Quote:
Originally Posted by Lafon
Jesus said, "And ALL things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." ~ Matthew 21:22
It would seem to me that when one is taking heed to and obeying the things which John said that they MUST do in order to have "confidence" that God will hear and answer their prayer (yea, even those where healing is requested), then God has obligated Himself to respond accordingly.
So again I feel compelled to say ~ ALL of the emphasis rests with the petitioner: 1. We MUST ask in prayer; 2. We MUST believe (i.e., possess the "confidence" that because we are living righteously He will "hear" and grant our petition), and then; 3. We MUST receive it.
In the absence of any of these three essentials then it can hardly be said that we possess the "confidence" that God will "hear" our petition and grant it. |
Brother, I will respectfully, partially agree with your premise. I absolutely agree that all these things you have cited are very important to creating an environment in our lives that miracles and answered prayers may exist. However, it all is contingent upon God's will.
We must use the Biblical methods of dissecting Scripture that says, any doctrine or argument that we take hold of from Scripture, must be able to be taken through to it's logical end, as well as support it's antithesis.
The Antithesis of your assertion above is that if a person doesn't have their miracle, they are lacking in one of these above parts... therefore, like Benny Hinn and the "name it claim it crowd" says, if your not prospering and seeing your miracle, it's a deficit on your part.
That totally subtracts the huge factor of the Will of God in the whole mix. Take the story of the man lame from his mother's womb in
Acts 3. From the indications of the Scripture, there is no greater faith mentioned here other than the man believing he might get some generosity from the Disciples... but he ended up with a miracle... because that was God's will at that time.
What about the story where the lame man was at the pool of Bethesda... it would appear that Jesus healed him in spite of his lack of faith. He was looking for someone to place him in the pool and didn't have the realization of who he was even talking to and the possibilities that stood right in front of him.
I know there is a great reward for our petitions, and our earnest seeking. The woman with the issue of blood is a great example of that. But we can never, ever, ever believe that the full work of God in our lives is handicapped by our ability to cross all the t's and dot all the i's and if we aren't healed, it's somehow our fault.
There are times that God's will is greater than our agenda or plan, and all he's told us to do is believe... not try to understand. Our job is just to trust Him, and all the rest is in His department... that's above my pay grade.
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