PRINCIPLES
OF THE PRAYER OF FAITH
2. See The Unseen
Here is another vital principle to observe where the prayer of
faith is concerned. You’ve got to see the unseen! You should be able to
visualize what you desire, and it’s only when your desire is specific that you
can see it.
How do you see the unseen? Through the eyes of faith! Because you
can’t possess what you can’t see. “While we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Abraham, the great patriarch of old, had to see the vision of
God’s promise to him to become a father of many nations. “And he (God) brought him (Abraham) forth
abroad, and said, Look now toward
heaven, and
tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be. And he believed
in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis
15:5-6).
As Joshua planned to attack Jericho, the Lord said to him, “…See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and
the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour” (Joshua 6:2). These two examples show us how imperative it is for us to have a mental picture of whatever our
desire is. And here is the ultimate reason: The extent of your
vision is the boundary of your blessing! I love Dr. David Yongi Cho’s
testimony. He tells the story of how, many years ago, when he had just started
out in the ministry and was pastoring a small church, he asked God to give him
a chair, a table, and a bicycle. But God asked him what kind of chair, table,
and bicycle he wanted, and he gave God his specifications. Believing
that he had received, he came before his congregation on Sunday morning and
announced, “Praise God, I have a chair, a table, and a bicycle.” His members,
young Christians who were just beginning to learn God’s Word, asked
incredulously, “But you
walked to church today. Where’s the bicycle?” Of course, he had nothing to show
his members, but he asserted that he had all the things he had mentioned. So
after the service that day, some of his members decided to go home with him and
find out if he really had those things. On getting to his house and finding
none of those items there, they asked him, “Where are the chair, table and
bicycle.” “They’re inside me,” he answered. “I’m pregnant with a chair, a
table, and a bicycle!” His members had to hold their stomachs for laughter, and
they went around telling people, “Come see our pastor. He’s pregnant with a
chair, a table and a bicycle!” They had never heard anyone talk like that, but
Pastor Cho had been able to see in reality the existence of those items.
Through the eyes of faith, he had seen the unseen. And soon enough, the exact
chair, table, and bicycle he had received by faith became a reality in the
physical realm.
Understand
this: “To see the unseen” isn’t the same as “being optimistic.” It actually
means “to see the way God sees, and speak of the physically non-existent as
though they already existed.”
In
his letter to the Roman Church, Paul shared something very instructive about
the God-kind of faith: “…even God, who quickeneth the dead, and
calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).
When
you’re so convinced that something is yours, even if you don’t see it with your
physical eyes, it’s absolutely impossible for the devil or anyone to talk you
out of it, because you’ve already possessed it by your faith, using the power
of your thought.
3. Use Your Evidence
According to Hebrews 11:1, faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.” The prayer of faith thus
requires you to use the evidence you’ve got. But you must be able to recognize that evidence before you can use it. You see, hope is a great virtue; it’s a fundamental spiritual
principle that arrays the magnificent future.
But faith is the substance of things hoped for; it’s the evidence
that substantiates the future. If you had a piece of land, for instance, and you were told to prove your
ownership of it, would you set out to move the property from its location to
show anyone making an enquiry about the house? Of course, you wouldn’t! In
fact, you can’t. What you’d simply do is to produce the title deed to the
property. In the Amplified Bible, faith is defined as “…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]” (Hebrews 11:1).
Now, when you seek to effect changes through the prayer of faith,
you must be spiritually alert to recognize the evidence the Holy Spirit is
bringing to your awareness. Sometimes, you’d have a note of victory in your
inner-man through a word of prophecy. The word may not necessarily come from
someone else; the Holy Spirit can simply put the utterance in your mouth as you
pray, or bring a song to your spirit that
causes great rejoicing within you. Never let go of such words, for they’re the
evidence of your victory.
Meditate on them; talk them; be bold to let others know you’ve gotten it, and
act the same way.
If
perhaps you’ve been sick, and you’ve prayed to be healed, you need to look
inside you for the evidence of your healing. Study the Word of God and find out
what He has said about your peculiar situation today. When you’ve located the
evidence, use it!
Don’t Doubt After You’ve Prayed
When you’ve prayed for something you desire, it’s important you
don’t allow doubt into your heart. This is a very essential rule that applies
in the prayer of faith. Doubt makes us keep asking for the same thing over and
over again for fear of not being heard the first time.
Unlike other kinds of prayer, such as the prayer of intercession or
the prayer of petition, where repetitiveness is permissible, the rule of the
prayer of faith says you should believe that you receive when you pray. Praying
over and over for something implies that doubt has set in within your heart.
For each time you repeat yourself, you invalidate your previous request. That’s
akin to a farmer who plants a seed one day and uproots it the next; then he plants
it again and uproots the following day. That seed will never
grow, and he’ll never have a harvest from it no matter how much he
desires a harvest. But your prayers don’t have to be encumbered anymore; you
don’t have to struggle with doubts again. Your spirit (which is “the real you”)
was programmed by God to respond to His Word.
The
Bible says, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness…” (Romans 10:10). The “heart” here is the human spirit, which God seeks to
influence. Thus, the Word of God in the human spirit establishes faith. But the
human mind may raise doubtful questions as to the convictions of the human spirit.
If this happens, it doesn’t mean you’ve doubted in your heart. The doubting
that opposes faith is that which may emanate from the human spirit. However,
God’s Word shows us how to deal with both kinds of doubt.
Dealing With Doubt In Your Mind
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). “Strongholds”
in this context connote arguments, theories or ideas that the society has sold
to us. They form the basis for the “imaginations” of the ordinary man; his
reasoning is molded by them. For example, a medical doctor has knowledge of
facts and theories that form an integral part of his personality.
Different people have their mentality shaped in one way or the
other, by education, training or culture. And so, these diverse forms of
knowledge tend to militate against the Word of God in their hearts, creating
doubts in their minds. But the scripture in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 lets us know they can be refuted using the
weapons of our warfare: our divine utterances, speaking in other tongues, and
our bold proclamation of the written Word of
God. By these you’ll pull down strongholds and cast down imaginations
that arise from your mind.
Dealing With Doubt In Your Spirit
To doubt in your spirit means to be double-minded, or to waver or
withdraw alternately from your conviction. James says, “...he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the
wind and tossed. For let not that man
think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways” (James
1:6-8). It also means to stagger
at God’s Word. The Bible says in Romans 4:20-21 that “he (Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had
promised, he was able also to perform” Abraham refused to stagger at the promise of
God through unbelief; but was strong in faith. Strong faith is the antidote for doubt in your heart. When you find yourself
staggering at God’s Word and struggling to
believe it; being double-minded and unstable; what you need to do is strengthen
your faith. And this happens as you
put your faith to work. The more you
put your faith to work, the stronger it becomes. If your faith is weak, it
indicates there’s doubt in your
heart; and such weak faith is the result of not exercising your faith. The
cure, therefore, for weak faith is acting on the Word,
exercising your faith. If you want your faith to be strong, start doing the Word!
For example, the Bible says, “In
every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1
Thessalonians 5:18). So what should you do? Start practising the scripture by giving
God thanks. Let your life become an unending stream of praise and thanksgiving
to God, irrespective
of your situation or circumstances. That’s acting on the Word!
4. What You Say Is What You Get
Maintaining the right confession is another important prerequisite
where the prayer of faith is concerned. “Confession,” in the New Testament
portion of Scriptures, is derived from the Greek word “homologia,” which literally means to speak the same thing in
agreement with another. Thus, you agree with, and say what the Word of God says
about you or your situation.
The Bible says that a man believes with his heart unto
righteousness and confesses with his mouth unto salvation (Romans 10:10).
That means until you
confess that you’re saved, you can’t enjoy the benefits of salvation. You’re
made right with God when you believe, but it’s your confession that brings you
into the benefits of salvation—prosperity, divine health, preservation, favour,
and so on.
As
you make your demands through the prayer of faith, never forget to employ the
instrument of confession—constantly speaking in agreement with God’s Word
concerning the issue at hand. Words are powerful; they are the vehicles of your
thoughts. They can affect your body, circumstances, and your entire life. What’s
more, your utterances as a child of God aren’t mere words; they’re inspired
truths based on God’s eternal Word.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER TWO
GOD BLESS YOU
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