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Prayer and Faith: To make it workBy: Richard D. Eutsler, Sr. It is important to pray for others in the Lord with like faith. I would even go so far to say that it is good to pray for those whose faith is not quite the same as yours. Prayer is one of, if not the most important weapons against spiritual darkness and Satan's devices that the believer can have. But one must know HOW to pray:
Let's take a look at James 5:16. There is some very important points that one can receive by breaking this verse down and taking a good look at it.
One of the first things that we get from this definition is: to acknowledge or (by implication of assent) agree fully. If you want God to answer your prayers, then the first thing that you have to do is to acknowledge your faults (sin), agree fully that they are wrong! Many Christians that I talk to do not have good success in their prayer life, simply because of this one thing. They don't want to accept their responsibility for their actions and sins. It is never their fault or it is always beyond their control. You may deceive yourself, but you CAN NOT deceive God! If you want to be in a position for God the Father to hear your prayers AND ACT on them, you MUST acknowledge your faults and fully agree that they are WRONG!
Here we can see that the word, faults, can mean anything from a simple mistake to a well thought out full blown sin! It can mean to side-slip or lapse from ones duties (duties to: God, Country, Family, Church and Community). I know that none of us EVER do that! But the truth of the mater is, that most of us do in more ways than we would like to admit! Sin is sin, is sin, is sin..... Get the point? Any sin can cause you weakness in your prayer life. Satan will grab it and use it against you in a heart beat. Have you ever wanted to pray and found yourself not able to ‘get in the mood? Have you ever tried to pray and found your mind wandering? This is an example of what it means to ‘side-slip' or lapse. Instead of making excesses for them, confess them and acknowledge that YOU are the one wrong here and stop trying to make excesses for them. If you have committed an offence, go to that person and tell them. Asking their forgiveness. If they give it fine! You have won a brother or sister. If they will not forgive you, well you have done the right thing and Satan can no longer use it against you. If you have committed a sin, confess it to your heavenly Father who is faithful to forgive. Leave no ground for Satan to come in and steal your victory!
Why should we confess one to another? Simple, things hidden always have a way of coming out in the open. If they are not hidden, then you won't live in fear of someone finding out. Fear is the faith killer! Fear is the enemy of Faith! One can not have FAITH and have FEAR! Get the point? Satan does use fear and he will use it with everything that he has.
How does one pray in an effectual way? First you have to KNOW what you are praying about! Another side of effectual prayer is powerful. I want to show you a parable that Jesus told and point out a couple of things in it.
Jesus said: If ye have faith AS a grain of mustard seed. He was not talking about size here, He was talking about KIND or TYPE of faith. I don't care what anyone says, it takes GREAT FAITH to move a mountain! Jesus was trying to tell us that. You must have the ‘type' of faith that a mustard seed has to move a mountain out of it's place. Now look at the parable:
What is not made clear here to us, but to them it made since, is this: First, a mustard seed is an herb. You know what herbs are, they are those little plants that we get spices from. Most herbs don't get over two to three feet in height. Second, if you put something over the seed of an herb, it will not germinate. Now if you had been sitting there with Jesus when He gave this parable, you would have see large tree like mustard plants growing right out of the rocks! You see, what sets the mustard seed apart from the other herbs, is that it can be carried under a boulder and left there and it will still germinate. After it germinates, it will find a crack in the boulder and begin to grow into that crack. It will grow until it splits that boulder in half! God put in that mustard seed a type of faith that tells it that if it continues to grow and does not give up, it will find the Sun in the sky! This is the kind of faith that is effectual! It is the kind of faith that we, as believers in Jesus Christ must develop! How do we do it? Look at this:
Jude tells us that we must build up ourselves ON our most holy faith by praying in the Holy Ghost! Praying in the Holy Ghost is, praying in Tongues! If Satan can convince the church not to pray in tongues, he can rob it of mustard seed type faith! It takes FAITH to pray in tongues! Your mind rebels against it. Effectual faith and prayer had to be developed, it does not come without a price. The price for this kind of prayer and faith is having to give up pride, stubbornness, self-willed, disobedience and laziness.
A prayer is a petition or request that you make to God your Father in the name of Jesus Christ. It also means to beg as in binding yourself to the one you are petitioning. At good example of this was Jacob:
This is one of the best examples of ‘binding yourself' to the one you are petitioning. Jacob wrestled with Jesus and refused to let go. For this he receive a great blessing. Another scripture to look at is:
You can not give up when you pray, but pray believing that you will receive what you pray for.
Holy, innocent and equitable. God the Father does give us the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord. And He forgives us our sins. We can not be righteous of ourselves. But we DO have to stand in that righteousness by faith and not abuse it. Then are we innocent and right before Him who called us unto adoptions as dear children. A parent who's child is always rebellious and misbehaving, is not likely to want to reward that child. A parent who's child is attentive and obedient is a blessing to that parent and therefore the parent wants to do good things for that child.
It means to prevail with strength. To be forceful and mighty. The prayers of a righteous man are forceful and strong. They produce results that can be seen by others. This is the type of prayers that we should be putting forth as believers in Christ Jesus. It is my hope that this may help you in your prayer life, Richard D. Eutsler, Sr.
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