It’s Not Just What You Pray . . .

After reading and taking to heart the February issue of Prayer Nuggets, I hope you have found a deeper certainty that what you are praying is making a difference. Maybe you’ve even told others that you really believe God will do whatever it is you have prayed because you know His Word is true, and He lives in you and will perform His Word. Because I am regularly challenged with this myself, I must ask what else you are saying about this thing for which you have prayed. Are you continuing to speak the things you prayed for, including the specific Scriptures? Are you speaking those things you see, feel, or hear in the natural? Maybe you are saying some of both.

James 1:6-8 (AMP) “⁶ Only it must be in faith that he asks with
no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who
wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea
that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For
truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything
[he asks for] from the Lord, ⁸[for being as he is] a man of two
minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and
unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels,
decides].”

When we pray from the place of faith, declaring the will of our Father in heaven concerning something, it is critical that we stay in that place of faith even after ending the prayer time. Truly, the prayer is not “finished” until it has been accomplished in the natural. So we must not speak what we see, only what the Lord helped us “see” as we prayed.

Heb 11:1 (AMP) “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation,
the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of
things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith
perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”

If we continue to speak the thing we see or feel, which is what we really don’t want, our words outside the “prayer closet” are having a negative effect on the words spoken in prayer, slowing down the “finishing” process. Furthermore, we become double-minded people who are unstable in what we believe and speak about this issue and everything else, as well. For example, many years ago, the Lord assured me that my whole family would be together in heaven. Many times, I have prayed for my sister’s salvation because of the faith that this assurance brought me. I have made bold declarations using the Word of God, and have declared to others that she’s going to be saved. There have been many times, however, that she’s acted in a decidedly unsaved manner towards me. In those times, what has come out of my mouth? What has been in my mind? Have I focused on what the Lord told me that night many years ago, letting His faith arise in me, regardless of what I see and hear? Have I declared in those moments, “Oh, she will never change”? Have I continued telling others what bad things she is doing and saying, rather than speaking out of my mouth that she is going to meet the Lord Jesus and be saved? Unfortunately, some of all of the above. How much have I delayed the “finishing” of this prayer because of my words, my double-mindedness? And what effect has this double-mindedness had on everything else in my life?

May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart be pleasing in the sight of the Lord (Psalm 19:14) as we speak His Word in these situations! Is it easy to do this? Not when it’s not what you are used to doing. However, as you begin to step out in faith to make these changes in what you say, speaking what you’ve prayed rather than what you see with your natural eyes, you will find it becoming more and more a part of your way of speaking – and you will begin to see situations with the Father’s eyes, rather than your own. It’s a process, just like anything else in our Christian walk. Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2,) is very patient with us while He grows us, and He is faithful to complete that good work He began in us (Phil. 1:6). After all, His desire is to see that prayer finished!

© Copyright 2005 Kay V. Stocking