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Faith Opens God's Door

Matthew 5:45 “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

 

God is merciful, for He blesses us with much that we do not ask for or need to exercise our faith for. In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord taught us that it is the goodness of God that causes His sun to shine on us and gives us rain. No one asks Him to do this and no one exercises their faith for these things to happen. None of us exercises our faith to be able to breathe and yet God’s word teaches us that our very breath He gives to us (Isaiah 42:5). So does that mean that we can go through life just expecting God to take care of every aspect of our lives without us having to exercise any faith for our lives? The answer to that question is a resounding “no”.

 

Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  (8)  "Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”

 

In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus taught us that even though our Heavenly Father knows what our needs are before we ask Him, He still requires us to ask Him to meet those needs. In Luke’s account of this same teaching, the needs that our Lord is referring to here are our basic needs of food and clothing (Luke 11:1-13). And so if God requires us to ask Him to meet our basic needs then we can be assured that He also requires us to ask Him regarding every other need we may have. And so we learn a very important principle from this passage, which is that if we are going to receive anything from God for our individual lives we are going to have to ask Him. Jesus plainly taught us that everyone who asks receives (Luke 11:10). Conversely therefore, it can also be said that if we do not ask then we will not receive, and in fact the Holy Spirit teaches us that exact same truth when He says to us that we do not have because we do not ask (James 4:2). It is surprising to me just how many believers don’t even ask. Many believers go through life hardly ever asking the Lord for anything. They do what all unbelievers do. They go through life in their own strength trying to make ends meet and worrying about just how they are going to make it. This is not our Lord’s will for our lives at all, for it is the express will of our Heavenly Father that we ask Him to meet our every need. And so we see that in order for that to happen the very first step that every believer will have to take is to ask.

 

Matthew 21:22 “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

 

If all that was required for us to receive from the Lord is to ask then we would all have it made. Unfortunately that is not the case however, for scripture plainly teaches us that we must ask in faith. In the passage of scripture quoted above Jesus taught us that whatever we ask in prayer “believing” we will receive. How many times have you heard the following statement? Let’s just hope and pray. Those who just hope and pray never receive anything from the Lord, for on its own, hope does not get the job done; faith does. Our Lord Jesus taught us that those who “believe” and pray receive. And so as we have already seen, the first step to receiving from the Lord is we must ask Him. The second step to receiving from the Lord is that we must ask in faith. In all four gospels, there is not one incident recorded of anyone receiving anything from the Lord Jesus other than by faith. I am not speaking about the incidents when our Lord initiated miracles through His own compassion and faith. Such as the incident when He raised the young man in the city of Nain from the dead. No one asked the Lord to do that. He did that out of His compassion for that woman. I am speaking about individuals asking the Lord to do something for them. They had to ask Him in faith in order to receive. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has never and will never change. And so if no one received anything from Him when He was on the earth, except by faith, then no one will receive anything from Him now, except by faith. There is no other way that we can receive anything from God, except by faith. From the moment we come into the kingdom of God, everything we will ever receive from God; we will only receive by faith. In fact we cannot even come into His kingdom except by faith, for it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved (John 3:16).

 

Galatians 3:2 “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

 

Once we have been born-again it is only by faith that we can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speak with other tongues. This truth is confirmed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, in which the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul reminds the churches in Galatia that they received the Spirit through the hearing of faith. And so after we have been born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit, any further blessings that we receive from God can also only be received by faith. There are many promises in God’s word, and all of those promises can only be received from Him by faith. We do not receive the promises of God by begging Him for them. We do not receive His promises by being as good as we possibly can be. We do not receive His promises by fasting. We do not receive the promises of God through hours of prayer. There is no work that we can do that will move God to bestow His promises on us. The only thing that moves God to bestow His promises on us is faith. Settle the fact in your mind that we can only ever receive from God by faith and it will help you immeasurably in your walk with God.

 

Michael E.B. Maher

 




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