Today we continue our new series entitled, “Faith and Patience Volume IV — The Wonder Twins”. As I continue to lay the foundation for this series, I am providing somewhat of a faith refresher. I will do the same for patience. We need both faith and patience in order to lay hold of the promises of God. I shared 8 things about faith and we have covered 5 of the 8 thus far. Here they are:
1) We are only pleasing to God when we operate in faith (Hebrews 11:6)
2) We are saved by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8,9)
3) We are called to live by faith (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4, and Galatians 2:20)
4) We are commanded to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)
5) We are urged to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12)
6) We are supposed to pray the prayer of faith (James 5:15)
7) We must speak the language of faith (Matthew 8:8)
8) We ultimately overcome the world by faith (1 John 5:4)
Yesterday I covered #5. Today we will cover #6, praying the prayer of faith.
So what does this mean for you today? It means that you must pray in faith and your faith must be in response to God’s grace. Let’s get into it.
1. You must understand the importance of prayer.
a) Prayer is both a right and a responsibility. When you have an understanding of prayer and how God wants to use prayer to influence the earth, you WANT to pray, because you understand that as much as you need God, He also needs You.
b) Both God and satan actively seek the agreement and cooperation of humans to operate in the earth.
c) The Father is looking for people in the earth to pray, to agree with His will, for His plans to manifest in the earth realm.
d) God can work without us. I will never say God can’t do whatever He wants to do without prayer, but from what we can see in scripture, it seems as though God chooses to perform His will with the cooperation of humans. This is a major aspect of prayer.
e) What is prayer?
— Prayer is how the earth agrees with heaven.
— Prayer is earthly license for heavenly interference.
— Prayer is man exercising his legal authority in the earth to invoke heaven’s influence on the planet.
— Prayer is the creation getting the Creator involved in any given situation.
2. Your prayer must be in agreement with heaven.
The Father wants us to pray, but He has not signed up to give us whatever we want, or whatever we come up with. The Father has signed up to give us whatever we ask for that lines up with His will. God’s grace is a key aspect of this.
While teaching on the Prayer of Agreement, Jesus said that we, as humans, have the authority to bind (or prevent) things from happening and loose (or permit) things to happen here in the earth. Jesus said this in Matthew chapters 16 and 18.
The traditional King James Version (KJV) of these verses are somewhat confusing.
The KJV of Matthew 16:19 reads, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The KJV of Matthew 18:18 reads, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
If all you read are these verses, without any context, it sounds like heaven will respond to whatever we say in prayer or otherwise. But you and already know that that’s not the case. You have prayed for and said many things that heaven did not respond to. So let’s seek understanding.
The Amplified translation of Matthew 18:18 says: “Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven.”
This translation sheds more light on what Jesus was actually teaching.
Jesus was not putting pressure on heaven to respond to our will, but rather on us to learn what heaven’s will already is and to pray that!
We can’t force God to do something against His will. As a matter of fact, we can’t force God to do anything!
*** Prayer is not about you telling God what to do. You cannot command God. He is not your servant, it’s the other way around.
*** Prayer is about submission and surrender, acknowledging that there is a God and you are not Him, and then coming to that God to access His grace.
3. The prayer of faith receives what God has already provided by grace.
a) Everything we do for God we must do in faith. Everything God does for us, He does by grace. In this way, our faith must always be in response to His grace. Our faith receives what God has already provided.
b) When you understand the fact that God already made plans for you before the world began, and He made those plans completely by His grace, you then understand the importance of seeking God concerning what to pray for. John said, “We can come to God with no doubts. This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), God cares about what we say. He listens to us every time we ask him. So we know that he gives us whatever we ask from him.” (1 Jn 5:14,15 ERV)
c) Praying from a position of grace means you are praying from the position of God’s perspective and will.
d) Grace-based prayers tap into supernatural power for God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Because you are acknowledging that you are not asking for something that you came up with in your heart. You are praying the heart of God.
James said, “…You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:2,3 NIV). God is not obligated to give you what you came up with. He obligates Himself to manifested what He already provided!
e) When you understand the divine authority God has given you in the earth domain, you appreciate and respect the responsibility you have to bind (prevent) and loose (permit). When things are happening in your life that you don’t like, you must ask yourself the question, “Have I prayed about this?” “Have I invoked God’s involvement?” “Have I prayed in faith to tap into God’s grace?”
f) You have the responsibility to permit and prevent things from happening with your prayers. God will back what you pray for when you pray in alignment with His will!
g) Powerful things happen when two (or more) believers come together, in agreement, and pray the will of God. Their faith taps into God’s grace.
h) Heaven responds when believers on earth make valid requests. Stop accepting everything that happens and get heaven involved in your life today through grace-based prayer! These are prayers that are made in faith, and the faith is strong and effective because it is in response to God’s grace.
That’s enough for today. I may continue to flow in this vein tomorrow.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You have given me both the right and the responsibility to pray. I accept my assignment. You are looking for faith in the earth. You shall find it in me. By faith, I come in agreement for Your will to be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. By faith, I pray for the manifestation of Your will in my life, in the lives of my family members, in my church, my community, and the world. By faith, I bind on earth what You have bound in heaven. By faith, I loose on earth what You have loosed in heaven. I come to You in boldness, in the name of Jesus, praying the prayer of faith, completely aligned with Your will, and all of heaven backs me up with I come in agreement with what You have already provided. I receive Your best today and every day, because I set my faith in agreement for the manifestation, in time, of what’s already done in eternity. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
