HAVE FAITH IN GOD (PART 3)

The power of reception, receiving from God, will depend entirely on the power of spiritual perception.  For this reason Jesus gave the promise that God would answer believing prayer;  “HAVE FAITH IN GOD.”
 
Faith is simply surrender:  I yield myself to the impression that the Words of God I hear make on me.  By faith I yield myself to the living God.  His glory and love fill my heart and have the mastery over my life.  Faith is fellowship; I give myself up to the influence of the Friend Who makes me a promise.  I become linked to Him by it. 
 
It is when we enter into this living fellowship with God Himself, in a faith that always sees and hears Him, that it becomes easy and natural to believe His promise of prayer. Faith in the promise is the fruit of faith in the promiser: The prayer of faith is rooted in the life of faith.  In this way the faith that prays effectually is indeed a gift of God.  Not as something that bestows or infuses at once, but in a far deeper and truer sense, as the blessed disposition or habit of soul which is wrought and grows up in us in a life of intimacy with Him.  Surely for one who knows his Father well and lives in constant close intimacy with Him, it is a simple thing to believe the promise that He will do the will of His child who lives in union with Himself.
 
Many of God’s children do not understand this connection between the life of faith and the prayer of faith.  Therefore their experience of the power of prayer is very limited.  When they desire earnestly to obtain an answer from God, they fix their whole heart upon the promise and try their utmost to grasp that promise in faith.  When they do not succeed, they are ready to give up hope.  The promise is true, but it is beyond their power to take hold of it in faith. 
 
HIGHLIGHTS:
-Jesus promised that God would answer believing prayer.
-Faith is surrender and is fellowship.
-Faith that prays effectually is a gift of God.  It is the blessed habit of soul which grows up in us in a life of intimacy.  One who knows his Father well and lives in constant close intimacy with Him