Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of faith in the Christian life, explaining that faith, hope, and love are foundational virtues in the kingdom of God. He warns against the extremes of exaggerated faith and cool unbelief, urging believers to cultivate their faith intentionally. Bickle highlights that faith is essential for experiencing God's promises and blessings, and he outlines five principles for praying in faith, including verbalizing requests, believing in the spirit, and persisting in prayer. He uses biblical examples, particularly Abraham's unwavering faith over 25 years, to illustrate the importance of maintaining faith despite challenges. Ultimately, Bickle encourages believers to engage in a relational dialogue with God, trusting in His timing and will.

13, Paul talked about faith, hope, and love. Those are the three basic virtues and activities in the kingdom, faith, hope, and love. And over the years we've spent quite a bit of time talking about hope and love. Hope being the second coming, the resurrection, the new Jerusalem, the age to come, eternal rewards. Hope is mostly related to future events like that. And then we've talked quite a bit about love, the first commandment, really focus on that loving God with all of our heart. And then the last couple years, walking out of community and spiritual family, building relationships, making them strong. But the subject of faith is a subject that we've not put as much time and focus on. But the problem is that without faith, our hope and love begins to diminish and to be minimized. And so I'm going to spend the next season, not every week, but focusing on the subject of faith, of building our faith, knowing that as faith gets stronger, hope and love gets stronger, and our kingdom experience gets stronger, and our ministry to others gets stronger. Now the challenge on the subject of faith, there's kind of two extremes when I look back over the years and think about the topic of teaching on faith. I used to teach on faith a lot in the years past, is that there's the exaggeration of many that are really focused on faith. And the exaggeration of overstating it and overdoing it creates a negative response to many people. They think, well I don't really want to do that. There's hype and exaggeration, presumption. But then the other extreme is even worse, and that is that kind of cool unbelief where we're just kind of happy being cautious, but we dwell in unbelief, and our experience of the things of the gospel are really minimized by that. And the devil doesn't really care which ditch you fall in if you get into exaggeration and hype related to faith, or if you get into kind of the cautious, cool, unbelief mode where, you know, I don't really go for all that stuff. He doesn't care which ditch you're in. He just wants you in one of them, because either one of them will make you ineffective in the kingdom. Paragraph A, Jesus taught more about the subject of faith and its importance than any other teacher in the Bible. And it's one of the foundational kingdoms, I mean principles of the kingdom, that we experience more kingdom activity when our faith grows. And if we neglect developing our faith, we experience less. We enjoy our relationship with the Lord less if our faith is minimized or dulled. So I'm going to look at a few of the statements of Jesus. Again, he talked on this subject more than anybody, because he knew most, he knew more about it than anybody else did. He made some very strong statements about faith and the need for it, and the need to cultivate it in an intentional way. And I want to encourage us to take these statements at face value. I mean, they're strong statements if you take them literally. Matthew chapter 8, Jesus said to the centurion, as you've believed, let it be done for you. In other words, your experience is impacted and affected to the measure that you believe. So he tells the centurion, he goes, as you believe, to the measure you believe, that's what you're going to experience. This is a faith teaching according to Jesus. Matthew chapter 9, he says the same, he makes the same point. He touched the eyes of some blind men, he said, according to your faith. In other words, according to the measure of what you believe, that's what's going to happen to you. Now this topic is too important to neglect. We don't want to exaggerate it, but we don't want to neglect it. Because faith needs to be intentionally cultivated. It doesn't grow by itself. It grows by hearing the Word of God. Paul said, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When we hear the Word of God, and then we speak the Word of God over our heart, over our circumstances, against the attack of the enemy, when we hear the Word and we speak the Word, that's how we activate faith. By hearing, and by then applying what we hear by speaking the Word of God over our situation, then our faith grows. Luke chapter 8, Jesus said, in Luke chapter 8 verse 48, he says, daughter your faith has made you well. In other words, your faith, your faith response, has a significant role in what you're experiencing. You're experiencing the power of God. I mean, the power of God made her well, and Jesus understood that. But he's saying, your faith, your faith response, actually is a part of the relational dynamic of the power of God touching you. He says in Matthew 17, now the next three verses, I want you to notice the word, if. Because Jesus puts the condition of, if you believe. Or you could say it this way, if you engage in a faith response, in a persistent way. Because when he talks about, if you believe, he's talking about with a persistence. It's not a kind of a momentary belief, a passing moment, but a persistent, engaged in faith, where we relate to the Lord, engaged in faith in a very specific and intentional way. Well, he starts off in Matthew 17. I mean, this just seems really big. It is really big. If you have faith, if you will engage with me in an ongoing way, nothing in the will of God will be impossible to you. I'm adding the phrase in the will of God because that's the implication. But some of the things God speaks to us in the will of God, even though we see them in the Bible or the Holy Spirit indicates them to us by a sense. He indicates a promise of the Lord to us. He confirms it. That is then the will of God for us to do a specific assignment in the Lord. But the very fact that he tells it to us doesn't guarantee that it's going to happen. The fact that he's made a promise, that promise has conditions. We need to respond in a consistent way of faith. Not that our faith doesn't struggle at times, but when it does, we re-engage it again. So he says if you have faith, if you will have a faith response that is persistent and you continually engage in it, though there are setbacks sometimes in our faith, nothing in the will of God that God has spoken in His Word or by the Spirit in a direct way to you, nothing will be impossible, though it might seem impossible. Though there might be delays, though there might be obstacles, nothing will be impossible if you'll stay engaged in faith. But a lot of folks, they look at the impossible and they go, well, I don't know. If God wants it, He'll do it. But the Lord Jesus says, well, it's not exactly if I want it, I'll do it. If I want to do it, but I want you, I will, but I want you engaged with me as part of the faith relationship. He says the same thing, the same principle in Matthew 21. He says, verse 21, if you have faith and don't doubt, even if you say to the mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. Well, of course, the premise of this promise is the Lord has spoken to you about that mountain moving. But He's saying that even if it's a seemingly unmovable object, but the Holy Spirit has given you an indication He wants that moved and you're related to it, He says, and if you will engage in faith, He says, I tell you that unmovable object that's in the way, it will be moved out of the way. It will happen. It will happen. He goes on again in Matthew 9, I mean, Mark 9, if you can believe, if you can believe all things, again, that are in the will of God are possible to him to who believes. And again, if you believe, if you stay engaged in faith in the will of God for your life, and much of the will of God is right there in the Bible, but there are those Holy Spirit assignments, those Holy Spirit promises about specific doors that will open or specific events that will take place related to your life that aren't recorded specifically in the Bible, but they're within the framework of what the Bible talks about that is in the will of God. And if you stay engaged in your faith, that's not a small thing, and that's not an automatic thing, and that's not always an easy thing, because the enemy is constantly warring against our faith, so we'll get distracted, we'll get filled with shame, we'll get filled with condemnation, we'll, you know, all kinds of things will get in the way so that our faith will not keep growing, or we just get distracted from it, and we don't think about it much. That's good enough. I mean, just the sheer distraction, so we don't engage in faith, we don't purposefully build it. The enemy could say something, I go, that's good enough, that works, as long as you don't grow in faith. That's what he cares about, because many more things happen if we grow in faith. Paragraph B in James 5, James is the one that used the phrase, the prayer of faith, and that phrase has been popular and used a lot over the last number of years, but we want to be able to cultivate and offer the prayer of faith. I have a little bit more on that there in the notes there. Paragraph C, this is obvious. We'll experience more. We'll experience more kingdom blessing, kingdom activity. We'll experience more of Jesus if we believe for more. Some folks believe for very little, therefore they experience so little. Someone goes, well, I believe for this other thing, it never happened. I'd rather have a high expectation, engaged with the Lord for big things, for big breakthroughs, for big encounters with the Lord, for big assignments to happen together in unity with other folks, because it's together where these things take place. I'd rather believe God for a lot, and if I only experienced half of it, it's still 10 times more than you would have experienced if you just are content to live in small faith. Let's look at Roman numeral two. Now, receiving our prayer request, there are two dimensions. We receive our prayers in two different ways, and Jesus taught this in Matthew chapter 11 verse 24. It's clear that first, we receive our request in the spirit realm, and then next, we have or receive our request in the natural realm, and it's important that we understand the distinction of these two realms, because I believe a lot of confusion comes right here at this point, where people have, they're asking for things, for God to give them things in the spirit. He's already given them. They're supposed to be thanking God for the things already given, but we are to ask that they would be manifest more in the natural, and some people think, well, I, you know, like the subject of healing. They go, my body's healed. I go, well, actually your body isn't healed. Healing is promised to you. It's provided, but your body still has that sickness in it. It's not been manifest in the natural yet, but the promise has been fully given in the spirit that God is a healing God, and that healing is part of our salvation. Now, the important thing about healing is that when healing is a part of our salvation, it means that every born-again believer has got to have a resurrected body forever, and be perfectly healed forever. Now, the goal is is to see some of that manifest in this age, but every believer is going to walk in perfect health forever and ever forever because of the salvation of Jesus, but the promises that are in fullness in the age to come, the message of the gospel is we can walk in them in a measure in this age, and healing is one of them, but no matter how healed you get in this age, you're still going to die physically unless you live to see the coming of the Lord, and you're raptured and caught up to meet the Lord in the air, so even healing in this age is partial, even though it might be a total healing, you're still going to die, and then you get your full healing in the age to come, but the point of it is this, is that we don't want to confuse what we have in the spirit with what we have in the natural, and some folks do that, and they get confused. They talk again. They look at their body, and they say, I am healed already. The healing has already been manifest. I just can't see it, and I go, no, you're a little bit confused in your thinking in my opinion. The healing is available, and Jesus is a healer, and it's been purchased, and healing is guaranteed forever, but we're asking the Lord to release a manifestation of it in our body right now, and He hasn't yet in the full sense, and that's what we're still contending for. Well, let's read Matthew chapter 11. Jesus develops this principle of receiving in two different ways. He says in verse 23, and this is probably the most extensive teaching on faith, I mean detailed teaching on faith that Jesus gives, and normally He makes a statement on it, but here He gives more detail on it than at any other passage, so this is why Mark 11, 23, and 24 is of particular importance, because there's more detail here given by the lips of Jesus. Verse 23, He says, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and He doesn't doubt in His heart, but He believes that those things that He says, they will be done, that He will have whatever He says. That's a big statement, and again, the only way you can speak to a mountain in faith is with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit has indicated He wants that mountain to move. I mean, you could speak to a mountain all day, but you're not going to speak to it in faith without the Holy Spirit's involvement in it, and so the implication is He's given an indication of promise. He's given even a confirmation many times of that promise, and so you're interacting in a relational way based on the Word of God that's written, or the Word of God that's spoken subjectively to your spirit by the Holy Spirit, and He says, but if you'll stay engaged in that promise, and you will believe, and not believe for a moment, but you'll stay engaged in belief, whatever you say, whatever you say, that again, the implication that's in the will of God, that God is relating to you about doing that certain event, or receiving that certain blessing, you're going to have it if you stay with it. Then verse 24, Jesus develops the two different times of receiving. He says, whatever things you ask when you pray, now catch this, very careful, believe you receive them, and you will receive them. He's saying believe the condition of receiving them is that you believed you received them, and that's where people trip over this. They get confused. They go, well Lord, that sounds like you're just doing double talk here. What do you mean? And what He's saying is if you will persistently believe you've received them in the realm of the Spirit, that God has said yes to you, that the Lord has made clear it's His will. He's given you the title deed of it. He has said yes to you. You have received them in the Spirit, and you persistently believe that. Then you will have them, or you will receive them in the natural is the idea. So the way to receive them in the natural is by first understanding that they are in the will of God, and the Lord has approved of them, and He has said yes to them, either by the written word or by the spoken word. The Holy Spirit has spoken it to your heart, a particular circumstance or an assignment that He has given you an indication and a promise of. Now we've got to understand again the distinction of the two realms in order to understand what Jesus is saying in this passage. Let's go to paragraph B, Hebrews chapter 11, and we look at these two realms again. They're put together in their proper relationship. Hebrews 11, the classic definition of faith, here Hebrews 11 verse 1, faith is the substance of the things you're hoping for. The reason you're hoping for them is because God has spoken to you about them. That's why you're hoping. He's spoken by His written word, or He's spoken to you by the voice of the Spirit to your heart. That's why you're hoping for them, because you have a sense that the Lord has promised them to you. Now faith is the substance, it's the title deed ahead of time, and He says faith is the evidence of things not seen. You have an invisible evidence, meaning you have the word, the eyes of your heart have been opened, and you have confidence in your spirit, it is the will of God. That's the evidence, it's an invisible evidence. You can't see the evidence. When you look at the natural situation, it's opposite of what God promised you, but you have the evidence, you have the title deed, the substance of it in your heart already. Now when you buy a new house, you got to get the title deed before you can move into the house. If you move into the house before the title deed, there's all kinds of complications that take place. So God gives us the title deed of that which is going to allow us to walk in, or to openly possess in the natural. So the way of the kingdom is first the title deed is given, the promise, the clarity, again from the written word, or by the voice of the Spirit to your heart, the Holy Spirit indicates a promise. You get the title deed first, then you engage with the Lord in faith, where you're thanking Him for it, and you're asking Him to release it in the natural, and that's the two ways you engage with the Lord. You thank Him that it's yours in the spirit, but you're asking Him to release it in the natural, and in a progressive way, in a greater way. Maybe you have a little bit of that healing, but you want a greater measure of it. Maybe you have a little bit of that revelation of God, but you want a greater measure. Maybe you have a little bit of that financial promise, but you need a greater measure of it. And so the way we engage in faith is that we thank Him that it's ours in the spirit, but we're asking Him to release a greater measure of it in the natural to us, and that's how we interact over time. Because sometimes we wait for years for that promise to manifest in fullness. And in that, in that waiting period, the Lord wants us engaging with His heart. He wants us dialoguing, thanking Him that it's ours in the spirit, and asking Him to release more, a greater measure of it in the natural. And those aren't, that's not contradiction. That if we say, Lord it is mine, thank you, and we declare it, we speak it, Lord you've promised it, it is a fact. It's already, I have the title deed in my heart. Thank you, Lord. This is the truth about me. But Lord, I'm asking you now to release it in an ever-increasing way. And it's that dialogue that is relational. The reason the Lord wants the dialogue, because it's not just because He's just trying to confuse us. He wants us in the relationship, dialogue with Him. And in the waiting period, whether it's a few days, a few months, a few years, or longer, He says, I want you dialoguing with me about the thing that I've promised you in my word or by the spirit. And I, and our conversation will grow in the waiting process. So we'll get closer while you're waiting. And that's the, I believe the, one of the main reasons why His kingdom operates by faith. Because God wants us in the dialogue before we see it show up in the because He's a relational God. It's not just that He's remote, and He's just, and He's just wanting to see how sincere we are. He goes, no, I want the conversation with you. Okay, let's look at top of page two. Top of page two. Now, I identify five principles in praying in faith, or five steps. I don't like the, even the word principles or steps when you're talking about faith. Because that's so sterile, and it's kind of like an equation. And this is so relational. It's so relational. So just let me use the word steps. I don't really like that. Really what I'm talking about is presenting a biblical framework so you can understand how it works. And if you understand the biblical framework, then you, you're more engaged in the process. Because you understand where you are in the process according to the teachings of Jesus. And again, the, the, the two ditches that we're wanting to avoid is the, uh, the ditch of just, uh, uh, humanistic positive thinking. Mind over matter. There's a lot of guys out there that teach in just positive thinking. Really they have faith in man's ability. Jesus' teaching on faith is not faith in man's ability. It's faith in God's ability. It's relational. It's not psychological. It's not just mind over matter. And a lot of folks confuse the two. They'll go to a self-help seminar, mind over matter, confidence in man's ability, and they, they go, oh wow, that's good faith teaching. No, it's, it's actually quite different. We're, uh, faith teaching, the biblical faith teaching is very relational. It's focused on God's ability, and it's an interaction with an invisible but real person. Whereas just positive thinking and mind over matter is not, is not that. So we want to stay away from just the humanistic positive thinking, thinking that's biblical faith teaching. But we want to avoid the other ditch, as I, uh, said when I first started, of just saying, well, it's just so much hype in that I'm just going to ignore the whole thing and just live in a cool, calm unbelief. You know, I won't be troubled by anything because I'm not going to believe, I'm not going to be disappointed because I'm not going to believe for anything, so I'm not going to be disappointed by it. I'm just content to live with very little experience. I mean, that's a horrible, those both options are horrible. And we want to avoid both of them. And so I'm presenting this very simple biblical framework here to help us understand how the relational dynamic with God works related to faith, and particularly to understand how faith, believing, relates to persevering, where you keep asking. And some people get confused by that. They go, if I really believe, I won't keep asking. No, it's just opposite. If you really believe, you will keep thanking that you have it in the Spirit, thanking God, and you'll keep asking for it to be manifested in the natural in a progressive way. And that Jesus would strongly affirm the confidence of believing and the necessity of persevering and asking, asking for it to be released in the natural. Okay, let's look at, there's several examples where I think of a situation where you're, somebody is asking for a request that is not in the Bible. The Bible is not against what they're asking, but it's a particular, it's a request related to their personal life and experience. You know, it's the young man or woman that's asking to be accepted at the prestigious university. There's no Bible verse that says, you know, you're going to be accepted at Harvard. You know, there's no Bible verse like that. But maybe the Holy Spirit has led them or given them an indication of it that that's what He wants. And so they stand in belief for that, or they want to make the football team at the university, or the worship team, or they want to pass the audition, or get the job, or the young couple get married at an outdoor wedding. Oh God, we're praying it won't rain on our wedding day. Those verses aren't, you know, in the Bible, because the verses about rain in the Bible are prayed that it will rain. But anyway, that's another subject for another time. So people say, well, I'm just believing for it. I go, on what basis? Well, whatever I want, as Jesus said. No, it's whatever's in the will of God that the Holy Spirit has given indication that it's God's will, or it's in the written Word of God. So it's not just any random thing that comes to your desire. You think, I think I want that. I'm going to say it, say it, say it, say it. And if I say it enough, it will show up, and the Lord would say something like, no, I'm far more relational than that. This is about you and me walking together. It's about me as a good father, you as my beloved child, and we're walking together hand in hand, and the Holy Spirit is aiding our relationship as we walk together. And so the Holy Spirit will give us indications of promise, and He'll give us confirmations of promise, and then we have a solid title deed to say it is ours in the Spirit, and so we can command the weather not to break in and for it to rain on the wedding. But without that, you can still ask, but you don't have the assurance unless the Lord's given an indication of it in a clear way. And I've asked for many things I didn't have a real assurance of, and I got it. I go, I guess it was your will. Well, praise the Lord, that worked. But other things I've asked, it didn't happen, and I keep asking, keep asking, and either I give up the request, or the Lord gives me an indication, hey, it really is my will, stay with the request. And so that's kind of been the way that I've approached that in my personal life. Okay, let's look at step one, paragraph C. These are very simple steps, but again, I think it's helpful to get a biblical framework so you know where you are and the relational dynamics of this. Step one, verbalize your request to the Father. Paul said in Philippians 4, let your request be made known to God. It says in James 4, you have not because you ask not. There are many people think about their prayer request, but they don't actually make it. They think about it, they worry about it, they even complain about it, but they don't actually make the request. They don't actually say it to God. They say it to other people, but not to God. And the Lord, He wants us, He actually requires us to say it to Him. I mean, He can still give us things we don't ask for, of course. God's not looking for information, He's looking for conversation. He doesn't need it, He already knows everything we need. He's not saying, oh, that's a good idea, I never thought about that one. He's looking for the interaction with our heart. That's what the asking is about. Because paragraph two, when we ask, not only do we connect to His heart more, the more that we're talking to Him about it, but when He answers it, we associate the answer with the request that we actually made, and it makes us be just amazed that God listened to us and it moved His heart when we asked. I mean, I don't, there's few things that touch us more than when we utter something on the earth, and the invisible God of heaven actually intervenes in time and space to answer it. It's like, the God of heaven knows me, and my words move Him. Wow, this is amazing. And that's what the Lord says, that's what I'm after. I'm after that dynamic. I'm after it wowing you. But I want you to associate the answer with the request, so I'm gonna ask, I'm it logged in your memory banks, and I want it part of our conversation that the request was given, so when the answer comes, you will know it was about you and me and my heart being moved by you. But a lot of folks, they actually don't do step one. Again, they think about it, they worry about it, they complain about it, but they don't actually make the request. And I want to encourage you to make the request. Step two. Step two is our request is received by God. God, we, we, God approves of our request, and we receive it in the realm of the Spirit. When God nods, so to speak, and says, yes, I approve, then you have the title deed. The house is yours. You can move into it anytime now. Now you have the title deed, and of course, the, the possession of it in the natural is still a part of God's timing, but it is ours now. From that moment on, where God says yes, that's an important, that's an important step. Some people skip that step, and they, they just ask and ask and ask. They have no true sense that the Holy Spirit has said yes, but then they get angry at God because God didn't answer. God says, well, I never promised that. I know, but you said somewhere that anything I ask for, I can have, and the Lord would say, yeah, but that's in context to the will of God and walking under my leadership. Well, where does it say that? Well, right here in 1 John 5. This is the confidence we have. If we ask it according to the will of God, it's within the framework of God's leadership, He hears us. We have confidence He hears us, and when the Scripture says God hears us, it means, it doesn't mean that He just simply is aware of the request. I mean, God hears every request in the technical sense. He, He knows our thoughts before we ever utter them out of our mouth. He knows them, so when it says God hears us, it doesn't mean He's simply aware of it. When the Bible talks about God hearing, it means He approves of it. He says yes, there's a, there's a moment where that request becomes ours in the Spirit, and that's what the phrase means, God hears it. He approves of that specific request, and again, these are specific requests that are beyond the promised spiritual blessings that everybody has that are theirs in Christ Jesus the day we're born again. I mean, we received all spiritual blessings the day we're born again in Christ Jesus. Our forgiveness of sins, our authority in the believer against the works of the enemy, our authority to use the name of Jesus, the promise of the indwelling Spirit, those are automatically ours in the day that we're born again, but I'm talking about those specific requests related to our life circumstances where God nods in approval, yes, yes, He gives a sense of approval, a sense of confirmation, that is my will. That's an important part of having confidence. Now, I've prayed for, again, many things where I don't have that confidence, and I keep praying for it, and in the process of praying it, I get the confidence, or I don't get the confidence. I keep praying for it, I don't get any sense, but I get the answer, and I go, well, I guess that means yes, glory, and sometimes I don't get the confidence from God, the answer that is of a promise, and it never manifests itself, and as some time goes by, and I just kind of give up on the request and move on, and assume that it was just a, one of my own desires I prayed about, it didn't happen, okay, so push, delete, move on, but when I get that sense that He's heard me, then you have, need to have that dogged tenacity to keep believing, keep thanking Him for it in the Spirit, and asking Him to manifest it in the natural. Okay, I mean, paragraph E, step three. Now, now that you know you've received it in the Spirit, you know you have the title deed, you know God's approved of it, the next step, which is so often overlooked, is that now we need to believe that we've received it, and we need to stay engaged in faith in the waiting process. This is where the challenge comes, is step three, believing that we receive it, and staying engaged in believing. Now, I'm going to read Mark 11, 24 again, the passage we looked at a minute ago. Mark 11, verse 24, Jesus said, whatever things you ask, when you pray, believe. In other words, persistently stay engaged with confidence, believe that you've received them in the Spirit, and then you will have them in the idea. Now, the devil's plan is to get us overwhelmed with fear, get us overwhelmed with shame, distraction, unbelief, so we neglect to keep believing we've received them in the Spirit, to lose sight of them, to lose contact with, to lose it out of the conversation with God, is what I'm trying to say. That's what the enemy's trying, trying to do with us. So we, we need to stay engaged. Whatever things that you ask for and pray, believe you receive them. Instead of the word believe, stay persistently engaged in faith. Keep it in the conversation with God, but with a spirit of confidence. Don't let unbelief win the day. Resist unbelief, and have confidence that what God has said, God, it is yours, and He will release it in His own time, and that is not a small condition. It's a very, very important one. So this step three, a lot of folks give up too quickly, get swallowed up in shame or guilt or distraction, and they just lose the faith dimension in the conversation with the Lord, and Jesus could say right here in Matthew 11, 24, if you would keep believing that you've received it, you will have it in the natural, in God's timing. Let's look at top of page three. Step four. Okay, your faith is engaged. In step four, we remind the Lord of His Word, or Jesus said, ask with persistence. In Mark, I mean in Luke chapter 11. We'll look at that in a moment. We remind the Lord. I'm using Isaiah's term, remind the Lord, or put God in remembrance. That's how Isaiah said it. Jesus said, ask with persistence, and this is that it would be persistent. We're asking it would be released into the natural realm in a greater measure, initially first, and then in an ever-increasing measure. So Isaiah talked about this principle in Isaiah 62, a passage we're so familiar with. He says, you who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourself. Give Him no rest until He establishes the thing He's promised. Now when we remind the Lord, it's not because God forgot. It's not like we're praying and say, Lord, do you remember what you promised? And He goes, oh yeah, now that you bring it up, yeah, oh, oh yeah, yeah, I'm still into that. No, no, that's not how it works. God does it again. He doesn't ask us to remind Him because He forgot that He wants the conversation, He wants the dialogue with us, He wants the interchange with us. So we're believing that we have it in the Spirit, but we continue to ask that it would be released in an ever-increasing measure in the natural. Look at paragraph 1, Isaiah 43. Isaiah says the same concept again, put me in remembrance. Again, this isn't because God lacks information. It's because God wants conversation, because God's relational. That's the whole point. Okay, look at paragraph 3, Luke chapter 11. Now here's how Jesus says it. Isaiah said, remind the Lord, bring Him to remembrance. And Jesus used the word in the New King James, persistence. To ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking is the idea. Ask with persistence. And again, I've made the point several times here, so let's go on down to paragraph 6. I've made the point it's ours in the Spirit first, and then we receive it in the natural. But that's where persistence. We're not persistently asking God to release it to us in the Spirit. We're thanking Him for that, but we're asking Him to release it in a greater measure into the natural. And again, the reason I'm breaking down these steps is so you have a framework. So when you go to the teachings of Jesus about believing, you're not confused about, do you have it, but don't really have it, sort of have it, but not yet have it. You have it, but you don't see it. How does this really work? And I'm just trying to put language to the, actually the simple concepts that are represented by the teaching of Jesus, these passages on growing in faith. Now in Ephesians 6, verse 18, Paul calls us to pray with perseverance. Now this is the same book, Ephesians 6, I mean book of Ephesians, back in chapter 1, verse 3, he said, all spiritual blessings are already yours. You've already been given all the spiritual blessings. The title deed to all spiritual blessings in heavenly places is yours. In other words, you have forgiveness, you have the indwelling Spirit, you are the bride of Christ, you are children of God, you are co-heirs, you have the authority, you are citizens of heaven, you are destined to rule and reign and be involved in the new Jerusalem. All those blessings are yours, so Paul's not saying, suddenly changing his mind and saying, now persevere and beg God for those spiritual blessings to be granted to you in the Spirit. He goes, no, I know they're yours, they're already yours, it's a fact, it's an established fact, but pray with perseverance that they would be manifest into the natural realm. And don't back away from this. Thank God for what He's provided, but stay in perseverance until you have the fullness of it in your experience, the fullness of what God has ordained for you to have in this age. So he said, and here in Ephesians 6, praying always, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance, with all perseverance, we're asking the Lord to that which He has promised, that He would release it to the people we're praying for, and the principles for our own life as well, but we're praying for other believers, and we're asking Lord, release that revelation that you've already promised that family member that loves the Lord already, you've already promised them revelation, I'm asking for a greater increase of it, I'm asking you for a greater manifestation of your provision, you've already promised provision, but I'm asking you Lord, with perseverance, believing you to release it into the natural in an ever-increasing way, and the more that we engage in that process, the more God releases, because again, we're not earning it, He wants the conversation, we're not persuading Him, we're earning it, we're dialoguing with Him, we're staying connected with His heart in the process. In paragraph G, the fifth step, is you receive in the natural, that's the fun part, when it actually shows up. Now God's prayer and God's will is always answered, God will always answer prayers in His will when people come to Him in faith, but I believe there are things God wants to give people, but if they don't interact with Him, they won't show up in the full measure. Our faith, God's will mixed with our faith, is a part of the relational dynamic that the Bible requires. God is a God of relationship. Don't let anybody tell you that perseverance in prayer is related to earning anything, that's a completely wrong concept. That's a person that thinks that their image of God is a taskmaster, and he's trying to get them to earn something. It's relational, he wants conversation. When two people love each other, they want conversation together. This is about love, this is not about earning. But we can trust that God's will will be answered in God's timing and God's way when His people persevere in faith. If they stay in faith for the request, it will come in God's timing and God's way. Don't give up too quickly, don't be discouraged if the answer is delayed. We can trust His leadership that all things will work together for good. Everything will work in God's time and God's way. If we respond to the will of God in faith and obedience, it will show up in due time. Okay, let's look at top of page four here. The value of 90-second prayers. I always love to throw this in when I talk on prayer. These are two points I always make, this one and the one on the value of unanointed prayers. I just love these two points. 90-second prayers matter. Don't wait till you have an hour. Seize the moment when you have it. When you get an hour, take the hour, but don't wait for the hour. 90-second prayers actually are important. Engage in many of those throughout your day. Paragraph G, the value of unanointed prayers. What I mean by unanointed, quote unquote, I mean prayers you don't feel anything while you're praying. Anointed prayers, I'm using that kind of as a strange phrase because I mean prayers that you feel the presence of God when you're praying it. Some people think, well, that one prayer meeting was really amazing. I go, why was that? Oh, did you see everybody, they were all engaged. Everybody was jumping and they were all shouting and I mean, they were so engaged. I mean, God's really going to answer that. I go, well, I think jumping and shouting and getting engaged is cool, but that's not why God's going to answer it. That because you felt it doesn't mean that suddenly God felt it. God feels it when you don't feel it. And the only reason I'm making this point is that when you don't feel anything, don't draw back. It's still, your prayers are effective. You don't measure your prayer by how much you feel it. Because you don't feel it doesn't mean God doesn't feel it. And so though I like the lively prayer meetings, but I don't have more confidence in lively prayer meetings than in very dead feeling prayer meetings. If there's agreement with God, it is working. That's what we're after. And I like the lively. I like all that, but I'm not going to back down for a moment. I've seen more good things happen when the prayer I offered was really felt dead and unanointed. And the Lord says, if you're agreeing with me, that's what it counts. That's what, that's what matters because it's what Jesus did that makes the prayer work. We offer it in weakness, but it ascends in power because of who God is. Well, let's go down to paragraph M. Let's just end with the story of the example of Abraham. Now, Abraham was 75 years old, 75 years old, when God promised him that he would have descendants, that he would. And the idea, the whole biblical storyline is Abraham and Sarah, he's 75, she's 65. God visits him, says you're going to have descendants. And the implication is one of your descendants is going to be the Messiah. And that Messiah will be king and rule the nations forever and bring salvation and bless all the ends of the earth. But you have to have your first son in order to have a descendant from him that is the Messiah. So the, the big storyline is the Messiah is going to come from your body, but you're going to have to have one descendant before you can have a whole, a whole, a company of descendants. And so Abraham's 75, Sarah's 65. They have no children. The Lord gives the promise. But here's the problem. He gave them the promise when, when Abraham was 75 and she was 65, but the promise doesn't happen for 25 years. I mean, Abraham's 75. He doesn't have, the child's not born until he's 100. And for 20, I mean, God could have told him when he was 99, hey, you're going to have a child. Well, actually he did when he was 99 in Genesis 17, but he could have just a moment before and said, hey, the child's coming real soon. But he told him 25 years in advance and the situation became more physically impossible to happen. So now when Sarah is 90 and Abraham is 100, he says, now the child of promise is going to come. And the, again, the big storyline is the Messiah that will rule the earth forever comes from that child you're going to have, you know, right down through the family line. So here's what Paul says about, about Abraham and what he did in that 25 years, because this is where faith, engaging in faith, persevering and asking for it, thanking God that it's real and it's yours in the spirit and asking him to release it in the natural. This is where faith and perseverance come together. We find it in the story of Abraham. It says, and being weak and not being weak in faith, I mean for 25 years. And now there were, there were a couple of lapses for when I read Genesis, but through God's editing process of grace, he says he wasn't weak in faith. I go, well, Paul wrote this. I go, Paul, he's had a couple lapses there, but you know what? You can stumble, but not fall. You can have some setbacks, but in God's editing process, still he sees that consistent reaching of the heart to respond to him in faith. But Abraham did not consider his own body already dead in the deadness of Sarah's womb. And what that means is when Abraham saw his, the deadness of his body in the deadness of Sarah's womb, he saw the deadness of their body, but he didn't consider that was able to nullify the promise of God. So Abraham didn't consider that their problem of a dead body could nullify God's eternal, I mean God's supernatural promise to them. Verse 20, so he didn't waver at the promise, though he waited 25 years. He didn't waver. Paul says it again. Verse 19, he didn't, he wasn't weak in faith. Verse 20, he didn't waver through unbelief. Again, he had a few little setbacks there, but in God's editing process of grace, he said no. The trend of his life, he stayed steady in faith. I love the Lord's, I love how he, how he evaluates things. But here's how Abraham was strengthened in faith throughout that 25 years. He kept giving glory to God. When there was no chance of it happening, he kept thanking God and giving glory to God. You said it. You said it. It is a fact. It must be true. It is your word. That is how his faith was strengthened by the declaration of his own words to God of thanksgiving and giving glory to God that what God said would come to pass. In verse 21, he became and being fully convinced, that's why he held the confession. That's why he glorified God throughout the 25 years. He was fully convinced that that which God promised, that title deed that he had in the spirit, that Abraham had in the spirit, God was able to perform it, and 25 years he did bring it to pass. Now some of you have believed, have been believing God for months, some of you years, some of you decades for something. And you know it's promised in the word, or it's, or it's a subjective circumstance related to your life or ministry or calling, and the spirit has given you indication and confirmation of it, and it's impossible situation, but I encourage you, stay engaged, because sometimes it is 25 years, because God wants the interaction throughout the waiting period. Don't draw back and unbelieve. Understand this is how the kingdom of God operates, and many of God's choice servants throughout history, they stayed engaged for years before they saw the thing that was happening. So that's normative in the because God's a relational God. He wants that interaction. Amen and amen. Let's stand.