heaven's tree book club

August 19, 2012

Affirming Your Answered Prayer
This is how you build stronger faith: by confessing what God's Word says and hearing with your own ears those words.

I am a little frustrated as I write this. in my word processor. My brother said the internet is not working. He said can I reset the internet. I said sure not thinking that he would turn off the power to the power strip. I thought he would turn off the switch to the box and nothing that I am typing would be effected. I was so wrong. He flipped off the switch to the power strip that include my clock radio and desktop computer and printer. I lost everything I just wrote for today. Just then the phone was buzzing. My mom was like what is that noise. Then my brother was like that is the phone, you did not hang it up. Then my brother is like, so that was the problem. So, had my mom hung up the phone properly, my brother would not have turn off my power strip, and everything that I wrote was not lost. My brother gave me no warning that he would completely turn off everything that is using power. He should have said that I need to save my documents. I lost everything. What is more, my mom did not admit that she did not hang up the phone properly even though she was the last one to use it. She said she didn't do it. There is no use in blaming people right now, the fact still is that everything I wrote is gone. Nothing can bring it back. I sometimes wrestle with whether or not living alone would solve a lot of problems. It is moments like these when what other people do cause frustration that I begin this road of thinking. What is more is that I was right about to save my work. I totally did not know he would flip off the switch to all power in my room. I didn't get angry like yelling and hitting things, but I am quite upset that all this happened. One thing this health condition is teaching me is to think beyond today. In the big picture getting really angry wouldn't solve anything. It would not bring my document back. It would probably damage my relationship with my brother who I've been praying for. Today's lesson is really trying to understanding love. The pastor's wife in her sharing said too many Asian people emphasize God's wrath and the law. We need that, but we also need to understand God's love. Today I woke up really early and could not go back to sleep. I really did not feel like going to church today nor needing to go one hour early to pick up one of the children. Nor did I want to sit in my dad's Sunday school for an hour to listen to a language I don't fully understand. I've learned a few things today. The old women really enjoy my dad's study in Genesis. They say he explains the Bible better than anyone they know and it really helps. I see 80-something year old women excited to come to my dad's Sunday school. I hear that had we not picked up the child this morning, the coordinator would have to say to her that we cannot provide a ride for you to come to church. That would have been quite sad. She was happy to come to church today. We got to take four children home and they had quite a bit of energy. I felt happy that we could serve in this capacity and realize I like being around kids. They have so much joy and simplicity, two things I really lack right now. I am growing, little by little to be less selfish. I was so happy to see two children in church today because they had been gone for over a month after their grandfather had died. We had been concerned that the tragedy had made them stop believing in God. Healing works not just from some physical cure. It involves so much more.. The pastor talked today about God having a plan for us but before He can bring us into that plan, He is working on our maturity. The person needs to fit the plan. One thing I really like about this pastor is his repeating of the simple phrases like we are special to God, and trust God, and He has a plan for us. He spoke also about timing and God's timing and how God's timing is the right timing. This third step touches on this fact.
Step 3: Affirm What You Have Asked For
"I lnce you have prayed, believing you have received it, you are ready for ingredient number three—let every thought and desire affirm that you have what you have asked God for.
Don't doubt your own prayer. Begin to see yourself as having that prayer already fulfilled, even if you do not see it in the natural. You need to thank God daily for answering that prayer. It's important to understand that this is not a confession of the physical fact, because you cannot lie. In the natural you do nor see it yet. But 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Another way of putting that is, "For we walk by faith in what God has already provided, not by the senses that tell us otherwise." Remember that the spirit world coexists with this natural world, and something can be completely real in the spirit world, yet we are oblivious to it."
These past couple of days, I have really been spiritually attacked. My feelings have been very sad and tired. Certainly not enough sleep plays into this, but I have been really sad. I want to believe in my mind that God did in fact hear my prayer and He will soon heal me, but every feeling goes against it. It is past the half way mark of August and I so wanted this month to be the breakthrough month. I don't want to say there is no hope because that would nullify believing that God answered my prayer. However, both me and dad were pretty discouraged about a lot of things ranging from finances to my health situation. We even wrestled with whether or not we were going to church after today. Dad and I wrestle with so much negative thoughts but thank God for worship music on the radio.
"He demands that we come to Him in faith, not on the basis of evidence that leaves you without a choice.
Theoretically, you might say, "I don't believe in gravity," but you will conduct your life 100 percent in alignment with the theory of gravity as if you did believe it. So that really is not a choice. God will not force you to do anything or to believe anything. He will give you plenty of evidence, but there will always be a little something unproven so that you have to take it on faith.
Another example of how you take things on faith all the time without realizing it is this: Do you have a brain? How do you know? You've never seen it! You accept it as fact because medical science has told us that you need a brain for many functions— including reading this book. It underscores, however, the fact that we do not know everything through the five senses, just as the philosopher John Locke claimed in his famous book An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. We are not a "blank slate" or a tabula raza as he claimed, only learning things through touch, taste, hearing, smelling, and sight. Otherwise, how would you ever learn the word learn? Or love? You can't taste democracy or smell before or hear until. All these ideas come to your brain— which you can't see—through learning processes that you can't see, taste, hear, smell, or touch."
Sometimes I would really like it if God shows up in a powerful way so that we would know beyond a doubt He is real. Sometimes He seems so absent. Yet, God doesn't operate like that. I don't feel God sometimes. We cannot touch God. We cannot see Him. We cannot smell Him. We cannot taste or hear Him.. But, much like the illustration about the brain, we cannot see our own brain or hear it or smell it, but we know it is real.. Faith sometimes seems really complicated.
"Every time Jesus came to the disciples supernaturally, the first thing He said was, "Fear not!" Before you can get into faith, you have to get rid of fear, or, put another way, you can get rid of fear by confessing your faith."
Fear is a major tool the enemy uses to paralyze our faith. Much of my fear really comes from a good amount of unbelief that God is who He says He is. Can God really help me? Is God really sovereign? Fear really hinders us from experiencing God's power and provision.
"Satan also uses friends—some of them sincere, well-meaning Christians—to attack your confession. If your friends don't understand what you are doing or how faith works, they will say things like, "Aunt Doris had that kind of cancer, and she died!" Or, "My cousin Louis lost his job, and they ended up taking away his house!" You absolutely cannot allow even good-hearted friends to deflect your confession of affirmation. Even spouses (and this is where the prayer of agreement is relevant) have to be on the same page with your confession, or they can say things that will torpedo your prayer requests by getting you into negative confessions. "Well, maybe I wasn't meant to have that car." "God just didn't want me moving to Nevada at this time." God didn't have anything to say about your car or your move. Your friends put those ideas into your head. It's very hard, especially for people who really don't understand the so-called "Faith Movement," for people to be supportive in your confession when in the natural they don't see anything. Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to isolate yourself from some of your well-meaning friends and relatives. Jesus frequently went off by Himself. I'm convinced that after a while, even He had to get away from Thomas and the other doubters.
Friends will often come to you under the subterfuge of being concerned about your situation. Some of them may be concerned about your situation, but far more are concerned that you are going to achieve success where rhey have failed, and in essence they are trying to talk you out of success. If they say something to you that is not in line with your prayer confession, just reply, "Well, praise God, I know that I am promised [fill in the promise here], and I still believe I have received it. But thank you for your concern." Then change the subject!"
This is really true. My parents, and certain people in church have really fed my unbelief. Medical newsletters also have been really discouraging. My mom in particular, as someone who does not know God really discourages me. She asked me when am I going to be healed in a moment when I was really discouraged last night and I very discouragingly said I don't know. That was a moment to confess faith, but I felt really defeated. I also rationalize also. I found out yesterday my letter that Ineeded to apply for the Reno job got mailed to the wrong address. I could have applied but since it came late, the deadline passed. I guess I was not suppose to go to Reno. I run into discouragement so much from friends, family, and my own thoughts.
"Peter told us that we had to add patience to our list of virtues. (See 2 Peter 1:5-7.) We had to add it—God wasn't going to add it for us. Our modern one-click world leaves us somewhat unrealistic in our beliefs about what real patience is. Some prayer requests require years of confession.
Let me give you an example of how consistent you have to be with your confirmation that affirms your prayer. I know an author in the Midwest who, years ago, began writing a history book. It was a large undertaking, covering all two hundred plus years of American history and then some, and it took more than a decade to research and write. All the time he was writing that book, he told me that he was confessing, "Thank You, Lord, for giving me a publisher for this book." Before he had it halfway written, he was already focusing on receiving a publisher. His book was somewhat controversial, so in the natural it was questionable if he would ever get it published. So he had to focus on his confession that God would provide a publisher.
Sure enough, when ir was completed, he had not one, but two offers from publishers, each with a nice advance. As soon as he had a publisher, he began confessing the success of the book in rhe marketplace, even though ir was an eighr-hund red-page nonfiction, hardcover book. Still, he began confessing it would be a best seller. This was more than a year before the book actually appeared in print. But he was consistent, and when it finally came out, it received accolades from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and it was indeed a best seller. He told me that he had essentially been praying and confessing that result for upwards of ten years, but it worked.
Not only did that episode result in answered prayer, but it gave him faith evidence for his next prayer request. The next time he prays about something of the same nature, it shouldn't take ten years at all, but a fraction of that time to get what he has asked for."
Patience is something really hard for young people these days. We are all about instant gratification, instant messages, instant noodles. Imagine taking on this huge book to write and publish and the doubts that came up along the way. I love this illustration because we see how his faith and confession and prayers became successful. A really huge impossible thing is praying for my sight. I was first born with my eye condition. Then, it is nerve damange of the optic nerve. I pray for my sight from time to time but never with full faith. I have given up so many times on this. God wants to grow us but many times I give up far before significant change takes place.
"ingredient four, I say, "Thoughts are governed by observation, association, and teaching," and that you should "guard against every evil thought that comes into your mind," let me clarify something. You have no control over what thoughts will come to you. Indeed, as soon as I say, "Don't think pink!" you immediately think "pink."
This fourth step is also known in the psychology community as mental filtering. Watch what thoughts are entering into our mind and filter it through and challenge each of these thoughts. This can be really done through the next step.

"Keep your eyes on God's promises, for those He will not break. If He has promised it to you, then you are entitled to it.
Matthew 8:17 says, referring to Jesus, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore [literally, "carried"] our sicknesses." It's obvious to me that if Jesus took them and bore them, then He must not have wanted me to have them. Yet the Word will be healing salve—a medicine to you—only if you know this verse and apply it to your health situation. Look at 1 Peter 2:24: ".. .who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed." This is almost exactly what Matthew wrote. So if your prayer is for healing, ingredient five says see yourself healed. Focus only on the promise of God that Jesus carried (past tense again) your sickness and healed you with His stripes. Make plans as though your disease did nor affect you."
I love this particular passage because it refers to healing and right now my biggest prayer is for healing. God promises healing and says that healing is His will and we find in His word promises of healing. We need to challenge thoughts of discouragement with the promises of healing and God's intention toward us.
"Ingredient six in the formula for answered prayer is this: in your waking moments, think on the love, mercy, goodness, and blessings of God, and it will boost your faith. God has shown me so much goodness and mercy that at times I think I must be His favorite child, but in reality I know that we are all "favorite children" of the most high God. Earlier in this teaching I referred to Philippians A:6: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Verse 7 continues by saying, "... and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Anxious here means "to be careful for." This is saying, "Don't be worried about anything." The word nothing includes everything you could possibly need—house, job, car, husband, wife, health, protection for your family, and so forth. In other words, Paul was writing that you should not have a single care, because you can make your request known to God."
Step five is a lot like step six and to think God thoughts. Not worry thoughts. I think the cross of Christ is a good place to think about His love and mercy. Worship has really helped me to think about God's love. After worship I am so much better spiritually. It is when it is night and I lie awake when I struggle to think positive God thoughts.. I find these steps helpful but it is putting them into practice which is hard.

The seventh and final step is to turn unbelief statements into faith statements which goes along with the last three steps about positive thoughts. One last passage I really like is one on when God answers:
"Remember just because you don't have it now doesn't mean you won't get it very soon. One of the most important words for a faith believer is yet: "Lord, I haven't seen this yet, but I believe I have already received it, and it will be made manifest any minute." Talk God's words. Repeat His promises. Personalize His blessings to yourself. And once again, this requires that you know God's Word so you can say God's words. How can you think God's thoughts when you don't know what they are?
What do you believe? Well, that's up to you, but if you want results, you better believe the Word.
Note that the verse says that we should not think more highly of ourselves than we "ought to think." That tells me I ought to think highly of myself. What is the proper balance, then? I submit to you that the proper thinking about yourself is to say what God says about you and to think what God thinks about you. If God cared enough to send His own Son to die for you, then you must be worth something.
Jesus told Peter in a vision about food, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." Other Bible translations interpret that phrase as, "What God has called clean, do not call unclean." This is about more than food, though—it is about you. Once you have been created a "new creature" in Christ Jesus, you are not an "old sinner saved by grace." Not anymore! You were, but that's not you now. You are a new creature in Jesus, a brother of the Messiah, and a son of the most high God. Exactly how highly should'you think of yourself, then?"
Prayer:
Father, You place a high value on us because You sent Your one and only Son to die for us. We are precious in Your sight. Sometimes I don't feel that. I live by feelings and then get discouraged. I believe by faith that You have healed me. Any minute now, You will remove this health condition from my body. Please teach me to cultivate faith and trust in You. Far too often as from this chapter fear and friends say things to discourage the very prayer we are praying. Help me to filter out and challenge these negative thoughts and to grow in my belief in Your power, goodness, and love.