Ron Dunn Podcast - When to Stop Praying and Start Believing

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

At times, our prayers can reflect doubt rather than faith. What we truly need is steadfast faith, for it is the key to powerful, prevailing prayer.

Luke 8, beginning with the 41st verse through 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-dying. But as Jesus went, the people thronged him. And a woman, having an issue of blood twelve 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 thronged

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 need. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before 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 hath made thee whole. Go in peace. While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue house, 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, save 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 laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out and took her by the hand and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway, and he commanded to give her meat.

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 praying. And there is some praying that is an expression of unbelief. There comes a point when a person knows he has made contact with God and laid his petition before God that his praying 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 praying. But there is a believing beyond the believing that brought you to prayer in the first place. 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 calls you to pray in the first place. And a person understanding what this kind of faith is and how to bring this faith into activity will know how to get the things he

desires from God. This prevailing faith. Many Christians fail to receive what they ask for because they do not understand prevailing faith. This 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 faith 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 stop 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 Him. No doubt about it. There comes into our hearts that

sweet assurance that God has heard us and the petition is ours. And so we leave off praying 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 pass. Now 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 passes and still there is no visible, tangible 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 begins to lessen and diminish. And after a while, when God in his sovereignty comes to the point

when he wants to give us visibly, tangibly, 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 reach 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 faith. 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 prevails. And I repeat it, many of us have failed to receive what God wanted to give us because we did not understand this very important principle of prevailing faith. What happens 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 tremendous faith that God has heard 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. 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 that thing for which we've asked that somehow we will persuade a reluctant God. Now we have already been persuaded at one point that God has heard us 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 diminishes and so we feel like we must renew that praying and with new vigor, but this time in an atmosphere of panic and persuasion, we start praying all over again. And the moment we start praying, we've done too much praying. 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 instance that I've read to you out of the Word of God. Jairus' daughter lays at the point of dying. Notice the Scripture says it's 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, as 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 to Jesus and then there is a faith that makes you stick with Jesus when there is no reason to stay with him. And that's prevailing faith. And Jairus has a faith that brings him to Jesus. And Jesus answers and responds immediately. And so as they immediately begin to make their way towards the house where Jesus can lay his hands on that daughter and heal her, the crowd is just pressing in. And suddenly a woman who has been suffering from a blood disease for 12 years says to herself, If I can but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.

And so there is a delay. Jesus pauses. He halts. And can you imagine the feeling of Jairus as Jesus pauses? And during that pause, death comes. And a messenger comes and says, your daughter's dead. No use bothering the master any longer and when Jesus hears the message he turns to Jairus and says don't be afraid only believe and literally what Jesus 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 faith is that faith that keeps on believing. You see, Jairus had enough faith to bring him to Jesus and to prevail with Jesus.

Jesus hasn't said a thing about Jairus' 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 testing comes, 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, Jairus 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 and thirsts after revival. Not the whole church, because if the whole church hungered and thirsted after, they'd all have it. But here is a little group, a nucleus,

maybe the pastor, maybe a few hot-hearted Christians whom God has touched in a special way. And they're hungry and thirsty for 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 the week of meeting, the scheduled 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 comes, and I say it's the blot week of the year. And all their expectations go up in smoke. Now what's happened? If these people then

have prevailed with God and they know they've gotten hold of God, they are to simply assume the foes of faith and say we have got hold of God. He has heard us and we will not be panicked into praying anymore as though we did not believe God had heard us us and we will not be panicked into praying anymore as

though we did not believe God had heard us but we will simply continue to believe keep on believing you see first John 5 14 says this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us 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 thing 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 hinges upon that one phrase. If we know that he has heard us, if we know that he hears us, then we will have the things we've asked 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 believing. Now let me point out two or three characteristics of this prevailing faith as revealed in this incident that jesus described for us number one prevailing faith is that faith that keeps on believing it's that faith that keeps on believing in the face of delay. Jairus comes, 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 Luke, 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 vine will never really know how to get hold of god but there is a a desperation that is propelled by a sense of urgency and when that person has that sense of urgency making him desperate, he gets hold of God. And Jairus comes up and interrupts him as the other accounts lead us to believe. He just rushes up to Jesus and interrupts him and says, Jesus, my only daughter is about to die. Would you come and lay hands on her so that she may be healed?

And Jesus immediately goes. Now notice the situation calls for immediate 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 need i have is always an urgent need it's always an immediate need. It calls for a desperate action. And Jairus felt this way. There could be no possibility of putting it off. You have to come now. It kind of reminds me of Mary and Martha when Lazarus was about to die, and they sent for Jesus. You've got to come now. And when he did show up four days late, too late, as far as they were concerned, they said, Master, if you'd 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 have the attitude towards God. We won't really voice it like this, but we have the attitude, Lord, if you'd 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 tonight. Prevailing faith is that faith that keeps on believing in the face of delay.

And all of a sudden, Jesus said, okay, let's go. And they make their way. And Jesus stops. Now there's a huge multitude pressing in around him. Jesus stops. And he says, somebody touched me.

And Peter says, Lord, is there somebody touched you? I mean, look at the crowd, look at the multitude. Everybody's pushing. What do you mean somebody touched you? And I have an idea that Jairus said the same thing in his heart. This is no time to worry about somebody touching you. Come on, let's go. Can you imagine the lump in his throat? 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 is dying. There's no time to waste, no time to delay. And so Jesus began to inquire of the crowd, who touched me? An unnecessary, a seemingly foolish delay in the eyes of Jairus. And Jesus seems to be completely indifferent. Doesn't he understand the situation?

Doesn't he realize that my daughter is going to die if he doesn't hurry up? And finally a woman comes out and she says, I touched you. I wonder if Jairus resented this woman's intrusion because you see her need was not as severe as his need. And you know that many times I've laid my need before God and it's been a desperate need and God somehow or another delays. And all the while I'm sitting on hold, here is God over here answering lesser prayers and meeting lesser needs. And my need goes unmet and my prayer seems to go unanswered.

And Jesus says, keep on believing. And prevailing faith is that faith that keeps on believing in the face of delay. Now I want you to notice something. I don't know if Jairus really saw this or not, 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 delayed so long. Now, I want you to listen very carefully.

When you're delayed, keep your eyes on Jesus watching he's going to do something. You know, to me, it's very interesting that all the while Jairus was waiting, Jesus was giving to Jairus a demonstration of his power

to heal an incurable case. You know, it's interesting to notice that Jairus' daughter was 12 years old and this woman had been sick exactly 12 years. And all the while Jairus was waiting and Jesus was delaying, Jesus was giving Jairus food and fuel for his believing. And I'll tell you 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 them 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 him doing something

that will prove to you his ability to meet your own needs. Prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing in the face of delay. It also keeps on believing in the face of deceit. Finally, Jesus says to the woman that's been healed, or at your face hath made thee whole, go in peace. And while he was yet speaking, Jairus is standing there,

wanting, waiting impatiently. A messenger comes up to Jairus and says, Jairus, 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 trouble the master anymore. And this servant was more concerned about being troublesome to Jesus

than he was about Jairus' own heartache and grief. Your daughter's dead. Don't bother Jesus any longer. And Jesus says, don't be afraid. Keep on believing. You may be laying in the valley of defeat, flat on your back, broken and bruised. Jesus says, don't be afraid.

Keep on believing. You know where fear comes from. Fear comes from our human assessment of the fact. Now the fact is, he's dead. And when Jesus finally goes into the room and everybody is weeping and wailing he says stop your crying she's not dead she's just asleep and they're laughing the storm because they knew she was dead you have a fact here she's dead Jesus said don't let the fact take it don't be moved by what you

see just be moved by what you believe. Just be moved by what you believe. Keep on believing. And I'll tell you right now, fear in our lives comes from our human assessment of the facts. Our own evaluation. Looking at the facts, seeing the facts, evaluating the facts. 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 fear and faith at the same time. Now, I tell you what, if you don't have faith in God, you ought to be afraid. A man that doesn't have enough sense to be afraid when he doesn't have faith in God

is, the Bible says, a 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 reason to be afraid, no matter what the facts say. And prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing in the faith of the feet. Now you'll always be tempted to not trouble the

master any longer. Let him alone. It's useless now. Jesus said, keep on believing. Now listen to what he said. He says, Jairus, you believed 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 nurtures our faith. And Jesus is saying, Jairus, you believed me when there was some hope and when there was some help. He says, now, in the face of hopelessness and helplessness, keep on believing. Keep on believing. 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 Sarah having a son long after they are physically able to, it says that Abraham hoped against hope. One translation says he hoped when there was 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 believe. Jesus says, keep on believing, thy daughter is all right.

And now I want you to see, now Jairus has only the word of Jesus to lean on. That's all. Before, he had his daughter, who was not yet dead, to kind of support the faith. You know, it's easier to believe that Jesus can heal someone than it is that he can raise someone from the dead. And Lord, if you'll just solve this situation

before it goes much farther, because most of us believe that a difficulty in the home or in the personal life or financially, that if God waits too far, it can go so far that even God can't do anything about it. And you see, up to this point, this man, like most of us, had something to support his faith. What was it?

The flickering life of his daughter, almost dead, but she's still alive, where there's life, there's hope. And now the daughter is dead, and Jesus speaks to him in that valley of deceit and says, don't be afraid, don't let the facts 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 Jesus.

And that's really the way God tests 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 Jesus and we keep on believing because the word of Jesus is enough the word of Jesus is enough now there's one final thing because the word of Jesus is enough. The word of Jesus is enough. Now there's one final thing.

Prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing in the faith of the disbelief of others. Oh, brother, I sure do thank the Lord for all those people that encourage you with their disbelief. You know, they're always around. This past week I worked with a couple of men, young men,

who had just about a year ago gone into music evangelism. As we were talking about their call and their youth ministry, they said, You know, it's a very interesting thing. When we felt God was calling us to do this, one man was a layman. In other words, a youth director at a church in this area. They had just been singing together in the church and at fellowships and god began to open up some doors and they felt 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 and tell them what we felt god was doing he said not one person encouraged us and everybody we talked he said you'll never make it you'll'll starve to death. It just won't work. He said, and he named one prominent man. He said, we went to this man. We'd already

been to him before. And he said, all right. He said, now let's all, y'all pray about it and come back and see him in a day or so. And so they came back to see him and, and they told him, they said, we still feel the same way. He said, let's get on our knees and pray. And they prayed. And when they got to praying, he looked at them and said, now how do you feel? They said, we feel the same way. He said, let's pray some more. And he was trying to pray them out of it. They said, not one person gave us any encouragement. Everybody said, you can't make it. You ought not to be. That all teaches something that you never go to anybody else to try to find out what God

wants you to do in your life. They'll always say you can't do it. Now I want to tell you something. Prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing when everybody around you is not believing and boy

that's hard sometimes see all you got to go on is the word of jesus you know sometimes when all hope disappears if you've got some people around you that will encourage you and say listen you just hang on now god but i say when they begin to wail and moan, Jesus says that when the Bible says when Jesus walked into the room everybody there was crying and weeping and he said, stop your crying. Girl's not dead, she's just asleep.

And the Bible says they're all laughing, just scorned. Oh, listen. There'll be those around you that'll just laugh at you. They'll laugh at you. They'll scorn. They'll at you. They'll laugh at you. They'll scoff. They'll scorn. They'll laugh. Prevailing faith is faith that just keeps on believing

in the faith of disbelief above. I really don't think that your faith, my faith, has ever really been tested until it's tested in this way. I talked to a pastor this past week, and as we fellowshiped together, he told me of an experience in his church, a very important program in his church that they had gone through. And he said, you know, for the first time in life, the first time in my ministry, I was standing

alone. Everybody else didn't believe it. Everyone else thought I was wrong. 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 comes even though everyone else around you is disbelieving, yet you have the word of Jesus. And prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing when everybody else laughs at it.

You have people laugh at what you believe? That doesn't bother you a bit. They laugh at Jesus. The devil laughs at Jesus. But God says, Why do the heathen raise? And the people imagine a vain thing? He that setteth in the heavens shall rise.

No, God always has a last laugh. I can imagine God weeping. And I can imagine God loving. And I can imagine God speaking but I cannot imagine God laughing and mockery for the Bible says

he that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh and have them in derision there will come a day when God will put the unbelievers in so much confusion, they won't know where they're going. And he that shall come to heaven shall laugh.

And so when those around you laugh at what you believe and laugh at your prevailing faith, they don't want to bother you. They laugh at Jesus. That just? They're not about to bother you. They laugh at Jesus. That just proves you're in good company. And prevailing faith is faith that keeps on believing. Keeps on believing. Now I want you to notice something.

Jesus excluded all of those that didn't believe. They didn't get to see the miracle. And it says at the end that he told the mother and the father James and John and Peter not to tell anybody what had happened and the Greek language there indicates that he told them not to tell the details about it

now it would be impossible for everybody out there not to know what happened when they saw that 12 year old girl walking out of the room sitting down and eating a steak it would be impossible for them to not know that she had been raised from the dead when they saw that 12-year-old girl walking out of the room and sitting down and eating a steak. It would be impossible for them to not know that she had been raised in the dead. But Jesus said to that little circle of believing,

He said, now don't you tell them how it was done. I know that's the worst thing about unbelief. It shuts you out from seeing the glory of God in us. When Jesus stood before that team of Lazarus, he said to Mary and Martha, he said, didn't I tell you that you'd see the glory of God if you just believed? And so you see, everybody else interpreted that one way, but those that in a circle of the believers,

those that prevailed in faith, they really knew what happened. they really knew what happened. They really knew what happened. They were excluded because they didn't believe. One of the interesting stories that comes from the life of George Mueller, that great man of faith, he knew what it was to persevere in faith and to keep on believing when there's no reason to believe. He was making an ocean voyage going to Toronto, Canada

to fill a preaching apartment. And suddenly a fog settled in and the ship just stopped dead still. George Mueller went to the captain. He said, Captain, we've got to get moving. He said, I have a preaching appointment on a certain day in Toronto, Canada. And the captain said, Mr. Mueller, this ship is engulfed by falls. We can't move in this fall.

Mr. Mueller said, but Captain, in 40 years of preaching, I've never been late for an appointment. We've got to get moving. And the captain became a little irate 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 lifts. Mr. Mueller says, I've never missed a preaching appointment. And then he startled the captain by saying, Will you pray with me?

The captain, of course, said, Okay, I'll pray with you. So they got down on their knees. Mr. Mueller prayed a very brief, simple prayer asking God to lift the fall. 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 up walked out on the deck and the fog 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 believe. And that's what God has to do. Now, let me stop where I started. Listen. 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 heard 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 was over, he came up to George Mueller and he said, you've made a statement that's not true. 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 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 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.