Faith

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24)


The seventh and last step, in some respect the simplest of all and yet to many the most difficult, is faith. God's most positive and unqualified promises must be appropriated by faith. "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:6-7). Unless we believe the promise and confidently expect God to do what He has so definitely promised to do, our prayer will bring no result. Here is where countless seekers fail: they do not confidently expect the blessing.


But there is a faith that goes beyond expectation, a faith that just puts out its hand and takes the very thing it asks of God - "believe that you have received it". This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him' (1 John 5:14). In our In our definite prayer for the Holy Spirit, there is no question as to whether it is the will of God, and therefore we know that He hears our request. Therefore, I know that I have the baptism with the Holy Spirit based upon my simple faith in the Word of God.


Deal with yourself in this matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit just as you deal with the matter of an assurance of salvation. Based on the Word of God that if we believe in Jesus Christ we have eternal life, whether we feel it or not, so the Holy Spirit. Be sure you have met the conditions, and then simply ask, claim and act. Whether or not any experience follows, rest assured that there will be some manifestation of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7), but every manifestation of the baptism with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament was in new power in service for God, not in power for feelings.


Dear Father, so much of this comes back to grasping for feelings and hoping for a certain type of experience. I release all that and stand before You with nothing but Your promise. It is Your will to fill me with the Spirit, and I have received Him as a gift by faith. I await the way You desire to manifest it in my life, but I anticipate my service to You. Amen.


~R. A. Torrey~