The Force Of Faith.
Part Two.  The Operation Of Faith.
Installment Ten.
By Phil Scovell.


B.  Praying It.

     Keep in mind, as we begin to study prayer itself, that this
study is isolated to the discussion and application of petitionary
prayer and no other form.  Petitionary prayer is simply making a
request of God.  The question is, do we pray according to God's
will to get our prayers answered and if we get no answer, we
thereby conclude, it isn't God's will?  Candidly stated, we are
going to study how to get our prayers answered and the
requirements, or conditions, the Lord has in relationship to
petitionary prayer.

First John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask
any thing according to His will, He heareth us:  And if we know
that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions we desired of Him.

General comments.

     I call this passage the black hole of the Bible.  Why?
Because, I was taught, growing up, the way we discovered if
something was God's will or not was to pray.  If we got no answer,
it wasn't his will.  Sort of a hit and miss type of attitude, a
luck of the draw theology, or  let's take a chance doctrine.  This
passage was also quite convenient, too. You see, it was simple.
If you prayed and did not get an answer, you could Biblically
confirm it wasn't God's will by pointing to First John 5:14-15 and
saying, "See.  It wasn't God's will."  Fortunately, this is not
what the passage means.

Illustration.

     Many years ago I was doing high speed cassette duplication.
I mostly worked for churches and traveling preachers but did some
small business work for people as well.  One day, my second
largest account was canceled over night.

     Following this news, I sat in my living room doing as much
worrying and fretting as possible.  Suddenly, it hit me.
Expansion was the key.  Advertise, mass mailings, putting in a
toll free number, customize services, and other ideas began to
come to mind.  This would take a loan, I knew, so I quickly
contacted the Small business Administration.  They told me to
write a business prospective, and out lay of inventory,
advertising plans, and how the loan would be spent, as well as a
five year projection of how the business would progress.  Then, I
was told, I had to be turned down by two commercial banks before
they would allow me to apply to the SBA.

     Business prospective in hand, I went to two banks and met
with bank business loan officers.  I was quickly turned down by
both.

     I asked one of the loan officers why I was being turned down.
He said my business plan looked good but my loan request to my
collateral ratio was too great.  In short, he was saying that it
wasn't that the bank didn't have enough to accommodate me, and it
wasn't that they didn't wish to loan me the money, it was how I
was asking that made the difference.  In other words, if I would
ask according to the bank's terms, and not my own, I would be
granted a loan.

     Armed with this new information, over the next few days, I
wrote a new business plan, recalculating my request for money by
making changes to my inventory, advertising, and other operating
expenses, and made an appointment with the Small Business
Administration loan officer.  After only five minutes of the man
looking over my business plan, he said, "This is perfectly done.
We can loan you this amount of money with no problem."  I got my
answer and received the money.  What made the difference? Knowing
how to ask, knowing what to ask, and knowing whom to ask.  What
was the key?  Asking according to the bank's terms.

     Normally when teaching from First John 5:14-15, I would spend
a great deal of time breaking down the passage by explaining the
meaning of each word to give us a better picture of what is really
being said.  Since this series is more faith specific and related
to its application, as well as its relationship to believing God
for something, I won't take the time to perform that type of
exegesis now. I will, however, point out what I believe is the
true interpretation of the verse.  Let me do that by quoting the
first verse once again.  Look for the difference and see if that
helps understand the interpretation.

First John 5:14
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask
any thing according to His terms, He heareth us.

     If my interpretation is true, then we must consider the next
question.

Question.  What are God's terms for asking?

End Of Installment Ten.