We need to learn to pray by faith for executing God’s will according to His economy; this means that we need to be one with God for Him to become our faith, and when we pray according to God’s will we need to believe that we have received what we have asked for. Amen!
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Praying Persistently with God as our Faith.
What we saw so far is that the world situation is the indicator of God’s move on the earth; it is important to know this because these days we are in an extraordinary world situation because God wants to do something extraordinary.
We believe that, because the Lord in His sovereignty allowed such an extraordinary situation to occur in world history – which is a pandemic that is once-in-a-century kind of event – it must mean that He intends to do something also extraordinary in the divine history in His economy.
We want to be those who understand His move at this time, discern the signs of the time, and pray according to this particular time and move of the Lord.
When we pray, what we see first is a vision of the throne of God; we see that there’s a throne set in heaven with Christ as the Administrator, the center of God’s administration.
Many people today – including believers – may ask, Where is God? Well, God is right here: He is right in the center of this entire world situation, but He is here in a hidden way, invisibly, and He carries out His ultimate move.
No doubt, He wants the gospel to be spread, the truth to fill the whole earth, and He wants to perfect all the saints to function in the church meetings.
However, in this extraordinary time He wants to gain some who do not just pray ordinary prayers but we have an extraordinary, uncommon response.
At this time our prayer shouldn’t be common or ordinary; we need to pray persistently with God as our faith.
When we pray persistently, when we pray the extraordinary prayer, we will pray persistently, praying that God would accomplish what He wants to accomplish.
Seeing that the world situation is an indicator of God’s move on earth, we need to join ourselves to Him and pray by faith for executing God’s will according to His economy on the earth.
Yes, we do need to pray for our needs, for others, for our family, and for many things related to ourselves, the saints, the churches, the world situation, the salvation of others, etc.
But even more, we need to pray in a way that matches God’s move; we need to pray extraordinary prayers that match God’s extraordinary move in these last days.
May we respond to the world situation by cooperating with the divine history in the human history by prayer; we are in a particular kind of situation, so a particular kind of prayer needs to be uttered.
Learning to Pray by Faith for Executing God’s Will according to His Economy
In Mark 11:20-24 the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray by faith for executing God’s will according to God’s economy.
If we read this portion in Mark, however, we don’t see “God’s will” or “God’s economy” being mentioned, so how can we say that this is what the Lord teaches His disciples?
We need to take a look at the context of Mark 11; here the Lord cursed the fig tree and He cleansed the temple, and He taught them how to pray.
Both of these two cases are related to Israel; because they occurred when the Lord was still on the earth, they had everything to do with God’s economy.
When the Lord cleansed the temple, He dealt with the mixture that had come in among the worship of God in the temple, and the cursing of the fig tree needs to be understood in the light of the cleansing of the temple.
According to the book of Jeremiah, the fig tree signifies the nation of Israel; the Lord was hungry for fruit from that tree, but all He got was leaves and no fruit.
So the cursing of the fig tree signifies how God in His economy temporarily turned from Israel to the Gentiles – and we know that this is what happened.
The cursing of the fig tree actually was the execution of God’s will according to God’s economy, by dealing with the things taht were obstacles to God’s economy.
When we pray, we need to be mingled with God and even be one with God so that God Himself becomes our faith; this is what it means for us to have faith in God (Mark 11:22).
This doesn’t merely mean that we need to believe in God; it means that we are in God, and by being in God, God Himself becomes our faith.
When we read Mark 11 it may seem impossible for us to speak to the mountain to be cast into the sea…it may see hart for us to picture ourselves or anyone else doing such a thing, but if we believe and have faith in our heart, this can be done!
Such a prayer requires a particular kind of faith – not our ordinary measure of faith, but the faith of God Himself!
Similar to what Paul said in Gal. 2:20, we need the faith of God, even the faith which is God Himself.
We need to learn to pray by faith for executing God’s will according to God’s economy, and for this we need to live by the faith of the Son of God and allow God to become our faith in a practical and experiential way.
We are in Christ; Christ is in us; and we live by the faith of the Son of God.
Only prayers that are out of faith will touch God, and without faith, prayer is ineffectual.
It is possible for us to utter prayers yet our prayers to be meaningless; we may pray out of ourselves and not out of faith – we may pray in ourselves and not pray by faith to execute God’s will on earth.
We may even pray prayers that are not prayers. Oh Lord!
Even in the prayer meeting – and especially in the prayer meetings of the church – we need to exercise to be in God, have God live in us, and have God as our faith, so that we may pray by faith to execute God’s will according to His economy on the earth.
We need to be warned that it is possible that we have what we call prayer, yet this may not be prayer. We need to pray ourselves into God, have faith in God, and pray by faith for the will of God to be done on earth according to His economy.
Lord Jesus, teach us to pray by faith for executing God’s will according to God’s economy. Save us from praying prayers that are not prayers; save us from praying meaningless prayers. May we pray ourselves into God and touch God. May we be mingled with God and be one with God so that God becomes our faith! Amen, may we learn to pray by faith, that is, pray by having God as our faith! May our prayers be out of faith so that our prayers would touch God and move His hand! May God as faith become our faith by which we pray, and may our prayers be effectual in the accomplishing of His will according to His economy!
We Pray by Faith by Believing that we have Received what we have Asked for!
What is faith? In Mark 11:24 we see that faith is believing that we have received what we have asked for. Wow.
We have to believe that we have already received what we have asked for; this is to pray by faith, that is, pray by having God as our faith.
It doesn’t say here that we should believe that we will receive what we asked for; it says, Believe that you have received what you asked for.
To believe that we will receive what we pray for is not faith – it is hope; we do need hope, but our prayer should not just be in hope but in faith!
Our prayer should be in the assurance of the things hoped for!
Faith s not hope; rather, faith is the assurance of what we hoped for.
According to the Lord’s word, we should believe that we have received and not merely that we will receive what we asked for. How much we need to learn to pray by faith for executing God’s will according to His economy!
How can we have such a boldness to believe that we have received what we asked for?
For example, there may be a great obstacle ahead of us, something like a mountain that stands in the way of the fulfilling of God’s will; how can we have the assurance that we can tell the mountain to move and it will move?
It is all because we know God’s will; if we know that it is God’s will for the mountain to move, if we know that it’s according to God’s economy, we can simply pray by faith and believe that we have received what we have asked for! Amen!
To hope means to expect something in the future; to believe means to consider something as having been done.
Faith is not only believe that God CAN or WILL do a certain thing; faith is believing that God HAS DONE that thing already! Hallelujah!
This is why we need to pray ourselves into God and be one with God; when we are one with God, we will know the will of God, and we know that all prayers that are according to God’s will, He will answer.
If our prayer is not according to the will of God, no matter how much, how often, and how fervent we pray it, God will not do it, and our prayer will not change God’s mind.
God answers the prayers that are according to His will. If we have the absolute assurance that what we are asking for is His will and His present move in His economy, then we can pray without any doubt in our heart! Amen!
If we pray for any other thing, if we pray any other kind of prayer, we may still have a doubt in our heart; but when we are one with God, when we have God as our faith, and when we pray by faith for the executing of God’s will according to God’s economy, we know that He has done it!
We must be the right kind of persons before we can pray the right kind of prayer before God; we must be persons who are one with God and who pray by faith, and when we pray by having God as our faith, we pray according to our knowledge of God’s will for the fulfillment of His economy.
If we pray for some things that satisfy us and our desire, we may not receive anything from the Lord, because our prayer is not according to God’s will for the fulfillment of His economy.
But if we are the right persons and we pray according to the will of God, being one with the Lord, we know that we have what we have asked for, because God will answer such prayers in oneness with Him and according to His will.
Amen, may we all learn to pray in this way!
Lord, we want to learn to pray by faith, that it, by having God as our faith, so that God would do what He wants to do on earth! Amen, Lord, teach us to pray in such a way that we believe that we have received what we have asked for! May we be joined to You as one to know the will of God and pray according to God’s will so that You may carry out what You want to carry out on earth! Amen, Lord, may we ask for Your will and Your present move in your economy so that we may have the absolute assurance that You will do what we ask for!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” ch. 16, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 4, Praying Persistently with God as Our Faith.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray; / This is my heart-cry day unto day; / I long to know Thy will and Thy way; / Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray. / Living in Thee, Lord, and Thou in me, / Constant abiding, this is my plea; / Grant me Thy power, boundless and free, / Power with men and power with Thee. (Hymns #766)
– Say to this mountain, “Go, / Be cast into the sea!” / And doubt not in thine heart / That it shall be to thee. / It shall be done, doubt not His Word, / Command thy mountain in the Lord! (Hymns #777)
– “Ask in faith,” the Name of Jesus / All your plea before the throne; / As you trust, the Lord will whisper, / “See, my child, the work is done.” (Hymns #776)
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