Ask & Receive: Learn How to Pray and Make Your Desires Come to Pass
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Ask & Receive: Learn How to Pray and Make Your Desires Come to Pass
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781482825466 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Partridge Publishing Africa |
| Publication date: | 02/19/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 136 |
| File size: | 847 KB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Ask & Receive
Learn How to Pray and Make Your Desires Come to Pass
By Andrew Mutondoro
Partridge Africa
Copyright © 2015 Andrew MutondoroAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4828-2545-9
CHAPTER 1
Expectations
I can assure you that as you read this book, you are going to learn how to receive that which you desire and the solutions to everything that you will ever ask for in prayer.
Hosea 4:6 says, 'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge' (New King James Bible). The knowledge referred to here is knowledge of God's Word. God's people can fail in life if they are ignorant of God's Word.
Man is a spirit that has a soul and lives in a body. With his spirit, he relates with the spirit realm, the realm of his actual existence. With his body, he makes contact with the material world, and with his soul, he contacts the intellectual realm. Your soul contains your feelings (emotions), intellect, willpower, mind (thoughts, reasoning, and mindset), and your decision-making ability. When you are born again, it is not your soul or body that is born again but rather your spirit. As a result of this, you are fresh — the new that has come in Christ (into this world). Your soul and spirit are what are often referred to as your inner man.
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17, Amplified Bible)
It is your spirit that is in Christ — that is, the real you (the inner man) — that relates to God. We understand the things of God from our spirit. Romans 10:10 below illustrates this.
For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation. (Romans 10:10, Amplified Bible)
We must condition our minds to go in the same direction and condition our senses to function likewise. You need the Holy Spirit to guide and teach you to understand God's Word and renew your mind.
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. (Romans 12:2, Amplified Bible)
So you are to control your mind and your senses from your spirit. That means the character that you express outwardly depends on the condition of your spirit, which is your heart. That is why we need the Spirit of God to guide us because only the Holy Spirit can get deep into the human heart to effect the changes that God wants in us: changes from one level of glory to another. The Holy Spirit of God guides our minds to think towards God, think like God, and to think from God. Man cannot do that by himself; it takes the Holy Spirit to help us achieve that because our senses were not designed to relate with God. We can only relate to God from our spirit.
Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:24, KJV)
This verse makes it clear that whatever we ask for in prayer, we must have an expectation that we will receive. Notice that the verse did not say that some things you desire, you will receive, but it makes it clear that whatsoever you ask for in prayer, you will receive, provided that you believe you have received.
The Greek word translated believe in Mark 11:24 is pisteuo, and it means to believe, entrust, and trust. These are explained below:
1. Pisteuo means believe. To believe is to accept something as true. Therefore, when you pray, you must accept that God's Word is truth, and you must use it for your instruction, correction, reproof, discipline, and training in righteousness. This will make you effective in your prayer life.
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17, New International Version)
Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action), so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17, Amplified Bible)
Prayer requires that you pray in accordance with God's Word. You must believe in God's Word concerning the matter that you are taking up in prayer.
2. Pisteuo means to entrust. To entrust is to assign the responsibility for doing something to someone. When you pray, you entrust God with the responsibility to do that which you are asking Him to do. You make God the doer of your request. Too many people are frustrated with the lack of results in their prayer life because when they pray, they try to do what God is supposed to do. For example, people will pray and give God instructions, like 'Do this in three days' or 'Do this now!' Remember that you are not God's boss; how can you possibly instruct Him? God can instruct you, but you cannot instruct Him. You ask and make requests to Him. Your duty is to ask in prayer with the belief that God will do what you have asked Him to do: entrust God.
3. Pisteuo means to trust. To trust means you have firm confidence in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. You are certain that God will perform that which you are trusting Him to do; failure is not a possibility at all. Trusting is different from entrusting. Someone who is entrusted to do something may not necessarily do it.
God is trustworthy and always ready to perform His Word (see Jeremiah 1:12 below).
Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12, Amplified Bible)
God makes it clear in the above verse that He is alert, active, and always ready to perform His Word. Whatever God says He wants to do, He has the ability to do it. The question is, are you courageous enough to believe it? Being courageous means you dare to believe what God says He will do. When you dare to believe what God's Word says, then you should act on it. You become a doer of God's Word. Prior to Jeremiah 1:12 above, God makes it clear that before Jeremiah was in his mother's womb, God already knew him and had a purpose for him to be a prophet to the nation of Israel (Jeremiah 1:5). God has a divine purpose for everyone. Jeremiah heard God's Word, but instead of acting on it, he looked at himself through his senses instead of seeing himself the way God saw him. Jeremiah gave excuses and saw his own limitations by saying that he could not speak and was only a youth (Jeremiah 1:6). Thankfully, Jeremiah had positioned himself to hear God's Word.
God did not look at Jeremiah as an inadequate youth who could not speak, so He told him to stop giving his youth as an excuse not to perform but to rather go and speak wherever God sent him (Jeremiah 1:7). God told Jeremiah not to be afraid and exhorted him to refuse to fear but to be courageous and know that he was secure and would be delivered from all challenges (Jeremiah 1:8). God anointed Jeremiah's mouth and put words into it (Jeremiah 1:9), ensuring that he had speaking ability. As Jeremiah continued to position himself to hear God's Word, his faith grew, and God increased his responsibilities from being a prophet to Israel to a prophet to many kingdoms with the ability to build or destroy them (Jeremiah 1:10). Jeremiah was now promoted and started seeing spiritually, the way God saw him (Jeremiah 1:11). Now that Jeremiah was able to see the way God saw him, God assured Jeremiah that He (God) is alive, active, and ready to perform His Word (Jeremiah 1:12), guaranteeing that Jeremiah's life would be exciting and filled with great testimonies.
Therefore, when you go to pray, believe that God will perform His Word. Every prayer request you make to God in agreement with His Word will definitely come to pass. Do you have this confidence when you pray?
The Amplified Bible presents Mark 11:24 with greater clarity, as illustrated below:
For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it]. (Mark 11:24, Amplified Bible)
In John 15:16, Jesus says, 'You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you I have planted you, that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting that it may remain, abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name as presenting all that I AM, He may give it to you' (Amplified Bible).
As a Christian, you are ordained (anointed, appointed) to receive the following three things:
1. You are ordained to bear fruit — that is, produce good results. You must not accept a life of struggle without good results. Never say 'I have done everything and nothing seems to work out'; that would be tantamount to making God a liar, yet we have already seen from scripture that He is always alert and active to perform His Word (Jeremiah 1:12). The quality of life you lead is directly proportional to the revelation knowledge you have about God and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:2, Hosea 4:6).
2. You are ordained to keep on producing good fruits — that is, good results that remain. This is remarkable. If you are born again, you will leave a legacy of goodness, provided you are a faithful doer of God's Word. Every Christian is designed to leave a legacy of goodness. You do not fail; you are a success in Jesus' name. Amen.
3. Whatever you ask the Father in the name of Jesus, God will give you. John 15:16 makes it clear that you are ordained to receive answers to every prayer request. Your prayer life must produce results; it must not be frustrating.
With such assurances from God's Word, make up your mind to make God the centre of everything that you do, and you will become a burning and shining light wherever you go. John 3:30 in the Message Bible says, 'That's why my cup is running over. This is the assigned moment for him to move into the centre, while I slip off to the sidelines.'
Remember in John 3:16, Jesus makes it clear that He came so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish and cannot be destroyed but will have everlasting, eternal life.
For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten unique Son, so that whoever believes in trusts in, clings to, relies on Him shall not perish come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal everlasting life. (John 3:16, Amplified Bible)
If you are born again, the life of God is working in you, and it is your nature not to fail. Start saying that you are a success; you do not fail. Jesus died for you so that you cannot perish or be destroyed. You are a winner full-time, a champion forever. By so doing, you are speaking words of life instead of death and failure, for the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).
There is no room for failure in your prayers. In His Word, God shows that He is more interested in your success than you can ever be. It is, therefore, clear that when you pray, you must have an expectation to receive answers to your prayers.
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Mark 11:24, New King James Bible)
In Mark 11:24, the Greek word translated receive is lambano, and it means not only to receive but also to take hold of, to accept, to catch, to have, to hold, or to obtain. You lambano with your spirit. Therefore, whatever you lambano in your spirit will manifest. When you lambano, you see and have the victories in your spirit. It is imperative that you have the victory note in your spirit regardless of how small or large your prayer requests may be. The Message Bible paraphrases Mark 11:24 wonderfully below.
That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything. (Mark 11:24, the Message Bible)
Your prayer life is destined to ensure that you get God's everything for you. Let it be your expectation every time you pray. You will fulfil your destiny in Christ.
For surely there is a future hope; and your expectation shall not be cut off. (Proverbs 23:18, King James 2000 Bible)
CHAPTER 2Doubt and Unbelief
You must never have doubt and unbelief in prayer. If in doubt, then you have unbelief and do not hold God's Word to be truth; you cannot entrust God to do what you are asking, and your prayers are devoid of the confidence that God can perform His Word all the time.
For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. (Mark 11:23, New King James Bible)
We are being instructed to believe and not have doubt in our hearts. People act on their beliefs; a demonstration of faith is acting on your beliefs. In Mark 11:22, Jesus categorically instructs us to 'have faith in God'. This is an instruction for us to act on whatever God tells us to do. You can only act on what God tells you to do if you believe in Him. Therefore, believe everything that God tells you in His Word, and act on it without delay. If you are in doubt, you have uncertainty and cannot act on your beliefs. This means you have no faith in God for the challenge you face and cannot do what God's Word tells you to do.
Doubt manifests as a result of receiving wrong information or news which causes a person to have wrong thoughts (reasoning, perception, mindset) and ultimately make wrong decisions that can result in failure. When you doubt, you give satan room to attack you; doubt will make fear dominate your mind.
James 1:6–8 below shows characteristics of people who operate in doubt and not in faith.
Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord, [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides]. (James 1:6–8, Amplified Bible)
If you doubt, you can be easily persuaded to act contrary to God's Word, and this results in failure in your life. A person full of doubt is double-minded (a person of two minds). A double-minded person is forever unstable, unreliable, uncertain, changing, or wavering in positions; he operates on preference and not conviction. Such persons are often overly critical, have a negative attitude, always see the worst side of people, and fail to see the love that others have for them. People who doubted that Jesus was the Messiah got Him crucified, yet He came in love to help them so that they might not perish but have everlasting eternal life (John 3:16). Doubt can make you side with the wrong people. Doubt can make you quit doing what is right. You cannot afford to have doubt in your mindset.
The cure for doubt is faith, and as we already know, faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). As you hear God's Word, do not keep quiet; act on it, speak it without ceasing, and doubt will never be your portion. God has confidence in you regardless of what your critics say. No weapon fashioned against you can ever prosper; no schemes of Satan are big and strong enough to drown you.
When Jesus went to Nazareth, He could not do great works of power in that place because the people had unbelief. Jesus responded by teaching them the truth so that their unbelief could go away.
Now He (Jesus) could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit teaching. (Mark 6:5–7, New King James Bible)
The cure for unbelief and doubt is to teach the truth contained in God's Word, meditate on the Word. The Word of God will make you move from one degree of glory to another (upwards and forwards only).
And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, Amplified Bible)
But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit. (Jude 1:20, Amplified Bible)
Jude 1:20 makes it clear that you must build up on your most holy faith by praying in the Spirit, and you will rise like an edifice (upwards and forwards only).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Ask & Receive by Andrew Mutondoro. Copyright © 2015 Andrew Mutondoro. Excerpted by permission of Partridge Africa.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Dedication, vii,Introduction, ix,
Chapter 1: Expectations, 1,
Chapter 2: Doubt and Unbelief, 11,
Chapter 3: Be Alert: Watch and Pray, 17,
Chapter 4: Whatsoever Mentality, 21,
Chapter 5: Have Faith in God When You Pray, 29,
Chapter 6: Love Factor, 39,
Chapter 7: Abide in Prayer, 49,
Chapter 8: Say and Move Mountains, 57,
Chapter 9: Answer the Mountain, 61,
Chapter 10: Bring Word to the Mountain, 67,
Chapter 11: Call to the Mountain, 77,
Chapter 12: Command the Mountain, 83,
Chapter 13: Make Prayer Your Lifestyle, 85,
Chapter 14: Conclusion, 89,
Testimonies, 93,
Index, 119,
About the Author, 123,