ROBERT@kontu.utu.fi (Robert W. Johnson) (03/05/91)
The following is a quote from Watchman Nee's "A Living sacrifice." it is an excert from the chapter on prayer. 4. MUST BELIEVE There is yet a positive condition that must be fulfilled, and that is, one must believe. otherwise prayer will not be effectual. The incident in Mark 11:12-24 shows us clearly the necessity of faith in prayer. The Lord with His disciples came out from Bethany. He hungered on the way. Seeing a fig tree afar off, He approached that he might find some figs, but He found nothing except leaves. So he cursed the tree, saying, "No man eat fruit from thee henceforward forever." The next morning they passed by and saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. The disciples were astonished. And the Lord answered, "Have faith in God, verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you. All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them." One must believe when he is praying, becasue if he believes then he shall receive. What is faith? Faith is believing that he receives what he prays for. We Christians often have a wrong concept of faith. The Lord says, he who believes that he RECEIVES shall receive; but we Christians maintain, he that believes that he WII RECEIVE shall have it. Thus we have here two different kinds of faith. The Lord uses the word "receive" twice (Chinese version): once "he receives," then he "shall receive." many believers, however, fasten their fiath to "shall receive." We pray to the Lord, believing that we SHALL receive what we ask. We believe the mountain WILL be removed to the sea. great seems to be our faith. But we have disassociated faith from "he receives" to be "shaal receive." This is not the kind of faith our Lord is talking about. The faith of which Scripture speaks is associated with "he receives." It is far more exact than "shall receive." I was brought to the Lord through the instrumentality of Miss Dora Yu. years later she got sick, having cancer of the breast. She heard that I had recently been healed of my tuberculosis. (Editors note: Watchman Nee almost dies of tuberculosis. Throuhg his prayer and the prayer of his chinese brethern, he was miraculously healed.) So she wrote ans asked me to visit her in Kiang-wan, Shanghai. She though she showed great faith by saying to me, "I believe that God will heal me." I told her that this could not be reckoned as faith, for the Lord Jesus never associates faith with "shall receive." So we had a long conversation that day. As you know, cancer is a disease which destroys many celss and eats away the flesh. it is most painful and gives off a bad odor. At first the doctor suggested an operation, but later on surgery was useless. Miss Yu, however, maintained that God would heal her. When i tried to show her that merely believing God would heal was not faith, the missionaries who were by her side remonstrated with me and reminded me of Miss Yu's great faith. I answered: "She must believe that God HAS healed her. Only this is faith. It is not believing God WILL heal, tather it is believing God HAS healed. To belive that God will heal or even that God must heal is mere expectation, for faith deals with God's past and present while hope deals with God's future. if I belive God will heal me tomorrow, then I am only EXPECTING God to heal me." Two moths later, I received a letter fromher. She wrote in her letter, "I have decide today to get out of bed within two or thrre days, for I belive that God will heal me." As i was rather busy that day and could not visit her at once, I wrote to her saying, "First faith, then work. Such work is living. if woork precedes faith, it is dead. This is a basic principle. If you believe that you are healed, then your getting out of bed is living; otherwise it is dead." The next day i hurried to her place. I pleaded with her not to get up. I said to her again: "If you are healed, you can get up; but you cannot get up in order to be healed." She did not get up that day, and she passed away to be with the Lord later on. So, what is faith? Fiath is when you are brought to the place whereby you can claim God has already heard your prayer. It is not when you can 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 your rise from your knees and proclaim that you believe God will hear you of God must hear you, however insistent you are, nothing will happen. Your decision does not produce any result. The Lord says, "Beleive that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." He did not say: "Believe that ye will receive them, and ye shall have them." Brethern, 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 promis is given, praying wihtout 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 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, form 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 if praise. pray in the first part from no word to God's word. Praise in the second part from having the promise til the promise is fulfilled. This is the secret of prayer. ... Men ought to pray earnestly; they should pray til faith is given. ----- Robert W. Johnson Computer center, The University of Turku, Turku Finland robert@kontu.utu.fi (InterNet) robert@firien.bitnet (BITNET) The preceeding is my opinion and may not express the opinion of my employer and furthermore has nothing to do with my employment.