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TEACHING: PRAYERS OF FAITH
VineLife Network, Inc.
Faith: The New Testament word “faith” comes from the Greek word, pistis, which simply means “belief” or “confidence.” Having faith means believing and having confidence in the words you hear. Faith is active belief. It is belief combined with expectation and action. To exercise faith requires that you act on it by speaking with your mouth what you believe in your heart…, with the expectation that it shall come to pass. The scripture says that, “… if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9) Saving faith!
Living faith is the God kind of faith that is required of a Christian and follows the same principle as above. You must walk out your Christian life in the same manner you received it! “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Col. 2:6-7) Your walk must be by faith, that is, confessing with your mouth what you believe in your heart, as a result of what you hear! If you walk in this manner you will enjoy, “…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17b)
Whatever you listen to results in what your faith is built on. It is the unwavering law of God’s Kingdom. If you listen to God’s words, you have God kind of faith. If you listen to criticism and negative words and speak these critical and negative words, your belief and confidence will be in the criticism and negative words, “…thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down….”(Mark 7:13) One hour a week in studying or listening to God’s word, and the other 167 hours listening to the words of the world will result in a destructive worldly faith, not a God kind of Faith. Rather than reaping the promises of God you will reap the fruit of ungodly faith! This is absolutely unproductive for the Christian. The person, whether pagan or Christian, who walks in this manner will be fleshly, confused, stressed and lack peace in his life.
Prayers of Faith: This brings us to the subject of this brief teaching on, prayers of faith. If our prayers are made as the result of hearing the revelation of God, a rhema word, which we have received, believed and placed our confidence in, we can expect to see the manifestation of our faith through answered prayer. When we ask for something in prayer we must start speaking of it as if it already exists! I have been praying the Luke 10:2b, prayer with a friend for almost three months. God impressed me that I must speak as though the “laborers” have already been “cast out” by God and are awaiting instructions on where to start bringing in the harvest. My responsibility is to begin giving instructions as God reveals direction!
Our ears are the gateway to our heart, and “…out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). As we speak it from our heart the power of faith is released. Every word is a word of faith! The question is, “What kind of faith? Worldly? The God kind?” God is only glorified when we pray with the God kind of Faith. “Whatsoever is not of faith (God kind) is sin.”
Here is the big question for all of us? Do we pray with faith, or is our prayer life a mere religious exercise? Religious exercises are, for the most part, futile attempts at pleasing God. They are wood, hay and stubble and will be burned up. Lord, teach us your ways that we may know you! Amen.
David L. Shirkey
