James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Effective, Fervent = (Greek) energeo. This word is where we get our English word energy from. It is usually translated “work” but in this context it literally means to show forth your works of faith in prayer.
If there is effective prayer, then we can also conclude that there is ineffective prayer. Effective, fervent prayer starts with knowing God’s will and believing that God’s desire for us is always, “On Earth as it is in Heaven.”
Mark 11:22-24 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
The prayer of faith does not say, “If it be your will Lord.” The prayer of faith knows the will of God before praying. The prayer of faith makes a draw, or demand, on what God has already provided and promised through His word and by His grace.
When praying the prayer of faith, we must believe that we receive the answer at the time of the prayer.
Regardless of what we see or don’t see, feel or don’t feel, we must believe that we have received what we prayed for. This means that going forward we should be thanking God for the answer to our prayer. Our belief that God has answered our prayer is expressed by works. Our words and actions should confirm that we have received the answer. It is by these works that our faith is made alive.
If we truly believe that we have received the answer when we prayed, there should be a change in us. Our hearts will be excited, our hope will be strengthened, and our expectations will remain unwavering until we see the full manifestation of what we prayed for. Faith believes the prayer is answered before it sees the answer, and it speaks and behaves accordingly.
Most Christians pray, and if they don’t see an immediate answer, they stop believing. They don’t speak or behave like they have the answer, so their faith is dead. Dead things do not produce fruit. Just because we don’t see an immediate change in the circumstances we are praying for does not mean the prayer wasn’t answered.
Daniel was praying for understanding and seeking certain answers from God. Look what happened.
Daniel 10:12-13 Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.
The prayer of faith should be prayed once. As soon as our faith is expressed and released for the answer, our prayers and our conversation should change to reflect our belief that we have already received the answer. If we pray the prayer of faith twice in the same way, it reveals that we didn’t actually believe it the first time we prayed.
James 2:14-17 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
This passage compares faith to the body and works to the spirit. So, by our words and actions (works), we put a living spirit into our faith. If our faith is to be a living faith, then we must have the spirit of faith.
The Spirit of Faith
2 Corinthians 4:13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,
We will speak about what we believe. Our conversation is always a dead giveaway to what we believe in our hearts. Our faith in God is communicated by words and actions. We must pay close attention to both so that we don’t speak against our hope.
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Our words have the ability to minister grace or corruption to the hearer, and when our words align with our faith, God imparts His divine influence into our situation to minister to us and bring the answer we are believing for.
Matthew 12:33-37 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
The words we speak after our faith is released will determine what fruit grows. If we truly believe in our heart that we received the answer to our prayer the moment we pray, our attitude, our countenance, our words, and our actions will reflect that belief.
Before we pray the prayer of faith, we should look to God’s word and find His will concerning what we are praying for. Then we build ourselves up and strengthen our faith by reading and meditating on God’s word concerning His promises.
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
When God’s will is known and our faith is built up by meditation on His word, we release our faith and believe we have the answer when we pray. If we do not see immediate results from our prayer, we must not let that discourage us. We simply receive it by faith, regardless of what we see, feel, or experience, and begin to call things that don’t exist like they already exist.
Romans 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
God created the universe by faith and with His words called things into existence. We are created in God’s image and in His likeness, and by the precious blood of Jesus, we have the authority to do the same.
All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to Jesus, and our life is hidden in Him. We are seated with Him in heavenly places, and we have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness, including the exceedingly great and precious promises of God. Such as, healing, favor, blessing, provision, wisdom, understanding, the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, and many more. We are promised these things, but we must obtain them by faith so that we can partake in God’s divine nature.
2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
JESUS IS COMING!
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