The Prayer of Faith
“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; And if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.’ — I Joun 5:14, 15, cf. R. V.
markable statements to be found in the whole Bible
in regard to God answering prayer, and in regard to our knowing that God has heard our prayer and granted the thing we have asked of Him. You will find it in I John, the fifth chapter, the 14th and 15th verses:
“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him id Seat e Vie)
Please notice carefully exactly what God tells us in this passage. We are told in this passage that there is a way in which certain people can pray so as to not only get the very thing that they ask, but so as to know before they actually get it, that God has heard their prayer and that therefore the thing which they have asked of Him He has granted to them. Listen again to these wonderful words that the Holy Spirit inspired John to write: “This is the confidence that we have in Him [that is, in God], that, ¢f we ask anything according to His will, He CALL your attention today to one of the most reheareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired [more literally, have asked] of Him.” Certainly that is an astonishing statement: it gives to us the plain and positive assurance that there are some people who can pray in a certain way, and that if those people pray in that way they will not only get whatsoever they ask, but that furthermore they may know before they get it that God has heard their prayer and granted the thing that they have asked. It is certainly a great joy when one prays to be able to know that the prayer we have offered has been heard and the thing which we have asked has been granted, and to be just as sure that it is ours as we shall afterwards be when we actually have it in
our hand. Ct
I. To WuHom THE PROMISE Is MADE
Please note, first of all, just who it is to whom God makes this promise. As I have said so often before, when you try to understand and apply the promises of God which you find in the Bible, you must always be very careful to note just exactly who the people are to whom the promise is made. Just who the persons are to whom this promise is made we are told in the immediate context, in the verse that immediately precedes, “These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.’ Then immediately follows the promise that we are studying today, so it is as clear as day that the promise is made to those who “believe on the name of the Son of God,” to them and to nobody else, and anyone who does not believe on the name of the Son of God has no right whatever to take this promise to himself, or to think that if he does take the promise to himself and it is not fulfilled that God’s Word has failed. The fault is with himself, and not with God’s Word. He has taken to himself a promise that was made to somebody else. Just what it means to believe on the Son of God we are told in the Gospel that was written by the same one who wrote this Epistle, the Gospel of John; John 1:12: “But as many as received Him [that is, received Jesus Christ], to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
So John himself interprets “believing on the name of the Son of God” to mean receiving the Son of God, that is, receiving Him to be to ourselves what He offers Himself to be to all who put their trust in Him, our personal Saviour Who bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and our Lord and Master to whom we surrender the absolute control of our thoughts, our will, and our conduct. So, then, this promise is made to those who have received Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and trusted God to forgive them because Jesus Christ died on the cross in their place, and who have also received Him as their Lord and Master to whom they have surrendered the absolute control of their thoughts, their will, and their conduct, those who have made an absolute surrender to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is made to them, and to no one else, and no one else has the least right to claim it.
Just here is where many go astray, they do not really “believe on the name of the Son of God,” they have not really “received Him,’ yet they appropriate to themselves this promise that was never made to them.
Il. How We Must Pray InN OrpER To KNOW THAT
God Has HEArp Our PRAYERS AND GRANTED
THE THING THAT WE HAvE ASKED
Now we come to the question, How must “those who believe on the name of the Son of God” pray in order to know that God has heard their prayer, and granted the thing that they asked? Read the fourteenth verse again, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” In order to know that God has heard our prayer and granted us the thing that we asked, we must pray according to His will. When we who believe on the name of the Son of God pray for anything that we know to be according to His will, then we may know, for the all-sufficient reason that God says so in His Word, that God has heard the prayer and granted us the thing that we ask. We may know it not because we feel it, not because of any inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, we may know it for the very best of all reasons — because God says so in His Word, and “God cannot lie.”
But is it possible for us to know what the will of God is, so that we can be sure while we are praying that we are asking something that is “according to His will?” We certainly can know the will of God with absolute certainty in many cases when we pray. How CAN WE KNOW THE WILL oF God?
1. In the first place, We may know the will of God by the promises in His Word. The Bible was given us for the specific purpose of revealing to us the will of God, and when we find that anything is definitely promised in the Word of God we know that that is His will, for He has said so in so many words. And when we who believe on the name of the Son of God go to God and ask Him for anything that is definitely promised in His Word, we may know with absolute certainty that God has heard our prayer and that the thing which we have asked of God is granted. We.do not have to feel it — God says so, and that 1s enough.
For example, God says in His Word, James 1:5 R. V., “If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” So when I go to God and ask for wisdom, if I am a believer on the name of the Son of God, I know with absolute certainty that God has heard my prayer and that wisdom will be granted.
Some years ago I was speaking ata Y. M. C. A. Bible Conference at Mahtomede, White Bear Lake, Minnesota; I was speaking on the subject of prayer. I had to hurry immediately from the amphitheatre to the train. As I passed out of the amphitheatre I saw another minister from Minneapolis, who was to immediately follow me on - the program, who was greatly excited. He stopped me and said, “Mr. Torrey, ] am going to tear to pieces everything that you have said to these young men this morning.” J replied, “If I have not spoken according to the Bible, I hope you will tear it to pieces. But if I have spoken according to the Book you better be careful how you try to tear it to pieces.” “But,” he exclaimed, “you have produced upon these young men the impression that they can pray for things and get the very thing that they ask for.” I replied, “I do not know whether that is the impression that I have produced or not, but it certainly is the impression that I intended to produce.”
“But,” he said, “that is not right; you must say if it be according to God’s will,” I replied, “If you do not know that the thing which you have asked is according to God’s will, then it is all right to say, If it be according to Thy will. But if you know God’s will, what is the need of saying, If it be according to Thy will?” “But,” he said, “we cannot know God’s will.” I answered, “What was the Bible given to us for if it was not to reveal God’s will? Now,” I said, “when you find a definite promise in the Bible and take that promise to God, don’t you know that you have asked something according to His will? For example, we read in James 1:5, ‘If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ Now,” I said, “when you ask for wisdom do you not know that God is going to give it?” “But,” he said, “I do not know what wisdom is.” JI said, ‘If you did you would not need to ask it, but whatever it may be, do you not know that God is going to give it?” He made no reply. I never heard that he tried to tear what I said to pieces, but I know that later he himself spoke very boldly on the subject of confidently asking God for the things that we need of Him, and that are according to His will.
No, when you have a definite promise in God’s Word you do not need to put any “ifs” before it. All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 1:20). They are absolutely sure, and if you plead any plain promise in God’s Word you need not put any “ifs” in your petition. You may know that you are asking something that is according to God’s will, and it is your privilege to know that God has heard you; and it is your privilege to know that you have the thing you have asked; it is your privilege to get up from prayer with the same absolute certainty that that thing is yours that you will afterward have when you actually see it in your hand.
Suppose some cold winter morning when I lived in Chicago I had gone down on South Clark street that was then teeming with poor, men, and some shivering tramp should have come up to me and said, “Mr. Torrey, it is very cold and I need an overcoat. Will you give me an overcoat?’’ And then I had replied, “If you will come over to my house this afternoon at 39 East Pearson Street, at two o’clock, I’ll give you an overcoat.’’ Promptly at two o’clock the tramp makes his appearance. I meet him at the door and bring him into the house. Then he says to me, “Mr. Torrey, you said to me this morning on South Clark Street that if I would come to your house at two o’clock this afternoon you would give me an overcoat. Now, if you will, please give me that overcoat.” What would I say? Id say, “Man, what did you say?” “I said, if you will, please give me that overcoat.” “But why do you put any ‘if’ in? Did I not say I would?” “eset obo you) doubt: my wordriy si No waa aes why do you put in an ‘if’?”’ And why should we put any “ifs”? in when we take to God any promise of His own? Does God ever lie? There are many cases in which we do not know the Will of God, and in such cases it is all right to put in “if it be Thy will.” And even in cases where we do know His will, our prayers should always be in submission to His will, for the dearest of anything to the true child of God is God’s will, but there is no need to put any “ifs”? in when He has revealed His will. To put in an “if” in such a case as that is to doubt God, to doubt His Word, and really is to “make God a liar.”
This passage of Scripture is one of the most abused passages in the Bible. God put it into His Word to give us “confidence” when we pray. It is constantly misused to make us uncertain when we pray. Oftentimes when some young and enthusiastic believer is asking for something with great confidence, some cautious brother will go to him after the meeting is over and say to him, “Now, my young brother, you must not be so confident as that in your prayers. It may not be God’s will, and we ought to be submissive to the will of God, and you should say, ‘If it be Thy will.” And so some men always have an element of uncertainty in their prayers, and one would think that I John 5:14 read, “This is the uncertainty that we have in Him, that we can never know God’s will, and therefore can never be sure that our prayer is heard.” But that is not the way the verse reads. It reads, “This is the confidence (not uncertainty, but absolute confidence) that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, HE HEARETH us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE the petitions that we have asked of him.” Oh, how subtle the Devil is to take a passage of Scripture that God has put into His Word to fill us with confidence when we pray, and use it to make us uncertain when we pray.
2. But can we know the will of God when we pray, even when there is no definite promise in regard to the matter about which we are praying? Yes, in many cases we can. How? Romans 8:26, 27 R. V. answers the question: “And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’ It is the work of the Holy Spirit when we pray to make known to us what is the will of God in the matter about which we are praying, and to show us if the thing is according to His will, that it 1s according to His will. There are many things which we need which are not definitely promised in the Word, and it doesn’t follow at all that because they are not definitely promised in the Word that they are not “according to the will of God.” It is the will of God to give us very many things which He has not definitely promised in His Word, and it is the method of God, when we pray, to give us, by the direct illumination of the Holy Spirit, to know His will even in regard to things about which He has given us no definite promise.
For example, while I was pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, the child of a man and woman who were both members of our church was taken very sick. The child first had the measles, and the measles were followed by meningitis. The child sank very low, and the doctor said to the mother, “I can do no more for your child. Your child cannot live.” She immediately hurried down to my house to get me to come up to their house and pray for her child. But I was out of town holding meetings in Pittsburgh. So she sent for my assistant pastor, Rev. W. S. Jacoby, and he went up to the house with one of my colleagues in the Bible Institute, and prayed for the child. That night when I got home from Pittsburgh he came around to my house to tell me about it, and he said, “Mr. Torrey, if I ever had an answer to my prayers in my life, it was today when I was praying for the Duff child.” He was confident that God had heard his prayer and that the child would be healed. And the child was healed right away. This was Saturday. The next morning the doctor called again at the house and there was such a remarkable change in the child that he said to Mrs. Duff, “What have you done for your child?” She told him just what she had done. Then he said, ‘ Well, I will give her some more medicine.” ‘ No,” she said, “you will not. You said you could do no more for the child, that the child must die, and we went to God in prayer and God has healed the child. You are not going to take the honour to yourself by giving him some more medicine.” Indeed, the child was not only improved that morning, the child was well, and Mrs. Duff was down to the morning service and would have brought the child with her only it was such a stormy morning that she thought she better not take it out in the intense cold.
Now, neither Mr. Jacoby nor I could pray for every sick child in that way, for it is not the will of God to heal every sick child, nor every sick adult. It is God’s general will in regard to His children that they be well in body, but there are cases when God for wise purposes of His own does not see fit to heal the sick; but there are cases when He does see fit to heal the sick, and in those cases if we are living near to God and listening for the voice of His Spirit, and are entirely surrendered to the Spirit in our praying, the Spirit of God will make clear to us the will of God, and we shall know that our prayer is heard; and we will know that the thing is ours long before we actually get it.
Take another illustration along an entirely different line, for the healing of the body is only one of the lines along which God answers prayer, and not by any means the most important. In my first pastorate we had a union meeting of all the churches of the town. In the course of the meetings we had a day of fasting and
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fi prayer. During the morning meeting as we were praying God led me to pray that one of the most unlikely men in the town might be saved that night. He had led a wild roaming life; few in his family were Christians; but as we knelt in prayer that morning God put a great burden on my heart for that man’s salvation, and I prayed that he might come to the meeting and be saved that night. And as I prayed God gave me a great confidence that he would come and be saved tonight. And come he did that night, and saved he was that night. There was not a man in that whole town who was more unlikely to be saved than he. That was more than forty years ago, but when I was down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a few years ago J met another man whose mother was saved about the same time, and he told me that this man was then living in Tennessee and was still living a Christian life. Now I cannot pray for the salvation of every unsaved person in that way, but God by His Spirit revealed to me His will regarding that man, and in many a case He has revealed His will.
Take an illustration along still another line. One day when in Northfield, Mass., I received word from Chicago from Mr. Fitt, Mr. Moody’s son-in-law, that we needed five thousand dollars for the work in Chicago at once, and asking me to pray for it. Another member of the Faculty of the Bible Institute was in Northfield at that time, and that night we went out into a summer-house on my place and knelt down and prayed God to send that five thousand dollars. And God gave my friend great confidence that He had heard the prayer, and he said to me, “God has heard the prayer and the five thousand dollars will come.” Mr. Fitt and Mr. Gaylord also prayed in Chicago, and God gave Mr. Gaylord a great confidence that the five thousand dollars would come. We knew it was ours, we knew that God had heard the prayer and that we had received the five thousand dollars. And a telegram came the next day (I think it was) from Indianapolis, saying that five thousand dollars had been deposited in a bank in Indianapolis to our account and was waiting our order. Though we had prayed and expected, Mr. Fitt could hardly believe it when he heard it, and sent down to our bank in Chicago and they made inquiry from the bank in Indianapolis if it were true, and they found out that it was. As far as I know, the man who put that money in the bank in Indianapolis at our call had never given a penny to the Bible Institute before. I did not know there was such a man in the world, and as far as I know he has never given a penny to the Bible Institute since. Now I cannot go to God every time I want money and think I need it and ask God for it with that same confidence, but there are times when I can. There have been many such times in my life, and God has never failed, and He never will. Banks sometimes fail; God never fails.
To sum it all up, when God makes His will known, either by a specific promise of His Word or by His Holy Spirit while we are praying, that the thing that we ask for is “according to His will,” it is our privilege to know — if we really believe on the name of the Son of God — that that thing we have asked is granted, and that it 1sours; just as truly ours as it will be when afterwards we actually have it in our hand.
III. PrAyvING IN FAITH
The passage we have been studying is closely related to another passage in the gospel of Mark, that contains a promise of our Lord Himself in regard to God answering prayer. It is a very familiar passage; you will find it in Mark 11:24: “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ I will not stop to call your attention to whom this promise is made, further than to say that it is made as are all the other promises of God to answer prayer which we have been studying, to those who believe on Jesus Christ, those who are united to Jesus Christ by a living faith that manifests itself in an obedient love. This is evident from the context, as you can find out for yourself if you will read the promise in its context.
And how must we pray in order to get the thing that we ask? WE MUST PRAY IN FAITH, that 1s, we must pray with a confident expectation of getting the very thing that we ask. There are those who say that any prayer that is in submission to the will of God, and in faith in Him and dependence on God, is a prayer of faith. But it is not “the prayer of faith” in the Bible sense of “the prayer of faith.’ “The prayer of faith” in the Bible ’ sense of “the prayer of faith,” is the prayer that has no. doubt whatever that God has heard the prayer and granted. the specific thing “which we have asked of Him.” This. is evident from James 1:5-7 R. V.: “But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind. and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’ No matter how positive the. promises of God may be, we will never receive them in: our own experience till we absolutely believe them, and.
the prayer that gets what it asks is “the prayer of faith,” that is, the prayer that has no doubt whatever of getting the very thing that is asked.
This comes out more clearly in the Revised Version of Mark 11:24 than in the Authorized. Let me read you from the English Revision, which is more accurate in this case than the American Revision: “Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.’”’ When we pray to God, and pray according to His will as known by the promises of His Word, or as known by the Holy Spirit revealing His will to us, we should confidently believe that the very thing that we have asked is granted us. We should “believe that” we “have received,’ and what we thus believe we have received we shall afterwards have in actual personal experience.
Take for example the matter of praying for “the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” When anyone prays for the Holy Spirit, anyone who is united to Jesus Christ by a living faith that reveals itself in an obedient love, anyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Saviour and is trusting God to forgive them on the sole ground that Jesus Christ died in their place, and who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master, and surrendered all their thoughts and purposes and conduct to His control, they may know that they have prayed for something according to His will, for Jesus Christ definitely says in Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” And as he knows that he has asked something which is according to God’s will as He has clearly revealed it in His Word, it is his privilege to say, “I have what I asked. I have the Holy Spirit.” It is not a question at all of whether he feels that he has received the Holy Spirit or not; it is not a question of some remarkable experience: it is simply a question of taking God at His Word and that the one who prays believes that he has received, just because God says so. And what he has taken by naked faith on the Word of God, simply believing he has received, because God says so, he will afterwards have in actual experimental possession. There is no need that he go to any “tarrying meeting,” no need that he work himself up into a frenzy of emotionalism, no need that he fall into a trance, or fall into unconsciousness, an experience utterly foreign to anything described in the New Testament. He has a far better ground for his assurance that he has received what he asked than any feeling or any ecstasy; he has the immutable Word of God, ‘‘ God Who cannot lie.” “Praying in faith, that is, praying with an unquestioning belief that you will receive just exactly what you ask; yes, believing as you pray that God has heard your prayer and that you have received the thing that you ask, is one of the most important factors in obtaining what we ask when we pray. As James puts it in Jas. 1:6, 7, “Let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’ That is, let not the man who has any doubts that God has heard his prayer, think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. we So the tremendously important question arises, How can we pray the prayer of faith? How can we pray with a confident, unquestioning certainty in our minds, that God has heard our prayer and granted the thing that we ask? This has been partly answered in what we have already said, but in order that it may be perfectly clear, let us repeat the substance of it again.
1. To pray the prayer of faith we must, first of all, study the Word of God, especially the promises of God, and find of what the will of God is and build our pray-, ers on the written promises of God. Intelligent faith,” — and that is the only kind of faith that counts with God, must have a warrant. We cannot believe by just trying to make ourselves believe. Such belief as that is not faith but credulity, it is “make believe.”
THE GREAT WARRANT FOR INTELLIGENT FAITH Is Gop’s Worp. As Paul puts it in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The faith that is built upon the sure Word of God is an intelligent faith, it has something to rest upon. So if we would pray the prayer of faith we must study much the Word of God, and find out what God has definitely promised, and then with God’s promise in mind approach God and ask Him for that thing which He has promised.
Here is the point at which many go astray. Here is the point at which I went astray in my early prayer life. Not long after my conversion I got hold of this promise of our Lord Jesus in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” I said to myself, “All that I need to do if I want anything is to ask God for it and then make myself believe that I am going to get it, and I’ll have it.” So whenever I wanted anything I asked God for it and tried to make myself believe I was going to get it, but I didn’t get it, for it was only “make-believe,” and -I did not really believe at all. But I later learned that “faith cometh by hearing, and
wae hearing by the Word of God,’ and that if I wished to pray “the prayer of faith” I must have some warrant for my faith, some ground upon which to rest my faith, and that the surest of all grounds for faith was the Word of God. So when I desired anything of God I would search the Scriptures to find if there was some promise that covered that case, and then go to God and plead His own promise; and thus resting upon that promise I would believe that God had heard, and He had, and I got what I asked.
One of the mightiest men of prayer of the last generation was George Mueller of Bristol, England, who in the last sixty years of his life (he lived to be ninety-two or ninety-three) obtained the English equivalent of seven million four hundred dollars by prayer. But George Mueller never prayed for a thing just because he wanted it, or even just because he felt it was greatly needed for God’s work. When it was laid upon George Mueller’s heart to pray for anything, he would search the Scriptures ‘to find if there was some promise that covered the case. Sometimes he would search the Scriptures for days before he presented his petition to God. And then when he found the promise, with his open Bible before him and his finger upon that promise, he would plead that promise and so he received what he asked. He always prayed with an open Bible before him.
2. But this is not all that is to be said about how to pray the prayer of faith. It is possible for us to have faith in many an instance when there is no definite promise covering the case, and to pray with the absolute assurance that God has heard our prayer, to believe with a faith that has not a shadow of doubt in it, that we have received what we have asked. The way that comes to pass we are plainly told in the passage to which I have already referred in the earlier part of this sermon, Romans 8:26, 27 R. V. dn like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because HE maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’ That is to say, the Holy Spirit, as we have already said, oftentimes makes clear to us as we pray what it is the will of God to do, so that listening to His voice we can pray with absolute confidence, with a confidence that has not a shadow of doubt, that God has heard our prayer and granted the thing that we asked,
My first experience, at least the first that I recall, of this wonderful privilege of knowing the will of God, and praying with confident faith even when one had no definite promise in the written Word that God would hear the prayer, came very early in my ministry. There was a young dentist in my congregation whose father was a member of our church. This dentist was taken very ill with typhoid fever, he went down to the very gates of death. I went down to see him and found him unconscious. The doctor and his father were by the bedside, and the doctor said to me, “‘ He cannot live. The crisis is past and it has turned the wrong way. ‘There is no possibility of his recovery.”” I knelt down to pray, and as I prayed a great confidence came into my heart, an absolutely unshakable confidence that God had heard my prayer and that that man was to be raised up. As I got up from my knees I said to the father and the doctor, “Ebbie will get well. He will not die at this time.” The doctor smiled and said, “That is all right, Mr. Torrey, from your standpoint, but he cannot live. He will die.” I replied, ‘‘ Doctor, that is all right from your standpoint, but he cannot die; he will live.’ I went to my home. Not long after word was brought to me that the young man was dying. They told me what he was doing, and said that no one ever did that except just when they were dying. I calmly replied, “He is not dying. He will not die. He will get well.” I knew he would: he did. The last I knew he was living yet, and his healing took place between forty and forty-five years ago. But I cannot pray for every sick man in that way, not eveh though he is an earnest Christian, which this man was not at that time. Sometimes it is God’s will to heal, usually it is God’s will to heal, if the conditions are met; but it is not always God’s will to heal. “The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” God tells us in James 5:15; but it is not always possible to pray “the prayer of faith,” only when God makes it possible by the leading of His Holy Spirit.
But “the prayer of faith” will not only heal the sick, it will bring many other blessings, blessings of far more importance than physical healing. It will bring salvation to the lost; it will bring power into our service; it will bring money into the treasury of the Lord; it will bring great revivals of religion. In my first pastorate one of the first persons to accept Christ was a woman who had been a backslider for many years. But she not only came back to the Lord, but came back in a very thorough way. Not long after her conversion God gave to her a great spirit of prayer for a revival in our church and community. When I had been there about a year she was called to go out to California with a sick friend, but before going she came into the prayer-meeting on her last prayer-meeting night there, and said, “God has heard my prayer for a revival. You are going to have a great revival here in the church.” And we did have a revival not only in the church but in the whole community, a revival that transformed every church in the community, and brought many souls to Christ. And the revival went on again the next year, and the next, and the next until I left that field. And it went on under the pastor who followed ee and the pastor who followed him.
Oh, yes, “the prayer of faith” is the great secret oft getting the things of all kinds that we need in our personal life; that we need in our service; that we need in our work; that we need in our Church; that we need everywhere. There is no limit to what “the prayer of faith can do;” and if we would pray more and pray more intelligently, and pray “the prayer of faith,” there is no
telling what we could do as a church and as an Institute..-~
But as we have said, in order to pray “the prayer of faith ’ we must first of all study our Bible much in order that we may know the promises of God, what they are, how large they are, how definite they are, and just exactly what is promised. In addition to that we must live so near to God, be so fully surrendered to the will of God, have such a delight in God and so feel our utter dependence upon the Spirit of God, that the Holy Spirit Himself can guide us in our prayers and indicate clearly to us what the will of God is, and make us sure while we pray that we have asked for something that is according to God’s will, and thus enable us to pray with the absolute confidence that God has heard our prayer, and that “we have received” the things that we asked of Him. Here is where many of us fail in our prayer life: We
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either do not know that it is our privilege to “pray in the Spirit,” that is, to pray under the Spirit’s guidance; or else we do not realize our utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and cast ourselves upon Him to lead us when we pray, and therefore we pray for the things which our own heart prompts us to pray for, our own selfish desires; or else we are not in such an attitude toward God that the Spirit of God can make His voice heard in our hearts.
Oh, that we might all be made to realize today the immeasurable blessings for ourselves, for our friends, and for the church and for the world, that lie within the reach of “the prayer of faith,” and determine that we would pray the prayer of faith; and then get down to the study of the Word of God so that we could know God’s will and what to pray for; and be in such a relation toward God, be fully surrendered to His will and delight in Himself, and in utter, constant dependence upon the Holy Spirit, looking to the Holy Spirit that as we pray it might not be so much we who pray as the Holy Spirit praying through us. Then we would soon see this spiritually desert city of Los Angeles, and our spiritually desert churches, “blossom as the rose.”