Continued from 4/4/2015
2. Ask God for it in faith.
Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him
who knocks, the door will be opened.
Simply put, ask God for what you need. Another “A” in our FAITH acronym
might be “Agree.” It is good to find other people to agree with you in prayer.
Matthew 18:19 tells us, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree
about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
3. Imagine the answer to prayer in your mind.
Imagine it like you already have it. If you are praying for a relationship to
get better, imagine that it is. Your optimistic attitude will help change the
relationship. That is the way God created faith. On the other hand, being
pessimistic, lacking faith, and thinking about negative things, will cause
problems in the relationship. When a person thinks about the negatives of the
relationship, he will be more likely to get angry or do other things that are not
good for the relationship. I have seen this happen many times in my own life
and in the lives of others.
It is important to imagine you have already been given the answer to your
prayer, because if you have faith and you pray in God’s will, you do already
have the answer. I will explain this more in the chapter on Daniel.
4. Thank God for it.
In Mark 11:24 we read, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you
have received it, and it will be yours.” Notice it says “…believe that you have
received it…”. This means that at the moment you ask God for it, you receive
it. However, it may take some time for it to materialize or to become substance
Some translations of Hebrews 11:1 read, “Faith is the substance (my emphasis)
of things hoped for…” Daniel prayed in Daniel 10, but the powerful angel that
came to give him the answer to his prayer was detained by Satan or a demon.
There was apparently a wrestling match in the unseen world. Paul said we
wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the powers in the heavenly
realms. These powers will do everything possible to damage our faith and
prevent us from getting an immediate answer to our prayer.
God could have answered Daniel’s prayer immediately if He wanted to, but for
some reason, He allowed the struggle in the heavenly realms to continue for
days before the angel was able to reach Daniel. Romans 8:28 says that in all
things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according
to His purpose. God is certainly powerful enough to answer your prayer
immediately if He wants to, but usually He takes some time before He answers
it. God is more concerned about us growing spiritually strong than getting
everything we want right away. Just as our parents did not give us everything
we wanted because they knew it was for our best, God also sometimes does
not give us what we want when we ask for it. Every parent has probably had
a child who wanted to eat ice cream for supper; however, the parent knew it
would not be good for the child and did not permit it.
