What Is Faith?
"I don't seem to be able to get answers to my prayers the way other people do. I wish I had that kind of faith!"
Have you ever said that? Until we begin to understand the laws under which faith operates, we cannot expect to make much progress. Understanding is knowledge, and knowledge is power.
Is faith a special gift which is given to some and not to others? What is the source of faith? Is it for all of us? Are God's answers given to those who possess faith, and withheld from those who do not have it? Can one know whether he has faith or not? Is receiving conditioned only by how much faith we have, or are there other important factors? Isn't it true that sin in our lives hinders God from answering prayer? And don't we have to exercise our faith so it will become stronger?
The answers to all these questions are found in the prayer promises which abound in the New Testament. They are also found in the gospel accounts of desperate men and women who made their way into their presence of Jesus Christ.
Mark records a miracle for us in the fifth chapter of his gospel which has helped me a great deal in understanding more about what faith is and how it operates. In this story there are five lessons which begin to unfold the mysteries of faith, the faith which asks and receives.
The first one is God's willingness to give us what we ask for. The second one is what to ask for. The third one is
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how to ask. The fourth is the important place "desire" plays in asking. The fifth is the necessity for a "point of contact."
1. God's Willingness
If you are not familiar with the story of the woman who touched the hem of His garment, turn to Mark 5:21-43 and read the whole story. Her healing caused an interruption in Jesus' journey to the home of an influential man with a critically ill daughter. And because of that interruption, the daughter was dead when they arrived. Jesus knew this beforehand, but still the true character of God was displayed in His love and kindness to the woman as well as to the distraught father.
Jesus Christ and the Father are One. Jesus is the Word, and "the Word became Human and lived a little while among us, and we actually saw His glory . . ." (John 1:14, Williams). God Himself is willing to be interrupted when He is on the way to meet the desperate need of Jairus, because He knows He not only can heal this sick daughter, He can raise her from the dead.
God is willing to give us what we ask for, even if it means a delay in His day's journey, and even if it means death at the end of the journey. He is willing to do this because of what He is like. He can handle one as well as the other. His eternal love and kindness and tender mercy go far beyond the care of an earthly father and mother. He is more willing to give than we are to receive. No eye has seen nor has any ear heard all the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. It was John Newton who wrote:
Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He, Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay.
Did you ever make a study of the prayer promises in the New Testament with the idea of finding out what God
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is like? I could copy these promises and fill several pages, but doing it yourself always brings surprises. Writing them down and looking at them helps you find words or ideas which are alike in these passages. Here are some references,* but no doubt you could find many more in your own Bible concordance.
After such a study, one word seemed to light up for me. See if you can find it here for yourself, in this next paragraph which blends several promises.
All are freely invited to ask and to receive. We are told that we will receive what we ask for if we search and knock and ask. We are told to ask in Christ's name and He will do whatever we ask. We are told to abide or to find our reason for living, in Christ, and then we can have whatever we ask for. We are also told not to doubt, and to believe that we are going to get what we have asked for.
In all of these promises the word that gets our attention is the little word "ask." Think what that means! God has told us to ask so that He may relieve the intolerable burdens of fear, tragedy and loneliness. The burdens of illness, poverty and injustice. God has told us to ask so that He may pour His gifts into our hearts and lives without measure.
If there is anyone reading who is not convinced that God is willing to give good gifts to those who call on Him, let that person finish this chapter before giving up.
Jesus was on the way to the dying daughter of a famous man when an unknown woman touched His clothing. He not only cured her, but He tenderly said, "Daughter . . . go in peace, be free from your disease."
There is no unwillingness in God — He will give us anything that we ask. His eternal character is always on the side of love. It is only when our asking is out of line with holy love that He withholds our answer. Withholding can be holy love, also.
* Prayer References: Matthew 6:8; 7:7-12; 18:18-20; 21:21, 22; Mark 11:22-26; Luke 11:9-11; John 14:12-14; 15:7; 16:24; James 1:5-8; I John 3:20-22, 5:14, 15.
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2. What Shall We Ask For?
That brings us to our second point. What shall we ask for? And is there any special way of asking which will bring a sure answer?
Back to the sick woman in Mark 5. Did she have any difficulty in knowing what to ask? Certainly not. Well, you might argue, she didn't really ask, she just came up behind Jesus and touched His clothes. Yes, but coming and touching were her ways of asking.
In Mark 5 the woman's asking was commensurate to her need. For twelve years she had suffered as much at the hands of primitive doctors as from her hemorrhage. Her life was intolerable. She was on her way to an early grave. Then "she heard the reports about Jesus." I love that verse. "She heard the reports about Jesus." What reports? That whoever came to Him was healed! Look back or think back into the gospel records. When was anyone refused who came to Jesus for help of any kind? There was no one. Everyone who came received the help he asked for. Lepers were cleansed, blind eyes were made to see, demons were cast out and personalities restored. The lame walked, the deaf heard, the dead lived again.
This sick woman heard what Jesus had done and although her malady was not listed among the others, she was so desperate she decided within herself that if He could heal all those diseases, He could heal hers, too. He could do it. No one else. She was sure now, that He was the one. Her own desperate need drew her to Him, and if she could only get to Him, she would be well.
It was a glorious moment when I began to see that the power and authority of Jesus Christ were most often used when individuals, not crowds, asked for help. There were only a few whom He healed who did not ask personally. This too, shows His willingness and His knowledge of our needs.
What shall we ask for?
The simple answer is, ask for what you need.
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3. How Shall We Ask?
What are your deep personal needs? Have you prayed about them? Have you asked the Person who can take care of them, to do it? Have you had your prayers answered? Or do you just grumble, and rebel, and blame other people?
Ask, says Jesus, ask largely, that your joy may be full (John 16:24).
How shall you ask?
When we look at the sick woman the answer to this question is simple, too. Ask in His presence. Get close to the Lord Jesus. Touch Him. He is the answer. He is my answer and He is your answer. He Himself is the answer.
"If you live in Me — abide vitally united to Me — and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7, Amplified).
What does "if you live in Me" mean? It means that all my desire is centered in the Person of Jesus Christ, and apart from Him nothing permanently influences the real me.
How shall you ask?
In the dramatic account of her conversion story in The Burden Is Light Eugenia Price prayed only two words over and over from the depths of her heart and He heard. "Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God!" Her heart was so heavy there was nothing else she could do but call on His Name. It is not the actual words we pray, it is the condition of our hearts when we pray that brings the answer. In her case, as in all others, He Himself was the answer.
4. Desire
This brings us to the third point, desire. The sick woman in Mark's story had only one desire. A desire which had been a tiny seed of hope, and which grew through the reports which she heard about the healing power of Jesus. She believed that if she could get past all the obstacles and reach His side, she would be healed. Her need and her
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desire carried her past the forbidding obstacles of custom which kept women at home, and especially sick ones, lest they contaminate others.
How great is your need?
How deep is your desire?
Will it bring you to His side? Will it carry you past all that keeps you from Him? Will you stop what you are doing now, and kneel at His feet, in His presence? He is there. Ask, seek, knock. There is Someone on the other side of the door, and He will open it and give you all that He is. Christ and all His gifts are yours.
" . . . the proof of God's amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us. If God is for us, who can be against us? He that did not hesitate to spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all — can we not trust such a God to give us, with Him, everything else that we need?" (Romans 5:8, 8:31, 32, Phillips)
5. Point of Contact
Now we come to the last of our five lessons on faith, the necessity of a "point of contact."
What is a point of contact?
It is that very moment when you reach out and touch the hem of Jesus' garment, and with the woman you know you are healed.
Does living faith always have a person as a "point of contact?" Didn't the woman say that if she could but touch His clothing she would be healed? Wasn't it Jesus' garment that she touched? Yes, but was it Jesus' garment that healed her? Wasn't it rather the Person of Jesus Christ, and the power He possessed? He realized this, and that was why He embarrassed her by saying, "Who touched me?"
She had to tell her whole story anyway before the whole crowd. But Jesus had a good reason for this. Knowing human nature, He wanted to save her from the bondage which "experiences" or "relics" can have over us. Being a woman myself, I know what she might have done. She
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might have gone home looking for more symptoms, and even finding them. And then she might have started out once more to find Jesus, this time with a small pair of scissors concealed in her pocket. She might have cut off a piece of his robe, so that she could touch it whenever she felt ill.
Jesus, loving her, and knowing the importance of a personal relationship, said to her, "Daughter." He said more, "Daughter, your faith [that is, your trust and confidence in Me, springing from faith in God] has restored you to health" (Mark 5:34, Amplified). He is the One we must all touch. Our hearts must climb that step of faith into His presence. He is already with us, and conscious of us. Climbing the step of faith is merely realizing that He is there.
If it is with another person that you can better climb the step to faith, and pray a faith-sized request, then you should plan to meet and pray with someone else.
This is where Matthew 18:19, 20 takes on fresh meaning. Certain things we seem to be able to ask for and receive when we are alone. Other things loom like great mountains, and we need the faith and prayer of one or two others to help us when we pray. "If two of you agree (harmonize together, together make a symphony) about — anything and everything — whatever they shall ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven" (Amplified).
Your point of contact is when you touch Jesus Christ, whether you are alone or with someone else. And your point of contact may be determined beforehand.
How does one find that point of contact? By asking, by praying, by being consciously with Him in prayer. Listen for His voice, the voice of the Shepherd who goes before His sheep. He will tell you. He is your first "point of contact." He will show you what to do next.
Our little sick woman in Mark's account had a point of contact, and who knows how long it had been in her heart?
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She would steal up behind him, so no one would be embarrassed by her illness, so she would not have to tell what it was, and reach her hand through the crowd that milled around Jesus. When she touched His clothing she would be healed. She knew it beforehand. That was her point of contact.
Your point of contact may be that very moment at which two of you agree in prayer. It may be the moment the other person lays his hand on your head or your shoulder and prays for you. It may be the moment you kneel at an altar of prayer. If you listen for the Shepherd's voice in your inner heart, He will tell you and He will lead you, and He will heal your heart or your body, for He is both able and willing.
Living faith is always in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Chinese word for faith, hsin, has several interesting root-characters. On the left side stands a man, on the right side is a small squarish opening out of which spring several short lines, denoting a mouth and the words being spoken. So then, faith is the confidence one has in a man and his words.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Then you have faith. Faith to ask Him for anything because you believe in Him. You will know what to ask and how and where, because you believe in Him and love Him. Your greatest need can be your greatest asset, for need is the golden door through which He comes close to His loved ones. Christ promised, "Lo, I am with you all the days, — perpetually, uniformly and on every occasion — to the [very] close and consummation of the age" (Matthew 28:20, Amplified).
Jesus Christ is our "point of contact," and as we touch Him, alone or with others, power is released and our prayers are answered.
Chapter Nine || Table of Contents
