Issues_Concerning_Prayer_–_Specific_Words_of_Faith

By Fred Pruitt

(Note: This article below is and edit of a back and forth conversation on Facebook regarding prayer. This person did not know what to pray for regarding a serious injury to a child of a friend.)

Prayer is more listening to God rather than have Him listen to us. Prayer comes up out of our depths by the Spirit. We may not even know intelligible words to say, but we trust the Spirit is praying by us continuously “making intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.”

Therefore, we first come to faith within ourselves as to what we see God doing. And then we speak or request that which we have heard, and then once we say in faith or ask in faith, then begin to believe as in Mark 11:24. We have asked Him, and we need not ask again, but only thank that the answer has come, and we will see it as the Spirit causes us to do so. Because prayer is not us getting God to do something, but God involving us in something He is doing. He does answer, and we continually thank Him for having done so, even in the face of opposing circumstances. Bottom line, we trust that He has us in this situation for the benefit of all, whether ourselves, or the object of our prayer. He is steadfast, true, and faithful, and will perform all He has said He will do.

What about praying for specific things?

Bottom line, we cannot pray and “believe” for something when the faith for it has not come. You see, we look to God for everything. People confuse “mental believing” with the inward certainty of faith. If we take it, that God is the instigator of our prayers, then either we trust Him with our lack of specific prayers or if we are moved to declare a specific outcome. Either way God is working by us.

What I am saying is that we are looking for a specific inner “word,” or “knowing” from the Spirit, as the direction of our faith and prayers. We don’t randomly “pray” for everybody to be healed just because it is the teaching of the church we go to, or the doctrines we hold. We speak, pray, declare, as moved of the Spirit and we only know this in faith. If we have no specific answer to pray for, to believe, or to speak, then we do not speak.

Just give what we’ve got. Just trust the Spirit to well up in you and cause you to “know” or “speak” or “believe” for specific things (healings, job, finances, etc.) in these situations, and if the Spirit does not well up in you in that way, and you have no specific word from God about it, then you can’t just quote scripture and stand on it. We are in the midst of a “Living” God, and we look to Him and Him alone to by the Spirit move us in which way we are to go. If He does not do so, we do not move. Just relax in Him, knowing that in your current situation that you are part of the grace being given that family to go through this situation. Trust Him to cause you to act and speak as He gives you utterance in particular moments, and leave it at that.

Now, as far as that “believing” part you mentioned having trouble with. Once again the same principle as in the previous issue. We look to God for the believing. What you are really saying about having trouble “believing” is that your everyday outer reasoning faculty cannot wrap its head around believing for something as preposterous as a miraculous healing of someone’s body. As you said, you know God CAN, but that is never really the question, the real question is does He do it specifically for or in or as me?

What you may not realize is that that everyday reasoning mind is not capable of grasping Christ except in “moments” of light. It is as if for a moment the invisible becomes real enough for just a moment and everything falls into place and we can just barely glance it before the invisible closes back up and we cannot grasp what we just saw. The reason is that these things, such as faith, believing, etc., are above the natural mind’s ability to see, but not above the mind of Christ which is in us and does know, see and believe. In our center where we are one in spirit with Christ, we do see, we do know, we do believe. But for the present time that part of us is almost invisible and imperceptible to us because we are still living outwardly in the temporal world.

Therefore the “faith” to believe, which is really more a “committed choice” rather than some mental gymnastics by which I try to make myself “believe” something intangible and seemingly impossible, that faith comes up in us out of the Spirit/spirit union in us, and will move us to a word or action and also give us the “belief” for it as He has ordained.

Bottom line, take no responsibility on yourself for praying right, believing right, speaking right. Instead trust all of that is how God is by you, and be free. Pray, don’t pray, believe, don’t believe, either way trust it is Him. He is the responsible party in this reality, and He does all in perfection, and we really have no recourse but to realize it is ALL on His shoulders. No worries, no fretting about outcomes, because we know He is love in all things, and whatever difficulties any of us are faced with, we are in Him more than adequate to take the most hurtful and perplexing things, and turn them around in our consciousness into resurrected reconciled life not just for ourselves but for everyone around us as well.

The Lord has you right where He wants you and He is being “you” in that situation with your friends. You are God’s adequacy for this, tough though it is.

Bless you,
fred