Monthly Message

There has been a traditional idea that praying is praying, prayer is prayer, if you pray, you pray, and that is it. However, there are different kinds of prayers, just like there are different sports, and each kind of prayer, like each sport, has specific and definite rules that govern and control it. If you misapply the rule for a particular kind of prayer, that prayer will not work.

Some people do not understand this concept, and they think they have to end every prayer with, "If it be Your will." Used in that way, "If it be Your will" is a badge of doubt. "If it be Your will" means you do not know what God's will is. If you do not know what His will is, that has to mean you are praying in doubt. That is not a prayer of faith, and it will never work as a petition prayer.

There is a kind of prayer in which you use, "If it be Your will." That is A PRAYER OF CONSECRATION AND DEDICATION. The prayer Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane was such a prayer. With a prayer of consecration and dedication, you have to use, "If it be Your will," because you cannot go to the Bible for the exact particulars of your answer.

For example, when the Lord directed me to found Crenshaw Christian Center, I did not know where to go and start the church. I could not go to the Bible and find the verse that said, "Fred Price, go to such-and-such a place." For that reason, I had to pray, "Lord, if it be Your will…."

If you check the Bible very carefully, you will find that the only time Jesus prayed a prayer like that was in the garden of Gethsemane. In that kind of situation, you do not have any choice but to say, "If it be Your will."

Another type of prayer is THE PRAYER OF AGREEMENT. This is based on Matthew 18:19, in which Jesus says:

Notice, "… if two of you agree." The rule with the prayer of agreement is this: Let us say that two people are going to agree on something. If one person agrees that the thing is going to happen in the west, and the other person agrees it will happen in the south, they are not in agreement, and that prayer will never work, even if they are praying together.

Then, of course, there is THE PRAYER OF WORSHIP AND PRAISE, in which we just praise the Lord. Everything then should refer to the Lord. We should not be saying, "Oh, Lord, look at the things I've done. Oh, Lord, look how faithful I have been. That is talking about ourselves, not about God. It is not a prayer of worship and praise, and would not be acceptable to the Lord as such.

Mark 11:24 is the prayer of faith, otherwise known as petition prayer. In this verse, Jesus says:

This prayer, like the other kinds of prayer we have talked about, has specific rules that govern it. Many people have missed this. They have had, for instance, friends, relatives, or loved ones who have been sick. They have gone into the rooms where those sick people were, and said, "Dear Lord, in the name of Jesus, I believe that I receive healing for his body right now."

What does that sick person believe? He may be believing to go be with the Lord. He may be tired of this rat race down here. He may be fed up with standing against the wiles of the devil. I am praying that he lives, and he is praying that he dies. Whose prayer is going to be heard? HIS.

You can never exercise your faith over someone else's will. No way, no how, no time. They have to be in agreement with what you are praying for, in order for it to work for them. You may want them to have it. You may know it is the will of God for them to have it, but they have to be in agreement with it.

The other person may not even have any faith for healing. He may have come from a background where he never heard about healing, and did not know it was his. You try your best to explain it to him, and he does not have the capacity to actually exercise any faith for it.

If you can, just get him to say, "Yes, I want to be healed, and I'm in agreement with it. I'll accept it. I want God to heal me. I just don't know how to exercise my faith." All you have to do is tell him, "Just put your mind in neutral. Just hold it in neutral, and I'll do the praying." Then you can use your faith.

Notice that Mark 11:24 says, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray…." "When you pray" is present tense. That is why Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is…. Faith is always present tense. If it is not now, it is not faith, and it will not work.

Do not believe that you are going to receive whatever things you desire. When you pray, you must believe that you receive them when you pray, right at the very time you pray. If I pray at 10:39 AM on any given day, what Jesus is telling me to do is, when I pray at 10:39, I have to believe right then that I receive what I pray for. If I do that, in future conversations concerning what I ask, I would have to say I believe I received what I asked at 10:39 on January such-and-such.

Notice something very important. If I believe I receive at 10:39 AM, I cannot pray that prayer again at 10:40. If I pray the exact same prayer at 10:40, I am saying I did not receive what I asked for at 10:39. I will cancel out the prayer I prayed at 10:39.

What Jesus does not say is also interesting. He does not say, "Whatever things you ask when you pray, see that you receive them. Feel that you receive them. Know that you receive them." He said all you have to do is believe it. God has really made it the easiest thing in the world, because believing something, basically, is just taking someone at his word.

When you believe you receive something in prayer, confess that with your mouth. To pray, you have to say something. Some people say, "Well, I'm praying a silent prayer" -- then their "silent prayers" never get answered! There is no such thing as a silent prayer. God told you to ask.

"Brother Price, doesn't the Lord know what I need?" Sure, He knows. However, you are living in a hostile environment. You are living in a world presided over and governed by satanic forces. It has been purchased by Jesus, but the kingdom has not yet been established here. The Bible says Satan is the god of this age [the traditional King James calls him the god of this world], the prince of the power of the air. God has to have permission to operate in this earth realm.

In John 14:27-30, Jesus tells the disciples:

Jesus could not be talking about the heavenly Father. If the heavenly Father were the one ruling the world, Jesus certainly would not say He "has nothing in Me." He was talking about Satan. Satan is not the ruler of all the universe, but he is the ruler of this world. How? Because of Adam's sin in the garden of Eden.

We came out of this earth realm. We were made of the dust of this earth, so we have a legal right to be here. Satan cannot take that right away from us as such, except by default, trickery and subterfuge -- but he has no legal rights. We can invite anyone we want into our home, and the way we invite God is through prayer. When we pray to the heavenly Father in the name of Jesus, and ask Him to do something, we give Him a legal right to get involved in our circumstances, and Satan cannot say a thing about it.

The latter part of Mark 11:24 states:

Remember, you are not going to have " whatever things you ask" at the time you pray. It is very easy to get hung up on the "things asked" part of that verse. All you are going to have are the things you believe you receive at the time you pray.

"Will have" is future tense -- future tense to the time that you ask AND BELIEVE you receive what you asked for. If you got what you asked for at the same time you prayed, you would not have to believe you receive it. You would have it, and you do not have to believe anything you can see.

Let me ask you a question to illustrate this point. Do you believe you are reading this pamphlet right now? If you have been following what I have been talking about, you should have answered "no" to my question. You can see this pamphlet, so you know you are reading it. Belief has nothing to do with it.

That is why Jesus says, "… and you will have them." If it already happened, you would not have to "will have." That means you do not have it when you pray.

If you have bought a home, furniture, or anything else on the installment plan, you signed what is called a contract. The dollar amount you were going to pay each month was printed quite large, but there was a lot of other writing on the paper -- the fine print in the contract -- which you may not have even bothered to read.

The Word of God is also a contract. Mark 11:24 is part of the New Testament, which means New Covenant -- which means New Contract -- and it also has some fine print. Take some time to read and understand that fine print, because the Bible says it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. It is the little things that hang people up, and keep them from receiving what is rightfully theirs.