When I was a teenager, I remember hearing a story about two Christian girls who decided that they were going to take God up on His word when he promised that with Him, anything was possible. If I remember the story correctly, there was a road that was flooded, and they decided that they would walk across the water “by faith” and get to the other side safely because God said that they could do anything if they only believed it. In the end, they tried it and failed. I think one of the girls even died in the process.
This story made quite an impression on me, so much so that I still remember it after all this time. It was a real question in my walk with God- why didn’t God help those girls across the water if they were stepping out “in faith” for Him? Why did one of them drown?
We can still hear this same approach from those in the church who believe that God will give us whatever we ask for as long as we have faith for it. Now, I believe that we can expect certain things from God because of His nature and character. When I ask for healing, I’m asking in-line with who He is: a Healer. When I ask for help, I can expect it because He is my Helper (His words, not mine). His healing and help do not always look the way that I want them to, but nonetheless this remains who He is.
But how do we know if what we are asking for is really in His will or not?
It’s in these moments that we must determine how He is leading and pray accordingly. Sometimes we don’t know and we can only whisper as Jesus did, “Your will be done.” But often, the Holy Spirit will give us a sense about what He wants, so that we can pray it into existence with His help.
At times, I ask God for things as a young child would- “please don’t let it rain at the outdoor concert” or “please let that last chocolate almond bar still be in the cupboard.” These are just my own desires that I hope to see but understand that I might not get my way.
At other times though, I sense from the Holy Spirit that He wants to move in a certain direction, wants to bring something about. After I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I felt a very strong sense that He was going to heal me. This was confirmed through others as well, so I prayed accordingly. And He did.
When we were buying our first house, I felt that God’s hand was in it and He wanted it to be ours, so when we faced pushback, I had faith to continue to ask for it. In the end, He provided what He said He would.
In my book, Weenie Faith, I write more about this. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” When we have a sense of what God’s word is in a situation, faith is released. I have found in my own life, if I don’t have God’s word on a situation, I have very little faith in my prayers.
I really love how The Voice Compass Bible‘s commentary says this about faith:
“Like the Israelites in the Old Testament, the disciples are discovering the truth that miracles don’t produce faith. As Jesus so often points out, the process works the other way around: it’s faith that produces miracles. Miracles are only signs- evidence of truth that you have to know before the miracle. As long as the disciples are still in doubt about who Jesus is, they find their faith constantly challenged and frequently wavering. It will not be until after the resurrection, the greatest miracle of all, that they will come to recognize and believe in Jesus for who He is; and then their hearts will at last open.“
The horse must come before the cart. Faith is what produces miracles. Not hope or wishful thinking. Not merely deciding that we will walk across whatever because Jesus told us we could do anything if we believe. In order for miracles to happen, faith must come first. And faith comes when we hear God’s word. (That’s what the above verse in Romans says.) Because then we know what God Himself wants to do and not just what we want to see happen.
Faith produces miracles because faith is a gift from God. God plants the seed of His word (His prompting or intention) in our hearts and if we believe it, faith rises up.
God wants miracles to happen, so he lets us know his intentions in order that we can pray accordingly. When we pray according to His will, we have what we ask (1 John 5:14).
We don’t always know all the details of how God will accomplish His will, but we can pray according to what we know or sense from Him and leave the rest in His hands.
We mustn’t be like the fictitious man in this story who missed God’s help because he was so focused on the how that he missed the what:
There once was a man who was stuck on his rooftop during a flood. He fervently began to pray that God would save him. Soon after, someone in a row boat came by and shouted to the man, “I’m here to help you! Get in!” The man on the roof replied, “No thank you! I’m praying to God, and he is going to save me. I have faith.” So the rowboat floated away.
Shortly after, someone in a motor boat saw the stranded man and approached him. “I’m here to help you! Get in!” the motorboat driver shouted. The man on the roof replied, “No thank you! I’m praying to God, and he is going to save me. I have faith.” So the motorboat sped on.
Not too long after, a helicopter caught sight of the stranded man and the pilot shouted down to him, “I’m here to help you! Climb up this rope!” The man on the roof replied, “No thank you! I’m praying to God, and he is going to save me. I have faith.” The pilot tried once more to rescue him but the man would not budge, so he reluctantly flew away.
Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the stranded man drowned. When he reached Heaven, he requested to speak with God and discuss the whole situation. As God approached him, the man exclaimed, “Why did you let me drown? I had faith that you were going to save me, but you didn’t! I don’t understand!” To this God replied, “I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter. What more did you expect?”
God wanted to save the man. The man had faith to pray for help, but he wanted to control exactly how the help would come. God doesn’t always (or usually) work according to our schedules and plans. It must be the other way around.
My prayer as I grow in God is that I would become more attuned to hearing His voice so that I can pray according to what is on His heart because His plans and dreams are always so much bigger and better than mine. And if I hear what He wants to do, I have the faith to work with Him.
If you’d like to read more about growing in faith and/or hearing God’s voice, please check out my book, Weenie Faith. It’s now available on Amazon.
Praying according to His will and drawing near to attune our hearts so that we hear His will, a life lesson for us all – thank you for sharing!
Hi Brooke, this is such a profound piece of writing. I remember similar incident during my college days when naive students thought attending fellowship and having faith will get them good grades. But they failed woefully. We must not test God and we must be sure to follow His leading and not do things because it looks acceptable or popular.