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The Prayer of Faith: What it is & How to do it

The prayer of faith is simply a prayer that is spoken in faith over any situation or problem, especially over physical sickness that results in healing of the body.

There are many ministries out there that say that the prayer of faith found in James chapter 5 is not referring to physical healing, but this simply is not the case!

It is true that the prayer of faith is simply a prayer spoken in faith and, therefore, can be prayed over any situation and should be.

However, the context of James 5 is just too clear. The apostle James was talking about those who are sick should be prayed for by the elders of the Church so that they can be healed.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the passage.

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.(James 5:13-15).

James says, that the prayer offered in faith will save (a.k.a heal) the sick. This is a promise from the word of God.

God through His word is saying in this passage that when there is a prayer spoken in faith over the sick person, the Lord will heal them and the Lord will raise them! It is a 100% success rate, which means it is God’s will to happen every time.

Another thing to notice is that this is not a suggestion, this is a command.

God’s word is commanding that those who are sick should call for the elders of the church and that the elders should anoint the sick with oil and pray the prayer of faith over them so that they can be healed.

Now think about this for a moment; if God is commanding it then that proves that it is His will.

To say that it isn’t His will to heal the sick, after reading this passage simply means that you didn’t read it well enough or that you did not read it with a pure perspective.

I have heard ministries quote 1 John 5:14-15 which says, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

They’ll use these amazing verses and say something like, “well, it’s true that we can pray the prayer of faith over people and that they can be healed, but only if it’s God’s will. And if we pray for someone who is sick and they don’t get healed then we know it wasn’t God’s will in that particular instance.”

I find this thought process to be extremely disturbing because it completely voids the fact that God just revealed in James 5:13-15 that it is God’s will to heal!

James reveals this by commanding the sick to call for the elders, then commanding the elders to pray in faith over the sick for healing, and then promising that God will heal them every time if they pray in faith.

Sounds to me like it’s God’s will!

You cannot possibly be reading James 5:13-15 guided by Holy Spirit and come to the conclusion of the thought process I just referred to.

It is impossible! To say that God heals some and doesn’t heal all does not line up with what James was talking about in James 5. It does not line up with what Jesus said in Mark 16:15-18 and Luke 10:1-9 and Matthew 17:14-21. And it does not line up with the examples we find throughout the book of acts.

The one thing that thought process does line up with is our own experiences and failures and our lack of seeing the sick healed every time, but since when did we get commanded to live by our experiences?

I thought the just was supposed to live by faith. I thought we were commanded to walk by faith and not by sight.

Come on Church! Let’s not get discouraged in well doing!

Let’s keep our eyes fixed on Jesus through every circumstance and let’s continue to grow in Him “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13) so that when it comes time to pray the prayer of faith over the sick we will see the Lord raise them as He promised He would.

How to Pray the Prayer of Faith (Step-by-Step)

If there was anyone who walked on this earth who offered up the prayer of faith perfectly it would be Jesus. I think we can all agree on that.

So we should probably look at what Jesus taught His disciples about prayer, and more specifically, how He taught His disciples to pray the prayer of faith.

“Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.(Mark 11:22-24)

This passage is the best explanation of the prayer of faith found anywhere in the Bible. Jesus lays it out step by step how to pray the prayer of faith, and He does it with such encouragement always calling us up higher.

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Step 1: Have faith in God

I know that it may seem kind of odd that I’m starting here but the truth is we can put our faith in many things when we pray.

We can put our faith in our prayer, faith in our own holiness, faith in how long we prayed, faith in how many people we have praying, the list can go on and on.

But none of those things carry God’s power. Only when we release faith in God will we finally see God’s power begin to manifest. [Related articles: How to Activate Your Faith (Step-by-Step) and How to Grow in Faith].

Step 2: Speak to the mountain

The second thing Jesus tells us to do is that when we pray the prayer of faith we are to speak to the mountain.

Another way of saying this is we are to speak to the problem, to the sickness, or even to the body.

A lot of people get hemmed up on this part of praying the prayer of faith. They think it’s weird to speak to the body or to speak to the problem and tell it to leave in Jesus’ name.

And I’m going to be honest with you, it absolutely is weird…for those that are in the world.

But Jesus made it clear, “whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”

This is why over and over again when Jesus would heal people or do miracles He would say things like, “Be healed”, “Be cleansed”, “Come out of Him”, “Peace be still”, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again”, “take up your mat and walk”, “stretch forth your hand”.

The apostles followed His example and did the same thing. Peter said to the paralyzed man, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk”. Paul said to the evil spirit in Acts 6:16 “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”

It is not only a command from Jesus but it is also the example of His ministry and the ministry of the early church believers.

Step 3: Don’t doubt, but believe

“‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” (Mark 11:23)

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.(Mark 11:24)

From these two verses we see what it looks like to not doubt but to believe.

In verse 24, Jesus says that when we pray we are to believe that we received the moment that we spoke in faith.

Many Christians want to believe after they received. Now, we may not say this outright but that is essentially what we’re doing when we pray and then immediately check our physical senses to see if it came to pass.

Too often we need our physical senses to tell us that whatever we’re praying for happened, rather than letting our faith tell us that what we prayed for took place.

I hope you’re understanding what I’m attempting to communicate!

Jesus said that we are to believe that we received the moment that we prayed, and not the moment that we physically “received.” (Related article: The Faith of the Centurion & How to Have it)

This is exactly what Hebrews 11:1 says faith is.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith brings substance to our hope and it is the evidence of what our physical senses aren’t telling us. [Related article: Faith and Hope (Biblical Study)]

The reason why this is is because faith brings what we see in the unseen (hope) and then forces it into natural reality (bringing substance).

In other words, true faith sees the mountain moving before it actually physically moves.

Faith cannot be faith if it is moved by what it sees because it is by definition “the evidence of things not seen.”

This is why Jesus said you have to believe that you received the moment that you prayed, because if not, then it was never true faith.

I hope this article assisted you in your walk with the Lord. If you enjoyed this article, please consider giving a donation of any amount by clicking the button below. The support we receive from you enables The Biblical Foundation to keep all of the resources free and to reach more people with the teachings of the Word of God.

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