Pastor’s Blog 10.2.19

I would like to continue on the topic of prayer this week. Last week I was challenging you concerning motive and attitude toward God in prayer. This week I want to encourage you concerning the prayer of faith. The foundational scripture for this prayer method is found in:

Mark 11:22-26 TPT
Jesus replied, “Let the faith of God be in you! Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done. This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, if you find that you carry something in your heart against another person, release him and forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also release you and forgive you of your faults. But if you will not release forgiveness, don’t expect your Father in heaven to release you from your misdeeds.”

Now let’s marry this verse with the definition of faith:

Hebrews 11:1-3 TPT
Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. This testimony of faith is what previous generations were commended for. Faith empowers us to see that the universe was created and beautifully coordinated by the power of God’s words! He spoke and the invisible realm gave birth to all that is seen.

There is a power of the spoken word if it is spoken in faith. It is literally a creative force. One of the most difficult things to do in the Kingdom is to pray the prayer of faith. Doubt has a strong root system inside us based on sense knowledge. Our senses are telling us something isn’t, and faith is saying it is. Faith is future now!

Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1 in the Amplified.

Hebrews 11:1
11:1 NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. AMP

Notice the beginning words “NOW FAITH is”. I have spent a lifetime wrestling with sense knowledge as I am sure you have too. As I have studied and researched quantum physics over the last several years, I have found it interesting that science has confirmed that all solid objects are held in place and have mass by molecular atoms. Have you ever seen an atom? Me neither. But further, they have discovered particles smaller called Quarks and two years ago through the Hadron Collider in Luxemburg, discovered the Higgs- Bosen particle which was called the “God Particle” – as the center of all matter. So what does that have to do with prayer?

God’s word creates, or causes matter to form to create what He says. The nuclear world has discovered that these particles change behavior and react when they are spoken to. They have even proven that quarks change patterns from dot matrix to wave when they are being observed! So matter even knows and reacts when we look at it through a molecular microscope.

Now it begins to make sense why we should call those things that are not as though they are!

Romans 4:16-18
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” NKJV

God called Abraham the “father of our faith” he had a barren wife and approximately 30 years later a miracle conception happened and a miracle son was born. This son became the allegory for our salvation! We all want our needed miracles now, but I have found most are a long process, not an instant cure. Abraham became the father of our faith and the example was a lifetime of difficulties! Over and over he had to fight the fight of faith! He had to leave every comfort zone including his home and family and trust God to lead him and walk forward, even when he did not know where he was going. He faced family feuds, famines, brutal kings who stole his wife and then a barren wife who was past the age of conception. At one time he had to go to war with 318 household servants and against 4 of the most powerful kings’ armies in the land! Abraham, according to the book of Jasher was even thrown into a fiery furnace for his faith! Makes most of my battles seem pretty trivial for sure.

The bottom line is when you really stand on a promise of God, (that you are qualified for) and you speak and confess that promise without doubt and refuse to waver, you will receive the fulfillment of it! I have often said that I really can stand in faith for something once I know it is of God, that’s the tricky part for me. Once I know I have the mind and will of God on a matter, I consider it done. So I tend to mostly wrestle with knowing God’s will. I have been learning for a lifetime and will continue to grow in faith not shrink back! I hope you do the same!