"I prayed and nothing happened"

Okay Word of Faith crowd. Time to man up, or put on your big girl panties.

I'm WoF. Have been and always will be. Seen God's power work and operated faith principles. Been saved since 89. I've been around the block a few times. I've seen plenty of miracles and answered prayer, and plenty of unanswered prayer.

What do you tell people when they say "I prayed and nothing happened"? I see this over and over and over. Someone is in the Faith movement for 5, 10, 15 years, then gets themselves a big ol storm blow in on top of them and it wrecks them. They made all the confessions, claimed the promise, yet their prayers go unanswered and they don't receive what they prayed about. After that, they are hurt, they blame WoF for misguiding them, and turn on the Word of Faith.

What do you tell folks when they come to you like that? How do you explain their unanswered prayer, if at all? The accusation I see all the time is "WoF is not compassionate" and "WoF blames the person for not having enough faith". Is that true about us WoF crowd?

The book of James will help you in this case.

God Bless You!

When having done all stand. That's what is written in Ephesians 6.

Why give up? You're sure to fail then. And if you did give up, to whom would you go? I can only cleave to Jesus and what He has spoken. I've come to realize long ago, there is nowhere else to go. He alone has the words of life.

There are some things to examine. Let's rule out the possibility that what one was asking was not in the will of God. Or what one heard and decided to "try" was what some one else did or said. We can't base our faith by that alone, but we must live by every Word of God. We cannot live by decisions made from the head - "That sounds like a good idea. I'll try that." But we must live by what we are persuaded of from the heart. Remember Abraham was "fully persuaded". Then we stand. And we seek God. We ask Him to teach us, to show us what we need to do. We fast to shut up the flesh and hear with our spirit. He will show us. Sometimes we just need to continue to stand.

Yes, we need to be compassionate. I have noticed some can be rather harsh. I hear preachers come on strong, and in the right setting they can do that but when you're face to face with someone, one on one, the dynamics change and you can't always use the same tactics, yet hold to truth. We must always be gentle when restoring someone. We must be gentle and able to teach. And we must do it in a spirit of humility.

__________________
Philippians 3:7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ —the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 [My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

I would ask them if they are asking God for something they already have or something that He commanded them to do.

I would say 95% of all prayer requests I hear in churches are:

1) Asking God for something they already have
2) Asking God to do something that He told us to do.

So, if someone says I asked for healing and nothing happened, then that is ridiculous. They are healed - what they need to do is speak to the sickness and command it to leave (Mark 11.23). You are healed by the stripes of Jesus, so you cannot ask to be healed - it is illogical. A Christian can no more ask to be healed than a teapot can ask to be a teapot. It is an absurd request.

This applies for a whole range of other issues as well - to be wealthy, to be happy and joyful, to be righteous, to be free from sin. We are NOT beggars, we are COMMANDERS!

And then the second issue: here is a great example, I asked for my mother to be saved, but she wasn't. Well, that is the wrong way around - God told you to go into all the world and preach the gospel, not the other way around. You cannot pray "God, go and speak to my mom", He told you first and He is God!

We pray for the nation to be saved - go save it. We pray for the church to grow - go grow it. We pray for the captives to be set free - go set them free.

Hope this helps,

Glory and freedom,
Benjamin

__________________
Paul speaks of the hidden man of the heart. That is the You that is in you. The visible you is not the You that puts you over. It is the unseen You who wins the fight. - E.W. Kenyon

You're absolutely right, Ben. I was assuming WoF people knew this.

__________________
Philippians 3:7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ —the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 [My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

Never assume WoF people know things, Cindy...

Certainly not in England anyway!

__________________
Paul speaks of the hidden man of the heart. That is the You that is in you. The visible you is not the You that puts you over. It is the unseen You who wins the fight. - E.W. Kenyon

That's why you make an excellent pastor, and I am not a pastor.

__________________
Philippians 3:7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ —the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 [My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

Hey brother jedi,
continue to stand never give in to sight, stay in faith, until the test becomes your testimony. God is faithful, and I know that you know that.
I have seen what goes on in that other forum, and I am sure as you read what they write, as I have seen. when the do not get their answer asap, it is the preachers fault, or bad theology.
we stand as well as you stand in faith always, and through everything.
Be Blessed

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

One thing I won't do is tell them something which causes them to stop believing.

I mean, how many years did Abraham believe God for Isaac?

How many years did Noah preach til the flood came?

How many years did Moses keep telling them of a coming Promised Land?

I am sure that many people in the Bible went through the above described scenario. But after 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 years [or 40 in the case of Moses], God still came through.

Look at the dreams God gave Joseph and how long they came to pass.

We cannot sit in our armchair quarterback seats and say "well, that person needs to have faith" when for all we know, they already have faith, and perhaps they just need to wait on the Lord.

Waiting on the Lord is a hard lesson.

But sometimes the whole kingdom hinges only on timing.

And if God is anything, He is a God of timing.

The answer is simple.... though people do not want to hear it.

They .... did .... not ... believe.....!!!!!!

Period.

If they did, whatever they asked for would have happened.
Jesus did not lie. It was true then and it is true today. If they HAD beleived, they would have what they asked for.

Why is it so hard to accept the fact that sometimes people do not believe, or that some things are simply beyond your ability to believe?

If it comes down to questioning the truth of God's word or simply acknowledging my own potential for failure... there is no contest.

Why is it so important to feel good about your faith? The entire concept behind the question betrays the problem. These folks are more concerned with the integrity of their own spirituality than they are the integrity of God and His word. Forget about your spirituality. Forget about feelilng good about your faith. Declare God to be true and walk on! You have done all you can... so just STAND. But NEVER under any circumstances suggest that what God said is not 110% true!

Essentially they are forcing us into a corner... they want us to either be "sweet and compassionate" and tell them they are "ok"... but suggest to them that God lied.

Sorry.. that is not an option. It is going to be up to THEM to decided to let God be true and every man a liar. It is going to be up to them put up or shut up. It God true or not? I do not care how many times prayers seem to not be answered. I do not care how many people appear not be to be healed. NONE of that matters. The most important thing is to declare God to be true... regardless of what happens.

STAND WITH GOD AND HIS WORD!!!!!