BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

One tradition that has robbed the Body of Christ for years is praying, “If it be Thy will.” That may sound humble, but it’s simply unbelief. It means you don’t know God’s will in that situation. It ties God’s hands in your life because there is no faith. Faith begins where the will of God is known. The Word of God is the will of God. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. You can have faith for whatever the Bible says is God’s will. God’s Will Is Good You can see God’s will in the Garden of Eden, in heaven and in Jesus’ ministry. The Garden was a little copy of heaven. It was a beautiful place where all of Adam and Eve’s needs were met and everything was good (Genesis 2). There was no sickness, disease or lack until man sinned. There is none in heaven either because God’s will is done there. From the very beginning, God’s will has been to bless man with good. That has never changed. In Malachi 3:6, He says, “For I am the LORD, I change not.” To see the perfect will of God in manifestation on the earth, look at Jesus’ ministry. He said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). His prayer was, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). And according to 1 John 3:8, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus came proclaiming God’s Word to the people. Those who received that Word, and who received Him as sent of God, also received what God had for them—salvation, healing, deliverance, whatever they needed. God hasn’t changed His method. Jesus operated in the earth by the Word. He defeated the works of the devil with “It is written.” We are to do the same. Base Your Faith on the Word If you try to receive from God without planting the seed of the Word (Luke 8:11), it’s difficult. You’re like the farmer who sits on the porch and says, “I believe in crops, but I’m not going to plant any seed this year. I’ll just believe, and if it’s God’s will, my crop will come up.” That farmer will never see his crop. Faith is a seed. If you don’t plant it, it won’t grow. And praying, “If it be Thy will” won’t produce a harvest in areas where the Word of God tells you what His will is. “If it be Thy will” is a prayer of dedication. It is for situations in which you don’t know God’s will. When something is not written in the Word, then you can pray a prayer like, “Lord, if it’s Your will, I’ll go to Africa.” But it is not a prayer that will change things. Faith is what changes things in the physical realm. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It takes faith to get substance. According to Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes from believing the promise of God. If you don’t know what God said about something, you don’t have any basis for faith. It’s your responsibility to go to the Word and find out what He said. Proverbs 4:20-22 says, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Standing on the Word makes God’s power available to you. Agree With God’s Word God has given us His Word to teach us about Himself, to teach us how He thinks and what His will is, so we can learn to agree with Him. We will have success in whatever areas we learn to agree with God, both in our words and our actions. He told Joshua, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8). Once you find the will of God in a situation, you then know how to pray. Romans 10:8 says, “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith.” If you need a mountain moved out of your life, it requires believing God with your heart and speaking it out your mouth. The spirit of faith says what the Word says (2 Corinthians 4:13). 16 : BVOV

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