God HEARD you
John 11:41” “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.”
We got to pray like our Father Jesus! He stands in front of the tomb, dead body inside for four days, (John 11:17)people around and now with super confidence, poise and with unwavering faith Jesus first thanks His Father for having HEARD His prayers. This is what you call as faith in action! Anybody listening?
No fun reading the Bible morning till evening, praying nine hours without faith, you got to come to the throne of grace with full assurance: Hebrews 4:16, says, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need". Glory to Jesus!
This particular scripture Mark 11:24 where Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours", created great revival in my heart. I read this in the hospital bed while I was admitted in the hospital almost 5 months pregnant with multiple fibroids, the doctors confirmed that the child will not be born and I have to get the baby aborted. I grabbed this scripture like a drowning man holding on to something that would save him. I read it word by word with child-like-faith “believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”, Wow, these words kept popping up in my mind. Now, I started proclaiming boldly to my family members that I am healed, they were flummoxed and found my words weird. I told them that Jesus said, “believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”, I emphasized on the word ‘received’, not ‘will receive’ and stood firmly on it.
Now, I went a step further and asked them to take me home, in fact, during the time of my faith declaration, my health condition was very bad. Doctors told my family not to take risk but stay admitted in the hospital. I firmly and adamantly told everyone that Jesus had healed me and I need to go home.
They brought me home in a stretcher, four people carried me to the third floor of my apartment and my faith journey started there. On March 1, 2000, I delivered a beautiful boy baby in normal delivery, the doctors, nurses and my entire family were shocked and were witness to my strong and steady faith. My son Joshua is now an Associate Pastor and Professor working in Bible College. Glory to Jesus!
James 2:17 ("faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead"), James 2:26 ("as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead"), and 1 John 3:18 ("Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth").
Confidence cannot be gained in a vacuum, we got to work towards it by regular Bible reading, disciplined prayer life, holiness and passionate love for God.
