The 2 Kinds of Faith

"Unanswered prayer stands between the individual and a faith life."

That is the opening sentence of a booklet by E.W. Kenyon titled The 2 Kinds of Faith.

I have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on that supposition. How many, I wonder, are involved enough in their Christian walk to have this kind of thought rise to the surface of their consciousness? In our society today there is such an excess of plenty that one can obtain an acceptable level of living purely by osmosis. It is easy then to say, "Praise the Lord!" because it is obvious it came from Him and, after all, they DID pray for it.

There is a division at that point in life, however. On the one hand there are those as above who get what they are satisfied with in a reasonable amount of time and simply go on living as always. These are the same people that populate the "Success" seminars and make all the positive thinking preachers (religious or secular) rich.

The other side of the split is those who do not obtain what they want or need. Out of the many, many books dealing with the subject of unanswered prayer the overwhelming majority present the solution as some form of sin correction rather than dealing with the root of prayer- faith.

This booklet provides one of those light bulb moments in understanding the workings of faith. In it is presented the contrast between mere "Mental Assent" and "Faith."

The most basic point of relevance regarding these two reveals itself in the Bible teaching about Jesus. How many people give mental assent to the truths regarding Jesus, yet never truly exercise faith in Him for their personal salvation?

Such a person will always be separated from God-

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "but the righteous man shall live by faith." (Rom 1:16-17)

I hate CATS

In this post I begin a series on Prayer. I hope to challenge you in your complacency and your misconceptions about this most important part of the Christian life. What you may initially think I mean in the title of this post is probably one of the things you find least "offensive" in the following series, -or, hopefully, not.

The problem with prayer is that people have learned everything they know about it from the wrong places. They have either read a book or heard a message on prayer. While that in itself is not bad, it becomes bad when it is not backed up by Scriptural truth.

Wait, it gets worse. In the worst offenses against "truth in prayer" the Bible itself is used as the starting point for the teaching. "How could that be bad?" you ask. It is bad because while they may start with the Word, instead of going into the truth of the text, they launch out into fantasy. These false teachings are repeated over and over until they eventually become doctrine.

To begin again,
I don't hate cats--the furry little vermin--although my attitude towards them is in fair approximation to their obvious disdain for me.

I hate CATS.
The dreaded teaching that "Prayer is Confession, Adoration, Thanksgiving and Supplication."

It is obvious but not certainly trite to say, words have meanings. Each one of these words have a meaning, their own individual meaning.

Confession is not thanksgiving, adoration is not supplication. Go through all of the permutations and you end up with:
Prayer is NOT Confession, Adoration, Thanksgiving or Supplication.

What is prayer? - Prayer is ASKING.
By mixing in the activities which go along with prayer the most important (from our perspective) fact concerning prayer is obfuscated- the answer to prayer is RECEIVING.

With that understanding clear in our minds we can move on to an effectual prayer life and avoid all of the pseudo-spiritual maneuverings and Oprah book of the month plans and search out the true teaching and meaning of prayer from the source- God's Word.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints Ephesians 6:18