“And Jesus
answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That
whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into
the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things
which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore
I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mark 11:22-24)
I
am always astonished at the ways of women. They will go “window-shopping” all
day long not expecting to buy anything; they merely go to “shop”. This is the
way it is with many people. They pray and pray, but do not get anything;
because they do not expect to get anything. Prayer that does not have a
definite petition is not real prayer.
When
I go out to buy something like shoes or a suit, I just walk down the line pick
out what I want and pay for it and leave. The whole thing only takes a few
minutes. I do not shop. I buy. And that is what prayer is. Prayer is asking something definitely from
god: “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (Juan 14:14), “Ask, and it shall be given you… For
every one that asketh receiveth” (Matthew 7:7-8).
Modernists
do not believe that prayer changes things. They do not accept the plain Bible
teaching that prayer is asking and the answer is receiving. They believe that
prayer is merely spiritual fellowship. We do not really get things from God but
after we pray we feel stronger to get them for ourselves, or are perhaps
resigned to do without them! In Hebrews 11:6 we learn that there are two things
we must believe before our prayer is heard: first, we have to believe that
there is a God and second we have to believe that God is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek him. That is, God hears and answers prayer.
Do
circumstances and things change our prayer? When you pray according to god’s
will and with faith all things are possible. This is praying in the spirit, a prayer
of faith.
When
we pray in the flesh or our understanding, the things around us begin to change
our prayer, Thing starts to look impossible to us.
Removing
mountains was a Jewish figure of speech for getting rid of a great difficulty.
Not a real mountain. God does not busy himself doing silly, unnecessary things.
In
verse twenty-four of Mark 11 the word “believe” literally means “keep on believing.” This is one of
the main requirements for getting our prayers answered. Too often we get discouraged
and quit believing before our prayer is answered.
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