E. M. Bounds
Chapter 2
Prayer That Gets Results
The guests at a certain hotel were being made uncomfortable by the repeated banging on a piano by a little girl who possessed no musical knowledge. They complained to the owner with the hope of having the annoyance stopped. “I am sorry you are annoyed,” he said, “but the girl is the child of one of my very best guests. I can hardly ask her not to touch the piano. But her father, who is away for a day or so, will return tomorrow. You can approach him and have the matter settled.” When the father returned, he found his daughter in the reception room thumping on the piano. He walked up behind the child, put his arms over her shoulders, took her hands in his, and produced some beautiful music. So may it be with us, so will it be someday. Just now, we can produce only candor and disharmony; but, one day, the Lord Jesus will take hold of our hands of faith and prayer and use them to bring forth the music of the skies. – Anonymous
Genuine, authentic faith must be definite and free of doubt. It is not general in character or a mere belief in the being, goodness, and power of God. It is a faith that believes that the things that “he saith shall come to pass” (Mark 11:23). As faith is specific, so the answer will also be definite. “He shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). Faith and prayer select the things, and God pledges Himself to do the very things that faith and persistent prayer name and ask Him to accomplish.
We might also translate Mark 11:24 this way: “All things whatsoever you pray and ask for, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.” Perfect faith always has in its keeping what perfect prayer asks for. How large and unqualified this area of operation is — all things whatsoever! How definite and specific the promise is — “ye shall have them!”
Our major concern is our faith — the problems of its growth and the actions of its strong development. A faith that holds on to the very things it asks for, without wavering, doubt, or fear — that is the faith we need. We need faith, like a pearl of great price, in the process and practice of prayer.
The above statement about faith and prayer is of supreme importance. Faith must be definite and specific. It must be an unqualified, unmistakable request for the things asked for. It should not be a vague, indefinite, shadowy thing. It must be something more than an ideal belief in God’s willingness and ability to do something for us. It should be a definite, specific asking for and expectatio nof the things which we ask. Note Mark 11:23: “Whosoever … shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that these things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.“
Just as the faith and the request is definite, so the answer will be definite. The giving is not something other than the things prayed for, but the actual things sought and named. “He shall have whatsoever he saith.” It is a certainty: “he shall have.” The granting is unlimited both in quality and quantity.
Faith and prayer select the subjects to be prayed for, thus determining what God is to do. “He shall have whatsoever he saith.” Christ is ready to supply exactly and fully all the demands of faith and prayer. If the order to God is clear, specific, and definite, God will fill it exactly in agreement with the terms put before Him.
Faith is not an abstract believe in the Word of God or a mere mental belief. It is not a simple agreement of the understanding and will or a passive belief in facts, no matter how sacred or thorough. Faith is an operation of God, a divine illumination, a holy energy planted by the Word of God and the Spirit in the human soul. It is a spiritual, divine principal that takes from the supernatural and makes it an understandable thing by the faculties of time and sense.
Faith deals with God and is conscious of God. It deals with the Lord Jesus Christ and sees Him as a Savior. It deals with God’s Word and lays hold of the truth. It deals with the Spirit of God and is energized and inspired by its holy fire. God is the great objective of faith, for faith rests its whole weight on His Word. Faith is not an aimless act of the soul, but a looking to God and a resting on His promises. Just as love and hope always have an objective, so also has faith. Faith is not believing just anything. It is believing God, resting I Him, and trusting His Word.
Faith gives birth to prayer. It grows stronger, strikes deeper, and rises higher in the struggles and wrestling of mighty petitioning. Faith is “the substance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1), the confidence and reality of the inheritance of the saints. Faith, too, is humble and persistent. It can wait and pray. It can stay on its knees or lie in the dust. It is the one great condition of prayer. The lack of faith lies at the root of all poor, feeble, little, unanswered praying.
The nature and meaning of faith is proven more in what it does than by any definition it is given. So, if we turn to the record of faith given to us in that great honor roll in Hebrews 11, we see something of the wonderful results of faith.
What a glorious list it is of these men and women of faith! What marvelous achievements are recorded there and set to faith’s credit! The inspired writer, exhausting his resources in cataloging the Old Testament saints who were such notable examples of wonderful faith, finally said,
And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Sampson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. (Heb 11:32)
Then the writer of Hebrews went on to tell of the unrecorded exploits brought about through the faith of the men of old, “of whom the world was not worthy” (v 38). All these, he said, “obtained a good report through faith” (v 39).
If we could only reproduce a race of saints with mighty faith and wonderful praying, what a glorious period of achievements would begin for the church and the world! The church does not need the intellectually great. The times do not demand wealthy men. People of great social influence are not what is required. Above everybody and everything else, the church and the whole wide world of humanity need men of faith and mighty prayer. We need men and women like the saints and heroes counted in Hebrews 11 who “obtained a good report through faith.”
Today, many men obtain a good report because of their monetary donations and their great mental gifts and talents. But there are few who obtain a good report because of their great faith in God or because of the wonderful things that come about of their prayer. These are the two chief virtues that make men great in the eyes of God. These two things create conditions of real spiritual success in the life and work of the church. It is our main concern to see that we keep this kind of quality faith before God. This kind of faith grasps and holds in its keeping the things for which it asks without doubt and fear.
Doubt and fear are the twin enemies of faith. Sometimes they actually take the place of faith, and, although we pray, it is a restless, disquieted, uneasy, complaining prayer that we offer. Peter failed to walk on the waters of Galilee because he allowed the waves to break over him and swamp the power of his faith. Taking his eyes off the Lord and looking at the water around him, he began to sink and cry for help — “Lord, save me, or I perish!”
Doubts and fears should never be cherished or hidden. No one should cherish the false idea that he is a martyr to fear and doubt. It is of no credit to man’s mental ability to cherish doubt of God. No comfort can possibly be gotten from such a thought. Our eyes should be taken off ourselves. They should be removed from our own weakness and allowed to rest totally on God’s strength. “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward” (Heb 10:35). A simple, confiding faith, lived out day by day, will drive fear away. A faith that casts its burden on the Lord each hour of the day will drive away misgiving and deliver from doubt.
“Be careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil 4:6). That is the divine cure for all fear, anxiety, and excessive concern for the soul. All these are closely related to doubt and unbelief. This is the divine prescription for securing the peace that passes all understanding and keeps the heart and mind in quietness and peace.
All of us need to pay attention and take heed the caution given in Hebrews 3:12: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” We need to guard against unbelief as we would against an enemy. Faith needs to be cultivated. We need to keep on praying, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5), for faith is capable of increasing Paul’s tribute to the Thessalonians was that their faith grew exceedingly. (See 2 Thessalonians 1:3). Faith is increased by exercise, by being put to use. It is nourished by painful trials.
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:7)
Faith grows by reading and meditating upon the Word of God. Most of all, faith thrives in an atmosphere of prayer.
It would be good if we stop and ask ourselves, Do I have faith in God; do I have real faith — faith that keeps me in perfect peace about the things of the earth and heaven? This is the most important question a man can propose and expect to be answered. And there is another question closely related to it in significance and importance: Do I really pray to God so that He hears me and answers my prayers; and do I truly pray to God so that I get directly from God the things I ask of Him?
It was said that Augustus Caesar found Rome a city of wood and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his people from a prayer-less to a prayerful people has done a greater work than Augustus did in changing a city fro wood to marble. After all, this is the major work of the preacher. Primarily, he is dealing with prayer-less people, of whom it is said, “God is not in all [their] thoughts” (Ps 10:4).
The pastor meets such people everywhere all the time. His main business is to turn them from being forgetful about God, from lacking faith, from being prayerless, into people who habitually pray, believe in God, remember Him, and do His will. The preacher is not sent simply to persuade men to join the church or to get them to do better. He is sent to get them to pray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes so that they may not sin against Him.
The work of the ministry is to change unbelieving sinners into praying, believing saints. The call goes out by divine authority, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). We catch a glimpse of the tremendous importance of faith and the great value God has put on it when we remember that He has made it the one essential condition of being saved. “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph 2:8). So, when we think about the great importance of prayer, we find faith standing immediately by its side. By faith we are saved, and by faith we stay saved. Prayer introduces us to a life of faith. Paul declared that the life he lived, he lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him (Gal 2:20) — that he walked by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7).
Prayer is absolutely dependent on faith. It has virtually no existence apart from it and accomplishes nothing unless it is faith’s inseparable companion. Faith makes prayer effective and, in a certain important sense, must preceed it. “For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb 11:6).
Before prayer ever starts toward God, before its petition is chosen and its requests made known, faith must have gone on ahead. It must have had its belief in the existence of God stated. It must have given its consent to the gracious truth that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek His face.
This is the primary step in praying. In this regard, while faith does not bring the blessing, it puts prayer in a position to ask for it. It leads to another step of understanding and helping the petitioner believe that God is able and willing to bless.
Faith starts prayer working. It clears the way to the mercy seat. It give assurance, first of all, that there is a mercy seat and that the High Priest waits there for us to come with our prayers. Faith opens the way for prayer to approach God. But it does more. Faith accompanies prayer with every step it takes. Faith is prayer’s inseparable companion. When requests are made to God, faith turns the asking into obtaining. And faith follows prayer, since the spiritual life into which a believer is led by prayer is a life of faith. Faith, not a life of works, is the one prominent characteristic of the experience that believers are brought into through prayer.
Faith makes prayer strong and gives it patience to wait on God. Faith believes that God is a reward. No truth is more clearly revealed and none is more encouraging in Scripture than this. Even the prayer closet has its promised reward: “Thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly” (Matt 6:4). The most insignificant service given to a disciple in the name of the Lord surely receives its reward. Faith gives its hearty consent to this precious truth.
Yet, faith is narrowed down to one particular thing. It does not believe that God will reward everybody. It does not believe that He is a rewarder of all who pray, but that He is a rewarder of those who “diligently seek him” (Heb 11:6). Faith rests its case on diligent prayer. It gives assurance and encouragement to diligent seekers after God, for it is they alone who are richly rewarded when they pray.
We constantly need to be reminded that faith is the one inseparable condition of successful praying. There are other conditions, but faith is the final, essential condition of true praying, as it is written: “But without faith it is impossible to please him” (v 6).
James put this truth very plainly:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (James 1:5-7)
Doubting is always forbidden because it stands as an enemy to faith and hinders effective praying. Paul gave us a priceless truth relative to the conditions of successful praying. He said, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Tim 2:8).
All questioning must be guarded against and avoided. Fear and doubt have no place in true praying. Faith must assert itself and tell these enemies of prayer to depart.
Faith cannot be assigned too much authority, but prayer is the scepter that signals power. There is much spiritual wisdom in the following advice written by a famous saint:
Do you want to be free from the bondage of corruption? Do you want to grow in grace in general and grow in grace in particular? If you do, your way is plain. Ask God for more faith. Beg Him morning, noon, and night, while you walk by the road, while you sit in the house, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Beg Him simply to impress divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of “the substance of things hoped for” and of “the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1).
Great incentives to pray are furnished in Scripture. Our Lord closed His teaching about prayer with the assurance and promise of heaven. The presence of Jesus Christ in heaven and the preparation He is making there for His saints help the weariness of praying. The assurance that He will come again to receive the saints strengthens and sweetens its difficult work! These things are the star of hope to prayer. They wipe away its tears and put the sweet odor of heaven into the bitterness of its cry. The spirit of a pilgrim makes praying easier. An earthbound, earth-satisfied spirit cannot pray. The flame of spiritual desire in such a heart has either gone out or is smouldering in a faint glow. The wings of its faith are clipped, its eyes are filmed, its tongue is silenced. But they who, in immovable faith and unceasing prayer, wait continually upon the Lord do renew their strength, do mount up with wings as eagles, do run and are not weary, do walk and not faint. (See Isaiah 40:31.)
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