Prayer

Prayer Is The Verbal Release Of Faith

The overriding issue in prayer is whether or not the prayer is spoken in faith. If you do not have faith then all the praying in the world won’t help you (unless perhaps you call upon the mercy of God).

The single active ingredient in prayer is faith. If faith is there, chances are real good that the prayer will be correct, or at least close enough. Its not the words necessarily but the release of faith that will bring the desired answer.

Whatever words you say, make sure you believe them, and you will have them.

The Bible is real clear in that the words you say must not differ with what you are believing in your heart.

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt (differ, disagree, ‘strife with oneself’) in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Mark 11:23

The words must be living, fresh, and from your heart, not from some prayer book. The Bible is based on a system of living words. God speaks living words to us. We receive them into our heart and through continued diligence in love and the Spirit we allow faith to grow. The harvest of these living words is faith, and once we have it, then we release it through living words. The living words coming out of our mouth is called Prayer.

What about, ‘If it be thy will?’

Jesus said the words, ‘If it be thy will’ during one of His prayers. Much has been made of this. Throughout the Gospels, whenever Jesus prayed He always exhibited a clear understanding of God’s will. There was never a hint of uncertainty in any one of them. He prays once for direction and puts an ‘if’ in it and suddenly all types of prayer are thus affected. He is not praying to change the world; He is praying to seek the will of God. When Jesus uttered this phrase, He was in the process of seeking the will of God concerning His imminent passion. This was huge and He needed to know for an absolute surety that this is what God wanted and that there was no way around it. This was hard and He needed to know solidly from God. Everything depended on it. One must have their heart solid on the will of God before their faith can be real. There is no ‘if’ in faith once it has become a reality in the heart.

Faith begins where the will of God is known.

If faith is based on the known will of God, how can a prayer prayed in faith have an ‘if’ in it? We must assume that Jesus was ‘in faith’ when He prayed this prayer. The ‘if’ had nothing to do with whether the prayer would get answered, but it had everything to do with Him being open to what the answer would be. The ‘if’ was what He was believing for and seeking God for. He was in faith seeking the ‘if’ of His future. Seeking is all the about the ‘if’ of the future. Faith all about knowing the reality of the will of God on a specific issue. Again, Jesus knew that God would give Him the answer; He just didn’t know what the answer was going to be. That is seeking.

And without faith it is impossible to please {Him,} for he who comes to God must believe that He is and {that} He is a rewarder of those who (diligently) seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 29:11,13-14

When seeking the will of God you must believe that He exists, that He rewards diligent seeking, and that you will get an answer. When seeking the will of God, using the phrase, ‘if it be thy will,’ is appropriate. The phrase is otherwise never mentioned in prayer. If you need a mountain to move in your life, or you have a debilitating issue (like the woman with the issue of blood), inserting an ‘if’ in your prayer just won’t do. For all those situations, knowing the will of God from the word and from having previously sought His face is the only way. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Just throwing out the phrase ‘if it be thy will’ and taking whatever comes may sound good but it is not the faith exemplified in the Gospels. It is a false submission, a lazy submission. The only issue that Jesus looked at, and still looks at, is faith, and faith is based on a knowing in the heart, a reality heard from God. See the article – ‘If it be thy will’

There are three main categories of prayer:

Seeking Prayer – Seeking God and finding His will – Knowing and believing that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. ‘If’s’ are appropriate in these prayers of seeking.
Asking Prayer – Asking God in faith according to His will – Knowing and believing that He will answer.
Declaring Prayer – Authoritative declaring of His will in faith – Knowing and believing that it will obey you. (One quick rule – this does not work on other people.)

We pray and seek God to find His will, and once we find it we pray and release His will (and its corresponding faith), into the world. Both ‘seeking prayer’ and ‘asking/declaring prayer’ are absolutely necessary to our walk of faith and obedience.