Ron Dunn Podcast - When to Stop Praying and Believing

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

A faith that truly prevails doesn't just carry you through the storm — it carries you beyond it. And here's the thing: when you've been walking in that kind of faith, you don't have to wonder if you've found your answer. You just know.

Now, if you would open your Bible to the gospel of Luke chapter 8, I'm going to read, beginning with the 41st verse through verse 56, Luke chapter 8, beginning with verse 41, and reading through the end of the chapter, verse 56. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house. For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dime. But as Jesus went, the people thronged him, and a woman having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him

and touched the border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood. was healed. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and pressed thee, and sayest thou, who touched me? And Jesus said, somebody has touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him she declared unto him

before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately and he said unto her daughter be of good comfort thy faith has made thee whole go in peace while he at stake there comes

one from the ruler of the synagogue cows saying to him thy daughter is dead trouble not the master but when Jesus heard it he answered him saying, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, say Peter and James and John,

and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and bewailed her. But he said, weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they lack him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out and cook her by the hand, and called saying maid arrived and her spirit came again and she arose straightway and he commanded to give her me and her parents were astonished but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done There is some praying that is too much pray. And there is some praying that is an expression of unbelief.

There comes to point when a person knows he had made contact with God and laid his petitions before God that his traying must cease and his believing must begin. Now by that I do not mean to say that he has not been believing while he has been prayed. But there is a believing

beyond the believing that brought you to prayer in the first plate. This faith is what I choose to call prevailing faith, and is the key to prevailing prayer. There is a faith that goes beyond the faith that caused you to pray in the first place. And a person understanding what this kind of faith is and how to bring this space into activity, will know how to get the thing he desires from God. This prevailing faith, many Christians fail to recese

what they ask for because they do not understand prevailing faith. This the faith of the second wind or the home stretch or any other thing that you want to call it, but it is a second-stage faith. a face that goes beyond, as I said, that initial faith that caused us to get hold of God in the first place. And if a person does not know when to start praying and when to start believing in this way, then he will fall short of the answer that God wants him to have. Many times we pray and we pray believing.

We get hold of God. We know we've got hold of it. No doubt about it. There comes into our heart that tweet assurance that God has heard of and the petition is ours. And so we leave all straight. And we expect immediately for the thing that we have asked for to come to pass. We just imagine that the moment we open our eyes before the amen is really out of our mouths that we'll see this miracle come to fat. And we open our eyes and nothing has happened.

there's no change. Well, we're a patient people. We'll wait an hour or two. An hour or two practice, and still, there is no visible, tangible fulfillment of that answer. We wait a day, two days, a week, a month. And the longer we wait, gradually that faith, that hope,

that expectation begin to lessen and diminish. and after a while when God in his sovereignty come to the point when he want to give us visibly, that thing for which we've asked,

he comes to us to give it to us to find only that the door of expectation has been closed and we are in no position to receive that for which we have asked. Many answers never reaped us because we do not keep open the door of expectation

and do not know how to prevail in believing. There is that point. When you stop praying and you strike a pose of face, you assume an attitude of believing, and you continue to believe, and that believing keeps that petition before the throne of God and keeps the door of expectation open, and that is the faith that prevail.

And I repeated, many of us has failed to receive what God wanted to give us because we did not understand this very important principle of prevailing faiths. What happened so often is that we pray for a certain need, a certain difficulty, a certain situation, And at the moment that we pray, there is a tremendous space that God has hurt us and that God is going to give that thing to us. And after a while, God has not visibly given us that thing. And so we renew that praying.

And we might call it panic prayer, you know. Somehow we get the idea that maybe God will be persuaded by our much speaking. And if we just keep on repeating and repeating and repeating and. repeating that thing for which we've asked, that somehow we will persuade a relussent God. Now we have already been persuaded at one point that God has heard of, and we've already praised him for the answer, and it was easy to do immediately.

But as time goes by, that hope, that expectation diminish it, and so we feel like we must renew that pray, and with new vigor, but this time, in an atmosphere of panics, and persuasion, we start praying all over again, and the moment we start praying, we've done too much pray. And that prayer is nothing more than an expression of our unbelief and neutralizes everything we've done. Now, it may seem strange to say it, but you can pray too much.

Now you cannot pray too much in the general sense, but in some instances in a particular situation, there is a point at which you must stop praying and start believing. Now the greatest illustration of this is this infant that I've read to you out of the Word of God. Gyrus's daughter lays at the point of dying. Notice the scripture says it his only daughter, 12 years old.

That makes it that much more critical, his only daughter. And she's at the point of death. And he rushes out the house because he hears that Jesus is in the vicinity. And this man knows that you and I know that if he can somehow get contact with Jesus and get hold of Jesus and bring Jesus into the situation that everything will be okay. He knows this. And this is faith that brings him to Jesus. But there is a faith that brings you to Jesus and then there is a faith that makes you stick with Jesus when there is no reason to stay with it. And that's prevailing faith. And Darius has a faith that brings him to Jesus.

and Jesus enters and responds immediately. And so as they immediately began to make their way towards the house where Jesus can lay his hands on that daughter and deal her, the crowd is just pressing in. And suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a blood disease for 12 years. Says to herself, if I can but touch the hymn of his garment, I shall be made whole.

And so there is a delay. Jesus calls it. He halted. And can you imagine the feeling of Gyrus as Jesus halted? And during that pause, deaths come. And a messenger comes and says, Your daughter's dead. No use bothering the master any longer.

And when Jesus hears the message, he turned to Gyrus and says, Don't be afraid. Only believe. And literally what Jesus was, was saying is this, don't be afraid, but keep on believing. Don't be afraid, but keep on believing. Now, the key is in that phrase. Keep on believing. Prevailing prayer is that prayer, prevailing faith, is that face that keeps on believing. You see, Gyrus had enough faith to bring him to Jesus and to

prevail with Jesus. Jesus had said a thing about Jaris's faith up to this point, because it was a simple faith that Jesus honored and Jesus responded to. But now came the moment of testing, and by the way, God

will always, sooner or later, test your faith and test your believing. And when the moment of pecting come, Jesus speaks a word to this man and says, don't be afraid, but keep on believing. Keep on believing. And that is prevailing prayer, prevailing faith. He says, now is the time for you to get the second wind of believing. You're in the stretch. Now is the time for you to just believe. Notice, Jaris did no more pleading. He didn't beg. He didn't renew his petition. Jesus simply said, keep on believing. I think in the life of a church, here is a church that,

hungers in first after revival. Not the whole shirt, because it's the whole shirt hungered in first, it acted they'd all have it. But here is a little group, a nukeland, maybe a pastor, maybe a few hot-hearted Christians whom God has touched in a special way, and they're hungry and first before revival, and they pray, and they get right with God, and they get hold of God,

and in their heart is born the belief that God is going to send revival. So revival comes, I mean, a meeting or, week of meeting, the schedule revival, and everybody's expecting. And this group that's been praying, they believe this is it. This is the week. God's going to do it. The week come, and I say it's the blonde week of the year. And all their expectations go up and smote. Now, what happened? If these people then has faveled with God, and they know they've gotten hold of God, they are to simply assume the poles of faith and say, we have got hold of God. He's has hurt us and we will not be panicked into praying anymore as though we did not believe God

had hurt us, but we will simply continue to believe. Keep on believing. You see, 1st John 514 said, this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything aparting his will he hears of. Now, if you stop right there, you won't know the secret of answered prayer. You can ask for something that's according to God's will and your heart be 100% right with God and still not receive the saying for which you've asked. The next verse says, and if we know

that he hears us, then we are having the petitions that we have desired of him. You see, the whole thing hinged upon that one phrase, if we know that he had heard of,

if we know that he hears us, then we will have the things we've acted for. And prevailing faith is simply the faith that says, I know God heard me. I know it's been weeks. I know it's been months. But I know just as surely as I'm standing here that God heard me.

And so I just keep on believable. Now let me point out two of three characteristics of this prevailing face as revealed in this incident that Jesus described for. Number one, prevailing phase is that phase that keeps on believing. It's that faith that keeps on believing in the face of delay. Dyrcom, and we don't have the whole message, the whole conversation, but if you'll read this in Matthew and also in Mark, and then read it again in Loop,

you come away with this impression that it was an urgent situation. Jairus was a desperate man And by the way, only desperate men and women ever really know how to get hold of God. Those people that are ease and vines will never really know how to get hold of God. But there is a desperation that is propelled by a sense of urgency

and when that person had that sense of urgency making him desperate, he gets hold of God. And Darius comes up and interrupting as the other account lead us to believe. He just rushes up to Jesus and interrupt him and says Jesus, my only daughter is about to die.

Would you come and lay hands on so that she may be healed? And Jesus immediately go. Now notice the situation called for a needed action. The lay would be deadly. And isn't that the way you and I always pray? I come to the Lord like this.

Lord, you've got to do it now or it'll be too late. And every prayer I bring to God, every meat I have is always an urgent meat. It's always an immediate meat. It calls for desperate action. And Jair of self this way, there could be no possibility of putting it off. You has to come now. It kind of reminds me of Marion Motho when Lasteros was about to die, and they sent for Jesus, you'd got to come now. And when he did till, well, four days late, too late, as far as they were concerned, they said, Masters, you had been here, this wouldn't have happened. And they were rebuking him, saying if you'd come and we told you to come, this wouldn't have happened. And I tell you, many of us tonight had the attitude

toward God. We won't really borest it like this, but we have the attitude, Lord, if you had done what we told you to do when we told you to do it, we wouldn't be in this situation that we're in the night. Prevailing faith is that faith that keeps on believing in the face of the lake, and all of a sudden, Jesus said, okay, let's go, and they make their way. And Jesus stopped. Now there's a cute moths to see crashing in around him He's just soft And he says so Somebody touch you

And Peter said Well I come He's too somebody tucked you up I mean look at the cloud Look at the moldy to do everybody's poking What do you mean somebody trusted? And I have an idea that Jal said the same thing In his heart

This is no time to worry about somebody cutting it Come on, let's go Can you imagine The Lothin he's broke Can you imagine how his heart seemed to skip a beat when he saw Jesus stop. You see, when he came to Jesus, he said, my daughter,

it's down. There's no time to wait, no time to delay. And so Jesus began to inquire of the crowd, who put me an unnatory, a seemingly foolish delay in the eyes of dire? And Jesus seems to be completely indifferent. Did he understand the situation? Doesn't he rely?

that my daughter is wrong to die if he doesn't hurry up, and finally a woman comes out and she says, I crack you. I wonder if, uh, Java resented this woman's intrusion. Because, you see, her need was not as severe as his need. And you know, there may many terms I've laid my knee before God when it's been a desperate need.

And God somehow another's delay. And all the while I'm sitting on hold here if God over here, here entering lesser prayers and meeting lesser need. And my need goes unmet and my prayer seems to go unanswered. And Jesus says, keep on believing and prevailing fake is that face that keep on believing in the face of delay. Now, I want you to notice something. I don't know if Dallas really saw this enough. But I imagine tonight that many of you have been put on hold from God.

and it's difficult for you to keep on believing because God has belayed so long and I want you to listen very carefully when you're belayed keep your eyes on Jesus. What's doing he's going to be something? You know, for me, it's very interesting that all the while, Gira was waiting. Jesus were giving to Giler a demonstration of his power to heal, unincurable hate.

You know, it's interesting. and notice that Dylas's daughter was 12 years old and this woman had been sick exactly for 12 years. And all the while Gailas was waiting and Diza was delaying. These were giving Dira food and fuel for his believing.

And I'll say when faith dies and we fail to keep on believing. It's during the delay when we put our eyes on our need and put our eyes on the problem instead of keeping him on Jesus. Listen, if you're being delayed for some reason or another, keep your eyes on Jesus, and if you watch closely, you'll find enduring

something that will prove to you his ability to meet your own need. Prevailing face is faith that keeps on believing in the face of the lake. It also keeps on believing in the face of the sea. Finally, deities, the test of the woman that's been healed or after your face have made behold, lo and p. And while he was yet freaking, Gilez is standing there, warning, waiting impatiently. A mensinger comes up with Gyrus and Sir Geyroth. And, you know, there's no emotion in that announcement. I wonder who it was that brought the word.

There's no sympathy, no feeling. He just says, your daughter's dead. Don't tubble the matter anymore. And this turban was more concerned about being troublesome to either than he was about Giles' own part eight in grief. Your daughter's dead. Don't bother grievous any longer. And Jesus said, don't be afraid.

Keep on believe. You may be laying in the valley of the feet flat on your back, broken and bruised. Jesus says, don't be afraid. Be bonbelique. You know where fear comes from. Fear come from our human assessment of the fact. Now, the fact is, she's dead. And when Jesus finally goes into the room and everybody was weeping and wailing,

he says, of Dr. Prine, she's not dead, she's just asleep, and they're laughing to spawn because they knew she was dead. You know, the fact clear, she's dead, deep of that, don't let the fact take it. Don't be moved by luck to state. If you be moved by what you believe, keep on believer. And I'll tell you right now,

fear in our lives come from our seaman assessment of the fact. Our own evaluation, looking at the fact, being the fact, evaluating the fact, The way we see them always causes us to fear. And you notice, these two things are contrary to one or the other. You can't tear and face at the same thing. Now, I'll tell you what, if you don't have faith in God, you ought to be afraid.

The man that doesn't have enough sense to be afraid when he doesn't have faith in God is the Bible says the fool. And if a man isn't believing in God, he ought to be afraid. But if you are believing in God, you have no leasing to be afraid, no matter what, the fact that. And forvailing faith is faith that deep-on believing in the face of God. defeat. Now you'll always be cantered to not trouble the master any longer. Let him alone. It's ruthless now. Jesus said, keep on believing. Now listen to what he said. He says, Dara, you believe when there was a reason to believe. Now I want you to keep on believing when there is no reason to believe. You see, hope nurtured our faith.

and D's it to say, Darius, you believe me when there was some hope and when there was some help, he said, now, in the face of hopelessness and helplessness, keep on belief. Keep on belief.

Even though you think it's too late and everybody else tells you, it's too late. I like that verse in Romans chapter 4. When it says, speaking, concerning Abraham and fella having a son long over there or physically able to, it says that Abraham

Hope against Hope One translation, Sarah, he hoped when there were no hope. He hoped when there was no basis of hope. And that's what prevailing faith is. It is believing when you have absolutely no reason to believe. Jesus says, keep on believing, thy daughter

is all right. And now I want you to see. Now, Dara has only the word of Egypt. telling you. That's all. Before,

he had his daughter who was not yet dead to stand his forth to faith. You know, it's easy to believe that Jesus can heal someone and it is that he can raise someone from the bed. And Lord,

if you'll just solve this situation before it goes much farther because most of us believe that a difficult in the home or in the personal life or financially, that if God waits too far, it can go too far

that even don't. can't do anything about her. And you see, up to this point, this man, like most of us, had something to support him with faith. What weren't it? The flickering laugh of this daughter, almost dead, that she's still alive, where there's life, there's hope. And now the daughter is dead and teeth to speak to him in that valley of defeat

and says, don't be afraid, don't let the fact bother you. Keep on believing. And now he was reduced to the position where all he had to go on was just the word of D. And that's really the way God picked our faith, just letting it go out all the way to the end until there is no hope and no help until all we have to depend on is the word of D. And we keep on believing because the word of breather is enough. The word of beaver is enough. Now that's one final thing. Prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing in the faith. of the disbelief of other.

Oh brother, I sure be thanked the Lord for all those people that encourage you with their disbelief. You know they're always around. As packed week I worked with a couple of men, young men, who had just about a year ago gone into music evangelism. And after we were talking about their call and their year of minister. They said, you know, it's a very interesting thing.

He said, when we felt God was calling us to be this, one man was a layman. The other words, they used a director of Kirk in this area. And they had just been standing together and it Turk and it fell into open up from doors. And they still in their heart, the call of God. And he says, you know, it was interesting as we began to go to different friends and preachers and others

and tell them what we felt God was doing, he said, not one person. encourage the finn it. Everybody we talked, he said, you'll never make it. Your cars are dead. We just won't work. He said, and he named one from a man.

He said, we went to this man, and we'd already been playing before. And he said, all right. He said, now let's all you all play about it and come back and see him in a day or so. And so they came back to see him, and they told him, they said, we still feel the same way.

He said, let's do it on the leaves. He prayed. And they prayed. And when they got to be praying, he looked at me, could now have your feet. They said, we feel the same way. He said, let's pray for more. And he was trying to pray the none of it.

They said, not one person gave up any encouragement. Everybody said, you can't make it. You ought to knock a bed. And I'll catch you something that can never go, saying anybody else try to find out what jogging won't see the day in your life. They'll always settle. He can't do it. Now, in faith,on,

prevailing phrase is basically. that keep on believing when everybody around you is not belief. And boy, that card sometimes. All you got to go on is the word of grief. You know, sometimes when all hope disappeared,

if you got people around you that will encourage them and say, listen, you've been going on now, God. But I fear when they begin to wail and moan, Jesus says that when the Bible said when Jesus walked into the room, everybody that was firing and weeping, and he said,

your crying it, girls not dead teeth gets to sleep and the Bible says they all laughing the storm, oh listen, there'll be those around ye that'll just laugh at. They'll laugh at, they'll talk, they'll thorn, they'll laugh. Prevailing faith is they to just keep the own believer in the fear of disbelief above. I really don't think that you say, my face has ever really have been tested until accepted in this way. I caught to a task of this past week, and as we saw a ship together, he told me of an experience in his curb, a very important program in his curb that they had gone through. And he said, you know, for the first time in my life, first time of my ministry, I was

standing alone. Everybody all didn't believe it. everyone else thought I was on and for the first time I knew what it was like to be lonely and I was standing alone but he said you know he said I wouldn't take anything for that experience because I learned the key

that come even though there's someone else around with disbelieving it you have the word of D and travailing faith is a phrase that keeps on believing on everybody else. Lackard. You mean have people laugh at what you believe? I didn't bother your bed.

They laughed at weak. The Bible laughed at weak. The God says, Why do the heathen rays? And the people imagine a vain thing. Be that set up in the heaven till life. No, God, all they've had the last laugh. I can imagine God weeping, and I can imagine God loving, and I can imagine God dishing,

but I cannot imagine God laughing and moffering. But the Bible says, He that fiteth in the heavens so long, and have them into reason. They will come a day when God will cut the unbelievers in so much confusing, they won't know whether they're going, and he that terrac in the heaven fell like. And so, when it goes around you last

of what you believe, and liars that you're a prevailing face, but I don't want to bother you. They last at the Bible. That just proves you're in good company. And prevailing faith with faiths that keep on believing. Keeps on believing.

Now wants to be noticed something. Jesus, it putted all the bold that Britain believes. they didn't get to be the miracle and it faxed at the end that he called the mother in the farward vangs and john and peter not to tell anybody what had happened and the the Greek language there indicates that he called them not to tell the details about it now it impossible for everybody out there not to know what happened when they stole that twelve-year-old girl walking out of the room sitting down and eating a sate there'd be impossible for an inner-not-not-not-not-he'd been raised in the bed but jesus said to that little circle of belief he said, now don't she tell them how it was done. I know that the worst thing about unbelief. It took you out from seeing the glory of God in that.

When Jesus stood before that hymn of Liza, he did the Mary and Markle who said did not tell you that could be the glory of God if you just believe. Before you see everybody else interpreted that one way, but goals that in a circle of the believers. those that prevailed in faith, they really knew what happened. They really knew what happened. They were at fluted, before they didn't believe. One of the interesting stories that come from the life of George Meele of that great man of Fay, he knew what it was to persevere in faith,

and to keep on believing when there's no reason to believe. He were making an ocean void, going to Toronto, Canada, the fill of creaking affrontment. And suddenly a fall felled in, and the sylip just thought they'd feel. George Hilda went to the cast and he said, Der, Captain, we got to get meeting. He said, I have a preaching of fault on a certain day in Ferranthal, Canada. And the captain fed Mr. Mueller, Miss Kipp is in Dolkba Falls.

We can't move in this fall. Mr. Neuler said, but, Pastor, in 40 years of creasing, I've never been late for an apartment. we've got to get moving. And the captain became a little ireate because Mr. Mueller just didn't seem to want to believe the facts and understand.

He said there is a heavy fog. We cannot move until this fog lives. Mr. Mueller says, I've never missed a preaching appointment. And then he startled the captain by saying, will you pray with me? Captain, the force said, okay, I'll pray with it. So they got out on their knees. Mr. Mueller prayed a very brief, simple prayer

asking God to lift the fog. The captain started to pray, and George Mueller put his hand on the captain's shoulder and said, you don't need to pray, you don't believe. They got off, walked out on the deck, and the fault was already lifting. And the ship made it on time, and George Mueller never missed an appointment. But he said, you don't need to pray, you don't believe, you'll only neutralize our prayer.

Just exclude those that don't. don't believe. And that's what God has to do. Now, let me stop where I started. There is a point in intercession, in prayer, when you stop praying and you just simply believe. Because you know that God has heard you, you know that you have prevailed with him, you've made contact with Jesus and laid the need before him and Jesus has said, whatever you ask according to my will, I'll do it. And you say, I know he's hurt me. Now, I just assume the attitude of faith. And I just keep on believing. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. George Mueller made a statement one day, God has answered all my prayers.

and a man in the congregation heard him and knew that George Mueller was praying for two lost men who at that moment still were lost. And after the service is over, he came up to George Mueller and he said, you made a statement that's not true. He said, you said that God had answered every one of your prayers. He said, what about those two lost men that are not saved? George Mueller said,

God has given me the assurance of their salvation. God has heard me. Those men are going to be saved. God has answered every one of my prayers. And within two weeks, those two lost men were saved. What did Mueller do? He kept on believing in the face of delay and disbelief. And God came from.

finally to bring Mr. Mueller what he asked for, and he found the door of expectation wide open, and God was able just to walk right in with the gifts. Keep the door of expectation open and keep on believing. Just keep on believing. Now let's pray together.