PRAYER OF FAITH
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 6
JULY 7, 1979
Sheldon Vanauken is a professor at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia. He tells the story of his life in a book called A Severe Mercy. In that book he shares how he met a woman named Jean. Her nickname was Davy. He met Davy in an apartment store. Through many experiences, they grew to love each other; and their love grew into marriage. He explains how the years of their marriage became one incredible journey in search of faith, how they traveled to Oxford, England, where they met C. S. Lewis, and how through Lewis’s life and ministry they accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives.
Tragedy came to the Vanauken marriage when Davy became ill. She became critically ill, deathly ill. She acquired a rare disease that medicine was not able to cure. After a period of time, Davy died, though she now lives in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the prayer of Sheldon Vanauken was that Davy would be healed, that she would be physically restored to the fullness of her earthly years and that he might be able to share those years with her in marriage. Her death was a great test of his young faith. In correspondence with C. S. Lewis, he sought some answers to some very difficult questions, and through it all he came to a beautiful peace and a confidence of the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus.
Nevertheless, we might ask why it is that Sheldon Vanauken did not receive what he requested in prayer, the physical earthly healing of his wife. Our Lord Jesus Christ said. “Whatever you ask in prayer, ask in faith believing that you will receive it and you will have it (Mark 11:24). As Christians we know that those words are true because our great Lord said them. I know that if I ask anything in faith it will be given to me. Yet these words and this teaching have oftentimes been misunderstood. What does it mean to ask in faith? What does it mean to pray a prayer of faith? Did Sheldon Vanauken pray a prayer of faith when he prayed for the physical healing of his wife, Davy?
The Greek word for faith is the word pistis. The verb form is pisteuo. It was used by the early church to refer to a person’s confident response to God. It was used to refer to a person’s confident response to things initiated by God. It was used to refer to a person’s belief of things promised by God. It was never used to refer to things initiated by a person, only to things initiated by God and believed by people. Abraham was a man of faith, not because he initiated great things before God or because he promised great things to himself, but because God initiated great things before Abraham. God promised great things to Abraham, and Abraham believed God. He responded with faith, and his faith was reckoned unto him as righteousness (Romans 4:3). In the scripture that we read this morning, through faith and patience Abraham inherited the promises.
Faith is a response to what God has promised, a belief in what God has promised. A prayer of faith is a prayer given in response to something God has initiated, in response to something God has promised, and in response to something God has offered. I have a car out in the parking lot. After the services I am going to get into that car and drive home. At least I am going to try. Now this car has been very good to me. Yet sometimes I am not that excited about driving it when I see somebody go by in a Mercedes or a Porsche. I wish that I had one of those.
What if after the services, instead of going out and getting into my car, what if I go into my office, fall on my knees, and I say, “Father, you know how I’m not always excited about driving my car, and you know how much I would like to drive a Porsche. You know what a joy that would be. You know what a blessing that would be in my life. I know that you have all power in heaven and on earth. I know that with you all things are possible. I know that you can change water into wine. I know that you can change my car into a Porsche. So Father, this is my prayer, and I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ with all faith believing. Amen.”
Now, if I pray that prayer and go out into the church parking lot, what am I going to see? Yes, I could tell you with confidence that I am going to see my car. The reason I am going to see my car is that that would not be a prayer of faith because a prayer of faith is given in response to something God has offered to do, something God has promised to do, something God has initiated. I would have initiated that prayer. It would not have been my response to God; it would have been my effort to make God respond to my demands. It would not have been a prayer of faith even if I had all fleshly confidence. If I went through great mental exercise to try to conjure positive thinking, it would still not be a prayer of faith because faith is a response to God.
It may be that our loving God in His infinite wisdom was not offering to heal the wife of Sheldon Vanauken. It may be that he was not offering to heal Davy. God does heal. All through the Christian centuries he has raised up people. He has healed them physically and spiritually, and He still does that today. But He does not always do that. That may have been in His infinite wisdom that He was not offering to heal Davy. If that is true, it would have been impossible for Sheldon Vanauken to pray a prayer of faith for her healing because faith is a response to something God is offering, to something God has initiated.
We have this message from God that we are not to try to conjure up faith for something God has not offered to do. But there is a positive message here, too, because God does offer to do many exciting and wonderful things in our lives. He promises many wonderful things to you, and He wants you to respond with prayers of faith, in faith believing. The Christian life begins with a prayer of faith. You say, “Lord Jesus come into my heart.” That is a response to God, a response to something He has offered to do. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and live with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). By faith you respond and claim that promise. You claim that offer, and you say, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart.” Unfortunately, for many Christians, that is the last prayer of faith they ever pray.
Salvation is not the only gift God is offering. There are many other marvelous and wonderful gifts that God is offering to you that He would initiate in your life, that He would promise to you. He wants you to claim those by prayers of faith. I am convinced that if we go through our entire Christian life and end every prayer by saying, “Not my will, but thy will be done,” that would be a safe way to pray. We probably feel that it is not God’s will that we always pray like that because sometimes He has told us what His will is. He has revealed by His Spirit to our spirit what He wants to do, what He is offering to do, and He wants us to respond in faith. He wants us to claim those promises by faith.
If Heather, my little girl, comes to me and says, “Dad, may I have a bowl of ice cream. I’d like a bowl of ice cream. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done,” I would say, “Sure Heather, go ahead and have a bowl of ice cream. Enjoy it.” She, however, would never put it like that, but if she did. However, Heather does not go and get a bowl of ice cream. Instead she comes back to me, and she says, “Dad, may I have a bowl of ice cream. I’d love to have a bowl of ice cream. Not my will, but thy will be done.” I would say, “Heather, I already told you my will. You may have a bowl of ice cream.” But then if she came to me a third time and said, “Dad, I would like a bowl of ice cream. Not my will, but thy will be done,” I would say, “Heather, do you have ears to hear? I told you that you could have a bowl of ice cream. I bought that ice cream for you. I have put it in the freezer to keep it for you. I’m telling you that it is for you to eat when the time is right and enjoy it.” But if she is not sensitive to my words, if she is not sensitive to my will, to the things that I am offering, and if she does not respond in faith, she will never have a bowl of ice cream. So it is with the promises of God. He is offering many things to you and He wants you to respond by faith.
I am convinced that we are like that with respect to the will of God. We may think of three categories. Sometimes God says, “I will do it.” Other times God says, “I will not do it.” And there is this third category wherein God says, “I will do it if you believe, if you have faith.” He makes his promises contingent upon our faith, our response of faith.
Sometimes God says, “I will do it. I will do it in spite of you.” The sun rose this morning at 5:50. We did not have to get up at 5:40 and say, “Lord, please help the sun to rise because the Bible says that the Lord Jesus Christ upholds the universe by His word of power. God says, “I will do it.” We do not have to pray for that. Praise God for the many blessings that He gives to us in spite of ourselves.
Sometimes God says, “I will not do it.” You could go home today and pray for a million dollars, 10 billion, and you could try to conjure up all faith, but it might not be God’s will to give you 10 billion dollars. It might be that God wants that money to be shared with other people, or maybe God knows you would not handle it just right. You could pray, but it is not God’s will. He says, “I will not do it.”
There are other times when God says, “I will do it if.” Many things fall into this category. “I will do it if you believe I will do it, if you have faith.” Maybe God is offering to heal a loved one of yours. Maybe God is offering to heal you. Maybe God is offering to give you that house that you have always wanted. Maybe you have lived in an apartment for years and you have always wanted a house. Maybe He is offering to give that to you. Maybe He is offering to give you an exciting ministry opportunity, an opportunity of great service for the kingdom of God in this world. Maybe He is offering that to you, but He wants you to respond in faith to claim it by faith.
Three years ago, Barb and I lived in a different house than we live in now. It was a small house. It only had 750 square feet that was finished, and the living room was only 10 feet by 12 feet. Barb was having a hard time throwing parties, and we were praying that somehow the Lord might provide another house, a house that was bigger. We prayed for a long time, but we never felt like the Lord was offering. We never felt like the Lord was offering another house to us at that time. So we backed off a little bit.
About a year later, we prayed again because we felt the time was right that the Lord was offering to give us a new house. We began to pray in faith, confident that the Lord would provide a new house for us. We found a house that had twice the square footage and that we could buy for almost the same price that we could sell the old house for. We put a down payment on the new house, and we tried to sell our old house. We had our old house up for sale for a month, and only one person had come by to see it. They were not interested because there was not enough room to throw parties in it. We were feeling a little bit discouraged. We called my mom and dad and asked them to pray because we were having trouble selling that house.
One day my mom was in prayer, praying that Barb and I would be able to sell our house. She was very much in the spirit, and she said, “Father, help Barb and Jim sell that house.” She said, “Lord, send the minister, send the minister.” Then she stopped for a second. She got to thinking. My goodness, what am I saying? It doesn’t even make any sense, “send the minister.” They need someone to buy the house, and Jim is a minister. She sensed in her spirit that this was from God, that God was initiating something here, that God was offering something here. She continued to pray in faith. She said, “Yes, Lord, send the minister. Yes Lord, send the minister.”
The very next day the doorbell rang. There was a man at the door and a young couple, and they wanted to see our house. It could not have been at a more exciting time because Barb had just cooked a fantastic dinner, and it smelled great all over the house, just like it always does when Barb cooks a meal. I just wanted to slip that in there at the end. As we got to talking, this man shared with us that he is an ordained Christian minister, and he was selling real estate on the side. This was a young couple that he had just married, and he wanted to show them our house. We showed them around the house. It took about one second. Right in front of us this minister said to the young couple he had married, “I think you ought to buy this house.” And they did.
I cannot possibly explain that. I know it is supernatural, and I know it was something initiated by God, not by man, to which we needed to respond in faith. When my mother was in prayer and God initiated that, when he made that offer, I honestly believe that if she had not responded in faith, things would not have worked out just as they did. I am not saying we would not have got a new house, but I am saying I do not believe things would have worked out just as they had had she not responded in faith because many promises are made contingent upon our faith.
You might feel that you do not have that kind of discernment in prayer, that you have a hard time recognizing what the Lord is offering to do, recognizing what He is promising to do, recognizing what He is initiating. Therefore, you have a hard time responding in faith, in prayers of faith. That is very common within the body of Christ. It comes with time as we get closer and closer to Jesus Christ. That is why the Bible says the prayers of a righteous man have great power in their effect. It is not that God loves righteous people more. It is not even that God only wants to give good things to good people. It is that a righteous person is walking closely with our Lord, walking closely with Jesus Christ, and is more aware of the will of Christ, more aware of what He is offering to do, more able to respond with faith, and knows more where to invest faith.
The Lord would have us to see that even if in our prayer life we are having a hard time recognizing what He is offering we can still pray great prayers of faith in response to those things that He has already offered in His word. Maybe you are not aware of this, but in the scriptures there are many, many promises offered to the body of Christ that can be claimed by faith. It is sad that many Christians if you ask them to list some of the promises, some of the offerings of God given in the scriptures, things that He would offer to us in this lifetime, do not know what He is offering.
When we grew up, my parents had my brothers and me go through the scriptures and claim promises of God. We had a stack of promises that high, little cards with scripture verses on them, wherein God was promising things to us. We begin to claim those promises by faith. I can look back over my life, and I can say all praise to God because He has blessed me. Barb and I look at our life and say, “Wow.” He has blessed us, and we know that it does not have anything to do with us but has to do with Him.
He longs to bless us, but He wants us to claim His promises by faith. It would be so neat if you would go through the scriptures in your daily Bible study and run each scripture passage through this filter, looking for a promise to claim and write it down and begin to claim it by faith.
When I go through scripture passages, I look for a promise to claim. I look for errors to avoid. I look for commands to obey. I look for examples to follow. But when I find a promise to claim, I make a mental note of it, and I began to pray for it. I begin to respond in faith with prayers of faith. In the scriptures we are told “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4). God does not want us to try to conjure up faith for things he has not promised; but wherein he is offering those precious and very great promises, He wants us to claim them by faith.
I add this one note. I do not feel that the prayer of Sheldon Vanauken was wrong. It is not wrong to let God know the desires of your heart, for with prayers and supplication, we are to make our requests known to Him. All I am saying is that wherein you are not sure that your desires are in accordance with His will, are in accordance with something He is offering, do not try to conjure up faith. Simply pray, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” Wherein you do sense that He is offering something mighty and wonderful to you, either you sense it by His word or by His Spirit, respond in faith, believing and it will be given to you.
Shall we pray. Father, we praise You for your goodness to us. Lord, we confess that apart from you, we are nothing; but, Lord, with You, all things are possible. We know that You long to bless us, but You ask us to respond in faith to those things You are offering. Lord, we thank You for your many gifts that You would send our way. Lord we pray that we might respond in faith to all of those things. We pray these things in the great name of Jesus Christ. Amen.