总题：神在信仰里的经纶
GOD'S ECONOMY IN FAITH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message Three
Praying with God as Our Faith
Scripture Reading: Mark 11:20-24
I. In order to pray with God as our faith, we need to know the meaning of prayer—Matt. 6:9-10; 21:22; 1 John 5:14-15:
A. Prayer is the flowing between man and God and the mutual contact between man and God.
B. The real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself—Eph. 6:18.
C. A praying person will cooperate with God, work together with God, and allow God to express Himself and His desire from within him and through him.
D. Real prayers cause our being to be wholly mingled with God and God to be mingled with us—1 Cor. 6:17.
E. The more we pray, the more we will be filled with God and the more we will surrender to God and be gained by Him.
F. To pray means to realize that we are nothing and that we can do nothing—Mark 9:28-29.
G. The governing principle of our prayer should be that prayer brings us into God; the issue of proper prayer is that we find ourselves in God—Luke 11:1-13.
H. Prayer is believers cooperating and co-working with God, allowing God to express Himself through them, and thus accomplish His purpose—Rom. 8:26-27; James 5:17.
II. In cursing the fig tree, a symbol of the nation of Israel (Jer. 24:2, 5, 8), so that it dried up, the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray by faith—Matt. 21:18-22; Mark 11:20-24:
A. His teaching here was according to God's will, which is to be accomplished for the fulfillment of His economy—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 1:5, 9; 5:17:
1. Not many see that the Lord's teaching on prayer is related to God's economy, which is to be accomplished by His faithful people doing His will.
2. To pray such a prayer, we must be right persons doing God's will—His great will for the accomplishment of His economy—Rev. 4:11.
3. We should be those who are carrying out God's will to accomplish His economy—to produce an organism for His good pleasure—Eph. 1:5, 9, 22-23.
B. The Lord Jesus, who is right in the eyes of God, knows God's heart, so His cursing the fig tree was according to His knowledge of God's will in the fulfillment of God's economy to give up the rotten Israel—Matt. 21:19.
C. Based upon this background, the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray for executing God's will according to His economy by faith—vv. 21-22.
D. Our prayer should carry out God's will to have the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 1:9, 22-23; Rev. 21:2.
III. We need to pray with God as our faith—Mark 11:20-24:
A. In Mark 11:20-24 the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray by faith for executing God's will.
B. When the praying one is mingled with God and is one with God, God becomes his faith; this is what it means to have faith in God—v. 22.
C. The praying one can have faith in God without doubting, but believing that he has received what he asked for, and he will receive it.
D. In verse 24 the Lord Jesus said, "All things that you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and you will have them":
1. Received is the crucial word in Mark 11:24; faith is believing that we have received what we have asked for.
2. The promise in this verse is comprehensive because it speaks of "all things."
3. Mark 11:24 speaks not only of the necessity of faith but also of the nature of faith; faith refers to the past, not to anything in the future.
4. According to the Lord's word, we should believe that we have received, not that we will receive—v. 24.
5. To hope means to expect something in the future; to believe means to consider something as having been done.
6. Faith is not only believing that God can or will do a certain thing but also believing that God has done that thing already.
E. If we pray according to God's will for the fulfillment of His economy, we are one with God and have the assurance that we have received what we have prayed for—Matt. 6:9-10:
1. If we ask the Lord for things that satisfy our desire, we can never have the faith in God to believe that we have received what we asked for; this is because our prayer is not according to God's will for the fulfillment of God's economy.
2. If we are absolutely one with God, we can have God as our faith and pray according to the knowledge of God's will for the fulfillment of His economy, and we will believe that we have already received the things that we asked for and will receive them—Mark 11:24.
IV. The prayer in Mark 11:20-24 is a prayer with authority—v. 23:
A. The most important prayer and the most spiritual prayer is the prayer of authority—Matt. 18:18; Mark 11:20-24.
B. The prayer of authority is a command based on authority—Isa. 45:11; Mark 11:20-24:
1. The prayer of authority is a commanding prayer—Isa. 45:11.
2. If we wish to have weighty and valuable prayers before God, we need to be able to give out some authoritative commands before God—Mark 11:23.
C. Praying with authority is praying the prayer of Mark 11:20-24:
1. A prayer with authority does not ask God to do something; rather, it exercises God's authority and applies this authority to deal with problems and things that ought to be removed—v. 23; Zech. 4:7; Matt. 21:21.
2. A prayer with authority is not asking God directly; rather, it is dealing with problems by directly applying God's authority—Exo. 14:15-27.
D. Prayer with authority has much to do with the overcomers; every overcomer must learn to speak to "this mountain"—Mark 11:23:
1. God has commissioned us to command what He has commanded and give orders to what He has given orders to—Matt. 17:20.
2. This kind of prayer is directed not toward God but toward "this mountain."
3. The most important work of the overcomers is to bring the authority of the throne to earth; if we want to be an overcomer, we must learn to pray with authority and speak to the mountain—Rev. 11:15; 12:10.