Saints,
As a reminder, please know the purpose of the Power House Prayer devotionals is to encourage Christ-followers toward deeper intimacy with Jesus and spur them on to deeper, resolute Bible-based, Holy Spirit-led, kingdom-focused, prayer in Jesus name for His glory.
This message is as much for me as it might be for you. I have a heart-ache to see the church of Jesus Christ flourish and burn white-hot for her Savior in complete obedience, witnessing, prayer, and surrender. If you are a believer then you probably have this same desire. I am convinced that we can not conjure up this kind of desire by ourselves. Even so, after three years of praying for revival and awakening, I am growing weary—even doubtful that God will do what I believe He has placed in my heart to ask Him to do. That is to ask Him for deepening and awakening and revival in the American church.
You may be wondering at why I might be so spiritually weak to falter after only three years. I wonder too. So today, to deepen our resolve, let’s look at what true faith looks like in true prayer.
What is faith and how does it relate to prayer?
The writer of Hebrews says,
Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Matthew Henry states,
It is a firm persuasion and expectation, that God will perform all he has promised to us in Christ. This persuasion gives the soul to enjoy those things now; it gives them a subsistence or reality in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of them. Faith proves to the mind, the reality of things that cannot be seen by the bodily eye. (Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary)
E. M. Bounds shares in his book, The Essentials of Prayer, chapter two,
“Faith is not an abstract belief in the Word of God, nor a mere mental credence, nor a simple assent to the understanding and will; nor is it a passive acceptance of facts, however sacred or thorough. Faith is an operation of God. A divine illumination, a holy energy implanted by the Word of God and the Spirit in the human soul—a spiritual, divine principle which takes of the supernatural and makes it a thing apprehendable by the faculties of time and sense.”
As we have seen before, it is very easy for us to depend on training, marketing, technology, personal know-how and savvy to get things done. Unfortunately, we can approach doing ministry with this kind of self-reliance as well. It’s almost as if we have a spiritual amnesia--forgetting the Old Testament and how it clearly relays God’s people thriving when they utterly depend on God and getting into trouble when they do things on their own.
I think Jesus summed this principle up well when He said,
John 15:5 (ESV)
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Maybe you are like me in that I sometimes focus on circumstances and then get discouraged. I’m talking about circumstances like pastors being murdered in Iran, churches which drift away from the God’s purpose of the church—disciple making and witnessing, churches struggling with disunity, and pastors falling. These circumstances can lead us to want to quit.
It can almost make us want to stop trying, to stop praying, to stop believing that God could revive. May we never falter--God is faithful!
Maybe you can relate? If so, be encouraged. Quitting is not of faith—you have been given faith by the most high creator God. Do you realize that your faith in God is not as a result of your own doing? I know we are to “work out our faith in fear and trembling.” Even so, this refers to the faith we have already been given by the Father. If you have received Christ, then thank the Father for He is the one who drew you to Christ! (John 6:44) God gives us faith…
Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Did you notice that not only does God give the faith, but He also gives the faith for a purpose—to work the works He prepared beforehand?
Let’s look at how faith and prayer come together. E.M. Bounds says this well,
“Faith gives birth to prayer, and grows stronger, strikes deep, rises higher, in the struggles and wrestling of mighty petitioning. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the assurance and realization of the inheritance of the saints. Faith, too, is humble and persevering. It can wait and pray; it can stay on its knees, or like in the dust. It is the one great condition of prayer; the lack of it lies at the root of all poor praying, feeble praying, little praying, unanswered praying.”
May our faith be strong and our praying reflect this.
E. M. Bounds continues,
“What an era of glorious achievements would dawn for the church and the world, if only there could be reproduced a race of saints of like mighty faith and of like mighty praying! It is not the intellectually great that the church needs; nor is it men of wealth that the times demand. It is not people of great social influence that this day requires. Above everybody and everything else, it is men of faith, men of mighty prayer, men and women after the fashion of the saints and heroes enumerated in Hebrews, who “obtain a good report through faith,” that the church and the whole wide world of humanity needs.”
To be clear, we know that it is only through God and His love, power, grace and blessing that we can be men and women of faithful prayer and effective obedience.
If you are at point of doubting or faltering, let me encourage you--let’s agree to do two things…
1) Like the sick boy’s father asked Jesus (Mark 9:24) to help him with his unbelief, we can ask God for more and stronger faith.
2) Decide to stand on God’s Word, not circumstances! Like Daniel (Dan. 1:8) who determined in his heart he would not eat the king’s food—let’s determine in our hearts that we will through strong faith, resolutely pray as God leads His kingdom-focused prayers without doubt.
Father, raise up your church to glorify your name. Make us your fully obedient, surrendered, and on-fire followers. Make our children like that too. Father, deepen up in You, Awaken us to You and revive us for You. Father, save those who do not know you—those the enemy has blinded eyes and deafened ears. We ask this in faith! We ask this in Jesus’ name. We ask this for Your purposes—for Your name to be glorified on the earth! We ask this for Your glory and in Jesus name, Amen.
