By Sidharth Mohandas
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” [Mark 11:24]
If you take this verse in it’s context, you will realize that Jesus said this to His disciples after He cursed the fig tree. However, in this instance you don’t find Jesus persisting in prayer, instead you find Him cursing the fig tree and believing it to be done, and it was so.
There are two basic things that we need to consider in the above passage:
(1) You must find basis for faith in God. You can’t have faith in God for something that is not revealed to you as His will.
(2) Secondly, the verse is applicable only at a personal level.
Let me clarify these with an example…Before I received the Spirit baptism, the Lord spoke to me from His Word about His will for me to be baptized in the Spirit. I sought the Lord, and initially I kept on asking the Lord to fill me with His Spirit. However, sometime later the Lord brought the above verse to my mind and in response to it I believed that I had received the Spirit. Within few minutes I was filled with the Spirit and spoke in a language unknown to me. So here you can see that (1) I found a basis from the Scriptures that it was God’s will for me to receive His Spirit and (2) no one else could believe and receive for me, I myself had to believe that I had received the Spirit even before I saw any manifestation. That would obviously prevent me from asking any more.
If this is so, then when should a person keep on asking or persist in prayer? Of course, we know a number of passages teaching us to ask and keep on asking, to persist in prayer and so forth. But where do we draw the line?
Here’s the principle that will make it clear to you: You need to keep on asking where you cannot receive or appropriate by faith.
As I mentioned in point (1), you cannot have faith in God for something that is not revealed to you as His will. Therefore, if you and I are uncertain about what Abba wills, it demands a continual asking, seeking and knocking from our side.
At the same time coming to point (2), we realize that this verse is on a personal level. I can believe that I have received something I’ve asked for only at a personal level. For example, I cannot receive the salvation of the Lord for my family. They have to personally believe and receive it. This calls us for persistence in prayer. Other areas that would require you to pray continuously would be praying for the government, for the nation, for the church and so forth
When I pray for my individual needs, I can believe that I have received even before I see the manifestation and close the case. However, intercessory prayer demands my continual prayer.
I encourage you to come to this place of prayer where you can take God at His Word and close the case the very moment you present it before the throne.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. [1 John 5:14-15]
At the same time, I also encourage you to persist in prayer in areas where you need to. Probably you’re seeking Him for new direction, or for the salvation of someone in your family. Do not give up, ask and keep on asking!
I love this post, brother Sidhart and am not about to argue with you all you have said because is so true but the part about not being persistent in personal prayers might be your own opinion or don’t you think so? even as much as I agree that we shouldn’t make vain repetitions like Jesus commanded us not do, sometimes when you are persistent it doesn’t mean you are praying to a God that does not answer but rather you are Praying a persistent Prayer because of a heavy mountain in your life. . . that you think has not been moved is it for lack of faith? not really.
Let me share this with you just less than an hour ago and I was about requesting something that I have always asked the Lord to do for me and I just heard the Holy Spirit say don’t ask that for it has already been answered and I shouted for joy.
I would like you to read this post in my blog if you don’t mind Prayer
Godbless and luv
Let me illustrate it for you, Hanny.
Remember we are dealing with only things that are clearly revealed to us as God’s will. For example, imagine I have committed a grave sin, and I feel guilty, I don’t feel at peace even after I have repented and confessed my sin. What should I do here? Go on ask him to forgive me again and again? No! Believe that I have received His forgiveness based on His promise in 1 John 1:9, and then His peace will come in.
The verse says, When you ask, believe that you have already received what you have asked for. If you believe you have received something, will you keep on asking for it?
Of course, I would persist in prayer, but not in petitioning, but in prayers of thanksgiving!
My friend Robert is a very faithful person. If I ask him to do something, I know he will do it without a shadow of a doubt. I don’t worry about it at all because I have faith in him. Our God is bigger, Hanny! =)
If you and I need Bible-results, we need to go by the principles shown in the Bible on how to pray.
Sidharth
Dear Sid you have made a very good point and even what you just said is in a post am working on about faith. I said there that that when you entrust God with something you must not waiver in faith or else you will not get the desired result. so this brings us back to faith in God believing that our prayers will be answered when we do pray to Him.
I will try and work on my faith post quickly too Pray for me am becoming too tired to write. I need His grace to fill me
Godbless you Brother lovely post what you are saying is here is that when you Pray to God about something, you must believe it is done and give thanks in anticipation, I believe that too but many people will argue because they want to see results first before believe and that is faithlessness
Good point.
Also, I believe the person needs to continue to ask to build up his faith. Then there comes a time where he will know in his Spirit that the answer has come, and will stop asking.
Blessings!
Yvette
Amen, Hanny. I agree with you.
“The just shall live by faith.” This is one of the pviotal verses in the Christian faith.
Here’s something very interesting…
The Greek word for “sensual” in James 3:15 and Jude 1:19, the Greek word for “natural” in 1 Cor 2:14 are all “psuchikos”.
This word has it’s root in the word “psuche” which is the Greek word for “soul”. The word “psychology” finds its root in “psuche” too. Anyway, to be sensual, to be natural and so forth according to the Scriptures is “to be led by ones soul” or “to be soulish”.
The soul can be described by three phrases “I will”, “I feel” and “I think”. If we are governed by these three, Scripture labels us as “sensual”, “natural”, “worldly” etc.
When we decide to function solely by what the spirit says, we are spiritual. Anything less is sensual, worldly and natural. This is why this post I wrote is very important.
Sidharth
This is a nice post.
Prayer is my favorite topic, and I would say my gift from God. Some area’s are harder to have that rock solid faith, and this is where I say Lord I believe, help my unbelief. That scripture helped me so much!
I have just finished reading a great book called Prayer streaming, praying 24/7. ( that is where my heart is).Its great to read about the great men and woman who where called to Prayer
The other day I told the Lord, I dont want to prayer if I dont believe in what I am praying for. I dont want glib prayers. I think when I said that it was a turning point in my life for me. I actually stopped praying for days. I want to ALWAYS come boldly into the throne room!!
From Karen
Sid, I study the Scriptures everyday with the intent of learning something new. whether altogether new or a new aspect of a known matter. nonetheless, i come away with something inspiring most of the time. In reading this/your post, i have found a most satisfying answer to a long-awaited answer of years. Sid, i am going to apply your experience of the above referenced scripture to watch it manifest in my experiences. God bless you for your ministry. thank you…
Sid, I study the Scriptures everyday with the intent of learning something new. whether altogether new or a new aspect of a known matter. nonetheless, i come away with something inspiring most of the time. In reading this/your post, i have found a most satisfying answer to a long-awaited answer of years. Sid, i am going to apply your experience of the above referenced scripture to watch it manifest in my experiences. i believe God expects us to share our blessings with others, not necessarily material, but spiritual. In this way we come together as the body of Christ is intended to. This is your ministry, hinder it not, and flourish. God bless you. thank you…
Dear Brother,
I am Fahim Qaiser from Pakistan. I have studied your web site, and I found it the most wonderful site to get right to the True Word of God. My suggestion for you is to create your material in my language of Urdu and Punjabi also. It will bring lots of blessings of the Word of God for the Pakistani and Indian Urdu and Punjabi speaking people. For that purpose I as a translator will bring your material into Urdu languages and into Punjabi language as well. Although it will take your low expenses as well, as fund for the Word of God to reach out to the deserving people. I my self, work on a local radio station also. Many times it becomes difficult for us to keep doing this because of being minorities and because of the lack of the financial resources. I will wait for your response.
Sincerely,
Fahim Qaiser ( Pakistan ).
Good stuff.
One thing I’ve learned lately, is the truth in Psalm 37:4 that says, ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’. It happens that sometimes our faith becomes so low that we do not pray for the things that concern us…we just begin ‘working in faith’…towards what we think is His will.
But God is able to manage all the concerns of our life. We mustn’t ‘hide’ our concerns, or bury them. We can allow the Holy Spirit to dig them up, and then we present them to our problem solver, Almighty God. ‘Ask and you will receive’…He wants to take care of our every need. I pray that we will all know the character of our God: that He wants to give, wants to heal, wants to give wisdom. So our goal is to ‘know Him’, to have faith in Him… in His good character.