“We need to organise a prayer chain and fast for 40 days so we can move God.” Such statements are very common in the body of Christ. We think if we organise a prayer chain of one hundred people and also fast during the process, we will “certainly move God”. It is very important to note that God is not stuck and so He doesn’t need to be “moved”.
dr doug mamvura
Statements such as “faith moves God” are very common in some of our churches. God is not the one who needs to move. God moved more than 2 000 years ago. He moved through Jesus. Every person who will ever be healed was healed more than 2 000 years ago. Every person who will ever be saved was already forgiven 2 000 years ago through Christ.
You don’t need God to move. You don’t need Him to come and touch you or heal you. God has already provided everything. Faith is simply our positive response to what God has already done by grace. Faith is not something you do to get God to respond.
Faith doesn’t move God. He has already moved by grace. Faith is just your positive response to what you believe God has already provided. Faith only appropriates what God has already provided by grace. If God hasn’t already provided it by grace, then your faith can’t make it happen.
“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and doesn’t doubt, in his heart, but believe that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them,” (Mark 11: 23-24).
This passage has been taught repeatedly by people who emphasise faith. They say “We have power and authority and there are certain things that we have to do to see God’s will come to pass”. This is true. However, it can be taken to an extreme to the point you can literally “make” God do anything. “Whatsoever you want, just say it! Believe that you receive and God has to do it”.
People believe that God is up there with His arms folded, and very upset with us. They say “God isn’t moving or pouring out His power on people to be saved, healed and delivered because He is angry with us. So, what we have to do is get people pray and repent. However, He won’t listen to just one or two of us. We have to have hundreds of people praying. We have to pressure on God so He can move in response to our prayer chain. Let’s get on a twenty-four hour prayer, chain and not let go until we just make God release His power”. They may not necessarily use those words however that is the attitude prevalent in the body of Christ today. This is an affront to God. It is implying that you love people more than He does.
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It is very important that I also confess that I used to participate in all these things that I am teaching against now. I have done these things and so I have an understanding and compassion for people who are doing what I am writing against. However, God has been very gracious to me. I have seen the light and though I haven’t arrived, I have definitely left.
I remember during all night prayer meetings, I used to yell and scream pounding my fist against the wall asking God to have mercy and compassion over the widows and orphans in my country. I was trying to get God to be as compassionate as I was which is exactly what many people do at prayer meetings. It is like we are saying that God doesn’t love people as much as we do. Something is seriously wrong with this kind of thinking. God demonstrated His love for you and I that while we were still sinners, He sent His one and only Son to come and die for us.
If I may ask, when you pray for someone either your mother, father, spouse or children or anyone for that matter, do you pray in such a way that you imply that you love them more than the Lord does? The reason you would approach Him that way is that you don’t believe that God has already done His part. You think He is waiting for you and I to rise up and pray and then He will respond to our prayer with action. This is wrong but unfortunately that is how most of us think today. We take too much responsibility and think that we can make God move.
This is a wrong approach. We should never approach Him as an adversary and trying to make Him do something. We ought to start by praising God that He loves our child or wife or whoever is sick more than we do. We need to praise Him for the great things He has done, and just be a channel of His love flowing towards our sick relative or friend.
Faith only appropriates what God has already provided by grace. If God hasn’t already provided it, your faith can’t make God do anything. If you believe what God has already provided for, your faith will reach out and appropriate what God has already provided by His grace.
Some of us are trying to get God to do something. They go to a meeting saying “Oh God, I am just believing that you are going to heal me. I know you are going to heal somebody and I am believing that you will heal me. I am believing you to heal me. There is an element of doubt in those words. There is uncertainty and anxiety. If it hasn’t already happened, then there is a possibility that it won’t. When you come to a meeting say ‘Father I thank you that I have already been healed. It’s already done. I know its mine. There is a totally different attitude in a person who is just trusting and relying upon what God has already done versus someone who is trying to get God to do something. The majority of us believers normally fall into the latter group.
The audacity of people to think that we can make God do things defies logic. Yet this is basically where religion is today. Religion is trying to force God “to do something”. I have often heard during prayer meetings people praying” do something oh God. Do it for us” and they will be praying for someone to get healed. The Bible makes it very clear that “by His stripes, we were healed”. So, what else do you want God to do when He healed us two thousand years ago? All you need is faith in what has already been done through grace and then you can appropriate your healing. Some of our behaviour clearly demonstrate unbelief. We think that “if we could get so many people praying at the exact same moment, that would put pressure on God and “make Him move”. This is not what the Bible teaches us.
We need to understand that God, by grace, has already done everything. If He has done it, then it’s just a matter of resting in what He has already done. It is just a matter of reaching out by faith to receive it. If you realise that by His stripes you are already healed, then it’s easy to say “If I am already healed, then that means in the spirit realm I already have this power on the inside of me. You just trust in what God has already done for you through the finished work of Christ. It is a done deal. You need to quit trying to get healed and start trusting that you have already been healed. You are not a sick person trying to get healed, you are a healed person resisting sickness.
If you are struggling with unbelief, it’s because you don’t understand that faith just appropriates what God has already provided. You are still thinking that God is going to respond to you. Your faith should be a response to what God has already done through His grace.
lDr Doug Mamvura is a graduate of Charis Bible School. Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @dougmamvura
