Have you ever wondered how important your faith is in the praying and receiving process? It is absolutely necessary to understand how vital our faith is in the whole matter. No one knows when, where, or how an answer will come from God, or if he will answer the way we are expecting. No ONE has such inside information. There is no certainty in God’s response to our requests. However, Jesus said, HAVE FAITH IN GOD and whatsoever you ask for in PRAYER believe that you receive it and it will be yours (Mark 11:22, 24). Anyone can pray for anything but not everyone truly believes his or her prayer will be answered. Where do you stand today?
Let’s consider an encounter the two blind men had with Jesus in Matthew 9:27-29. Let’s observe the conversation between them and Jesus. The blind men cried out to Jesus, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” Jesus asked the blind men, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Their response was, “Yes, Lord,” with that response Jesus touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.”
Why didn’t Jesus simply heal the men and send them on their way?
Not even Jesus in his sovereignty could perform miracles without the currency of heaven- faith. Jesus has the goods but we must exercise faith to move things from Jesus’ hands, into our hands and into manifestation. Faith is the currency that earth must use to bring into manifestation the supernatural of heaven. For without faith it is impossible to please God. If anyone comes to God, he must first believe that God exists and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6).
Although Jesus is God his hands are tied when we are not walking in faith. Matthew 9:1-2 shows where Jesus performed healing on a paralytic man lying on a mat, who was brought to him by some men. Jesus favorably responded to their expression of faith and healed him. In Matthew 9:22, Jesus commended the woman with the issue of blood who pressed through the crowd and intercepted Jesus’ journey so that she could receive her long awaited healing. She expressed great faith in Jesus to make her whole. She was deemed unclean and was fully aware that she could contaminate others (including Jesus) who came in direct contact with her. Jesus told her “Your faith has healed you.” In essence, the work is done by faith. Another miracle story in Matthew 9:24, demonstrates the need for faith in order for a miracle to take place. Jesus put out the crowd of people who were wailing in the ruler’s house over his daughter’s death. They were put out because they lacked faith in Jesus. If they had believed Jesus they would not have mocked him. He needed those who believe to stay with him in the room. The Centurion’s faith was also another miracle encounter, where Jesus commended him for his exercise of faith. Jesus told him directly, “I have to tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
In all these stories and accounts of miracles Jesus performed, one common element that runs throughout each, is faith.
Put your Faith to action
You might say, well, my situation is so different, I have prayed and prayed for God to come through and nothing happened. This is not going to work, it just don’t seem possible. Well, I just want to urge you to get off your high horse and throw away all the negative sayings and simply approach Jesus with your situation. Don’t let past disappointments, or past experiences rob you from believing Jesus and seeing his power manifested in your life. I have prayed for God to work in situations and it did not happen the way I expected, in fact in some cases they actually went contrary to my expectations.
Believe and receive according to Mark 11:24. Not because you prayed for a person and nothing happened or the situation grew worse, means that God fell off his throne or faith in God is no longer needed, because you concluded that prayer does not work. That’s far from the truth. You can lose anything in life, but do not lose or cast away your confidence in God, it has great recompense of reward (Hebrews 10:35). The approach to take is the one taken by all the people who needed a miracle from Jesus. They did not let their circumstances (past or present) stop them from reaching out to him. Not even their pride to say the least. It is time to transfer trust from yourself and your efforts to Jesus, who is well able to perform the miracle. So take the trust away from the doctors, medications, job, spouse, co-worker, friend, children, relative or anything that you have trusted more than you did Jesus. These things are necessary, but never give them the place of God in your life.
Now what is faith? Really!
Faith is simply believing Jesus.
Believing in the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we may ask or think according to the power that is at work in us. Like Jesus told the two blind men, “According to your faith let it be done to you”. Faith is refusing to let go of your confidence in God and no matter what happens stay in the faith lane.
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