The Truth About Faith (And why we don't get more answers to prayer)
9 December 2009, 09:00I originally wrote this article on 5 December 2007 at 5:47 pm on my typewriter. At the time there was no visible evidence that God’s provision was at work to get me to Thailand, but I stood by the fact that God had called me there, and soon I’d be on my way. This article describes just one of the many things God did to show me it was definitely His will for me to go, and that the time would be soon.
I was doing some laundry this afternoon and generally just cleaning up around the house, when I got a strong urge to pray. I began praying in other tongues and was almost immediately in the spirit. A strong urge and a spirit of prayer came on me. I began praying in a dialect of tongues I’ve only used on a few occasions. And then a sudden burst of praise filled my spirit, so I yielded to it and began praising God in English. Then, after a couple minutes of that, I knew there was an interpretation available and I began speaking out the words I was hearing in my heart.
At first I didn’t understand what the words meant. I was saying things — and seeing things with my mind’s eye — that didn’t make sense. I both saw and said that there was something which already existed in the spirit realm that was acquiring flesh. I didn’t know any other way to put it. It was like the body of this spirit was coming bit-by-bit. It looked like an egg-shaped glob at first, and it was like the shell of the “egg” was attaching to the glob in pieces. Then, with my eyes closed, I saw my hand in front of me — just like it was in the natural state — but in my mind I saw my hand holding two tickets. I knew these tickets were the airline tickets we prayed out at Monday night prayer a few weeks back. And I knew these were the spiritual bodies of these tickets presently in my hand; their physical bodies haven’t materialized yet.
A few weeks ago on Monday night, we were at prayer as usual, and Mrs. Shirley asked us if anyone had anything we’d like to speak out and have the whole group agree on in prayer. I raised my hand, and said I’d like agreement for my tickets to Thailand. “Alright,” Mrs. Shirley said, “do you guys think Jonathan’s going to Thailand is a good thing? Is this something you can agree on? Do you think this is God’s will?” The obvious answer was yes, and as everyone was agreeing with her, the Holy Spirit spoke to me down on the inside, in my heart, and said, “Now don’t pray about those tickets ever again.” God had said yes to our request. I knew I had them right then; it was just a matter of waiting for the appointed time to get the paper version in my hands.
This was the glob I saw in the spirit when I was praying this afternoon: my tickets. I knew right away there was no more need for faith. In fact, there ceased to be a need for faith the moment we prayed about them some weeks back on that Monday night. I already had them, and since I had them, faith was unnecessary. All that’s left once you have something is to praise God for it. I immediately understood that the actual work of faith is in fact very short-term. It only lasts for those few seconds while you’re asking God for it. Then you have in your spiritual hand the thing you requested. The body of that spirit is all you’re waiting on.
So, when God said in Mark 11:23-24, “What things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them,” He literally meant you shall have them, that instant. You really do possess them. Now, the bodies of those tickets are still moving my way, but I’ve been walking around with my tickets this whole time. And it doesn’t matter who they belong to physically right now, because they belong to me spiritually, and that’s the real ticket: the paper is just a shell over it. I own airline tickets to Thailand, and the bodies thereof have to align themselves to their spirits. They’re coming my way.
Now, if I were to get my mouth involved and say something stupid, like, “Awe, those tickets aren’t coming. If they were, they’d be here by now. I guess I just don’t have enough faith for it.” Those tickets in my hand would fly away. They’d go back to their former owner, because I just undid what we prayed that Monday night. I would forfeit my right to possess them out of this world’s system. My statement, then, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: I wouldn’t have them. The irony of it is I already had the answer to my prayer in-hand. My faith did work, my answer did come, but I aborted the baby before it was fully born. An unborn baby is still a baby. It’s not dead or non- human just because it’s still in the womb. That’s why abortion is so wrong: you’re killing something you created before it has a chance to flourish. And that’s what so many Christians do with their mouths: they kill their unborn blessings.
When we prayed and asked God for my tickets to Thailand that Monday night, before we even started praying, the Spirit of God witnessed to my spirit what I mentioned just a moment ago: “Don’t pray about that again.” While Mrs. Shirley was still asking everybody if they could agree with me for them, before we even prayed, God went ahead and reckoned them as mine. He judged that request as being prayed out, and He sent them right then. I had then, in my hand, my tickets to Thailand. That’s why He said “Don’t pray about that again.” If you’ve got it, there’s no need praying for it. And if you’ve got it, there’s no need for faith. There’s no believing, because now there’s possession. And after we got though praying there was a strong unction of praise, much like I felt tonight while I was praying.
This is confirmation that God has both called me to Thailand and equipped me for the trip! He has blessed this mission, and He’s proving it every day. In fact, while I was typing this, I had my 4Him CD playing in the background, and the song “Every Reason To Believe” was the song that was on! Neat, yeah?
~Jonathan