This statement may shock you but having faith and praying for something to happen does not cause it to happen. there are three vital ingredients:
1. Belief-Just believing something will happen will not cause God to make it happen. There is a major difference between a head belief and a heart belief. If a head belief was all there was to it we would be able to just pray and believe our prayers will be answered and they would happen which would be great. After all, all does not the bible tell us that if we pray in faith believing it will be done unto us. A great Biblical concept but not referring to a head belief. it is an incomplete belief. Romans 10:9-if you confess with your mouth The Lord Jesus Christ and believe with the heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Believing with a head belief will not get you into heaven, nor get your prayers answered. A head belief knows what is being stated is true. Satan himself has this same belief in the existence and salvation power of Jesus. However that alone will not forgive your sins or get you into the gates of heaven. Unfortunately there are so many claiming to be Christians with this type of belief and are just as lost as ones that have no belief at all. So when the bible speaks of belief it is speaking of not only a head belief but a heart belief. to transfer that belief from the head to the heart requires two other ingredients.
2. Faith– Everybody has faith. The question is faith in what; self? A successful system? Successful men? Our country leadership, doctors, teachers? Even doubt and fear is considered as faith in the devil. The Lord himself said that if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed we can say to a mountain to be removed and it will be removed. Is there anything wrong with having faith in these? No, with the exception of faith in the devil.
Then what is the problem? The problem is that we must have faith in God, that it is Him that brings answer to our prayers. That faith must supersede our faith in the others. The others are mearly instruments God uses to bring about happenings in our lives. Many Christians get this far and when they do not see their prayers being answered they get discouraged, stop praying, reading their bible, even going to church getting down on themselves and God. They begin to look at all the bad things in life and feel powerless to do anything about it. My advice to you is Don’t give up, you are so close to being a vital instrument in your life and those around you.
This brings us to the last ingredient to see answered to our prayers.
3. Take Action-James tells us that with our works faith is dead. James 2:20-faith without works is dead. It is true that we are saved by grace and not works. However the are many hiding behind God’s grace as an excuse not to do works. Eph 2:8- for by grace you are saved, not of works lest any man should boast. 10- for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepaired beforehand that we should walk in them.We are saved by grace but you must have a heart belief and not just a dead belief. A heart belief puts faith into action.
So there we have it. When we pray, we get up from our knees and act on our prayers knowing without doubt that our prayer is answered. That requires seeing what we believe and not be distracted by what we see. It is this type of belief that sees solution past the problem, the other side of the mountain and most important, sees heaven gates past our current earthly diversions.
Author, Minister, Insurance Agency Owner, Real Estate Investor, Retired,Public Speaker