Prayer And Faith

by R. Armstrong, London, Ontario, Canada | Category: Never Man So Spake - Great Truths From The Lord's Min | Aug 1985

"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Mat. 17:20)

The background of the Lord's amazing claim to faith's possibilities was the case of the epileptic boy (Mat. 17:14-15).

"There came to Him a man, kneeling to Him, and saying, Lord have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and suffereth grievously: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft-times into the water. And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they could not cure him."

There had been earlier and better days for the "disciples in training" with the

Lord. It was perhaps a year earlier, in the Lord's Galilean ministry, when Luke

9:1-6 tells us:

"He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases... and they departed, and went... preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere".

Matthew 10 and Mark 6 record similar detail, putting it probably much earlier than the abortive attempt to exorcise the demon from the boy.

They were glorious days, when they felt the pulse of divine power in their preaching as Satan's kingdom of darkness was shaken, and disease fled before the preaching of these anointed men. Written into the eternal record are the events of those momentous days. Communities were touched by the power of God, as disease-ridden people told how instant healing power gave them wholeness again. These events probably happened in the second and third journeys of the Lord in Galilee. The extent and magnitude of the Lord's healing ministry, shared by the disciples, was such that no other has ever effectively touched so many in so short a time. Someone has written, "He crowded into three short years actions and labours of love that might have adorned a century".

WANING POWER

It may have been some twelve months later, and these same disciples were powerless to heal. According to the boy's father they had tried unsuccessfully to cast the tormenting demon from the boy's body. What had happened? Let's

look at a number of possibilities.

1)Days without contact with the Lord.

2)Too busy to pray.

3)The success of their missions of healing may have gone to their heads in self-glory rather than God's glory.

4)Affected by the pride that goes before a fall.

Whatever is done in the Master's service, we must always remember that God

has irrevocably declared, "I am the LORD; that is My Name and My glory will

I not give to another" (Isa. 42:8). One of Satan's appealing devices is self-glory.

God is under no obligation to bless those who are full of self and pride, which

He hates.

Whatever caused their failure, it produced the Lord's searching assessment, "0 faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him hither to Me. And Jesus rebuked him and the demon went out from him: and the boy was. cured from that hour" (Mat. 17:17,18). As the disciples stood in the majestic light of their Master's presence, they must have felt like crawling into a corner to hide. Besides saying that the disciples were faithless He used another strong word "perverse". The Greek word means "distorted, misinterpreted, corrupted". He stated in strongest terms the character of their generation.

Afterward, they asked the Lord an almost incredible question, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" Apparently they were totally unaware of their condition, and the barrier they had erected between themselves and the Lord. His answer was brief but penetrating -"Because of your little faith" (Mat. 17:20). The A.V. renders this word "unbelief", and there is a close affinity between unbelief and lack of faith. Their great Lord and Teacher had laid bare their spiritual anatomy as He diagnosed their spiritual condition. Good for us also to come under His kind but searching scrutiny.

FRESH CHALLENGE

Looking again at the disciples' question, "Why couldn't we drive it out?", the Lord's answer, "Because of your little faith" was a sharp rebuke for their lack of confidence in Him, yet He did not abandon them. "The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29). The Lord in His grace, gave them a fresh challenge by that historic statement, "if ye have faith as a

grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you". In the days of the disciples' subsequent reflection, they probably wondered why the same words they had used many times before had failed to expel the demon from the boy.

How often in our own experience the word has been preached and the power of the Holy Spirit through God's message has led people to the Saviour. At other times the same word has been preached, with seemingly negative response. Can we ever leave the scene of fruitless service without some soul-searching? External forces are at work and Satan "blinds the minds of them that believe not". Internally, lack of faith, unbelief, pride, unconfessed sin, will hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. Personal holiness and moral purity are essential in those who would serve the Lord in witnessing. Matthew 13:54-58 shows that unbelief in the hearer can also hinder the Spirit's work. "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief". However, we must not overlook what appears as a sovereign law of God in Isaiah 55:11, "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it".

MOVING MOUNTAINS

If all the conditions in Matthew 17:20 were met, the Lord said a mountain could be moved, and He re-inforced the supernatural by saying to the disciples, "and nothing shall be impossible to you". The Lord Jesus was simply teaching, that in response to the kind of faith He defined, there was no question but that the creative energies and power of God could lift that mountain right off its foundation and set it down elsewhere. All those forces and powers are resident in the Godhead. The Lord wanted the disciples to learn that. He wants us to learn it too. He did not tell them to do it, but only to believe He could do it. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made" wrote John years later.

That brings us to Heb. 11:1: "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen". Faith is real when it does not see the event promised or performed, but patiently waits for it. "Hope that is seen is not hope" (Rom. 8:24). The Lord did not intend that the disciples should forthwith go around moving mountains to prove their rejuvenated faith, but rather that they believe His word. The Lord was teaching them lessons in faith for the days long after the miraculous age. Years of suffering and persecution lay ahead for these men when it would be safer to say "Caesar is lord" than "Christ is Lord"; days when the deep roots of faith rather than miracles would sustain them in the enveloping darkness of a pagan world.

PRAYER AND FAITH

Prayer is the longing of the heart poured out. Faith is the assurance of the thing longed for. Our Lord encouraged His disciples "always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1). Then He told the story of the judge who said "no" to the widow who made him say "yes". By her persistent coming with the same request for justice, she wore him down until he handed down a verdict in her favour, to get the case off the books. Three lessons emerge.

1) Faith The woman believed she would be avenged of her adversary. Had not the Lord told His disciples, "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). Praying in the Holy Spirit is believing prayer, for "He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:27).

2) Fervency The widow was fervent in her request, born of the urgency of her case, perhaps a life and death situation. Fervency in prayer is often lacking. Fervent prayers are effective prayers. "Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again: and the heaven gave rain" (James 5:17-18). In the shadows of Gethsemane our beloved Lord, "being in an agony, prayed more earnestly".

3) Perseverance The woman persevered and gave no rest to the callous indifferent judge, until the answer came. We do not always receive immediate answers to prayer, but we must persevere as long as we are assured it is in the will of God. "With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18). May the Lord the Spirit take us past time-worn cliches in prayer, and the deadness some prayer meetings project. May we learn to pray the prayer of God the Holy Spirit through us.

"In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus " (Phil. 4:6,7).

At this desperate moment of history, so near to the Lord's return, God has promised that this model for prayer will quieten the turmoil of anxiety and stress, flooding the mind and heart with a peace that transcends all understanding. Someone has written:

"There's no weapon half so mighty as the intercessors bear,

Nor a broader field of service than the ministry of prayer"

R. Armstrong, London, Ontario, Canada | Aug 1985
Never Man So Spake - Great Truths From The Lord's Min