Teach Me to Pray - Week #16: The Secret of Believing Prayer

"'Have faith in God', Jesus answered. 'I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.'" Mark 11:22-24

Anyone who takes Jesus seriously has probably questioned how we can ever attain the faith that is certain of receiving all that it asks. Murray points out that it only comes through knowing the One Who makes the promise: "...Before He gave that wonderful promise to His disciples (Mark 11), He told where faith in the answer to prayer begins and always receives its strength. Have faith in God...The power to believe a promise depends entirely on faith in the one who made the promise. Trust in the person generates trust in his word. Only when we live with God in a personal, loving relationship where God Himself is everything to us, only when our whole being is continually opened up and exposed to the mighty working of His holy presence within, is a capacity developed to believe that He gives whatsoever we ask."

In this chapter Murray teaches that faith is the "eye" and "ear" of the heart; we must see and hear God in order for faith to grow. To see Him is to meditate on His beauty and power, His nature and character, allowing the truth of who He is and how He feels and thinks about me and those I pray for penetrate me deeply. To hear Him is to dialogue with Him, listening to what He wants to speak and whisper to me. "I must hear the person who gives me the promise. The very tone of his voice gives me courage to believe. I must see him. In the light of his eye and countenance, all fear as to my right to take (from Him) fades away."

I believe that the true Church at the end of the age will be a people of believing prayer because we will know our God, what He's really like. One of the reasons the Holy Spirit is raising up a prayer movement that is saturated with worship is that through Scripture-based and prophetic worship, God's people will become educated about the true nature and character of the One we love and serve. Without knowing the true Jesus, we can't hope to pray in faith, and the Holy Spirit is orchestrating a movement across the earth that is proclaiming truth about God and inviting believers into the intimate knowledge of God.

I'm discovering that the more concentration I give to ministering to God in worship and His Word, the more faith is rising in my intercession. Knowing well the One to whom I make my requests gives me increasing confidence that He will answer and give me what I ask. Capacity to believe increases as I grow in knowing Him intimately, and worship that is based on the Word is one of the most effective ways of getting to know Him and focusing on Him. (Obedience to Him is part of true worship.)

"Faith is simply surrender. By faith I yield myself to the living God because of what I hear and learn about Him. His glory and love fill my heart and master my life. Faith is fellowship. I give myself up to the influence of the friend who has made me a promise, and I become linked to him by it. When we enter into this living fellowship with God himself in a faith that always sees and hears Him, it becomes easy and natural to believe His promise as it relates to prayer. Faith in the promise is the fruit of faith in the one who promised...

"Let faith look to God more than toward the thing promised...the cure of a weak faith is only found by revitalizing our whole spiritual life through close fellowship with God...See Him as the God of love, whose delight is to bless and impart himself to us. In faith make God your own; then the promise will be yours also."

"Let faith look to God more than toward the thing promised..." Could it be that the Lord waits on the answer to our requests for us to reach the place of wanting Him more than we want what we're asking for???

Murray ends this chapter by alerting us to the fact that although the Bible is full of promises, we must hear them personally quickened to us by the Spirit of God Himself in order to have spiritual power. And so we need to take the time to wait before Him and listen for His voice in His Word.

"Lord Jesus, increase my faith. Teach me to take time to wait and worship in Your holy presence until my faith takes in all there is in my God for me." Holy Spirit, open the eyes and ears of my heart to see and hear the living and true God. You, Lord, are my Reward and my Life; grant me increasing capacity to receive Your love and truth whereby my faith will grow and take hold of all that I ask. Thank You that You want this infinitely more than I want it, and so I pray with confidence that You will do this. In Jesus' holy name. Amen.