August 9, 2024
Friday
The person you were praying for wasn't healed. The raise that you prayed for didn't come. The person you cried out to God to save, died without any evidence of salvation. Does your lack of faith have anything to do with unanswered prayers?
Personally, I have been praying for revival for years. I even have a story when God spoke to me about it. I have not seen revival, yet. I do still believe it is coming. Is my faith unwarranted? Am I just dreaming?
Jesus told us to continue to pray. He said these words with the expectation that God will answer our prayers.
Luke 11:9–13 (NASB 2020) 9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. 11 Now which one of you fathers will his son ask for a fish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake? 12 Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion? 13 So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
It is evident that prayers are expected to be said among God's people. It is also evident that God answers prayer. Or is it more evident that we are playing the numbers? In other words, is it the fact that we say so many prayers that God can be credited with random events that seem to answer our prayers. Or, on the other hand, are we drawing bullseyes around whatever happens and saying that these are the answers to our prayers? Or, again, do we say that we just don't understand why God answers some prayers and doesn't others and leave it at that?
That last question seems to be the stand that many Christians take. They want to believe in God but they don't truly believe in prayer. Thus, they say their prayers without expectations. The answered ones become mysteries and the unanswered ones are just forgotten. Would it make a difference if we truly believed?
The answer is "yes." Jesus could do very few miracles in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people. He asked the man whose son was demon possessed if he believed before He healed the boy. Faith does have a part. So, maybe our question isn't about whether God answers prayers because of our faith but what is faith so that we can know that we have it.
What if faith is not something that we simply believe but something given to us by God so that we will believe in Him? In other words, faith comes from God rather than our desires for God to do what we want. If this is true, we should be praying for God to reveal His will to us so that we can pray effectively from the faith God gives us.
Our salvation comes from the gift of faith.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NASB 2020) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
God gives you the faith to believe for the sake of your own salvation. This faith comes from hearing God's word.
Romans 10:17 (NASB 2020) 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Hearing a word from God is act of the Holy Spirit giving us that word.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB 2020) 14 But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Our natural self cannot understand a word from God. It is an act of the Spirit to believe a word from God. This word from God must be received by our own spirits to become faith in our lives. It does not matter what we want to believe. It is as the Spirit reveals it to us. If we continue on with what we want to believe, we are resisting the Holy Spirit.
While Stephen was preaching to people, they resisted the Holy Spirit like many who do not want to believe what the Spirit is telling them. They were stubborn and would not accept the salvation of God.
Acts 7:51 (NASB 2020) 51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
Those who are reading this blog probably received the Holy Spirit when the word of God came to them with the story of salvation. That doesn't mean that you always receive Him. We all live in a world that is opposed to God. This world leads people to chase after their physical pleasures, increasing money and possessions, and pride. It leads people away from God and His word. It takes a Holy Spirit moment in which we reject the things of the world and set our minds on the Spirit to hear what God is saying to us.
Colossians 3:2 (NASB 2020) 2 Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.
And
Romans 8:5 (NASB 2020) 5 For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Our thinking must change if we are to know the will of God. Our thinking must change if we are to have faith that will see our prayers answered.
Romans 12:2 (NASB 2020) 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
If our prayers resemble the prayers of Jesus, we will be praying for His will. If we are praying for His will we will see what we are praying for.
1 John 5:14–15 (NASB 2020) 14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
So, as you pray today, don't base your prayers simply on what you want. Pray that what you want will also be God's will. Pray that you will not resist the Spirit. Pray that you will have a renewed mind so that it seeks God's will. Pray that you will hear from God.
And pray confidently because He has heard you.
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