Prevailing Faith and Prayer, Part 4
As a born-again believer in Jesus, His resurrection life dwells in you, where His power is actively working. Inside you is a force greater than anything else. Jesus is the source of your new life, faith, and victorious prayer.
Have you ever stopped to consider this truth? The same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead lives within you! (See Eph. 1:18-20)
This insight will revolutionize your prayer life!
Your prayers are not “feeble attempts” to get God’s attention; instead, your prayers carry “resurrection life” because the greater one within you releases His presence and power through you.
Understand that, “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world!” 1 John 4:4 NASB
Faith, at its core, is belief in God and His promises. It considers the promise fulfilled because of the One who made it. God’s faith is given to us by Him. We are responsible for using the faith measure given to us and growing in faith, but faith (like grace) originates from God (See Rom. 12:3).
You have been given God’s faith, Spirit, promises, and authority! Expect impossible situations to change as you persist in prayer. When you have God’s faith in a matter, you begin to pray and speak with confidence that the promise is received now and is on its way.
Remember, the fullness of God lives in you as a follower of Christ. Therefore, as you communicate with God from your inner being—spirit to Spirit—know that God is working in and through you to answer prayers and change situations.
Jesus Expects Us to Petition Him Through Prayer
In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus was teaching the disciples a model for prayer (the Lord’s prayer) and then begins to give them additional principles about petitionary prayer.
“7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened…11 How much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” God is a good God! He desires to give all good things to us if we just ask Him. Matt. 7:7-8,11 NKJV
These verbs, ask, seek, and knock, in the Greek mean ongoing asking, seeking, and knocking. Pray until you receive an answer or until the Holy Spirit shows you to stop praying. Prayer is mainly communion with God. From this close relationship, God wants us to petition Him in prayer. In other words, don’t be afraid to ask God! (see Heb. 4:16) Sure, He already knows what you need before you ask, but He invites us to petition and partner with Him in prayer.
However, to make sure your petitions are answered, there are specific conditions that must be met. Here are seven conditions to consider:
- You must ask in FAITH. Simply asking God for things does not guarantee a positive response.
“And all things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” Matt. 21:22 NKJV
“…but believes that those things he says will be done… whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:23-24 NKJV
This kind of faith and belief only comes from your relationship with Jesus. You simply won’t have faith to believe, free of doubt, apart from abiding in Christ and knowing who you are in Christ.
Again, where is the source of this mountain-moving power? Is it out there? No, it’s Christ within you! Understand that to see the exceedingly abundantly of all that you ask or think, know that it’s according to his power at work in you! (see Eph. 3:20 NKJV)
- Ask in the NAME OF JESUS and by authority of His name.
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:13-14 NKJV
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” John 15:16 NKJV
We are living in the power of His victorious ascension, empowered by His name, and reigning with Him in this life. Consider what Paul wrote about our reigning with Christ:
“… those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:17 NASB
As I shared last week, don’t let a religious spirit try to question your authority in Christ. Remember, all authority belongs to Jesus, and He has commissioned you and me to go in the authority of His command and name! (See Matt. 28:18-19)
He has commissioned us; we are ambassadors of His New Covenant, empowered by Him to set captives free and influence our world with His power. To succeed in faith and prayer, understand your position and authority in Christ, and stay confident in Him despite contradictions.
- You must ABIDE in Christ.
You are united with Christ through His resurrection power and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Learn to live from this reality and His presence. As you daily abide with Him in prayer, His Word, and your daily walk—His desires become yours—faith increases, and your prayers become more confident!
“If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7 NKJV
Our confidence in life, prayer, and ministry is not in ourselves but in God. Consider what Paul told the Corinthians:
“4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Prevailing faith and prayer originate from our confidence of God’s empowerment and commission worked by Holy Spirit within us.” 2 Cor. 3:4-6 NASB
Through our new life in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have become capable as servants of a new covenant!
Twentieth-century evangelist Smith Wigglesworth said in a sermon titled, “Life in the Spirit,”
“…for the life within me is a thousand times bigger than I am on the outside. There must be a tremendous expansion…this life can’t be understood in the natural.”
What life within? It’s Jesus! He must increase, and there needs to be a tremendous expansion of His work within and through us.
Just before going on a mission trip to Romania in 1993, God revealed a truth to me that I often share with others. During prayer that day, the Lord told me, “Bob, one person full of faith and the Holy Spirit can shake a nation.” I never shook the nation of Romania, but God was teaching me something about faith and life in the Spirit before that trip.
Do you remember the story of Stephen in Acts 6-7, how he was selected to help serve the people? It was said of him,
“And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” Acts 6:8 NKJV
Stephen understood that staying connected to Jesus allows His resurrected life to flow through him and impact others. Your job is to bring Jesus’ very resurrection life to people and situations in need of God’s love and power!
- Walk RIGHTEOUSLY with God.
“21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.” 1 John 3:21-22 NLT
Living righteously, with a clear conscience, enhances your confidence in prayer. Don’t let the enemy tempt you into compromise and diminish your trust in Christ and prayer.
But are we perfect? No! So be cautious not to let condemnation weaken your faith. If you sin, repent, confess, and trust God for forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9).
- Live in Forgiveness Toward Others.
25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Mark 11:25-26 NKJV
Jesus, when discussing faith and prayer in the story of the withered fig tree, also emphasized the importance of living in forgiveness. A condition for effective prayer is having a forgiving spirit. You can’t walk in the fullness of grace while holding onto unforgiveness. The power of faith and prayer is connected to your ability to flow in the Spirit, unhindered by offense and unforgiveness.
- Stay properly MOTIVATED.
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:3 NKJV
God wants to give us good things, but many requests are selfish! God desires that what we ask for should serve the purpose of glorifying Him and reaching others with the gospel. When your heart’s motive is to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33 NKJV), you can be confident that God will provide for every need to complete your task.
- Ask in ACCORDANCE with God’s will.
When we ask for something God has already promised in His Word, we can pray confidently, knowing we are asking in his will.
“14 This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, he listens to us. 15 If we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we know that we have received what we asked from him.” 1 John 5:14-15 CEB
Abiding in Christ, praying in Jesus’ name (His character and nature), and being full of faith and righteousness will incline us to pray according to His will. Sometimes, you may need to ask God what His will is in this situation. Expect God to give understanding as you continue to abide with Him through a sincere relationship.
Often, our sociological and economic circumstances affect our faith. We must remember that “with God, nothing is impossible!”
No matter who you are, you can make a difference! Your life of faith can influence others, cities, and nations if you understand the secret of prevailing faith and prayer!
