Imperial Valley Christian Center

Occasionally you'll here someone say something like this,

" I believe that faith is necessary to receive answers to prayer but in spite of our faith there are times when God, for reasons which we may not understand but are, no doubt, good for us does not answer our prayers in spite of our faith."

The problem with this idea is that it undermines faith. This type of reasoning is in fact doubt.  Faith is based on certainty. Lack of certainty is doubt. Put another way, the basis for our faith is knowledge about what cannot be seen or knowledge about what will happen in the future. Where does this knowledge come from? It comes from what God's Word says.  Faith begins with what you're expecting to happen. If you're not sure, if you don't know what to expect  you're in doubt.  How do determine what will happen? We look at God's promises. What God has promised lets us know what we can expect to happen.

Dad Hagin used to put it this way. If the preacher says, God will heal but he doesn't heal all, immediately the devil will come to you and say, and you're one of the ones he's not going to heal. That's why we hammer so hard on the fact that it is always and at all times God's will that everyone be healed of everything. That is the only way to build faith into people for healing.

God says, call upon me and I will answer you. That statement tells us what will happen in the future. Jesus says ask and it shall be given you. That promise lets us know what will happen when we ask. If Jesus had said ask and you might get it, we would have no basis for our faith. We would always be in doubt as to the outcome. If God had said, call upon me and you just never know, we would have no reason to expect our prayer to be answered. So when a preacher says that you just can't be sure if God will answer, the preacher is creating doubt.

I don't really have time to elaborate on this right now, but it will probably help your thinking in this area if you use some synonyms for faith. For example, Confidence. Can you have confidence in your lawyer if he tells you he will probably work on  your case. Trust. How much trust do you repose in the plumber who says he might show up to fix your toilet? You can readily see why most Christians have such weak faith, they've been told they can't trust God. They are constantly preached at that they can't have confidence in His promises.