If I asked you if you believed in the power of prayer you would probably answer, 'yes'. The reason for my supposition is that regardless of which creed you hold to, whether Christian or other, prayer is a fundamental tenet of religion. Therefore, it would seem logical to me that there are many people in the world who believe in the power of prayer.
Yet it seems to me there is a great deal of prayer that is going unanswered. This is problematic, not least of all because it means a large group of people are missing out on answers to prayer which are readily available. It also means that there is at least a segment of the religious populace which is stagnant, halted and basically stopped still.
In regards to Christianity, the cross section is much the same. Most believe in the power of prayer. Many are not seeing answers to prayer and thus, many Christians have ceased advancing in their faith journey, in relationship with God and in all that God has prepared for them.
I believe without a shadow of a doubt that the type of faith we are supposed to possess is 'forward faith.' Forward faith is faith that believes and sees the fruit of that belief. It is faith that honours and glorifies God, and it is faith that is future-oriented.
There is more that one way of praying. In Kenneth Hagin's book, 'Praying to Get Results' he rebukes the church for always praying "petitionary and intercessory prayers." A petitionary prayer is a prayer which asks God for something. It is the first prayer I learned as a child, and the simplest to remember because it seems very natural to ask and to receive. An intercessory prayer asks God to do something for someone else. "Dear Jesus" I used to pray, "please help Mummy to sleep well and to not get a headache." I was always praying for my mother not to get headaches because she used to suffer terribly from migraines.
Before I comment further on this let me highlight Hagin's underlying point, that there are many other forms of prayer and that the church at large is far too adept at praying prayers in which we are asking God for things, and too out of kilter in thanking him for what he has already done. If only the church exalted God, ministered to God about how much he has blessed us already, thanked him for his faithfulness, then we would yet see God move even more powerfully than he has in the past.
God is future-oriented. He is much more interested in our future than our past. Sceptics might see that as a 'get out of gaol free card' for drug addicts and gamblers, but there is no degree necessary to prove God's interest in our future. If God is described in scripture as a loving father, what kind of father stops loving his child midway through his life? Job saw the faithfulness of God. Even after he had lost everything God restored to him more than he had lost. This promise is ours too.
'Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.'
Job chapter 8 verse 7 (New International Version)
Do you believe it though?
Leaving thanksgiving aside, I suspect many of us fail even at asking God to bless us. Could it be that even in the very first prayer we ever learned, we still do not know how to do it properly?
All through my childhood I suffered with a condition called 'Otitis Media' or 'Glue Ear' as it is commonly known. It meant that each year as my hearing diminished I was taken to hospital where the insertion of a small device into my ear drum fixed the problem, temporarily. Twelve months later however, I was back on the operating table. I had never prayed for God to fix the problem because I had had it practically my whole life. In a strange way it just seemed a part of me, like the scarcity of hair on my eye brows or my large lower jaw. Why would I pray for that? But at 25 I felt the strong desire to pray for healing. I can remember the night I stood up in church and prayed a simple prayer, a petitionary prayer.
A week later, as I was working I heard a click and my hearing changed instantly. Your response reading this is how I should have responded, but I did not jump for joy. I did not look Heavenward and whisper 'thank you.' I slouched my shoulders, breathed a deep sigh of disappointment and dialled the number of my surgeon to make my annual appointment. I thought it was time for another operation. I interpreted the change as a regression rather than a progression.
It was two weeks later when the doctor stared inside my ears that he marvelled in disbelief. "David" he said, "your ears are the best I've ever seen them. The prayers must be working."
God is a healer
Friends, God is a healer. He answers prayer. We just have to believe it.
Even in the years since, I still have to stop myself from doubting what God has done, from praying one more time, just in case. Many times I fail. I feel frustrated with my hearing because it is still not what I became so used to in all those years with a deficiency. I am not used to such an open, strange sound in my ears. I am not used to the blessing that comes with hearing properly and completely.
Maybe you know what I am talking about. Perhaps you have yet to see God move and so you labour on the same point. Have you been praying for years for the same thing, without believing that you have it? The key to your miracle could be in the belief rather than the articulation.
'Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.'
Mark chapter 11 verse 24 (New International Version)
The distinguishing part of forward faith is the faith to believe God for the miracle. God does not want us to stay where we are, but to move forward. Is it time you took God at his word, prayed for something and actually believed God could do it for you?
David Luschwitz, normal guy who relishes the contrast that comes with benching 95 and then consuming a 3-piece feed at KFC. Don't judge me.
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