How To Make Your Faith Work By Yourself

The Scripture that says, ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24) is talking about the prayer of faith. This primarily is an individual situation. It pertains to your desires. It is you praying; not someone else praying with you. It’s not someone else agreeing with you. When you pray, you believe that you receive. If you’ll do that, you’ll have “what things soever ye desire.” You’ll get results!

I can make this work for myself, but I can’t always make it work for you. Your will is involved. One person’s unbelief can nullify another person’s prayer of faith. Baby Christians usually can be carried on a mature Christian’s faith, but after a certain period of time God expects them to develop their own prayer life and their own faith.

I’ve seen this demonstrated many times during my years in the field ministry. In those church meetings, I would teach mainly on faith and healing. Toward the end of the meetings, we would allow time for questions and answers. One question asked repeatedly was: “Why is it when I first got saved, I got my healing every time I was prayed for, but now I don’t ever get healed?”

I would answer by saying that new Christians are like babies. No one is born a full-grown Christian. God wants us to grow and to mature. We feel pity for those who are physically deformed and who never have developed fully. We ought to have the same compassion for those who do not grow spiritually.

When you were first saved, you were a baby. Naturally, the pastor could carry you on his faith. There were Christians praying for you who would carry you, and their faith would work for you. But after a while, God knew that you had had the opportunity to grow, whether you grew or not. He said, “It’s time to put that big baby down and let him walk.” We really had a cry baby on our hands then. A lot of people still would rather be carried.

My son, who is more than 40 years old, is an ordained minister. For the first 15 years of his life, I carried him on my faith and did his praying for him. He always received his healing. But when Ken was 15 years old, He got a severe ear infection. His ear was really hurting him and he wanted to go to the doctor. The doctor said he had an incurable fungus condition in one ear which he probably got from swimming.

Ken kept having to go back to the doctor to have his ear cleaned. The doctor said he probably would lose his hearing in that ear, and it would cause him trouble all his life.
The Lord told me that He expected my boy to walk in the light of what he knew because he knew the way. The Lord said my praying wouldn’t work for him anymore.

At Christmas time, I had to take Ken back to the doctor to have the fungus cleaned out of his ear again. The doctors said he couldn’t go swimming anymore because the more he was around water, the faster the fungus would grow. I told my son what the Lord had told me. I told him he would have to believe God for himself.

Ken looked at me, still wanting to use my faith for his healing. I told him that while I would kneel with him when he prayed, I wasn’t going to pray at all; he had to pray for himself. He prayed and got his healing. Years have passed and the fungus never reappeared.

If people follow their natural inclinations, they want to remain babies and let someone else carry them. But you can pray the prayer of faith for yourself; quit saying you can’t.

Everywhere it says “you” in the following Scripture, insert your name: “Therefore, I say unto YOU, what things soever YOU desire, when you pray, believe that YOU receive them, and YOU shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

That’s what my son did when he prayed. When we got up off our knees, he didn’t have any evidence of healing. But when I asked him if he was healed, he said, ‘Yes!” He said he was healed because the Bible said so.

YOU HAVE TO PROFESS AND BELIEVE GOD EVEN THOUGH THE THINGS YOU DESIRE IN PRAYER HAVEN’T MANIFESTED YET. You have to stand your ground. If someone questions you, say you believe God heard you. Tell them you don’t care what the devil says, because you believe God and His Word. Then you’ll see results!

Hallelujah!!

– Kenneth E. Hagin

 

CONFESSION

I am believing in the Word of God. I am putting my faith in that same Word to work, and it is working for me. I am full of results today and always, in Jesus’ Name, for the Word of God is working in me! Hallelujah!