|
GOD ACTS ON OUR PRAYERS
by Willie Hudson
Attending baptist church as a child locked me traditionally in the practice of believing I was automatically covered when someone
else prayed. I believed my way to God was accomplished through my works. I saw no need for "faith" in healing because the baptist religion never educated the people on healing; it was not a part of their
belief so that "faith" was never heard. I was never taught "how" to pray, therefore, I never knew I was limiting God's ability to answer my prayers because I was cancelling His ability to act in my
life by how I prayed to Him, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hosea 4:6). When I prayed, I would always say prayer defeating words like, "I know you will," or "if it be your
will," or "you are going to one day." It is no wonder my prayers as a child had not been answered and as a consequence to this lack of knowledge, I believed it was not God's "will" for things to
happen in my life. You don't receive the things you pray for because you pray for them, you receive them because you believe you have already received what you prayed.
It is after we believe we have
received what we ask for - after we believe He has heard our prayer, that God goes to work. Jesus has said, "believe
that ye have received them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24). This verse let's us know,
that which we pray for should not be in the future, that is hope. We should claim what we pray for by His Word, and thank Him that we have received it before we see the manifestation, that is faith, and God's Word is
activated by faith. We can lay claim to God's Word by our confession. Healing was promised to us as part of our salvation. Jesus took upon Himself all our sicknesses, and by His stripes, we are healed both in our
spiritual and physical bodies. This is already ours when Jesus said "it is finished." Our only prayer of faith is to thank Him.
Jesus is my rock and my salvation. When ministering to others, it is a
must to be able to let everyone know the correct way to pray. Our relationship with God, through the works of Christ Jesus, is our prayers that become the most effective way of having God work in our lives. Teaching
children how to pray, not what to pray is a new lesson of instruction. It is God's will that every one be saved. This can become easier for believers to see, if they can see God manifest in their lives what they pray
and ask the Father in Jesus' name and receive. As I pray with the young people I meet, I listen to how they pray, and give correction when I hear the prayer defeating words of God doing something in their lives in the
future, and not in the "now."
I must remind them that when you ask God to do something in your life in the future, you are only hoping He will, and He cannot operate in your life with hope. But when you
pray and give Him thanks for what you pray, even before you see what you have prayed for, this is faith and faith is what activates God in your life. Teaching how powerful confession is in life, and breaking the old
traditions that do not teach about what is already ours through the redemptive works of Jesus Christ will bring young lives to wholeness and a meaningful prayer life. |
|
