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Prayer and Faith
I have frequently seen that the children of the Lord neglect
prayer, especially secret prayer, altogether too much; that many do
not exercise that faith which it is their privilege and duty to exercise,
often waiting for that feeling which faith alone can bring. Feeling
is not faith; the two are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful
feeling and the blessing are God’s to give. The grace of God comes
to the soul through the channel of living faith, and that faith it is in
our power to exercise.
True faith lays hold of and claims the promised blessing before
it is realized and felt. We must send up our petitions in faith within
the second veil and let our faith take hold of the promised blessing
and claim it as ours. We are then to believe that we receive the
blessing, because our faith has hold of it, and according to the Word
it is ours. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Mark 11:24
. Here
is faith, naked faith, to believe that we receive the blessing, even
before we realize it. When the promised blessing is realized and
enjoyed, faith is swallowed up. But many suppose they have much
faith when sharing largely of the Holy Spirit and that they cannot
have faith unless they feel the power of the Spirit. Such confound
faith with the blessing that comes through faith. The very time to
exercise faith is when we feel destitute of the Spirit. When thick
clouds of darkness seem to hover over the mind, then is the time to
let living faith pierce the darkness and scatter the clouds. True faith
rests on the promises contained in the Word of God, and those only
who obey that Word can claim its glorious promises. “If ye abide
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in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you.”
John 15:7
. “Whatsoever we ask, we receive
of Him, because we keep His
commandments
, and do those things
that are pleasing in His sight.”
1 John 3:22
.
We should be much in secret prayer. Christ is the vine, ye are the
branches. And if we would grow and flourish, we must continually
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