Prayer Part 7 - Prayer of Faith

We hope you have enjoyed this series on prayer. In our final week of teaching on prayer we are covering the prayer of faith.

Remember - Each time a scripture is mentioned turn to it in your Bible and speak it out loud, take ownership of it, it is yours. Put your name in there. Even if you have turned to it before and you know it, it doesn’t matter, get your bible out and turn to the scriptures.

Jesus said “Have faith” (Luke 17:6)

What is faith?

Faith is believing with our whole heart. Faith believes it has what it cannot yet see. (Hebrews 11:1)

Who should we have faith in?

We should have faith in God and His ability to do what He says He will do in His Word. (Ephesians 3:20) (Isaiah 59:1)

How much faith should we have?

Jesus said that if we had faith as tiny as a mustard seed we could command a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea. What He was saying was that we should not put much faith in our own faith, but put all of the faith we have in Him, His Word and His ability to carry it out. (Luke 17:6)

How do I pray the prayer of faith?

We can pray a prayer of faith at any time. It can be a long prayer or a short prayer. We can stand up to pray the prayer of faith or we can lie down to pray the prayer of faith. We can sit on a chair to pray the prayer of faith or we can dance around the room to pray the prayer of faith!

As long as we have faith in God and His ability and we pray in the name of Jesus, according to His Word, then our prayer of faith will be answered. (James 5:16) (Mark 11:24)

Faith in God brings great results

We need to make sure that our confession, what we say, lines up with what we pray.

If we are going around telling everyone that we cannot do or get a particular thing, then no matter how much we pray we will not be able to do or get that thing. i.e. If we tell everyone, that our prayers never get answered, then that’s right, our prayers will never get answered, because we are not walking in or talking faith. We will have what we say, it works negatively as well as positively. If we go around confessing “saying” “I am always sick,” then that is right, you will always be sick. Our faith and our confession have to be the same otherwise they cancel each other out. (James 1:6-8) This will take practice. Don’t worry about it if you have been negative. If you start being positive and saying what God says about you today each day will get easier and better.

The Bible is full of encouraging stories of great men of faith.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were three men of great faith. They never doubted God’s ability to protect them no matter what was going on around them.

They had found favour with King Nebuchadnezzar and had been put in charge of all the administrations of Babylon.

We all know the story but it is good to hear it again. Such men of faith!

The king did not worship the same God as Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, our God. He had a huge, enormous golden statue made for all of his officials and all of his people to bow down and worship.

What would happen was this – the king would get all of his musicians to play very, very loudly and as soon as the people heard the music, they were to point themselves in the direction of the huge, enormous golden statue and fall down and worship it.

If people did not worship the statue then they would be thrown into a big fiery furnace and be burnt to death!!

Now all of the people and officials of Babylon were frightened of the king and did not want to be thrown into the furnace so they obeyed the king. When they heard the music they fell on their faces in the direction of the huge, enormous golden statue and worshipped it.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego did not fall down and worship the golden statue because they knew that it would not be pleasing to God to worship a piece of gold.

There were some very jealous men in Babylon. They never liked the fact that the king had put Jews in leadership. They wanted to rule the districts themselves. So, they went to the king and reported Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego for not worshipping the statue with everyone else.

King Nebuchadnezzar was so angry!! The Bible tells us he was so angry that this face was bright red!!

He immediately called for the three Jews to be brought before him. He questioned them asking why they would not worship the golden statue. Had they not heard his decree? Maybe they misunderstood? Did they not realise that if they did not bow down and worship the statue they would be thrown into the fiery furnace?

Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego had understood everything and said to the king “We will not bow down and worship or serve your God. We do not fear you or your gods because we know that our God will deliver us, even from a fiery furnace.”

King Nebuchadnezzar was really angry now!!! He called for his furnace workers and told them to heat the furnace SEVEN TIMES HOTTER than usual.

He called for his most valiant warriors to tie them up making sure that the bonds were extra, extra tight. He then had them thrown into the middle of the furnace. It was so hot that it killed the men who threw them in.

The King was so furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. “How dare they defy me he thought, I want to see them burn!!” So he went to the viewing platform to see if they were dead.

He did not see three dead men! He was completely amazed! He rubbed his eyes because he thought he was seeing things, but no, lo and behold the three men were up and walking around in the middle of the furnace! It looked like there was someone in there with them too! The king said the fourth man looked like a son of the gods!

He called to them and told them to come out. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the furnace the king ran to them to see if they were real, and they were!

Not only were they real and alive but their clothes were not marked and they did not even smell of smoke. The King was so impressed that he made a decree that no-one was to criticise the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abed-nego under threat of death.

God responded to the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego? He has to. God is faithful to His Word. If He said it and we can believe it, God will do it. He kept them safe in a fiery furnace and He will do the same for us if we ever need it.

However, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego did not start believing and trusting God on the day that the statue was erected. No they had been believing and trusting in God for many years. They were faithful to live as Jews should live. They were holy men dedicated to God and they had seen many things as captured Jews, but God was faithful to them.

Same for us. We need to be believing in and trusting God BEFORE things happen. So that when things do happen they don’t faze us. We need to use our faith every day. We should always be trusting in and thanking God for our protection and safety, for our health and strength, for our wealth. If you have everything you need then trust God to give you extra so you can give it to someone else.

Thank you for reading the series about prayer. We hope it has blessed you. If it has, comment below.

Have a blessed week.