What It Means to Pray in Faith

John Whittle, who worked with Norman Grubb in the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, wrote some enlightening words on prayer in a book called Man Alive. Coming from one who was in an organization that made every major advance into unevangelized fields by prayer and the arm of faith, it speaks with vitality. I quote the chapter in its entirety:

"No book could be written about man's search for and discovery of meaning for himself and others that did not include something on prayer--its effectiveness and scope in the development of Christian living. Here again I found a gap which had to be bridged before I felt I had gotten the real significance of prayer. It is the gap between asking and receiving. The problem is not simply with that which may be called our prayer life, but in one form or another it touches on all the hours of the day. Quite simply, in the New Testament view, to ask is to receive. There is no recognition of delay, for it says, 'Everyone that asketh receiveth' (Matt. 7:8); then, 'What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them' (Mark 11:24); again, 'Whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him' (1 John 5:15). The strong accent throughout is on receiving at the time of asking! If this is really so and will work, then the gap is most surely closed and we are on the way to an exciting life of prayer.

"The Scripture emphasizes faith as the heart of prayer, that without it prayer is abortive and ceases to be real prayer. What makes prayer an adventure and a work to be participated in is just this vital point of moving immediately from asking to receiving on the spot. Generalities must give place to specifics, and asking, to receiving.

"The simple order is first the sifting of prayer petitions which look good and right, until a definite leading is established--until we know what the mind of the Spirit is for us in clear objectives. When we are as sure as is humanly possible, whether it be a group or an individual praying, we may then build ourselves up in the statements of Scripture, affirming to ourselves the character of God and His willingness to give. But all this is purely preliminary. The final issue is dependent upon our faith that here and now we have received this request. How can we say we have received when there is no outer evidence? Of course, the spiritual transaction is the reality. Listen to the words of Jesus on the matter, 'According to your faith be it unto you'; 'Thy faith hath saved thee'; 'When He saw their faith He said. . .'; and many more similar incitements to faith, in the Gospels. Faith is having, not going to have. It is the affirming that God is doing this or that, and it rests on very good ground, as we shall see. Norman Grubb who writes extensively on faith out of a rich experience, says, 'the need is evidence of the supply'! By this he means that God uses need to nudge us towards the realization that His supply has been there all along; therefore, take!

"Now it is even simpler than that in moment by moment practice. Every hour I am confronted by the appearance of lack in one form or another. At each point of need I replace the lack with a simple affirmation of the supply at hand now. A friend is in need. I see the supply of God for him and affirm it, whether I tell him or not. I then state this and thank Him continually, living in the immediacy of answered prayer. The gap is closed, asking and receiving have become one act, and I am living in the joy of supply. As one repeats this, the prayers of mere asking stop and one prays receiving or affirming prayers. To affirm constantly the endless supplies of God in all manner of ways is to avoid the pitfalls of fear, worry, and anxiety.

"To move back behind the practical, I would like to touch on why the foregoing is so. 'God calleth the things that be not as though they were,' says the Scripture. God playing 'make-believe'? Certainly not. 'He hangeth the world upon nothing,' says Job. Now what to us is 'nothing,' or 'things that be not,' to God is reality. In other words, the spiritual is real, not the material or circumstantial. Therefore when we transact on the authority of God, by the word of faith, we are in the realm of the hidden reality, out of which comes all that is seen and known. 'Faith is the giving of substance to things hoped for,' is one translation of Hebrews 11:1. Faith is given in that chapter as the key by which vital things were accomplished. Faith is the key, the heart of prayer, and the way by which we pass from lack to supply, from emptiness to fullness, from wistful hoping and praying to joyous possession.

"Thus in every situation that challenges us to prayer, there are two realities: the outer facts as they seem--appearances which are threatening in all sorts of ways--and the hidden or inner reality of God's supply for the specific need. If I do not transfer my attention from the first to the second, and receive by an inner act of faith, spoken or silent, I fall short of real prayer, the prayer of faith. This is what we are faced with constantly and thus have a perpetual opportunity of living in the realm of having rather than of desiring to have. This is not learned once and for all, but by constantly renewing our minds and training ourselves to live in the 'havingness' of God, it becomes a way of life. However many times we fail to use this key and fumble our way through, we should return to its use, for it is the prescribed law of prayer which should be constantly used for ourselves, our work, and the ministry to others around us.

"One important aspect not touched on yet, and which is absolutely basic to a true understanding of prayer, is that prayer starts with God and not with us. It is the Spirit of Another praying through us, according to Romans 8:26, 27. What is brought to birth in our hearts as prayer is the Spirit catching our attention that we might join our faith to the resources of God. 'We know not . . . but the Spirit maketh intercession.' We are not bold enough in affirming to ourselves the fact that God is the Prayer in us, as He is indeed the all.

"A letter came my way that illustrates very helpfully how we move in an act of faith from the mere asking type of prayer to receiving. The writer has just moved out of great darkness and distress in her personal life into a release in Christ, which she describes in another letter quoted in a later chapter. Quite naturally and without any help from anyone in the matter, she has emerged from the partial to the full concept of prayer. She writes:

"'Last night during my prayer time, just before retiring, I realized a different approach or insight that I had not experienced before. Again, as so often in the past, I had been repeating my problems, trying to find answers to those problems so I could inform our Father what M. and I needed most, and pleading for His help. Then I remembered that in trying to define our Creator to myself over the years, I have always thought in terms of omnipresent perfect power, perfect knowledge, perfect love.

"'If this be true, why need I keep informing Him in my inadequate way concerning matters of which He has complete knowledge? Why need I keep searching for solutions and ways of bringing them to pass when He knows all solutions and has all power in the universe to bring them to realization? Why need I plead for His help when His love is so complete and perfect that it has been waiting here for me long before I thought to ask? If I so dearly love M. that I want only that which is best for him how much more perfectly does God love him and know how to bring into being that which is best?

"'May not prayer, then, be a process whereby we try to analyze our problems and needs as we see them at a given moment and submit them to God in gratitude, faith, and confidence that ever-present, perfect Knowledge already knows our every need and the solution to every problem long before we even became aware of them and longs with infinite love to accomplish all this with His unlimited power if only we will remove what stands in His way--ourselves, our selfishness, our doubts, fear, and blindness.'

"She then goes on, 'Would you be willing to join with me each day during your own prayer time in a simple prayer of affirmation?' So the vital point has been reached, 'a simple prayer of affirmation.' So begins a transformation of the prayer life of any who have 'eyes to see and ears to hear.' Peter says, 'God hath given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.' Then let us believe Him."