Murray on Prayer. Summary of Lessons 7 through 12 See Followup questions

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With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray1 Lessons 7-12.
(The following,postingsof Murray, are paraphrases of the text of what Rev. Murray says. Rev. Murray wrote in a
time not too far removed from the "King'sEnglish," referring to King James during the time of the making of the
KJV. I, your editor,have taken the liberty of a bit of modern day paraphrase.In so doing,while I may insert my own
explanatory remarksor analogies,the content is that of Murray and I can claim no originality in the work.)
Lesson 7. The Gift of the Holy Spirit or the All Comprehensive Gift.
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:13
Previously, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of the gifts of the Father. Here His
approach is more pointed. He speaks not of the "gifts" but of the Gift. Implying that there is one
gift greater than all the rest. Or put another Gift that encompasses all the other gifts - the Gift of
the Holy Spirit.
Since the Holy Spirit is the first, greatest [perhaps, only,] Gift, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is the
Gift we should first seek. Prior to this, Jesus has promised the "Gift" of the father. That Gift is
the Holy Spirit, the Gift of God's Own Spirit, the Gift of, in effect, Himself.
If an earthly child is to be one the same page with his earthly father, his father must first instill
his spirit into the child. The same holds true with our Heavenly Father. If we are to be of one
mind and purpose with Him, we must possess His Spirit.
Jesus' earthly glory was revealed as the Spirit of the Father in Him. We see these united at the
Baptism in the Jordan.
Since this is the case, this is the thing [or actually, person] that we should first pray for. We are
supposed to have the life of Christ in us. It is the Holy Spirit who is the ""conveyancer" of this
life. If we will only yield to the Holy Spirit, he will manifest the life of Christ in us.
The Holy Spirit comes in many forms, gifts, and names of the Holy Spirit:
1. The Spirit of Grace who gives Jesus' grace to us;
2. The Spirit of Faith;
3. The Spirit of adoption and assurance;
4. The Spirit of true to lead us into truth and teaches us the Word of God;
5. The Spirit of prayer through Whom we communicate with the Father.
6. The Spirit of judgment who convicts of sin and of righteousness after having searched our
hearts for such;
7. The Spirit of holiness making God's holiness to live in us;
8. The Spirit of power through whom we are allowed to be bold in our word for the Lord;
9. The Spirit of glory, showing us a foretaste of what is to come for us;
1 This is a summary of Murray’s work. No claimis madeby the Editor to original work.

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The Father longs to give the Spirit to us if we just ask Him. A children of God, we already have
His Spirit, but we need to pray for His special gifts and "operations."
There is a caveat here. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not a feeling. All spiritual gifts are given in
the spirit, not in the feelings. Since we may not "feel" anything when we have prayed for the Gift
of the Holy Spirit, we much accept the Gift in faith, believing that God has done what He said
He would do and that is the give us the Holy Spirit. As we pray, we should be thinking, "I have
what I have asked for." God says in His word that we have what we ask. We must believe that in
faith. It is only in such believing and in thanksgiving and in prayer that the Spirit can open us up
to do as God wills.
If there is but one thing that Jesus would have us remember, it would be that the Father desires to
give us His Spirit. The Gift is not given grudgingly or because we have done a great work, it is
just given upon asking - but asking in faith. When we learn to pray for the Spirit and receive Him
by faith for ourselves, then we are empowered to ask for the same thing for others.
***
Lesson 8. The Boldness of God's Friends (Intercession.)
5 Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says
to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I
have nothing to set before him’; 7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the
door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you
anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his
friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Luke 11:5-8.
Jesus' first teaching on prayer was in the Sermon on the Mount, elements of the Model Prayer.
Luke places the Model Prayer nearly a year later, Jesus gave the Model Prayer to reinforce the
"fatherliness" of God. See Matthew 6:9-13. Compare Luke 11:2-4.
Jesus also taught on the friend at midnight to emphasize that we should pray in intercession or as
Murray says, "For the perishing around us." In such intercession, asking for the needy often
requires great boldness, is always lawful and indeed is pleasing to God.
The parable teaches us about intercession. First, there is the love seeking to help those around,
then the specific need, and last the confidence that help is to be had. In the unexpected refusal,
we learn perseverance that "takes no refusal." Last, there is the reward of prayer.
Prayer is an appeal to the "friendship" of God. This is distinguished from prayer addressed to the
"fatherliness" of God. This suggests two lessons. If are indeed God's friends and come as such,
we must PROVE ourselves friends of the needy. When we come in this manner, we may use the
"utmost liberty" in claiming an answer.

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There is a twofold "use of prayer," on to obtain strength and blessing for ourselves, the second,
which Murray says is higher" and the one for which Christ has taken us into His teaching is
intercession for others. In intercession, the child of God exercises royal power even in Heaven on
behalf of others. In the OT, many showed intercession in great power: Abraham, Moses, Samuel
and Elijah. They proved that they were men of power with God. In intercession, it is that we can
specially count on the blessing of God. When we draw near to God as the friend of the poor, we
can count on His friendliness. The righteous man who is the friend of the poor is the special
friend of God. We come to God saying, "I am you fried, I have a friend in need and I appeal to
your my friendship with You to aid my friend."
We see here the comparison of God's fatherliness and His friendship. It would seem that a father
is under obligation to give to His child, but a friend gives out of a heart of a different kind of
love. The kindness of a friend is not dependent on the obligation of fatherhood but on kindness
and character. In the father- child relationship, there is relationship of perfect dependence. With
friends, the two friends are more equal. It is as God's friend, that He would have us approach
Him on behalf of others.
In order to approach God as His friend, we must prove our friendship. As a child, we are always
a child and that relationship does not change. As a friend, the relationship depends on our
conduct. "You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command." "Abraham believed God and
was called the friend of God." If we want to have the liberty to go to God on behalf of others, we
must first love them, we must be towards them as Jesus was.
The Spirit of God always sifts through the true aim of our prayer. If it only for our own joy or
pleasure, we will not receive, but if we come truly saying that God will be glorified in His
dispensing of blessing to others, we do not ask amiss or in vain. Murray also says that if we wait
until it is no sacrifice for us to ask for help for our friend in need, we do not get what we ask, but
if we have first sacrificed, He will answer. In other words, we must come not just asking for the
needy friend, but in the position of saying that we have already undertaken the work of aiding
them ourselves. To do this, we must first love them.
The answer usually does not come at once. In this exercise, even in intercession, God wants to
teach us faith. Faith is not instant gratification, it requires persistence and sacrifice. Note in the
parable, in which the man comes at midnight on behalf of his needy friend. We must prove that
we are willing to sacrifice our time for our friends, not just a few minutes, but a sacrifice of time.
This proves not only our faith, but our love. It asks the question, "Do you truly love other people
and if so, how much are you willing to sacrifice?"
God's goal is to one of love. He loves us so much that He withholds the immediate answer so
that we can learn faith, because in faith, we learn an ever increasing dependence on God. And in
the dependence, we work alongside God and receive he supreme blessing of His presence. Faith
teaches us just how much power in Heaven we have if we are truly faithful. It also shows us the
glaringness of our lack of faith and our weakness of spiritual power. When we learn that lesson,
we truly learn that we cannot do anything of Heavenly importance in our own strength, because
it is non-existent. In the trial of answer delayed, our faith is refined as in a fire and becomes more
pure in the end.

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God requires more than mere prayer. He requires that we first show that we love the person. This
is shown not by throwing us a bat signal but by sacrificing in prayer for the other. Then we must
endure the delay in the answer. These are both used to teach and to refine both our love for
others and our faith. We should learn to thank God that He loves us so much that even though He
is all powerful, He withholds the answer to teach us these two lessons, love of others and faith.
***
Lesson 9. Prayer Provides Laborers.
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore,
beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38.
Jesus taught that disciples should pray frequently and how to pray, but he rarely taught what to
pray. Here is one thing, pray for other laborers. This is akin to the previous lesson concerning
praying for others.
God is the Lord of the Harvest. When we pray concerning the harvest in the Holy Spirit, we must
pray for God to first prepare the way for harvest and secondly, for laborers to harvest. Since
Jesus was all powerful and since God is the Lord of the harvest, why would He require disciples
to pray for this? The answer to this will tell us that prayer is the power that will control the
success of the harvest.
When Jesus saw all the people, He called upon the disciples to pray for laborers to work among
all the throngs of people. He must have believed that their prayer was first needed, and second,
would help. Jesus, able to look "beyond the veil" into the timeless spiritual veil was able to see
how in the past God had empowered men such as Abraham, Moses & etc. and had empowered
them to exercise great power with God in prayer - but at a price to them. Jesus knew that the
work of God was entrusted by God to these men of old, now to Jesus Himself and then to the
disciples - ultimately to us. He knew that on them and their work the success of the work did
actually depend.
Jesus, the man, felt the limitations of man and knew that if, indeed the work of God was
entrusted to men, no one man, not even Jesus, the God-Man could do it. For this reason, Jesus
instructed his disciples to pray often and urgently for laborers to help in the work. Since God
gives us the authority to do the work in His name, He also gives us the authority to ask God for
laborers. The supply of laborers is dependent on our prayer.
This is an area that we really don't feel - that there are so few laborers in fields and we don't pray
for new laborers very often, our shame. Perhaps, we don’t believe that the labor supply really
does depend on our prayer - that the answer to our prayer will provide as many laborers as are
needed. We complain and moan about the lack of laborers, but we don't put forth the effort to
actually do something about it, that is to pray for it with the conviction that without our prayer,
the laborers will not come but that with our prayer, they will come in abundance. So real is the

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power that God delegated to us that the eternal souls' disposition of men and women really does
depend on us. It is not enough to say, "I don’t need to concern myself with this, God will save
those whom He will save." That is the height of spiritual laziness not to mention a disgusting
lack of care, concern and love for people.
So, why don't we obey Jesus' command to pray for laborers? Two reasons: First, we miss the
compassion of Jesus. When we actually begin to believe that to glorify God by doing what He
told us to do and to take responsibility for the souls of men, we will find this compassion - but
not until. We must accept that God truly loves these people, truly wants them to come to Himself
to fulfill His glory, and truly is saddened when they are lost. Only then will Jesus compassion
come to us. [In other words, we've really got to believe this stuff at the gut level and act out of
that belief.]
The second reason for our failure to pray for laborers is our lack of faith. Apparently, we don’t
believe that if we ask, God will truly deliver. Reason one relates to reason two. We believe too
little about the power of prayer to bring about results. Perhaps this is because we don't live close
enough to God to see the relationship between prayer in faith and the results of the prayer. We
should then pray for a life so close to Christ that faith, prayer and results come naturally to us.
When we live our lives in this manner, we will find a two-fold blessing.
First, we will see an increase in our desire that there be a supply of laborers, but not just
laborers, dedicated laborers who are "entirely given up to the service of God." It is a disgrace
upon the church that laborers cannot be found. As we pray for the laborers, they will be given.
Jesus has been given the title as Lord of the Harvest and has been given control over the supply
of laborers. The supply and cooperation of laborers depends upon us as people of earnest prayer.
When we pray earnestly, God will put in us the desire to go out and find the laborers, they won’t
appear by magic. As we get serious about this, we will not only pray for laborers, we will
sacrifice our time and feelings to go out and find them. As we get earnest in prayer, we will
likewise get earnest to look out in the marketplace and see those who are idle and compel them
to come with us and go to work. There is no job is God's service that is currently lacking a
worker that God is not ready, willing and able to provide. It may take time for this to happen. As
we learned in the previous lesson, the waiting for an answer is God's way of giving us the
blessing of faith. But, make no mistake, if we are faithful to pray for laborers and faithful to feet
to our prayers, God will provide.
Since this is so critical, we must do it.
 We must first begin to pray.
 Then we must begin to become intercessors.
 Then in our intercession, we must pray for laborers.
 Then, as we recognize a specific and identified need, we must pray specifically and
earnestly for the filling of that need.
 Then, we must be willing go out and "beat the bushes" to find the person that God has
already prepared to do this particular work.

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As it affects us, this will lead us into the heart of Christ and we will find our blessing as we seek
His blessing on others. As a second blessing, we will realize the position we have as those given
the right to so approach God and to so expect His answer. We will begin to realize that we are
indeed God's fellow workers. We will learn to feel that God has entrusted this to us in "down-
right" earnest. In other words, we really count and make a difference!
Though the price of this is to be a partaker of the soul-travail in prayer as Jesus travailed or
labored in prayer, we will also realize the soul-satisfaction of the success of the work. We will
feel the amazement at what God has done and will feel the humility of knowing that we were
allowed to have a part in it.
We will realize that as a result of our prayer, blessing has come to other people that would not
otherwise have come. Conversely we feel the responsibility that if we fail to pray, God cannot
act and that blessing to the others will not have come. This is something with which to wrestle.
[It makes me feel guilty.]
***
Lesson 10. Prayer Must Be Definite.
"And Jesus said unto him, 'what wilt thou that I should do unto thee'?" Mark 10:51.
In this passage, the blind man had been crying aloud, "Thou son of David, have mercy on me."
Jesus knew what the man wanted, but before he did it, He asked the man, "What wilt thou that I
should do unto thee?" Jesus wanted to hear from the man not only the general petition for mercy
but the specific thing that he wanted. The same hold true for us, Jesus will not grant our request
until we verbalize the specifics. Prayer must not be vague and indefinite, it must be specific.
There are several reasons for this.
Definite prayer does not, of course, inform God, it rather teaches us to know our own needs
better. It demands time, though and self-examination to find out what we really want. This
required self-examination puts us to the test as to whether our desires are honest and real or are
just vague words said for show or for some other unworthy purpose. We must take the time to do
this. That giving of our time is the first test. Are we willing to invest time into it? If not, maybe
what we are asking is a wish and not a need.
Further, the time we put in helps us to examine whether our request is according to God's Word
and will. It also tests our faith. Do we really believe that we will receive the things we ask?
Many times, we pray in vague requests to be granted mercy but don't say what mercy should do
for us. Likewise, we pray for forgiveness of sins but don't name any sins from which we seek
forgiveness. Praying, "Forgive us our sins," though it is a tenet of the Lord's Prayer, is not very
valuable. It should be remembered that the Lord's Prayer was not an incantation we should copy
from rote memory, it is rather a template into which we should fill the blanks. When Jesus
teaches using it, "Forgive us our trespasses," it should be read, forgive us the trespass (sin) of
________ (fill in the blank.) If we don't fill in the blanks, we haven't said anything useful
because we haven't displayed any repentance or even though as to what or how we have sinned.

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Many other times, we pray generally for God's pouring out blessing on people or the land or the
world. Again, without specifics, these are meaningless words. James would say we pray "amiss."
This general prayer evinces neither true care for the people for whom we generally pray nor any
faithful expectation of an answer. Rather, it magnifies our lack of faith.
We all have limited powers and limited field of work. So too, our prayers should be limited to
those things that we genuinely care about - care enough to name them. If can't find something to
care about enough to pray specifically for it, we need to seriously examine whether we truly love
men - and we don't truly love men, can we truly love God?
We have own circle of family and friends. If we limited ourselves to these circles, we could
come into the "training school of faith" as we prayed specifically for one in the circle and
expected God's answer. When we have learned to pray specifically, then, and only then, can we
pray more generally because by then we will have demonstrated that we truly care. In such case,
our general pray can be more believable to us and to God.
Murray cites an example from the Boer War (circa. 1900.) Prior to that time, it was taught in the
schools of warfare for a mass of side A to fire into the mass of Side B. In the Boer War, the
Boars had learned from hunting wild game that the way to hit a target is not to aim at the herd
but to aim at a specific animal. They applied that tactic to warfare with great, even shocking,
success. The same holds true in prayer. If we just throw up a shot at the mass of evil, we won't
hit very much. [I've heard it said that to aim at nothing is to be sure to hit your target.]
We should get on our face before God and ask some hard questions: What is my real desire? Do
I desire it in faith expecting an answer? Am I ready to leave it God's hands and walk away from
it counting it as done? Is it a settled thing between God and me that I am to have the answer? We
should learn so to pray that we and God both would know what we really expect.
This is one of the things that Jesus means when He warns against the "vain repetitions of the
Gentiles." Lots of high sounding words that are not directed at anything accomplish nothing.
Jesus would still ask, OK, but what do you want Me to do?" It is in the answer that God wants to
give us the "token of His approval and acceptance." God answers specifically, though not always
what we thought the answer should be. Since that is so, we should ask specifically.
There is more. If you examine the focal passage, you see that Jesus asks the man, "What do you
will?" We should be careful to distinguish wishes from wills. The will is a powerful thing, a wish
is nothing but a mere fanciful thought. To merely wish for something shows that we are not
willing to put in the effort to get it. The will rules the whole heart and life. If we really will for it,
we will not rest until we get it. It is the latter that should be the model for our prayer.
When Jesus asks us, as he did the man in the passage, "What wilt thou?" He is really asking,
"What is it that you are willing to work hard for to have or to pay the highest price for?" Are we
willing to have enough that we are also willing to persist in asking for it even when it is delayed?
Perhaps too many of our prayers are not requests of the will but are merely wishes or are mere
formalities which we fill without even caring whether or not they are answered. But the question

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might be asked, "Isn't it better to pray generally and allow God to grant from superior knowledge
than for us to ask for the wrong thing, even though the asking is in in earnest? No. This is what
Jesus taught as the prayer of faith, that it does not only make known its desire, it then leaves the
decision to God. This is the prayer of submission to be used when we truly do not know what we
want. There is a place for this prayer, but this is not the prayer of faith that Jesus is teaching here.
The prayer of faith finds God's will already expressed in His word and then pleads with God
until it comes - no matter how long before it does come.
Murray's definition of faith is the purpose of the will of man resting upon God's word and saying,
"I must have it." To believe truly is to believe firmly. One might ask, "Isn't this at variance with
our submission to and dependence on God?" No. It is rather the true submission that honors God.
It is when we will something strongly as did Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, yet to surrender
that will to God, as did Jesus, that we have liberty to ask anything of God. We are then at this
liberty to ask if we believe, yet we are also willing to submit our will to that of God. That does
not mean that we are merely throwing up a straw man for God to pick and choose. It means that
we truly will something and will be hurt if we don't receive it, yet we are willing to give that hurt
to God if He so wills. When we have submitted our will to God, God's will becomes our will.
We now have a new will to use in God's service, not our will, but God's will.
The will is the highest power in the soul. God's power wants to take over this power of ours and
to sanctify it to Himself. It may be a masked laziness [Murray says, "Sloth,"] that professes to
have no will but God's. That is not humility; that is laziness. We should have a will and a strong
will. Only then do we have something worthy to give up to God. It takes effort to search out the
will of God. There is also a danger is searching it out that when we have found it, we won’t like
it. True humility is only found in strong faith.
***
Lesson 11. Believe that You Have received or "The Faith that Takes."
Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received
them, and they will be granted you. Mark 11: 24, NASB.
This is a large promise and it means exactly what it says. There are no equivocations about it. It
is clear and it is as true as anything in the Bible. It is so large, in fact, that we [and I certainly do]
want to limit it or in some way abridge it to bring it to "within the realm of possibility." I short,
that is just plain wrong. It will not be limited. Rather, we should embrace it, believe it and let it
quicken our spirits and allow us to glimpse a bit of the unlimited things He is ready, willing, and
able to do for us. Rather than limiting this statement down to our size, we should let it take us up
to its size.
Faith is so much more than a mere conviction of the truth of God’s word or a conclusion drawn
from certain premises, it is the "eye that has seen Him do it, the ear that has heard Him do it" that
leads us to the inescapable conclusion that what He has done is totally impossible - yet, He has
done it.

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The one thing that is asked of us is that we believe that He will do what He says he has promised.
If we truly believe that - without ifs, ands, or buts, He will do it. This is so remarkably simple
that we cannot believe it to be so, yet it is so. Whatsoever you ask, you shall have.
When Solomon prayed in dedication of the temple, Solomon acknowledges that the God of Israel
is the same God who did everything He promised to David. Whether Solomon believed the truth
of what he was saying or not, it is, in fact, true. God fulfilled everything He promised David -
and in a measure and manner that David could not have imagined in his wildest dreams. What
Solomon says here is the highest work man can do, that is the first-hand witnessed praise of the
God who has done with His mighty hands everything his mouth has spoken.
In light of Solomon's declaration of the true faithfulness of God, we examine now each part of
the promise that Jesus gives in Mark 11:24.
"All things whatsoever." As soon as we hear the word "all," our human wisdom starts to doubt
and question. This is not the only time Jesus said such a thing. He also said to him who believes,
all things are possible. Mark 9:23. I you have faith, nothing is impossible. Faith is so wholly the
work of God's Spirit in the heart of the true believer, it is impossible that the fulfillment of the
promise should not come. Faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer. [It is the
anchor planted in the harbor long before the ship arrives there. It is a 'done deal, merely awaiting
the executing.]
[Here is a radical thought.] It is our tendency to put here qualifiers such as, "if expedient," or "if
according to God's will." These we use to cushion ourselves from a statement that is so bizarre
that we believe it to be "dangerous." However, we should be very careful with doing this to
Jesus' words. [It could be likened to Pilate's answer to the Jews' pleas to change Jesus crucifixion
placard, "What I have written - I have written," or Yul Brenner's line from the Ten
Commandments when he has Pharaoh say in Biblesque language, "So let it be written, so let it
be done."] The promise is most literally true. He wants His oft-repeated, "all things to enter into
our hearts and become a part of our belief system. If we weaken these words, we weaken faith
itself. Perhaps we have too low a view of faith and the power of true faith. Perhaps that is so
because we do not possess such.
As children, we make our request to our earthly fathers and trust to him to give that which he
thinks is best. This is NOT the prayer of faith and it is NOT what Jesus says here. [If we believe
that as the Westminster Catechism says, "the highest aim of man is to glorify God . . .] then
nothing glorifies God so much as the prayer of faith because in it we are believing that God will
do what He says He will do. That brings Him glory.
Look at verse 23, Jesus tells us that whoever asks and believes it, it shall come to pass. "Believe
that you have received." Have is the important word. Once God says it, it is done. [One might
say that all that remains is the paperwork.] Obviously, it may be later, much later that we actually
see what we have believed, but never the less, when God says it, it is so. Then, at that moment. If
we believe that, we have the prayer of faith. To believe anything less is to pray amiss. If we pray
amiss, not only do we not receive what we asked, but we fail in our highest mission - to glorify
God.

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The faith that we have received before, maybe long before, we actually see it is like receiving
salvation, a spiritual thing which might or might not be associated with a feeling. [Many times,
though not always, feeling is the enemy of the Spiritual. If we wait until we see it or feel it, we
are, as Paul says, "living by sight" and not by faith. Faith that requires sight (or reason for that
matter) is not faith at all .When God gives the gift, it is given in Heaven . . . that is, in the
Spiritual realm. It may be later realized in the physical realm.]
This brings up the question, "Is it necessary to pray for it any longer if we truly believe that it has
been given even though we don't see it or feel it?" Sometimes the answer is "no." The blessing is
ready to break through at once. In that case, we shift our prayer from one of supplication to one
of praise for having received it (even though we have not yet "experienced" it. At other times,
our faith needs to be further tried and strengthened in which case, we keep on praying.
Obviously, only God knows when the time is right for the manifestation of the blessing that has
already been given. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah prayed for rain and God gave it. Nevertheless, Elijah
prayed seven times before the rain actually was realized.
God has great promises for us. It is through faith and patience that we receive the promises. Faith
tells us in confidence that we have received it. Patience keeps on praying until the gift already
given in Heaven is seen on earth. Believing praise and prayer is the link between the two
iterations of the gift, the giving in Heaven which is spiritually instantaneous and the physical
realization of the Heavenly gift.
Remember that it is Jesus, Himself, who said this. It is to our shame that we have not availed
ourselves of the privilege God has given us. When we become fearful, we should remember that
Jesus told His disciples that the same life of prayer and receiving He lived they could live. This
faith is meant for each of us. All we have to do is be child-like and just believe what He has said.
***
Lesson 12. Have Faith in God or The Secret of Believing Prayer.
22 And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to
this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes
that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 Therefore I say to you, all things
for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
Mark 11:22-24 NASB.
The promise of an absolute answer seen in Lesson 11 is one of the greatest in the Bible. It
immediately raises the question, "How can I get the faith that Jesus speaks of here?" You will
note that the above passage precedes the promise. We are told to "have faith in God." The power
to have faith enough to believe in a promise depends entirely on our faith in the promiser, here,
God, the Father. If you trust in the person, you trust in His word. [Perhaps one problem we have
with such trust is our experience with men. All men will at some point let you down. No person
is totally trustworthy, or such has been my experience. (Maybe that is not your experience.)]

11. 11 | P a g e
We don't get to a point of total trust in God without spending time with Him. [Time with Him
means two things. The first is time in prayer. The second is time spent in Bible study, not for the
sake of learning about God but study to learn God Himself. In other words, reading the Word not
to learn a fact or prepare a lesson, as all we teachers do, but reading merely to let it (Him) speak
to us. One could say this what Brian McLaren calls "conversational reading."]
[To put this in the negative, if don't spend time with God, we won't know Him. If we don't know
Him, we won't trust Him. If we don't trust Him, we cannot trust His word or His promises. May I
submit that we spend our time on that which we perceive, at some level, is valuable? If we don't
spend time with God, this would be strong evidence that we don't actually value Him. This is a
bitter indictment that we hand down upon ourselves, your editor included.]
[The positive side of this statement is also blessedly true.] Murray tells us that the more we do
spend time with God and get to know Him, the more we see just how wonderful He really is and
hence, the more we can trust His promises because He [has a track record with us.]
Faith has often been compared to the hand or mouth by which we take what is offered to us. But,
Murray points out, faith is also the ear by which we hear what is promised and the eye by which
we see what is offered. The power to take with our hand or mouth depends entirely on what we
observe with the ear and eye about the promiser.
We hear the promise. But we also hear the tone of voice. We see the promise held out, but we
also see the body language and facial expressions of the promiser. Upon these senses, we make a
judgment as to whether the promise is valid. It is for this reason that Jesus first tells us to have
faith in God before He tells us that whatsoever we pray for, we will have. The order is
significant. The more we look at and listen to God through His Holy Spirit and His Word as
guided by the Holy Spirit, the more we will take what we see and hear at face value. Taking God
at face value frees us to believe what He says no matter what our reason or senses tell us.
As we learn to listen to God and read His Word conversationally, they will become less mere
information and more living Truth incarnate. As we begin to experience God by presence with
Him, His Words and promises will likewise become our experiences and not merely our
thoughts. [In that manner, our faith grows as it is encouraged by the actuality as opposed to
virtuality of God's Word and Words.]
[Another way to put this might be to say that little faith informed by the increasing perception of
the reality of God comes to the same outcome as sight and hearing. Still a third way to put this is
that that through increased understanding of God and His ways gives us increased ability to see
and otherwise perceive reality as God does. When we see God's promises through the eyes of
God, it is not a leap at all to regard something promised by God as a fait accompli.]
[Likewise, as God enters our mind giving us His Mind, He also enters our hearts and gives us
His heart. [In Ezekiel 26:36, God says," . . . I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."]

12. 12 | P a g e
When, through practiced presence with God, our faith will be able to more fully exercise the
power God wants it (and us) to have. Murray states, "The power of reception will depend
entirely on the spiritual perception." Faith also allows us to yield to God. When that is so, His
love, power and glory have control of our lives.
Faith also allows us to enter into fellowship with God. [Fellowship is a relationship, an
agreement.] Even with earthly promises, we enter into some degree of fellowship or agreement
with the promiser. [The greater we know the other person to be of good character, the more we
are willing to surrender ourselves to Him - to drop our guard - to make ourselves vulnerable to
him.] The same is true of our relationship with God, except, all the more so. [As we learn, by
time spent with Him, the more we are able to surrender, drop our guard and allow ourselves to
become vulnerable to Him. This is a relationship that grows on an ever-increasing upward spiral
until we reach the point where we can truly count what He says as done.]
Faith is a gift from God. As we have seen, it does not come easily, God doesn't let it. Faith can
only come by experience. Murray states that it is because so many Believers do not understand
the relationship between the life of faith and the prayer of faith, that their prayers are not prayers
of faith are merely echoes of faithful prayer. This disconnect causes them to approach trying to
grasp the promise from the wrong direction. They fix their prayer, desire and heart on the
promise not the Promiser. The promise remain the same - true, but it is beyond their ability to
take hold of it.
The cure for weak faith is to spend time with God merely for His own sake and not for the sake
of obtaining. This accomplished, praying in faith and believing will follow. It all rests upon our
putting things in the right order. First comes faith in God, then come faith in God's promises.
[May I submit that even though we start this journey of prayer with perhaps if not a wrong
motive, at least a mixed motive, that being the desire for power in prayer, if we will begin to
exercise such little faith as we have and fix our eyes on Jesus, we will soon learn that He will
outshine the thing we want. The more we do this, the more He shines. Then is the saying true:
"but seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all these things will be added unto thee." Matthew
6:33.]