The Unbelief of Prayer?

Details

Category: Prayer

Published on Thursday, 26 March 2009 06:38

Written by Ryan Hicks

THE UNBELIEF OF PRAYER

By Ryan Hicks

More and more the prayers of the saints are nothing more than unbelief. They pray for the things that they know God has promised in His word. While they may call this many things, it is nothing more than unbelief masked in the act of prayer. They are praying unbelief and doubt. They are dishonest about their handling of the word of truth, and in reality they doubt the promises of God for their lives. Otherwise they would not be praying for things that God promised. If God is true, and we know He is, then why would you pray to Him to keep His word unless you doubt His honesty?

Mark 11:23
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

We should believe that we have whatsoever we say in faith. Our faith is based on the word of God, and when we speak words of faith in God, based on the very faith of God that He gave us, we should believe that what we have said shall come to pass. Any prayer about a promise of the word of God where we can plainly say the Lord promises it would be a prayer of unbelief and is led of the devil himself. This may sound strong, but I cannot allow anyone to misunderstand the point being made. Too many saints are being defeated by the enemy of the brethren through ignorance in prayer and rank unbelief that is encouraged by many church people.

If the Scripture saith, "no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalms 84:11), then why would you pray to the Lord, "Oh, Lord, I pray that you give me good things?" This is doubt. This is unbelief. This is fruitless and useless prayer. All it says to God is that you do not believe the promises of God. You should believe that, "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Then your prayer will turn into praise thanking the Lord and saying, "Oh, Lord, I thank you that Your word promises in Psalms 84:11 that no good things will You withhold from them that walk uprightly. Since I walk uprightly I believe and receive this promise. I praise you for the precious promise." Can you see how this turns from unbelief to praise and worship in fulness of faith?

Some of the most weak and faithless prayers come when doubters pray for healing. Instead of accepting the stripes of our Lord Jesus for their healing, "by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24), they spiritualize physical healing promises into spiritual or other nonsense and then beg and plead to God to heal them. They say such unbelief as, "Lord, if it be Thy will, heal me." He is not going to heal you when you pray unbelief. That is not pleasing to Him, and you have to have faith to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). This is the most basic thing of the faith. Either you believe that "he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" or you serve the devil in unbelief. If you believe the Scriptures then His healing promises are true, His revealed will through His Son healing all who came to Him in faith is true, and your faith in God for healing is true. Instead of praying about something He already promised, say, "I thank You Lord that I am healed. I thank You that You take sickness from the midst of me. I thank You that you are the Lord that heals me. I thank you that You sent Your word and healed me. I thank You Lord that I am the healed and whole of the Lord."

There have been numerous cases of diabetics believing like this and being healed rapidly by faith. I know of one such case where the sister in the Lord continued taking her insulin shots and each time she took them (which was 3 times a day; my, what bondage) she would confess the word of God over her circumstances as our Lord Jesus said in Mark 11:23. She would administer the shot and say, "I am the healed and whole of the Lord. I thank the Lord that I am healed." She did this the three times a day she had to administer the shot until one day she became sick. She went to the hospital and after a battery of tests they determined that the problem was that she was taking insulin and she was not a diabetic! Praise God! Had she stopped the faith talk she had been speaking for months on the way to the hospital she would very well have lost the healing and returned to the same devilish bondage. Praise God the sister refused to doubt or pray unbelief, and just obeyed the Lord in full faith in the promises of God!

Until you have the inner witness, the inner "Yea and Amen" to the promises of God in your heart, you cannot expect to see the promises of God manifest in your life. If you let the devil rob you of faith in God and pervert the very faith of God you received at the new birth, then you will live in defeat. Please remember that the devil cannot cause you such defeat, he can only suggest things to you. If you choose to speak unbelief and doubt then you will receive the end result of that evil speaking. If you resist the devil and refuse to entertain thoughts of doubt and persevere you will receive the manifestation of what you spoke in faith.

This is the message of our Lord. If you believe that the things you say will come to pass and do not doubt then you will have whatsoever you say. This works for the devil's seeds of doubt and the Lord's seeds of the word of God in faith. If you doubt and speak such doubt and believe in your heart that it will come to pass then you will have that very thing you doubted about. This is why it is ever so important to control your tongue and speak only the word of faith (Romans 10:8).

Can it be said of you as it was said of Timothy, thou "hast professed a good profession before many witnesses?" Or will it be said that you professed doubt and unbelief before many witnesses? Will it be said that you doubted our Lord and His honesty and spoke such doubt? We are commanded of the Scriptures "let us hold fast our profession" (Hebrews 4:14) and "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)" (Hebrews 10:23). Are you going to obey "the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus" (Hebrews 3:1) and have faith in God and believe those words of faith you speak or are you going to allow the devil to sow his seeds of doubt and bring them to fruition by speaking out that doubt? The choice is up to you. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them" (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

• < Prev
• Next >