Mark 11:22 And Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God. (24) For this reason I say to you, All things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them.
A condition on the positive side for having prayer answered is faith. Faith is indispensable. Without faith, prayer is ineffectual. We must believe when we pray. If we believe that we have received what we are praying for, we will have them. The Lord said, "Believe that you have received them, and you will have them." He did not say, "Believe that you will receive them" but, "Believe that you have received them." Christians often make the mistake of separating believe from its predicate you have received. They place it before the expression you will have them. They pray to the Lord thinking that it is a matter of great faith to "believe...and you will have them." However, this is to move believe away from you have received and to place it before you will have them. The Bible says that we should believe that we have received, not that we will receive. The two are definitely not the same. What is faith? Faith is the assurance that God has answered our prayer. It is not the conviction that God will answer our prayer. Faith is when we kneel down to pray and say in an instant, "Thank God! He has answered my prayer. Thank God! This matter is settled." This is to believe that we have received. [continued tomorrow]
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Watchman Nee, Messages for Building Up New Believers, pp. 154-155. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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