The Prayer of Faith

“Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)

Hmmm...what does this scripture have to do with the title of this posting: The Prayer of Faith? You were probably expecting James 5:15 instead.

But I believe the Lord desires us to have “times of refreshing” and somehow, I believe He will lead us back around to the subject of faith even through this scripture above. And, after all, who of us does not desire “times of refreshing” in this world in which iniquity abounds more and more (as the Word of God prophesied would happen as the end times encroach)?

Yet, according to the Word, those times of refreshing are found only in the presence of the Lord. And the thing that keeps us from experiencing the presence of the Lord is simply: SIN.

Sin that leads us into all sorts of captivity; captivity meaning places other than in the presence of God.

And while we give names to sin, such as pride, lust, adultery, and so forth and so on, I find that for most Christians, more than anything, it can be called: lack of faith. (Told you we would get to faith somehow, especially studying about prayer!)

But, actually, rather than calling it a lack of faith, perhaps there is an even better word, one that is the opposite of faith: FEAR.

Strangely enough most of us Christians don’t believe that we are fearful and we certainly wouldn’t admit to lacking faith. Oh, perhaps our faith isn’t quite a strong as so-and-so over there, but we do have faith. After all, we MUST have faith, because the bible says something about being unable to please God without faith, and we know we please God. Look at all the things we are doing for Him!

But REAL faith is looking upon and trusting in the truth of God in all that He has spoken...ALL that He has spoken. Not just the bits that we have experienced and know to be true...ALL...whether we have proven them to be true by practice or not...ALL. Not just the parts that agree with our current lifestyle that looks more like the world than it looks like Jesus...ALL.

We often speak one thing, but do something completely opposite. We can quote the word of God, but we don’t DO the Word of God...yes, we do SOME of it, but not ALL of it. And why is that?

I believe it is because we are fearful. We don’t completely trust what God has said, not completely...not REALLY. Therefore we are not real in our faith. Better said, what we consider to be faith, is not real.

And the sad truth is, that if we don’t have real faith, true faith, then there is really and truly no point in praying. We are wasting our time. I’ll explain why after sharing this scenario of real faith that most of us think is a good Bible story, a shining example, but one that we couldn’t ever imagine doing ourselves, not really:

The scenario is that of Abraham taking Isaac, binding him, laying him on the altar, lifting the blade above Isaac and ready to slay his very beloved son, the son that God promised Him he would have and through which he would have many, many descendants, the son that God had given him in such a miraculous way. The same God who had just last night told Abraham he must offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God on the altar of death.

So put yourself in Abraham’s shoes. And put yourself in this day and age being told to do such a thing by God. Would you do it? Really?

If it were me, instead of Abraham: NO.

Why?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that it’s a capital crime to kill anyone. It’s against the law, and I would go to prison and eventually be sentenced to death by lethal injection or something equally disagreeable.

Then there is the fact that Isaac is just an innocent beautiful child, one whom I love dearly...how could I possibly imagine myself doing this thing to him? How could I bring him such pain and harm and terror to my own child? How could I actually kill him, even though it is GOD telling me to do so.

And Sarah! It would kill Sarah, she would divorce me, and take everything I own, I would lose the other love of my life.

And this would bring terrible shame to the name of Christians everywhere, to have me, such a solid, upright Christian, do something like this.

What if I have misunderstood what He said? After all, everything is subject to interpretation, isn’t it? Maybe I mis-interpreted what God said.

And if I told anyone around me, there is not one of them that would agree and tell me to do this. So how can I do it? It just doesn’t make sense.

You’re right. It doesn’t make sense. Not in this day and age. Very little that God says in His Word “makes sense” in this day and age. It didn't make much sense in Noah's day either while he built the ark. And anyone will tell you that it is just foolishness. In fact, it’s crazy!

So, how was Abraham able to do it?

While the bible doesn’t tell us what all of Abraham’s thought processes were, it does tell us this:

“By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead…” (Hebrews 11:17)

Here’s the point. Abraham “accounted that God was able”. He determined that GOD was GOD and could do things that only GOD could do. He determined that “GOD IS”.

That’s the first part of what’s important to learn from this scenario. GOD IS.

He IS real. He IS God. He IS the one true God. There IS no other like Him. There IS none to compare to Him. HE IS GOD.

It is because He IS GOD that Abraham accounted Him ABLE. What was He able to do for Abraham? Raise Isaac from the dead.

But here’s the second part to the lesson. Why did Abraham believe God WOULD do it, even if He was ABLE to do it? What made Abraham think that God WANTED to do it?

It’s because Abraham knew God had promised. God had promised Abraham that through Isaac, not Ishmael, not some other son that might come along to him and Sarah, but through ISAAC (God’s spoken Word had said), Abraham would have seed so numerous that it could only be compared to the dust of the earth (and later compared to the grains of sand in the sea). And Abraham believed, or trusted, God’s promises. He didn’t just SAY he trusted God, he ACTED UPON his trust in God.

I believe Abraham had what I like to call single-mindedness...his mind was focused on God alone…not on circumstances, not on people around him, not on his own intelligent thought processes...just GOD.

So, what is it God is able to do for us? Everything He has promised us in His Word. But here’s the catch:

“…without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that HE IS, and that HE IS A REWARDER of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6)

Somehow Abraham KNEW that God would REWARD him..in other words that God had GOOD INTENTIONS towards Abraham. Abraham didn't expect anything bad to happen out of his obedience to God. He only expected something good to happen, even if God had to raise Isaac from the dead to do it. He didn't see God doing evil towards him, he saw God doing GOOD towards him. And the fact of the matter is, that God never did intend for Abraham to do such a thing anyway. He just wanted to see if Abraham was faith-ful. And Abraham was.

But we act hesitantly with God and fearfully. The same thoughts that I portrayed above while pretending to be Abraham are the same thoughts that assail us on so many lesser matters that still require an action of faith from us. Our vain imaginations come up with all the bad scenarios that could possibly happen if we follow through with something "the world" considers to be foolish. Scenarios that could be visited not only upon us, but also upon our families, our children. And we tell ourselves that while we could take whatever comes upon ourselves, we certainly could not consider ourselves to be acting responsibly if we put our loved ones, our innocent children at risk.

But the imaginary evils that we come up are simply that...our imaginations. And the fact that we even entertain these thoughts versus just BEING obedient is SIN as well. For God intends to REWARD us! Bottom line. And even though Abraham couldn't comprehend God's plan, and even though he apparently thought God would have him follow through with the sacrifice of Isaac, we MUST remember that through this God showed that He had only GOOD in store for Abraham...and for Isaac!

That's hard to grasp, isn't it? But we must. We MUST know that God IS GOD and IS A REWARDER....to those who diligently seek Him. So why do we fear complete obedience to Him? Why?

Maybe the fear comes from our consciences that tell us truthfully that we are not seeking Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind; that we are not diligently seeking Him, we aren’t single-minded as Abraham was. And therefore maybe that promise won't hold true for us. We are right. It won't.

Hence, the first scripture at the top of this post. Repent and be converted…in other words, repent and believe in God. And when we do, then God’s Word promises us that we can then:

“….draw near with a TRUE heart in FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)

Faith is believing that God IS God. Faith is believing that God IS a rewarder of all who diligently seek Him. Faith is believing that God longs to hear from us AND to answer.

Now, I believe that kind of faith does bring “times of refreshing”…..and that "times of refreshing" just might be another name for “revival”...personal revival at the least.

A lot to grasp, but critical to us...

More on this tomorrow.