In this sermon, the speaker outlines four steps for effective prayer. The first step is to search one's heart and confess and forsake any sins that grieve God. The second step is to test one's desires by the glory of Jesus and seek to glorify Him in prayer. The third step is to understand that God is present and that He Himself is the answer to our prayers. The fourth step is to bring our most pressing needs before God and trust Him to provide. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of faith, describing it as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The sermon encourages listeners to approach prayer with a right heart, a desire for God's glory, and a belief in His presence and love.

Will you turn, please, to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11, and I shall read again in your hearing the first six verses. We're talking today about the relationship of faith and sight, faith and sight. In the previous portion of the tenth chapter, Paul, or the writer of Hebrews, you'll notice my prejudice cropping out from time to time because I rather feel Paul did write the epistle to Hebrews. But he begins in the 35th verse saying, cast not away your confidence. And in the 38th verse, if the just shall live by faith, and he then takes this which has been introduced in the tenth chapter and expounds it, expands upon it in the eleventh. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaking. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God, but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. For some weeks past we have been dealing with you regarding this most important of themes, namely faith. You will notice that its importance is underlined. It is impossible to please him without faith. Now this is stated after the twenty-thirty-eighth verse of the tenth chapter, the just shall live by faith. It is true that by grace I is saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Salvation is the gift of God's grace, and there are many that have savingly received Jesus Christ. They know that past sins are under the blood, that they're forgiven, that they're pardoned, but they fail to understand that as they begin so they must continue. In fact, this one statement made in the thirty-eighth verse of the tenth chapter, the just shall live by faith, can well be repeated in three ways. The just shall live by faith because we are justified through faith in the finished work of Christ. The just shall live by faith. After we've been pardoned, after we've been forgiven, our life continues to be sustained and nourished by faith. And as we have it here in Hebrews, the just shall live by faith, emphasizing this latter aspect. But what is it that is so vital in your experience that without it you cannot please God? The first verse has been set forth as a definition of faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith and hope go together. It is the firm persuasion that God will perform that which he has promised, a persuasion so strong that it gives the sole possession of that which he is seeing as his. I said the theme is faith and sight, and here it is. I do not believe that one can understand faith apart from the proper use of imagination. To imagine is to see what isn't as though it were. This is perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the human intellect, the human personality, our ability to imagine what isn't. It is quite true that animals have great adaptability to what is. You'll see a horse, for instance, come to stones and rocks and stop and not proceed because it's dangerous and difficult. He adjusts immediately to the hole in the road as though it will be with all of the lower forms of life that God has made. They adjust remarkably to the cavern or the chasm or the creek or the river, and will not expose themselves to danger. But when man comes along and sees the chasm, he sees a bridge across it, and then he proceeds to manufacture the equipment necessary to erect the bridge and install it. The horse turns around and goes back. It says, I can't pass that way. Man stops and says, we will change that. We're going to bridge it. And so man has something that none other of God's beings does. He has the ability to see what isn't, and then to bring it to pass. Now this faculty of imagination is essential if we're to understand faith. Faith, therefore, is closely linked to sight. The difference, however, is this. The unbelieving heart, like the lower forms of life, cannot believe because he cannot see with his eyes. Whereas the believing heart, the one who has faith, sees with the soul, sees with the mind, sees what is going to be. Now, you must lay hold of this if you are to be influenced by the text. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things which are not seen with the eye, that is, the eye of flesh, but are seen with the eye of the mind, with the imagination. And he believes who has in his mind a picture of what is going to be, who has seen what can be, and what must be, what ought to be, and then refuses to let it go but holds it. It thus becomes a subsistence in the mind. It has its existence first in the mind. And unless you have the ability to see the condition changed by your prayer, your prayer will not change the conditions. I want to repeat that. Unless you can see what's going to transpire because you've prayed, nothing will transpire when you pray. You have to see it the way it's going to be when God has answered the prayer, or else there isn't any effect from the praying. Now it's very difficult for one to find this faith that sees. That's why we're told faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. And the better you know the word of God, the better understanding you have of the kind of things that God has done in the past. And these great innovators of this roster which we have in the eleventh chapter, these men who went out where there were no paths to follow, have left for us a record of the kind of thing that God wants to do, and it becomes us an encouragement for you. And the better you know the word of God, the better you know the kind of thing God specializes in, the kind of problems he meets, the kind of answers he gives, the solutions that he has. And therefore, if you're to be a man or a woman of faith, you must be acquainted with the word of God. You must know the word, because only as you know it are you going to have a frame of reference to which you can apply, seek God's answer for your problem. And if you are ignorant of the word of God, if you have not saturated your soul in the word of God, if you've not fed your mind upon the word of God, when you come to the problem, you're going to see the problem and turn back from the problem, because there is no yardstick by which you can measure it, no bridge that your mind can throw over it. But if you know the word of God, if you fed your heart on the word of God, then to your mind will leap at that moment of crisis and challenge and need. To your mind, I say, will leap the answer of yesterday. And you will see in memory what God did for Abraham, and what he did for Joseph, and what he did for Moses. Because God has done it once, there's clear evidence that he's able to do it, and at least on that occasion he was willing to do it, that this was the manner in which he met the particular problem of that time, and it becomes an encouragement to you at the present. Now I am certain that this is one important factor, but I'm also certain that it is only one factor, because if I understand the Scripture correctly, when the axe head fell into the river, there was no precedent for taking a piece of wood, casting in the river, and causing the axe to swim. There simply wasn't anything to go on. This had to be an innovation. And therefore, it is not only a matter of knowing what God has done, but knowing what God is going to do. And this comes from knowing God. That's why it says that him that cometh to God must believe that he is. That he is what? That he is exactly who he says he is. Therefore the illustrations of answered prayer in other years or times, as necessary as it is, is not in any sense to be the final criterion of what God can do in your circumstances. You've got to know God. Before you can see the kind of an answer, you've got to know something about God. Now the problem that most of us have is that we have whittled God down until he's too small for our problems. This was the answer of an atheist to a group of Christians confronted by a difficulty. He said, your God is too small. Well, is our God too small? Certainly not. Well, what have we done? Well, I think that as Paul walked up the road around the Acropolis and saw there the altars dedicated to all the gods and to the one finally to the unknown God, and came to the people saying, him whom ye ignorantly worship declare we unto you, that this would to some degree apply to most of us as Christians. In our objective view of Christian faith, that is where we bring into the forefront, as we have in the past decades, the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ, and make the historicity or the historical facts the center of our faith, almost to the exclusion of what the Bible teaches about the character of God and the nature of God. I say this emphasis on the historical, and we mustn't for a moment minimize it. We must not minimize this, because our faith is historically grounded. We know that he was born of a virgin. We know he did live a sinless life. He died an atoning death. He was gloriously raised from the dead, and he is there today at the right hand of the throne in a resurrection body. This is history. But who is this one to whom these things happened? He is Jesus Christ, and who is he? He is the eternal God, God the Son. Now what do you know about the eternal God? What do you know of his attributes? How well are you acquainted with the triune God? Evangelical Christians have suffered woefully, I am afraid, from having almost lost sight of the character and the nature of God. Our Puritan forefathers were not so inclined. Perhaps even to an overemphasis they dwelt upon his justice, his wisdom, his unchangeableness, his power, his love, his mercy. The attributes of God were brought into focus because they understood that as they were returning from this labyrinth of ceremonialism under the yoke of the dark ages, that God had been obscured by all of the liturgy and ceremony and ritual. And so, with this newfound freedom, the open Bible and the language of the people, their hearts were exhilarated and they were excited and delighted to learn again who God is, to see him. And consequently, because they became acquainted with him, the people knew him, and there was a far greater foundation for faith. Him that cometh to God must believe that he is. Therefore, faith, if it's to be rightly understood, rests upon the character of God. We must understand this, that you can only believe for what you understand God is able to do and what he's willing to do. And the only way you'll understand what he's able to do is by what he's done. The only way you'll understand what he's willing to do is by who he is. And you must, therefore, get acquainted with him. If you're to be nourished in the faith and strengthened in the faith, you must believe that he is. Well, not that he exists. There isn't any question about that. We know he exists. But who is this one that exists? And that's the question that the text insists that you answer. Now, when you've seen what he's done and you know who he is, you have but one other problem in this matter of understanding faith. What does he want to do in my situation? What does he want to do about my problem? There's no use for you to pray for this until you've prayed about it. To say, Lord, do this if it's your will, implies one of two things. Either God is so hidden and obscure that you can't know what he wants to do about it, or you're too indifferent and mentally and spiritually lazy to find out what he wants to do, and neither one is particularly complimentary. So it seems extremely important that when your problem arises, first, what has God done in the past? Secondly, who is he? What is his character? Now, what does he want to do about my situation? So before you can pray for it, you have to pray about it. For instance, I said this evening we're speaking about the Lord for the body. It's been a rather amazing thing to me to find that people have been quite willing to say, well, if it isn't the Lord's will for me to get well, I can't pray about it, but they will spend any amount of money and go anyplace to get the doctor to do it. Wouldn't it be reasonable to say that if God didn't want you to get well, it would be better to stay sick, even if the doctor could fix it up? Who would want to get well outside of the will of God? And so before you pray for something, you ought to pray about it. You see, you ought to find out what the Lord wants to do about it. Well, we've seen the examples in the past. We understand his character. Now I have a particular situation. Well certainly, this has occurred in my life because of the reasons. Nothing happens to a Christian without a reason. All things work together for good. So if it's a financial need, or a spiritual need, or a physical need, whatever it might be, this need, this problem, this thing that confronts me at the moment has been allowed of God for a purpose. That purpose perhaps is to be a lever, to pry me from my indifference, to learn more about God. Secondly, to learn more about me, because many times my needs have been the means of discovering something in my character that I didn't know about, and God was very concerned about. And so he just arranged a little situation that would be like an abrasive file to scrape off the thin layer of contentment until I could see the problem that was of moment to him. Therefore we've got to pray about it, and of course this implies when it's a personal need that we are going to in everything give thanks. Thank you, Father, for allowing this to come, because it's driving me into a new adventure of discovery about myself and about you. Do you welcome needs on this level? Do you get excited and delighted when a problem arises because it gives God an opportunity to demonstrate again how glorious he is? Or you just sort of waiting irksomely until the moment comes that you can escape from it and relax back into the previous state of complacency. Oh, I think we ought to have an adventurous spirit in respect to these problems that do confront us. If we actually believe that God loves us and nothing can touch us, but what first that's gone through that nail-pierced hand, and that we are obligated by a command, an explicit command, in everything to give thanks. Thank you, Father, for the problem and the difficulty, allowing it to come. There's something now that you ought to show me about myself and about you that I've not seen before. And I'm standing on the threshold of a new discovery. Now, Lord, bring to my mind from the scripture what you've done in situations like this in the past. Guide me and lead me by any means you choose to understand more of your own character, and then teach me how I should pray about it. You know, sometimes you're going to have a need that's a very pressing need, and you can't ask the Lord to do a thing about it right then. I've had that experience. I didn't have his liberty. But press on and press through and pray about it, because you see, there's no use to pray for it until you've seen what's going to be. And that sight, that imagination, is not simply the natural function of the mind that goes to a river and sees a bridge. This faith we're talking about is the gift of God. Oh, certainly, this faith of which I speak, it is the same faculty of the human spirit or personality that sees a chasm and puts a bridge in the mind across the chasm, and then proceeds to put the bridge in steel or wood over it. It's the same faculty. But the difference is, when it's dealing with you, and you're in the center of this, in the forefront of this, you say, well now, I can imagine myself without this physical problem, without this financial problem, with this social difficulty or employment need. Of course you can, because you haven't always been that way. There was a time when it didn't exist, and so you're not under too great problem in regard to it. But you see, the faith of which we're speaking is that seeing with the soul, seeing with the inner eye of the human spirit, your situation changed. And when that enlightens your heart, when you see with his eyes your situation changed, you've seen the possibility of its being changed from the very moment, of course. But now I say you have this sight which is the possession of the soul, this subsistence in the soul that exists within you. Now you're beginning to see that change that's going to come to pass. Nobody else can see it. Not a soul else can see it. But you see it. You know. You've seen the way it's going to be. You've seen it within. You've seen it with the eyes of your heart. It's yours. Now you're on the place where faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You're beginning to see then, if you're following with me in my thinking, that faith is to the soul what sight of the eyes is to the body. Faith is designed to serve instead of sight. The eyes can only see what is. Faith can see what's going to be. Now you have faith when you've seen what's going to be. You know what's going to be. You've been willing to take time enough with it. It's important enough, if it's important enough for you to bring it to God and say do something about it, it's important enough for you to do anything he wants you to do about it. And I'll tell you, you just get a little something in your heel, like I had two years ago now. It wasn't bigger than, wasn't just like this small eraser and a small pencil. Wasn't large at all. The doctor says it has to come off. Has to come off. Just a little pigmented nevus, he called it. I don't know what it means. Says it's got to come off. Wasn't very big. Here I was, 200 plus pounds, and don't ask me how many plus either, but I was there. There I was, completely immobilized for three weeks because of something no bigger than the eraser on the end of a pencil on my heel that wasn't giving me a moment's pain. Well, if it's important enough for the doctor to say it's got to come out, all right, it's important enough to take three weeks with it and take time with it. Anything that's important, anything that's important ought to be met on the basis of discovering all the principles you possibly can about it and making all the profit that you can from it. So let's not leap lightly into situations. Let's be prepared to approach them with this, the fact that there is a spiritual science in faith, just as much as in anything else. God has done this in the past. This is the character of God. This is my need. And as I relate what he has done to my need and who he is to my need, and as I open my heart to him, then I begin to discover what he's going to do about my need, and I begin to get it done. About that time, you know, it isn't hard to pray in faith. And you know that when you ask anything according to the will of God, he hears you. And if he hears you, you have that for which you ask. I put it this way, I don't believe that a prayer is answered until you've seen it answered before you pray. And if you don't see it answered when you pray, pray about it till you see it. Because faith is that sight of the Spirit, sight of the heart, that sees the matter finished, sees it done. You can't simply say, now Lord, I commit this to thee. He's committed it to you. What right do you have to forfeit the commitment? Oh, how often we do this, you know. God commits something to us, and so we take the verses, cast your care upon the Lord, and he will care for you. And so we, he commits to us something, and we turn around, commit it to him. Well, there's a time of doing that, but not at the moment. If he's committed it to you, don't try to get rid of it. Stay with it. Pray about it. Pray through on it. Ask for wisdom. Ask for guidance. Move gently through it. He's not only committed to you the problem, he's committed to you the promises, and he's committed to you his character, and he's committed to you himself. And it isn't that easily done. Now Lord, we just lay this back in your hands. We, no, it's in his hands. Lord, I know this is in your hands, but you've also laid it in my hands. Show me how to carry it. Help me to relate to it. Help me to understand what this is for, what this is doing in me. Help me to profit from it. Teach me. Instruct me. Because faith has implicit confidence in the character of God. Nothing happens to you because God's back is turned and the devil got in good licks when God wasn't caring for you. And this is the subtle accusation that comes. Many times, you know, we have a feeling that if we aren't honest enough to say it, but if we were as honest as our minds are, if we were as honest with our lips as our minds are with our unbelief, we'd say, if the Lord loved me as much as I thought he did, this never would have happened. Now if we said it, of course, we'd be accused of rank heresy, so we'd figure out some way to protect ourselves. But deep down in our minds, it often is the feeling that we've been let down. That's why we get disappointed. That's why we become discouraged. That's why we're disillusioned. That's why we're depressed and defeated. Oh, it'd be much better for us to come right out and say, the Lord let me down. Then you'd come to grips with the fact that God doesn't let people down, and it's an indication of ignorance and folly to say he lets you down. But you see, what we do is say, well, there was, and we find some pious way to slip around it so that we don't get anybody accusing us of being heretical. But deep down in our hearts, we nourish this little cancer of God let me down. It'd be far better for us to get somebody's criticism because we talk too frankly about God. Now I'm not advocating you do it, God doesn't let anybody down. There are principles, there are scientific principles in the matter of prayer, in the matter of faith, that are just as operative as the matter of electricity. If these lights go off, don't say that Con Edison's let us down. Now there may be some violation, there may be something that's gone wrong, there may be some, but we're not going to get down on our knees and say, oh Ohms, Watts, and Volts, come on, illuminate the room. We're going to pursue the principles until we find where the break in the flow is. We're going to rectify it at the point of disobedience to the principle. So this is what we have here in this eleventh chapter. This is science just as much as the science of the atom. This is science as much as any other area of science that we have here. The science of prayer, the science of faith. And he's using almost scientific language when he says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We see it with our eyes, and because we see it with our eyes, it's there. Oh the marvelous testimony. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. Now that can be interpreted two ways. Through faith, our faith in God, we understand he framed it by his Word. Very good. Let's accept it that way for a moment. God saw the world he wanted. He saw everything in it the way he wanted it. And he said be! And it leaped, if you please, out of nothing and became what he wanted it to be. But what would have happened if he hadn't seen what he wanted? And said be. What would have been? Chaos. And the reason that it came from chaos to organization was because God saw organization, and organized as it is. And he spoke to what was. So that we understand that this was, by faith we understand this is how we did it. But now let's change it. We understand that by faith God framed the worlds. Take it that way, which I've thought it was for years, till I read someone else who approached it from the other way. That God used faith, the kind of faith we're talking about. He saw the world the way he wanted it. He saw everything in it the way he wanted it. He saw it as it was going to be. And because he saw it the way it was going to be, he said be the way I've seen. And that's how it became. So if you want to say we understand by faith, good. If you want to say God framed the world by faith, it's the same principle. And therefore we've got to recognize that in faith is the seeing of the soul. And we have the illustration right here from creation. He gives us two instances. Amazingly he passes over Adam and Eve. They are listed. He comes to Abel. And of Abel he said that he believed. Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice by faith, by which he obtained the witness that he was righteous. There have always been, ever since the fall, there have been two approaches to God. One was by the works of men's hands, by his skill and energy and effort. And the other was by faith in the way God provided by sacrifice, which involved a confession of sin and the necessity of atonement. And always it's been that the ones that have rejected salvation by sacrifice have hate with all a passionate hatred. The ones who have testimony to the fact that their faith rests in the finished work of Jesus Christ. It began right there. The two systems of religion began right there. The first two were born. Abel coming in confession of guilt and sin, saying, it's not by works of righteousness which I have done, but by the shedding of blood. Cain saying, seize what my hands have wrought. God accepting Abel and Cain rejecting Abel. And warfare has been proceeding ever since across the centuries. This way of faith, where this was Abel's way, is not a lonely way. The world hates faith, just as Cain hated Abel. And when you come to the place in your spiritual development that God is manifesting his will through you, through your faith in others, and seeing brought to pass that which he wants, don't think that this is going to be the stepping stones of popularity, but it's going to be the means of misunderstanding and difficulty. I assure you, because you see, the only sin that's in good standing, really in first-class good standing, is the sin of unbelief. And if you have broken from the clutches of this sin and stripped off the grave clothes of unbelief and are believing God, you'll become a reproof and a rebuke to everybody else. Some will profit from it and be encouraged, but there will be others like Cain who will see no good in you or what God has done. So he's indicating that there's been these two systems of religion, that faith is the means by which we've received pardon and forgiveness. But we come again to this, the closing verse, the sixth verse. Without faith it is impossible to please him. Do you wish to please God? Is it your desire to please him? Are you concerned about him? Is it in your heart to please him? Do you pray as you breathe in the morning, Lord, today help me to please you? Guide every conversation, guide my steps, keep me from myself, save me from sin. I want to please you. I want to glorify you. Is not this the prayer of every truly redeemed heart? Well, if that's so, then it's impossible to please God without faith. We must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, earnestly, perseveringly, early seek the Lord. Faith is so important. Say, well, what about me? I don't have an opportunity for some stupendous miracle. I don't have an opportunity. I'm not George Mueller that can pray as he did. You know, he was coming for an appointment in Montreal, and the ship was fog-bound at the estuary of the St. Lawrence River. And according to the best news they had, the captain said, from previous experience, they'd have to lay there anchored for probably four or five, six days. And Mr. Mueller said, oh, but I'm so certain that God wants me there for that appointment. I prayed about it. I said, Captain, let's go down and pray. And so they went to prayer. And of course, the captain, a Christian though he was, had no experience in moving fog banks. George Mueller had no experience in having God's plan for his life thwarted. So he prayed, and very simply, in childlike way, said, Father, just move the fog so we can get there. You know, after all, you led me to plan the meeting. And they finished, and the captain began to oh and ah and ugh and groan with pious intonations, getting ready to try to cover his unbelief. And he said, that's all right, Captain. You won't need to pray. And after all, the fog is lifting already. You better get ready to sail. Well, you may not have that experience. It may not be yours. But I'll tell you one thing. You have a problem in your life today, somewhere. And if God gave you the answer, you'd have a testimony this week that you've never had for a long time. Your problem isn't necessarily my problem. Mine isn't yours. Yours would not be shared by another. But God has given you today the threshold of the new experience of answered prayer in your life that's going to make your testimony to the unsaved, not some history going back 15 years to find a time when God answered your last prayer. Why just this week? Why just yesterday? And the world wants to know whether our faith is practical, whether God is related to our lives and our immediate needs, whether he's concerned about us. Listen. You're in the greatest laboratory that's ever been provided anyone. You're in the laboratory of life with the glorious opportunity of an experiment in faith that's going to strengthen your heart, encourage you, make God wonderfully real to you. I'd like to just do something to help you in closing this service. We have just two or three minutes. I said that this is science just as much as the science of mathematics or the science of electricity. Just name it. It's science. There's three or four things that are necessary in any scientific procedure. The first is that you open your heart to him and ask him to deal with any attitude or any relationship or any experience that grieves him. Because if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So before you're going to have prayer answered, you've got to open your heart and say, if there's anything in my life, Lord, that would keep prayer from being answered, show it to me. I will deal with it. Secondly, you do not ask just to have your needs met, but that he be glorified. As you are opening your heart, saying, Lord, I want you to test my heart so that there's nothing to stand in the way of answered prayer. Test my motive, Lord. I want this for your glory. Then I want you to believe in just these two or three minutes that remain to us in this morning's service that God is here, just as near as the air you breathe. He's just as close as the rays of light that come from the beautiful window above your head. Now, he's not the rays of light. He's not the air. But God is here. He's here to meet your need. He's here to solve your problem. He's here to share your life. He's here to reveal himself. He's here. You don't have to raise your voice to broadcast to heaven. He's here. He asks that your heart be right toward him in brokenness, willing to deal with anything. That your motive be right, the glory of Christ. And that you believe that he is, that he is here, that he loves you, that he gave his son to die for you, and that he wants you to trust him. He wants you to trust him. That's three things. The fourth thing is to take this most pressing of needs that you'll bring to your mind and lay it before him and ask him how to pray about it. I believe you'll answer. Let's bow our heads. I want you to be absolutely quiet for the next moment. I'm going to review the four steps I've given, and I want you in the moment that will intervene between the first and the second and thereafter, to do, if you're concerned, exactly what we're asking you to do. First, search my heart, O God, and show me anything in there that grieves thee. I will confess it and forsake it. Help me, O God, Father of Jesus, to test my desire by his glory, and to want this, not only my need be met, but that he be glorified. Heavenly Father, thou art here, as near as the air I breathe, as near as the light upon my face. In all thy wisdom, love, and power, thou art here. Help me to understand that thou didst not send the answer, but thou art thyself the answer. Next, this is the need, the most pressing need in my heart. Help me, Lord, to pray about it and to believe that thou hast an answer for it, and to see that answer in my mind, in my heart, that thou art going to give. Give me faith. We thank thee for thy presence, our Heavenly Father. We thank thee that the Lord Jesus opened for us this new and living way. Oh, how we praise thee for the power of his precious blood. How we rejoice that because he died for us, we know he lives for us. That he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities, that he knows all about us. Father, we are asking that we may become men and women of faith, that we may understand something more of it, that we may truly glorify thee and please thee, sealed to the hearts of those that have shared in this moment by answering their prayer, by encouraging them, by making this a laboratory in reality. Not just theory, but Lord, something so wonderfully real that the testimony that they'll have to others in this week is not of theory, but of a practical, vital, glorious relationship with thee. We thank thee for answered prayer. We thank thee, Lord, for what thou art going to do, because thy people have released thee now in their simple childlike trust. We think of the Lord Jesus who could do in Nazareth no mighty works because of their unbelief. Oh, Father, let it not once be of us in this fashion, but do thou in our lives amidst that which will glorify thee. So to that end, seal the word, the message, the ministry to our hearts' good and to thy glory, for Jesus' sake. Amen.