The Word Of Faith
5-2-10
Faith is one of the foremost
things every believe must have.
Have you ever wondered why are some prayers answered
and some are not?
We must always realize that God is not
negligent or at fault.
Possible Reasons For Unanswered Prayer
We ask with wrong motives
Un-confessed sin hinders our prayers
We way we treat other people
God’s sovereign will is different from our request
Neglecting to ask in Jesus name
A soul issue that is not dealt with
Failure to apply spiritual authority
We don’t really believe God will answer them
We don’t remain in Christ and His word doesn’t
remain in us
1. We ask
with wrong motives
James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss,
that you may spend it on your pleasures.(NKJV)
(He supplies all our need—not all of our wants))
2.
Un-confessed sin hinders our prayers
Isaiah 59:1-2
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it
cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have
separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So
that He will not hear.(NKJV)
Un-confessed sin can be a hindrance to your prayers
Psalm 66:18
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me;(AMP)
3. The way we
treat other people
Proverbs 21:13
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor Will
also cry himself and not be heard.(NKJV)
This is pretty plain speech
Parphrased
1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, dwell with understanding, giving honor
to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, that your prayers may not be
hindered.
4. God’s
sovereign will is different from our request
1 John 5:14
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that
if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.(NKJV)
God’s will may be different than what you are
praying
Isaiah 55:8-9
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.(AMP)
5. Neglecting
to ask in Jesus name
John 14:13
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son.(NKJV)
John 16:24
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask,
and you will receive, that your joy may be full.(NKJV)
A great example of the Living Word proceeding before
a flow of power
6. A soul
issue that is not dealt with
Many times souls issues manifest symptoms in the
physical body.
3 John 1:2
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things
and be in health, just as your soul prospers.(NKJV)
7. Failure to
apply spiritual authority
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.(NKJV)
According to Luke 10:19 He has given us authority to
tread…
For the demonic activity to cease our
prayers need to include our spiritual authority against the devil.
Remember when the girl with the spirit of divination
was following Paul.
This kept happening day after day
Acts 16:18
And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly
annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of
Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.(NKJV)
It’s also important to renounce agreements made with
the enemy
in areas of sin.
8. We don’t
really believe God will answer them
Matthew 21:22
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing,
you will receive."(NKJV)
Believing being the action the verb---faith the noun
A prayer can be offered with love and compassion
and much hope yet with no belief.
James writes He who doubts, --let not that man think
he will receive anything from the Lord.
9. We don’t remain in Christ and His word doesn’t
remain in us.
John 15:7
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you
will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.(NKJV)
Abiding in Christ means clinging to abiding in.
Not only words in our minds but the implanted
engrafted word
If we abide in Him and His words---Which is rhema abide
in us. They Are naturally faith
increasing
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word (Rhema).
Since faith is not self-manufactured
and faith alone comes from God we can ask God for faith.
Luke 17:5-6
And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase
our faith." So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in
the sea,' and it would obey you.(NKJV)
What is Jesus saying?
Faith is either there or it is not.
Let’s define faith one more time
Hebrews 11:1
NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the
title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not
see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is
not revealed to the senses].(AMP)
This is different from hope
If you have faith you already have possession of the
thing asked for even though you don’t see it in the natural.
Faith may be individual to a
particular situation.
If you didn’t have faith to see a mountain moved
does that mean you have no faith? (You
still have faith in Jesus Christ)
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Rhema.
The question still remains how do I receive a
Rhema?
Let’s read about the disciples.
Matthew 17:14-15
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came
to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for
he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and
often into the water.(NKJV)
He said I brought him to Your disciples, but they
could not cure him.
Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him;
and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then the disciples came to Him privately and asked
why could we not cast it out?
Matthew 17:20
So Jesus said to them, "Because of your
unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you
will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and
nothing will be impossible for you.(NKJV)
Because of your unbelief.
But then He gives a clue to more faith.
Matthew 17:21
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer
and fasting."(NKJV)
If He said it was because of their unbelief
the prayer and fasting must aid in unbelief—(((HOW))
Fasting increases your spiritual sensitivity to God
How is prayer faith building?
Jude 1:20
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your
most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,(NKJV)
Ephesians 6:18 praying always in the Spirit
Prayer aided and influenced by the Holy Spirit.
This goes right along with speaking as the oracles
of God found in I Peter 4:11
Oracles means utterances of the living voice
Romans 10:8 says "The word is near you, in your
mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith
Allowing God’s words to be spoken through you
when you pray and when you speak.
Making a confession of the word?
Why does that work?
Isaiah 55:11
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it
shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.(NKJV)
His words spoken through us can become Rhemas to us.
That’s what makes the sword of the Spirit so
effective
The sword is the word of God (Rhema)
Calling those things which are not as
though they were----but under Holy Spirit inspiration.
God never said we could do something or provided for
something without giving us the means to obtain it.
The fact is that it all comes from Him.
Not one person can ever glory and brag on their faith level
since it all comes from God as a function of His grace.
Faith is not a product that is generated by our own
thoughts or desires. It is a gift from
God (Eph 2:8-9)
The formula is all in the word.
Let’s revisit the possible reasons for unanswered
prayer effective prayer
Possible Reasons For Unanswered Prayer
We ask with
wrong motives.
Un-confessed sin hinders our prayers.
The way we treat other people.
God’s sovereign will is different from our request.
Neglecting to ask in Jesus name.
A soul issue that is not dealt with.
Failure to apply spiritual authority.
We don’t really believe God will answer them.
We don’t remain in Christ and His word doesn’t
remain in us.