Fire On Your Head

The Prayer of Faith

I propose to show:

1. Faith is an indispensable condition of prevailing prayer
2. What is it that we are to believe when we pray
3. When we are bound to exercise this faith, or to believe that we shall receive the thing we ask for.
4. That this kind of faith in prayer always does obtain the blessing sought.

1. Faith is an indispensable condition

To prove that faith is indispensable to prevailing prayer, it is only necessary to repeat what the apostle James expressly tells us: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” (James 1:5-6)

2. What we are to believe when we pray:

We are to believe in the existence of God. Hebrews 11:6. There are many who believe in the existence of God, but do not believe in the efficacy of prayer. They profess to believe in God, but deny the necessity of influence of prayer.

We are to believe that we receive:

Some specific thing we ask for. Luke 11:13. With respect to the faith of miracles, it is plain that the disciples were bound to believe they should receive just what they asked for–the very thing itself should come to pass. That is what they were to believe. Now what ought men to believe in regarding other blessings? Is it a mere loose idea, that if a man prays for a specific blessing, God will by some mysterious sovereignty give something else, somewhere? When a man prays for his children’s conversion or somebody else’s children – is it altogether uncertain which? No, this is utter nonsense, and highly dishonorable to God. We are to believe that we shall receive the very things we ask for.

3. When are we bound to make this prayer?

When we have evidence of it. Faith must always have evidence. A man cannot believe a thing, unless he sees something which he supposes to be evidence. He is under no obligation to believe, and has no right to believe, a thing will be done, unless he has evidence. It is the height of fanaticism to believe without evidence.

Kinds of evidence:

1. When God has specifically promised a thing. As, for instance when God says He is more ready to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, than parents are to give bread to their children. Here we are bound to believe that we shall receive it when we pray for it. You have no right to put on “if” and say “Lord, if it be thy will, give us your Holy Spirit.” This is an insult to God. To put an ‘if’ into God’s promise where God has put none is tantamount to charging God with being insincere.

2. When there is a general promise in the Scriptures which you may reasonably apply to the particular case before you. If its real meaning includes the particular thing for which you pray, or if you can reasonably apply the principle of the promise to the case, there you have evidence. For instance, suppose it is a time when wickedness prevails greatly, and you are led to pray for God’s interference. What promise have you? “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19. Here you see a general promise, laying down a principle of God’s administration, which you may apply to the case before you as a warrant for exercising faith in prayer. And if an inquiry is made as to the time in which God will grant blessings in answer to prayer, you have the promise “While they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24.

3. Where there is a prophetic declaration that the thing prayed for is agreeable to the will of God. When it is plain from prophecy that the event is certainly to come, you are bound to believe it, and to make it the ground for your special faith in prayer. Daniel 9. Do not think, as you seem to, that because a thing is foretold in prophecy it is not necessary to pray for it, or that it will come whether Christians pray for it or not. God says in regard to this very class of events, which are revealed in prophecy: “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” Ezekiel 36:37

4. When the signs of the times, or the providence of God, indicate that a particular blessing is about to be bestowed we are bound to believe it.

5. When the Spirit of God is upon you, and influences strong desires for any blessing, you are bound to pray for it in faith. You are bound to infer, from the fact that you find yourself drawn to desire such a thing while in the exercise of such holy affections as the Spirit of God produces, that these desires are the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit stirs up the very desires He is willing to gratify. And when they feel such desires, they are bound to follow them out till they get the blessing.

4. This kind of faith always obtains the object.

The text is plain here to show that you shall receive the very thing prayed for. It does not say “believe that you shall receive, and you shall either have that or something else equivalent to it.” To prove that this faith obtains the very blessing that is asked, I observe:

1. That otherwise we could never know whether our prayers were answered. We might continue praying and praying, long after the prayer was answered by some other blessing equivalent to the one for which we asked.
2. If we are not bound to expect the very thing we ask for, it must be that the Spirit of God deceived us. Why should He excite us to desire a certain blessing when He means to grant something else?
3. What is the meaning of this passage: “If his son asks bread, will he give him a stone?” Matthew 7:9. Does not our Savior rebuke the idea that prayer may be answered by giving something else? What encouragement have we to pray for any thing in particular, if we are to ask for one thing and receive another? All the history of the Church shows that when God answers prayer He gives His people the very thing for which their prayers are offered. God confers other blessings on both saints and sinners, which they do no pray for at all. He sends his rain on both the just and the unjust. But when he answers prayer, it is by doing what they ask Him to do. To be sure, He often more than answers prayer. He grants them not only what they ask for, but often connects other blessings to it.
4. It is evident that the prayer of faith will obtain the blessing, from the fact that our faith rests on the evidence that to grant that thing is the will of God.

What is our Bible good for if we do not lay hold of its precious promises, and use them as the ground of our faith when we pray for the blessings of God?