Lausanne World Pulse – WORLD PERSPECTIVES – The Prayer of Faith

By John Godson

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22).

Faith is the most important quality of a prayer that God answers. Faith is that quality that trusts in and clings to God. Faith attracts God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. It is the raw material upon which the answers to our prayers are produced. Need and circumstances do not move God as much as faith. Jesus has promised that whatsoever we ask, if we believe, it shall be granted us.

There are many passages and stories in the Bible which show God’s reaction to faith and to unbelief. Let us examine a few of them.

1. Man Sick of Palsy: Matthew 9:2
“Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.'”

Jesus was ministering to crowds. There came some men carrying a paralytic. Mark 2:1-5 gives us a detailed account of what happened. These men wanted Jesus to heal their sick friend. There was no way to get to Jesus so they made a giant hole at the roof so that their friend could be healed. The house was not theirs. They were visitors. Now that is called faith. Jesus noticed it and acted according to it.

2. The Woman with the Issue of Blood: Mark 5:24-34
“So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ ‘You see the people crowding against you,’ his disciples answered, ‘and yet you can ask, Who touched me?’ But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’”

This woman had protracted and profuse menstruation for twelve years. She had suffered much and was treated as an outcast. She had spent all her money on doctors who could not help her. One day she heard of Jesus and pressed her way through the crowd to see him. She touched his garment. Jesus turned around and declared, “Someone has touched me.” Everyone was baffled at the statement.

This is one of the most remarkable stories of the ministry of Jesus. Countless people were pressing on Jesus and nothing happened; yet, one poor woman who believed got Jesus’ attention. The reason is faith. Faith attracts the attention of heaven. It makes God stop everything he is doing and, like Jesus, he says, “Someone is praying.”

3. The Prostitute: Luke 7:48-50
“Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ The other guests began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'”

Although she would be rejected by the religious circle of the day, this woman’s faith saved her.

John Abraham Godson, a native of Nigeria, has been serving as a missionary in Poland for the past thirteen years. He is international director of Pilgrim Mission International. Godson also serves as chair for the Lausanne Intercession Working Group in Eastern Europe/Eurasia and as international facilitator for the Network of Nigerian Missionaries Overseas.