Why Faith and Prayers Are Vital in God’s Great Plan

You know faith and prayer are two marvelous twins in God’s economy. Last week, I thought we were finished with our series on the Holy Spirit. But yet, there is one more area the Lord wants us to look at together and that’s the Holy Spirit’s involvement with us in prayer. Jesus mentioned a phrase that we want to examine today and that’s ’the House of Prayer.’ There are some organizations that have taken these and actually put together prayer teams that bear the name House of Prayer. Here is the testimony of one such group. “God is currently doing wonderful things through small clusters of Christians who are interceding for their neighbors in Houses of Prayer. A House of Prayer is two or more believers who gather to release God’s power upon their neighbors through prayer and to convey His blessing through deeds of love and kindness. A House of Prayer may be a nuclear family praying in its home. It may be Christian neighbors who don’t actually meet together but network their prayer efforts. Or it may be neighborhood believers who meet regularly for prayer. The House of Prayer strategy comes out of Paul’s charge in 1 Timothy 2:1–4: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.” Everyone includes neighbors, especially nonChristians, because “God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Houses of Prayer are attractive today because the method is so simple. If you have neighbors, if you detest Satan’s influence, and if you can devote 15 minutes or more a week to intercession, you are a House of Prayer candidate. Houses of Prayer can be started anywhere.¹ This effort is rather structured. Today, I’m going to home in on something not quite as structured but powerfully effective. Why Faith and Prayers Are Vital in God’s Great Plan, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

You can’t ask God for more faith because faith doesn’t come by praying for it. Faith comes via God’s Word. It comes by hearing the Word. So before we pray, get into the Word.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Share a testimony on how the Word of God produced in your prayer life. Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

For more teaching on the book of John, please click on the links below to listen to some of those podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Prayer

Well again, welcome.
Let’s pray.

Father God, thank you today for your goodness and mercy. We give you all the glory and all the honor. Thank you for helping us today with our prayer lives by the Holy Spirit within us. He is our helper in this most vital area of our lives. We thank for Him and we look to Him today to lead us and guide us where we need to be in our prayer lives. In Jesus Name, we thank you, Amen and Amen.

Faith Makes Prayer Work

1 Timothy 2:1–4 (ESV) — 1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We’re talking about faith and prayer today but mostly the prayer side of this.
You see when you’re talking about prayer, the faith component is understood.
What do you mean understood?
To pray, you must have faith, right?

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV) — 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

So, first, when we come to God, we believe that he is.
So, check that box off.
Then, we must have a specific Bible promise or scripture that we are holding to.
God’s promise is a quiet and peaceable life.
God’s promise is godly and dignified in every way.
God’s desire is all men coming to Jesus.
That’s what we are going to be working with God in prayer.
Everything starts with faith.
Faith makes prayer work and not the other way around.
A believer doesn’t receive faith by praying.
You can’t ask God for more faith because faith doesn’t come by praying for it.
Faith comes via God’s Word.
It comes by hearing the Word.
I just read you some Word of God.

Because we start out with promise, when we pray, we start out praying with faith.
Don’t pray until you have it.
That’s what Jesus modeled for us in Mark eleven.

Mark 11:22–24 (ESV) — 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Have faith in God.
Then comes the saying part.
You see this whole passage starts out with faith.
Do you see that?
Have faith in God.
Then comes the ‘whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours’ part.
Faith is necessary before you speak to the mountain.
Trust is necessary before you pray.
We are going to focus on the prayer part today.
We have many podcasts on the subject of faith.
Put the word ‘faith’ in the search bar and those should pop up for you.

Faith and Prayer: Holy Spirit Review

With that being said, we’ve been in John’s gospel, talking about the Holy Spirit.
We’ve now completed several podcasts on the work of the Holy Spirit both within a believer, that is also known as ‘the Holy Spirit within’ and the Spirit’s work resting ‘upon a believer.’ —
The Holy Spirit within and the Holy Spirit upon a believer — those manifestations have different purposes.
We looked at the role of the Holy Spirit in working among the unsaved, your family members who don’t know the Lord, to get them to Jesus.
And then last week, we looked at the Holy Spirit working among a local group of believers.
Jesus spoke of this plainly in Matthew eighteen.

Matthew 18:20 (ESV) — 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

My, my what a marvelous meeting we had last week!
If you were here in the Lighthouse class last week, you would have seen a demonstration of the Holy Spirit functioning in the Temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) — Do you not know that you [plural — the whole group — each and every member as a part of that group] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you [plural]?

We had marvelous healing results.
I’ll give you a report in just a minute.
Would you mind if I take a divine healing side journey here for a moment?

Faith and Prayer: A Healing Side Journey

Consider the following verse on healing.

Exodus 15:26 (ESV) — 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

There are two things to note here.

The Permissive Sense

First, watch the way this is translated: “I will put none of these diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians.”
This should have been translated this way.

I will permit none of these diseases upon you which I have permitted upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord your healer.

That’s the sense of this verse in the Hebrew.
So, in the Hebrew language there are different senses for the verb.
Nuances if you would.
You know what a nuance is — it is a subtle or slight degree of difference, as in meaning, feeling, or tone; a gradation.
One of these nuances is the permissive sense.
Some Hebrew verbs have this sense.
Dr. Robert Young wrote on the subject of the ‘permissive sense’ in Hebrew in a work entitled ‘Hints to Bible Interpretation.’
I’ve been searching for this book for a long time — many years, multiple attempts.
I could never come up with it.
You know Dr. Robert Young is the author of ‘Young’s Analytical Concordance.’
This is a parallel work like Strongs Concordance.
Here’s what I didn’t know.
‘Hints to Bible Interpretation’ was an appendix not a book and that’s why I couldn’t find it.
Recently, a dear brother, got a hold of the appendix and turned it into a book.
The reason why I was so excited to finally get a hold of ‘Hints to Bible Interpretation’ is because I like to prove things.
I’ve heard about the permissive senses in certain Hebrew verbs, but I couldn’t prove it.
That is until now.
Here is what Dr. Young, a Hebrew scholar said about the permissive sense — maybe it will help you today.
And with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

In Dr. Young’s 1879 Concordance entitled “Analytical Survey of the Idioms of the Bible.” Dr. Young outlines a number of principles for comprehending the various verbs in Scripture in “Chapter III, Rules of Criticism Relating to Verbs.” Dr. Young explains how the same verbs can denote both permission and causation in rule 68:

Let me try to help you with the two words ‘permission’ and ‘causation.’
Let’s look at causation sense first.
Take, for example, the sentence, ‘John threw the ball.’
‘John’ is the subject of — ‘threw’ is the verb — ‘ball’ is the direct object.
So here’s the question: who caused the ball to be thrown?
Answer: John — that’s causation.
Who caused the action?
If John didn’t threw the ball, it would have never left his hand.
John is the responsible party for the ball leaving his hands.
Now, let’s look at the permissive sense.
If the sentence was written this way: ‘John permitted the ball to be thrown.’
Who threw the ball?
We don’t know — it wasn’t John.
He wasn’t doing the action — he was giving the permission.
Okay, knowing this go back to Exodus 15:26.

I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

The sense of this verse is: I will permit none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
So, who put the diseases on the Egyptians?
It wasn’t God.
If it wasn’t God, it must be that other fella, the devil.
So, in the podcasts for this episode, you can find Rule 68 defined for Hebrew verbs by Dr. Robert Young.

Rule LXVIII Verbs that signify the simple act or effect may be understood (1) of the power, or (2) of the duty and obligation, or (3) of the will, choice, or intention, or (4) of the design or tendency, or (5) of the attempt or endeavor, or (6) of the custom or usual way, or (7) of the occasion, or (8) of the permission—of acting. {Emphasis added} ².

Now, there are several Bible verses that will become much clearer when you know that they are in the permissive sense.
Here is one in the book of Job.

Job 1:21 (ESV)— 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

This passage in Job should have been translated, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has permitted to be taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Now, why did God permit it here in Job’s case.
Because Job violated Bible principles when he said the following.

Job 3:25–26 (ESV) — 25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

You see Job lived in fear that he might he lose his house.
He lived in fear that he might lose his wealth.
Job had real fear that he might get sick.
He was afraid for the safety of his family.
His fears opened the door to the attack of the enemy.
That’s why God permitted it.
He didn’t have any choice.
If you read the book of Job, you will see that this is the case.
It was the devil who took from Job not God.
So that’s the first thing about Exodus 15:26.

The Sylabble ‘Dis’ in Disease

Here’s the second thing.
Look at the word ‘disease.’

I will permit none of the diseases on you that I permit on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

The word ‘disease’ is made up of two syllables: ‘dis’ AND ‘ease.’
The letters ‘dis’ means broken.
That’s how you define ‘dis.’
Now, you can define other words that start with ‘dis’ easily.
What does disconnect mean?
How about broken connection?
Disable means broken ability.
Disheartened means a broken heart.
Diseases means broken ease.
Do you remember what Job said?

Job 3:26 (ESV) — 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.

People who are diseased are not at ease.
They are not at rest — they are not at peace.
God’s will is that you be at ease — that you live a quiet and peaceable life.
The Lord doesn’t want your heart to be troubled.
Jesus said so.
‘Let not your heart be troubled’ — let not your heart be broken.
‘You believe in God,’ Jesus said, ‘believe also in Me.’
Can I tell you about the one lady we prayed for last Sunday who was not at ease?
She had curvature of the spine.
That’s not a medical prognosis.
I’m not qualified along such lines.
Here’s what I can tell you today — because of the Holy Spirit functioning in the Temple, she is walking straight today!
That’s what she told us on Monday that she is walking straight and that she is looking for a gym!
And in fact, joined one in Broken Arrow.
God did a work on this woman’s spine!

Psalm 147:3 (ESV) — 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Rivers were flowing last week.
That’s what happens when Jesus is among us, when the Spirit of God indwells the Temple.
One lady, Annie was very demonstrative and loud.
After class, her husband Steve asked her what was going on with her in that moment.
She said, “My hands were burning — they were on fire!”
What’s that?
That’s those rivers Jesus was talking about in John seven.

John 7:38–39 (ESV) — 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

And so we got some results — results we wouldn’t have gotten without the Temple functioning properly.

Faith and Prayer: Review on the Holy Spirit

Let’s talk about prayer functioning in the Temple.
Now, we’ve been saying this — we are going to keep saying it.
One thing is evident: Jesus made the Holy Spirit available for us and we need Him.
We need Him functioning in all His roles.
We can’t fulfill the plan of God without Him, the Holy Spirit.
It can’t do it — it can’t be done, I’m telling you.
If we could know everything we should know on our own, and if we could be everything we need to be without the Holy Spirit, why would Jesus say we need Him?
The truth is, you can’t know everything you need to know on your own and you can’t be everything you need to be by yourself.
You need a Helper — you need THE Helper, the Holy Spirit of God working in your life.
What we need to know is how He works so that we can cooperate with Him.
Today, we’re going to focus on yet one more way that He, the Holy Spirit works.
We’re going to look at the Holy Spirit and how He works with prayer the Temple.

Faith and Prayer: You, the Temple, and the House of Prayer.

Romans 8:26–27 (ESV) — 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

You see the Holy Spirit helps us with our prayer lives.
Go over now, or go back to, either way to the book of First Corinthians chapter six.

1 Corinthians 6:18–20 (ESV) — 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

The word ‘body’ here is singular.
If you remember from the podcast on the Holy Spirit and the Temple, we talked about Temple being plural meaning a group of people.
Here were talking Temple singular.
So, the Word of God is talking about the individual believer here.
If a person commits sexual immorality, they sin against their own body.
That’s not a wise thing to do the Lord is saying, instead glorify God in your body.
All of this is because your body [singular] is a Temple of the Holy Spirit within you.
So, this is John fourteen — this is the Spirit in you.
But, the word Temple here is the exact same word we saw last week, the word ‘naos’ meaning the sacred part of the Temple.
Your body, singular, is a Temple because the Holy Spirit indwells you.
And that Temple is sacred.
Now, go over to Matthew twenty-one.

Matthew 21:13 (ESV) — 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have this ‘house of prayer’ statement.
So, the physical Temple, the one Jesus ran the money-changers out of, was supposed to be a house of prayer.
Your body is a Temple — a Temple of prayer.
Your body is a house of prayer.
Prayer is supposed to emanate from your Temple.
Words should be coming out of your mouth to God regularly.
This is a holy function of the Holy Temple which is your body.
This ‘house of prayer’ statement is a quote from Isaiah fifty-six.

Isaiah 56:6–7 (ESV) — 6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant — 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

The proper use of the natural temple was prayer not the selling of animals and birds for sacrifice.
The proper use of the Temple is prayer for all nations.
I don’t know about you, but I’m praying for this nation.

Faith and Prayer: God’s Promise

Okay, so your body is a Temple — it’s a house of prayer.
“I got it, — let me start praying right now, right”
Remember what we said earlier.
We need a promise.
God needs men and women who are willing to ternaciously hold a promise up before God.

Exodus 17:8–13 (ESV) — 8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10 So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

Did you hear that?
When Moses held his hand up, Israel prevailed.
The Hebrew prevailed is the one we want to look at and with that thought, here isthe Definition of the Day.
The word prevailed means to be stronger, to be superior, or to be lord over.
When Moses held his hand up, Israel became lord over Amalek.
When he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.
When you hold God’s Promise before Him, the Church joins Jesus in His Lordship.
Keep holding the promise up so we can prevail.
If you want to live a quiet and peaceable life, godly and dignified in every way, hold God’s Word up to Him in prayer coming out of your Temple.
Pray for your country.
Approach God with a verse of scripture that covers your case.
Read it before you pray.
Remind yourself of it’s truth.
And having done all to stand, stand.

Now Father God, thank you for your Word. We lift this nation up before you — thank you for a quiet and peaceable life, godly, dignified in every way. That’s your perfect will. We pray for this upcoming election. May the will of God be wrought out in Jeses Name, Amen.

Why Faith and Prayers Are Vital in God’s Great Plan.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why Your Will is A Powerful Help to Healing

__________
References:

Discipleship Journal, Issue 111 (May/June 1999) (NavPress, 1999). ↩
Dr. Robert Young, Hints to Bible Interpretation ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why Faith and Prayers Are Vital in God’s Great Plan

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Forty-Six

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

For more teaching on the book of John, please click on the links below to listen to some of those podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

Faith Makes Prayer Work

Faith and Prayer: Holy Spirit Review

Faith and Prayer: A Healing Side Journey

The Permissive Sense

The Sylabble ‘Dis’ in Disease

Faith and Prayer: Review on the Holy Spirit

Faith and Prayer: You, the Temple, and the House of Prayer.

Faith and Prayer: God’s Promise

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

For more teaching on the book of John, please click on the links below to listen to some of those podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

Faith Makes Prayer Work

Faith and Prayer: Holy Spirit Review

Faith and Prayer: A Healing Side Journey

The Permissive Sense

The Sylabble ‘Dis’ in Disease

Faith and Prayer: Review on the Holy Spirit

Faith and Prayer: You, the Temple, and the House of Prayer.

Faith and Prayer: God’s Promise

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