How do you speed up fulfilment of faith?

How Do You Speed Up Fulfillment of Faith?

Faith is when you are brought to the place whereby you can claim God has already heard your prayer. It is not when you say God will hear you. You kneel down to pray, and somehow you are able to say: Thank God, He has heard my prayer. Thank God, this is done. Now, this is faith, for it adheres to "he receives." If you rise from your knees and proclaim that you believe God will hear you or God must hear you, however insistent you are, nothing will happen. Your decision does not produce any result.

The Lord says, "Believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." He did not say: "Believe that ye will receive them, and ye shall have them." Brethren, do you get the key? True faith knows "it is done" already. Thank God, for He has heard my prayer.

To new believers, permit me to say something out of my experience. Prayer may be divided into two parts: the first part is praying without any promise until the promise is given, praying without God’s word to having God’s word. All prayers begin this way. Pray by asking God, and keep on asking. In George Muller’s case, some prayers were answered in one minute while some were not yet heard even after seven years. This part is the praying part. The second part is praying from the point at which the promise is given to the realization of the promise, from having God’s word to the fulfillment of His word. During this period, there should be praise, not prayer. So, the first part is prayer and the second part is praise. Pray in the first part from no word to God’s word. Praise in the second part from having the promise till the promise is fulfilled. This is the secret of prayer.

To the people of this world, prayer has only two focal points: I have not, so I pray; after I pray, God gives to me. For example: I prayed yesterday for a watch. After several days, the Lord does give me a watch. This is from nothing to something. But to Christians, there is a third point, a point in between these two: faith. If I pray for a watch and one day am able to claim that God has heard my prayer, then I have reached the point of faith, I know inwardly that I have the watch though my two hands are still empty. A few days later, the watch arrives. Christians need to know how to receive in the spirit; otherwise they have neither faith nor spiritual insight.

Men ought to pray earnestly; they should pray till faith is given. We may say that the first part is praying from no faith to faith; the second part is praising from faith to actual possession. Why should we divide prayer into these two parts? Because once having faith, one can only praise, not pray. If he continues to pray, his faith will be lost. He should use praise to remind God, to speed up the fulfillment. God has already promised to give, what more can he ask? Brothers and sisters all over the world have had such experiences—after faith is given, further prayer is impossible The one thing to do is to say, "I praise you, Lord." Alas, some brothers do not have this knowledge. God has already promised, yet they keep on praying; and so they pray till they lose everything. This, indeed, is a great loss.

How should one maintain one’s faith? By praising the Lord: "O Lord, I praise You, for You have heard my prayer. You heard me a month ago." How precious are the words in Mark 11:24. Nowhere in the New Testament is faith more expressed than in that precious verse. "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." There are three main points here: (a) pray, with nothing in hand, (b) believe, still with nothing, and (c) believe, and the thing is in hand. May new believers really understand what prayer is and know how great a part prayer plays in their lives.

In other words, (b) is a knowing "ye receive;" (c) is fulfillment, "shall receive."