer of resistance against the spirit of fear and fear will flee from you. Another example,
Genesis 2:18 “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a
helper suitable for him.” Now we know God’s will concerning marriage, therefore a single man
or woman can pray; “Lord it’s not good for me to be alone I ask you to give me a Godly wife/
husband in Jesus Name”. Father God hears this prayer for it’s in agreement with His will and
He answers the request. Also Keep in mind that the will of God for believers is for them to
marry (only) another believer, 2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers;
for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with
darkness?” Believers are to marry another true believer for this is God’s for us in Christ Jesus.
Faith is always NOW
Faith is always in the Now, present tense. Note how Hebrews 11:1 reads! “Now faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. The verse begins with “Now
faith is…”, because we believe now, we receive now, we forgive now. We don’t pray and
receive next week, we don’t pray and believe for the answer next year. Faith receives the
answer at the time of asking – Not at the time of seeing the request fulfilled (Mark 11:24). That
would not be faith that would be sight. Faith begins where the will of God is known as we have
described earlier. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word and true faith is of the heart. The heart
must be convinced of the truth not just the mind. For faith to work the heart must be
convinced. We’ll speak of this in another article called Heart faith vs Head faith.
Hope is always future
Note that hope is found in the verse in Hebrews 11:1, “…assurance of things hoped for”. There
is certainly nothing wrong in having hope, Biblical hope is to have a “confident expectation”.
We have a blessed hope concerning the soon appearing of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
This is a confident expectation because Jesus told us that He would return. Unfortunately
many of the saints of God are operating in a worldly hope saying “hopefully one day God will
answer our prayers”. I have heard this many times concerning physical healing, “I believe the
Lord is going to heal me”, “I believe the Lord is going to heal them”. “Going to” always puts
healing into the future and this is hope- not faith. Therefore very few of these receive healing
because their “just a hoping and praying” God will answer. As it was once said, hope is a great
waiter but a terrible receiver. Hope doesn’t receive – faith does. Faith believes and receives
what God says and acts on it. Example, a person hears the Good News of the Gospel that
Jesus died for them and paid the price for their sin. They realize they must repent of sin and
receive Jesus into their life if they want to have enteral life. Their knowledge of God’s Word has
brought not only hope but faith that they can be saved. At this point if they were to say, “I just
believe the Lord is going to save me” that would be hope and there would be no rebirth no
salvation. In contrast, if after hearing the Good News they responded and said, “I do believe
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I do repent of my sin, I do receive Him into my life” that would
be faith and there would immediately be rebirth and salvation.
Faith in God’s Word works
Debbie and I had been married a couple of years and decided we wanted to have children. It’s
God’s will to have children because He said, “Be fruitful and multiple…” Genesis 2:28. We
specifically wanted a male child and we agreed in prayer according to His will found in Matt.
18:19. We agreed for a son before she conceived. We hoped for a son but with our faith we
reached out and received him at the moment we prayed. We agreed together in prayer again
two months after our son was born for a little girl and that she wouldn’t weight over 7.5
pounds. Why not over 7.5 pounds? Because our son was 9.2 pounds at birth and it was a
difficult delivery. Our daughter Deanna was born in July in 1980 and she weighted 7 lbs. 2
ounces. Jesus said, “According to your faith be it unto you.”
Faith takes hold of Hope
The Word of God contains over 3500 promises to us the children of God and we should take
full advantage of all Father God has promised. We can hope that someday the Lord will bless
us or we can “take” what He has “already given us”. You see faith takes – while hope waits. It’s
not being arrogant or presumptuous to “take” what Father has promised and provided through
His Son. If it were presumptuous Jesus would have rebuked the woman with the hemorrhage
of blood, for she said “If I can just touch His garment I will be healed”. This woman had hope of
being healed but she acted beyond hope and reached out in faith and received what she
hoped for. Jesus said to the woman, “Daughter your faith has made you well – go in peace”.
Now get this- Jesus didn’t say My Power has made her well!! He said that it was her faith that
made her well. Faith reaches out and takes hold of hope, takes it out of the future and brings it
into the present. This is exactly what we did when we received salvation! We heard, we
hoped, we acted in faith and received, this brought us new life in Jesus Christ. If you will apply
this principle to your “asking” prayers your joy will be made full! Meditate on Mark 11:24
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