O Ye Of Little Faith...Is That Me?

“O Ye Of Little Faith…Is that Me?”

1 John 5:14-15 “And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.”

I was reading through an old journal yesterday and I came upon this scripture verse.  It was one that I had been thinking about a lot  at the time.  The journal entry was from June 2, 2020.  Here is what I wrote.  Good morning Dad, I have been thinking lately about the Bible verse 1 John 5:14-15 “And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.” I am hoping you can help me understand this passage.  There are many passages like this in the Bible.  I have been told you always answer prayers, but sometimes your answer is no.  I have also been told sometimes you heal people with the ultimate healing by bringing them to heaven.  I guess this one makes a little more sense because it says, “According to your will.” So I guess if it doesn’t happen it was not your will?  I think what I am worried about or wondering about is if some of my prayers are not answered because of a lack of faith on my part.  It seems you said to your disciples a lot, “Oh ye of little faith.” If this is happening, if my lack of faith is in the way please help me.  I love you so much and I feel I trust you and believe in you and all you can do.  But you can search my heart, please do so and please fill any empty space with your love and complete trust.  I feel a sense of to be still and listen.  Please communicate through my pen.  The response I received this day was mostly about other stuff, however, I did feel like the Lord said He did not feel I lacked trust.  

I felt as though the Holy Spirit was pointing out to me as I wrote my letter the part that says, “if we ask anything according to His will.”  I have come back to this question many times over the years.  I believe what I read in the Bible.  I believe God’s promises.  I feel as if I truly know God can do anything.  I know He can heal people, I have seen it with my own eyes.  I feel as though I know that with every fiber of my body.  And so I struggle when I don’t see a healing.  Everything I have been learning in Encounter Ministries says that God wants to heal all His children.  So, why don’t some get healed?  This entry above was just a few weeks after my dog had died of cancer.  I am sure that is was on my mind.  I know I was asking God why.  Why did she have to die, she was so young?  Why did she have to die when she was so good for our family?  Why couldn’t He save her? Why didn’t He save her?  I guess I am writing this episode to reassure all of you today that if you ever feel like you are the only one that questions the Lord, don’t worry, you are not.  If you ever feel like you don’t understand some of the things you believe or you struggle to reconcile what is actually happening in your life with some of the promises you read in the Bible, you are not alone.  

I remember I started to really believe that anyone could pray for healings after a talk by Mary Healy.  I started reading all the books, and stepping out in faith and asking people if I could pray over them.  I was confident, not in my ability, in the ability of the Lord to heal all people.  I did not see a lot of fruit in my prayers but I kept trying anyway because it wasn’t up to me to do the healing, it is God that heals people.  I was just offering myself as His vessel, or His instrument.  I remember why my friend Iris got sick I trusted God would heal her.  I prayed over her twice at least and I was sure He wanted to heal her.  Our whole prayer group was praying over her.  She was young and so full of Love and the Holy Spirit.  He did not heal her.  Well, He did heal her, as there is no sickness in heaven, however, He did not heal her here on earth.  

I remember questioning why?  I remember wondering if it was my fault, if I just did’t have enough faith.  Have you ever wondered that?  Have you ever felt like your lack of faith was the reason the miracle didn’t happen.  Maybe someone has actually told you that.  Maybe you have been waiting for a healing and the person praying over you, or your friends or family might have said if you believed enough it would happen.  This is how I felt.  I struggled to reconcile the fact that she died with the promise in John 14:12-14 that says, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  Ok, so I believe, and I wanted to do the works Jesus did, the healing, and I asked in Jesus’ name, and yet what I asked for was not given to me.  I didn’t understand.  This is a promise and God always keeps His promises.  I couldn’t reconcile this with the situation.  It was the same when my dog dies.  I believed, I asked in Jesus’ name, and yet she still died.  

While I was talking to the Lord about this, while I was talking to other people about this I got a bit of understanding.  What I felt like God told me was that it was not my fault she died.  I needed to hear this.  I know that God can do all things and that He doesn’t need me to save anyone and yet, we tend to feel guilty, we tend to blame ourselves, or at least I do.  God knew I needed to hear Him say it was not my fault.  My friends told me that our prayers were answered, because she was now in heaven and that there is no sickness in Heaven, so He did heal her.  When I was asking God about my lack of faith I felt Him tell me that faith is a gift from the Spirit.  The kind of faith it takes to save someones life is not something you can will, it is not something you can earn, it is a gift from the Spirit.

There is another verse that was also helpful in understanding the verse above. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”  What I felt the Lord was saying to me when I read this verse was, “Trust Me, trust My plan.  Do not rely on your own understanding for your ways are not my ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts.”  God has a plan for each of us.  God knows what He is doing.  I don’t understand everything and I don’t think we are supposed to.  I do feel like I understand more than I used to and this is because I keep searching for understanding and I keep taking my questions to God.  Did you know you can do that?  Did you know you can ask God questions and that He will answer you?  Learning that was a game changer for me.  Finding out that God wanted to talk to me and learning how to listen to Him has changed my life and my relationship with Him.  I feel so much closer to Him now.  

If you are struggling to understand God’s ways, or why it seems like some of your questions or prayers haven’t been answered I encourage you to ask the Lord.  If you feel like you don’t get an answer, read scripture.  Just ask the Lord to answer you through scripture and then turn to any page and see what it says, search the page expecting the answer to be there and you will find it.  I think that is the key to prayer and also to this verse.  God wants us to pray expectantly.  He wants us to pray and to be confident our prayers will be answered.  I know this is hard.  I have been praying for a holy boldness and radical trust for at least 10 years now.  I am seeing the fruit of those prayers.  I am becoming more and more confident that God does answer prayers.  I am becoming bolder with the prayers I am saying and trust that those things will come true.  

I suggested to a friend of mine the other day that she pray expectantly for her mom.  You see, her mom is in the hospital and she really needed her blood pressure to stabilize.  I told my friend to look at the blood pressure machine and pray for it to stabilize.  Look at the machine while praying and expect to see it stabilize.  Not as if you are hoping it will, more as if you know it will because you are confident God answers prayers.  Guess what?  It stabilized and has remained stabile.  The Lord is working.  We can trust this verse.  We can be confident that when we ask He answers, when we knock He opens the door, and when we seek, we find.  We won’t always understand everything that happens.  We only see a very small part of a very large picture.  Our job is just to keep trusting the Lord that He is working all things for our good and then when we get confused or hurt by seemingly unanswered prayers, instead of turning away from Him, turn into Him and ask Him to help you understand.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today!  Lord, we want to believe, we want to trust please help us.  Lord, please help us all to develop a deep trust in you.  Give us the gift of faith Lord.  Give us a holy boldness and a radical trust in you.  Teach us to trust you and your ways.  Help us to turn to you when we feel lost of confused.  Give us wisdom to understand how you are answering our prayers Lord. You know what those that are listening need Lord and I ask that you fill them with whatever it is they need on this Friday.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk Boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.  Just a reminder if you want my book I have a few copies left on my website. (Click Here)  Also, you can sign up for my newsletter on my website as well.  (Click Here) Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

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