" The importance of seperating soul and spirit in our christian walk"
This is a season when my heart is full. I have walked through a season of giving much but receiving little, now at present this trend has been reversed and there are many things which I have upon my heart and will find great joy in sharing.

Repetition is extremely necessary to our grasping the truth as we ought, every well trained teacher knows how essential revision is. Thus Paul could say "For me to write the same things to you is not tedious,but for you it is safe."Philippians 3 v1

Interestingly, Paul saw it not only as his spiritual duty to repeat certain truths often but as safe for his hearers.It is necessary but it is safe for us to revisit certain truths over and over again for the sake of our spiritual progress.

That is partly why all great teachers will reemphasize certain things, for they have understood that in order to continue in an active understanding of a given subject you must be continuously listening to, reading and studying it.

One of my spiritual mentors was a man named Kenneth E Hagin.

He recounts how as a young man he loved to preach and did not care much to teach.

At one point in his earlier ministry when he was pastoring a small country church, he sensed the Lord challenging him to begin to specifically teach along certain biblical truths(he was one of the finest teachers that I was ever privileged to hear)

The Lord had appeared to Kenneth Hagin in a vision and said to him "I have called you to go and teach my people faith"

Anyone one who has heard his ministry subsequently would regard him as probably doing more to restore an understanding of what faith is and how it works than any other single individual in the last century .Some have rejected that message, but many, myself included ,have been helped enormously by his understanding and revelation from God.

So after he had sensed the Lord calling him to teach he decided to test this out.

He began to teach some messages on faith to an afternoon women's prayer meeting in his church which was attended by a handful of women.It was not long until the women attending began to invite other women, then some began to tell their husbands of these meetings who began to take time off their work to attend.

In a short space of time the hall which they used was full to capacity, people were being saved and the blessing of God was tangible.

All because one man was teaching faithfully what God had called him to, and not deviating from this.

Later some people would question him as to why he taught so much on faith.

His response was always the same,"because I am called to"

There were three areas of teaching that he particularly focused upon, faith, healing and prayer.

He did not only preach on these three themes, however he spent the majority of his time and attention concentrating upon these three because he knew that it was necessary and because for those who heard him it was safe.

Similarly another superb teacher in our generation was Derek prince.

He taught upon many biblical themes but is especially remembered for his pioneering once again an understanding of the place of prayer and fasting into the body of Christ , for his teaching on the place of Israel in the plan of God, and for his teaching on blessings and curses.

It is my conviction that most teachers in the body of Christ are given a few specific messages that are what I would call their "life messages". These truths become more than points of doctrine for them but when they teach upon these particular truths that God has given them it comes with a clarity and simplicity and power that is unmistakable. It comes across as life.

I have been wanting to write a message from Hebrews on the greater glory of the new covenant and its relation to the present day ministry of Christ. Similarly I have upon my heart a message concerning the gospel message of reconciliation founded upon this truth "God is now and forever satisfied"

However I feel constrained by the Lord to continue to share upon the importance of distinguishing between the soul and the spirit.

There are certain themes that I have come to understand are particularly dear to me, and have become life messages(it seems that when I also preach on them people seem to be particularly encouraged and helped)

Among these are teaching on our covenant relationship with God and the importance of grasping the nature of covenant, teaching on the Righteousness of God in Christ and teaching on the reality of the new creation.

However it seems that this understanding of separating the soul and the spirit, and learning to walk in the spirit, is fast becoming a theme that I also sense the Lord will require me to focus much upon and I certainly can see very good reasons for this being so.

Firstly the lack of an understanding as to the difference between the spirit and the soul is ,generally speaking ,in this country appalling deficient . And secondly because this understanding is so crucial as to our comprehension of how to walk in the spirit. With that said I would like to share some thoughts concerning this subject from Galatians chapter six.

Recently whilst I was reading and meditating upon the last two chapters I was reminded that to grasp what Paul is saying in the latter part of this epistle is the number one key to walking in our christian liberty. Chapter 5 v 16 says "I say then walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;and these are contrary to one another,so that you do not do the things that you wish.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law."

Paul goes on to list the corrupt fruits that characterize the flesh, in contrast to the fruit of the spirit and sums up this teaching by making the statement "Those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the spirit,let us also walk in the spirit."

Traditionally many have seen this passage as a resume on the fruits of the Holy Spirit and the call to walk more closely in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and to deny the lusts of the flesh. However this is not what this passage is primarily speaking of (it is certainly true that all of the spiritual virtues and good fruits made evident in our lives come by the indwelling work of the Spirit of God, however in this passage this is not what Paul is discussing)

How can I assert this so confidently some may ask?

In response I would say for two clear reasons. Firstly we understand the passage as I suggested above because of a mistranslation from the Greek. Secondly when you see what the translation should have been then the purpose of this passage becomes very evident.

The crux of this passage is summarized in Paul's one concluding remark in Chp 6 v15 "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation."

In other words the heart of that which the apostle Paul is teaching in this flesh vs spirit passage is walking in the reality of the new creation.When we know who we are in Christ and understand the new creation realities in our own life, and begin to walk in the light of these things we will not satisfy the flesh.

How has this passage been mistranslated? In the capitalization of the word spirit to imply reference to the Holy Spirit, when in the Greek text it is not translated as Spirit but as spirit referring to the human spirit in a man.

Anyone who has a grasp of Greek will acknowledge this (or anyone with access to an interlinear Greek nt) but many scholars dismiss this distinction as unimportant. This poses the question as to why the translators of most of our English bibles chose to translate this in the knowledge that it was not strictly accurate. Mostly the argument is to say that whilst it is speaking of the human spirit in this passage, since the Holy Spirit is the means by which we bear fruit in our christian walk,and since it is His presence in us that makes our spirits alive to God, the reference to the Holy Spirit is implied.

But this line of reasoning still does not change the fact that Paul is not talking here about the fruit of the Holy Spirit but instead the fruit of the reborn regenerated spirit of every child of God. In addition when the Holy Spirit is spoken of in every single instance in the new testament it is made very clear that it is speaking of the third person of the Godhead and not the human spirit, by virtue of the grammatical capitalization as well as by the context.

So if it is not the Holy Spirit who is the primary object of Paul's writing here what precisely is?

This passage is talking about the contrast between the unregenerate fallen flesh(our carnal nature) and the reborn ,recreated human spirit that has been made alive in Christ and now has Gods life and nature residing in it.

And as we give absolute priority to "sow to the spirit" 6 v8, and to live with our spirits taking the leadership of our lives, than the reality of the life of God and the nature of God that is dwelling in our spirits is far greater than the fallen nature that resides in our flesh.

Most evangelicals have this the other way around . They focus predominantly upon the fallen flesh which they say has to be subdued, and neglect almost entirely the life giving virtues of the Son of God that now reside inside of every child of God. In reality very little time is spent living in the light of the victory of the cross as it pertains not just to the forgiveness of our sins, but the reception of a brand new nature. As Oswald Chamber that remarkable sage and teacher to the body of Christ once observed, in Christ the entire "disposition and mainspring"of our inward natures have been instantly and radically changed. It is this that we are to walk in the light of, and it is this that we are to renew our minds to,so that what Christ has wrought in us in reality begins to bear increasing fruit consistently through our lives.

The exhortation of this passage is therefore to help and to urge us to live and to walk in the spirit consistently, not as a mystical experience but rather as a walk of faith where the new creation or new self in Christ is constantly at the forefront of our lives.

Some Christians get nervous at the mention of having the life of God or the nature of God in them, imagining it to have new age overtones or at the least as something that sounds strange to their ears.

Let me simply say that any language which proponents of the new age movement have borrowed from the bible is incidental but the new creation reality in Christ Jesus and the so called "new age" are as different as day and night ,truth and deception.

The fact that this language is so strange or unfamiliar to some is a tragedy but only serves to demonstrate that this area of the new testament teaching has been woefully neglected. Every one of the terms that I have used are biblical and are truth that is especially found in the epistles of the new testament.

Gods word is referred to as "seed" that is, incorruptible seed in the new testament.

And we became born again when the incorruptible seed of the word of God quickened and generated a new life in our spirits, making us spiritually alive where we had been spiritually dead. Jesus said that "My words they are spirit and they are life ", and so our birth into the kingdom of God was by hearing and receiving the word of God, which became the receptacle for releasing the life of God into us.

The Holy Spirit takes the word of God and continues by His indwelling presence to maintain that constant flow of Gods life within us.

Many evangelicals in the conservative protestant tradition have majored to all practical purposes upon the progressive nature of our sanctification. Yes they would say we are given a new self in Christ in the new birth, but our sanctification is progressive, little by little, and often this has been conveyed in such a way that any real expectation of significant change of character is seen as hopeful at best and doubtful at worst.

In addition the teaching of justification by faith underscoring Luthers doctrine acknowledges that we have a righteousness before God but sees this as entirely alien to us, outside of ourselves, that is, not touching our essential natures. Rather the righteousness of God is reckoned or imputed to us by faith and again the majority of Christians are left with the conviction that there is very little real internal substantive change.The protestants criticize the Roman Catholics because they believe that righteousness is infused into us that is that it really does get inside of and reform our human natures.

I believe that both of these church traditions have endeavoured to grasp different aspects of the teaching of the new testament(of course both groups would for the most part see the opposing view on righteousness as erroneous and heretical) but I believe that righteousness is according to the bible more than just a state of legal justification. It is also part of the nature and character of God , and as such has become a part of our new selves in Christ in as much as we have been made partakers of the divine nature. Why should that be deemed so offense to some Christians, unless as I believe they have never yet fully grasped the new creation realities of how their spirits have been made new in the new creation, and that they have been reborn into the likeness and image of Gods dear Son.

What is so offensive to say that Jesus Christ is living in me and that therefore His Life, His nature, His Righteousness ,His Love, His peace ,His Joy, and His faith has also now been made available to me and are dwelling within me.?

As Paul writes in Ephesians chpt 4 v23, 24 we are to "be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and to put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth"

Our spirits were reborn and the imperishable seed of Gods word and the Mighty indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit have created a brand new person(one translation of 2 Corinthians 5 v17 translates it as "if any man is in Christ he is a brand new species of being one that never existed before") and that new person has been created according to the righteousness and holiness and truth of God.

If that is so some may ask, then why do I struggle so much ,and why do Christians that I know struggle so much in their christian walk.

The primary reason why Christians struggle so much is because we have never renewed our minds to conform to the teaching of what took place in our new birth of becoming a new creation and of the fact that we are now indwelt by the Mighty Holy Spirit of God.

We are or have been so much more sin conscious then God indwelling us conscious.We have been more failure conscious then made the righteousness of God conscious.We have been more weakness conscious then the strength and might of God strengthening our inner man conscious. And we have been more conscious of the fallen nature than established (and that is the key word) in the reality of the new creation and of the fact that the life and nature of God are now dwelling in us.

This is what Paul is speaking of in these latter two chapters of Galatians. The virtues of this new life which our spirits have been made partakers of, now needs to be nurtured, cultivated and given full sway, and as we do this we shall not gratify the lusts of the flesh.This is why the teaching to distinguish between the soul and the spirit is so crucial.

If we only regard our selves as body and soul then we shall not understand that this new nature is residing in our spirits, and as we train ourselves to become more spirit conscious and less mind conscious the present reality of these inward virtues of Christs life become so much greater to us.

I can anticipate the objection of some that may read this that I am being unnecessarily negative about the importance of the mind. But let me explain this more clearly.

There are things that we may know in our spirits (by the Holy Spirit) that we cannot yet articulate with our minds.

How often have you known something that you had not been told, but you instinctively just knew it? Or have you ever known a truth from scripture but just not yet been able to fully articulate it?( look at 1 Corinthians 2 v11)

There are many things that our spirits"know" that our minds do not yet. That is because our minds were meant to be subservient to our spirits not the other way around.

This brings us to the question of how do we let our spirits take precedence over and above our minds? In a word by meditating and acting upon Gods word. The word of God is food for our spirits as meat and bread are food for the body.

So we learn to walk in the spirit by becoming more spirit conscious and by being more conscious of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God within us than the clamouring thoughts of our minds.

As a last thought one further objection that I have often heard to the teaching on spirit and soul is to say that in the old testament the Hebrew view of man was a holistic one, giving value and a sense of personhood to the whole of man, not "compartmentalising him".

It is important to recognize however that under the old covenant no one was yet born again or had received the life and nature of God within . Neither was the Holy Spirit permanently abiding inside of belivers as he is now.

All of the prophecies looking foward to the new covenant and that speak of God giving a new heart and putting a new spirit within us depended upon Christ going to the cross and being made sin for us, and being justified in the spirit and raised up from the dead in order to bring about their fulfillment.

However there are references that distinguish between the soul and the spirit even in the old testament eg( Isa 26 v 9 ) but this truth was portrayed far more clearly and centrally in the new.

It is important also to understand this area of new testament teaching not as a reason to break man up into different categories for analysis, but rather to show us that as we have now have been made alive in the spirit and live in the spirit so we need to learn to walk in the spirit, letting the things of the spirit have the ascendency in our christian walk.

The best illustration that I can end on is to quote another of my spiritual mentors Kenneth Copeland.

At the very onset of his ministry while he was attending an induction seminar at oru(Oral Roberts university) the Lord opened his eyes into the spirit realm and gave to him an open vision.What he saw so startled him that he kept shutting his eyes than reopening them to find that the vision remained. The content of what he was shown absolutely broke him and he sat alone weeping for the remainder of his time in that meeting.

The Lord showed him how He saw the majority of the people present and what he saw were people who appeared disfigured and grotestly disproportionate.

The people in the room suddenly appeared to him as those having tiny scrawny bodies like the pictures of the malnourished children that we are familiar with from refugee camps in third world countries.In contrast their heads appeared disproportionatly large like huge oversized swollen heads. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to him and said "this is the condition of the majority of my people in the western world"." They are highly developed in their minds and intellects but in their spirits they appear as emmaciated before me"

This vision was the catalyst that launched his ministry that has for over fourty years endevoured to feed the spirits and well as the minds of Gods people with the Word of God.

We can overdevelop our intellects by so feeding upon intellectual matter that we neglect our hearts before God. And there is only one thing that will build us up in our most holy faith and that is constant feeding upon and meditating upon the Word of the living God.

Walking in the spirit is nothing more than to give priority to God's word above every other thing, to feast upon it, to believe and to act upon it, even in the face of every kind of contradictory circumstance or pressure.

Jan put it well when we were discussing these things when she said "We are being led by the soul when we try to reason it all out, but we are being led by the spirit when we accept the word of God by faith and walk in it"

"Discerning the difference between walking with faith in God and walking with the faith of God"

One of the most respected prophetic voices in north America today is that of Bob Jones



His track record of accuracy in the things which he has prophesied, as well as his personal impact on many leaders in the church whom he has ministered to, have given to him both a credibility and an authority which is well established.



The Lord gave to Bob Jones a prophecy several years ago in which he was shown the purposes of the heart of the Father and of the kingdom of heaven for several successive generations .So what is the ten year prophecy for 2010 to 2020?



Bob was shown that in this decade which we have entered the body of Christ would be challenged to move from faith in God to the faith of God.



Is this just a play on words or mere semantics, some may ask? Is there a difference between our having faith in God and walking in the faith of God, and if so what is it?


I believe that this is a crucial word to the church and will endeavour to expound upon what precisely the faith of God means as it is defined in the scriptures for us.


It is my earnest desire and prayer that we would begin to walk in this faith of God and so be able to receive from God the answers to our prayers on a more consistent basis.


I take this seriously for the scriptures clearly state that we should believe in the Lords prophets that we may prosper.


What is the root of true biblical prosperity? Simply obedience to what Gods says to us. So when this word was flagged up for this next decade ahead I immediately determined to set my sail into the wind of Gods Spirit and learn all I can about grasping the essence of walking in the faith of God.


The classic text in the bible which expounds on what this faith of God is, and what it looks like, is in mark 11 ,v22 24." Have faith in God "or as the original or literal Greek text says "have the faith of God".
Of course having the faith of God and having faith in God are in essence one and the same. However to many having faith in God does not require anything more then to believe certain truths and to believe that ultimately God will work His purposes out, whereas in this passage in marks gospel ,Jesus is exorting us to have the faith of God in the sense that we observe how he used his faith specifically and deliberately in a given situation and become imitators of him.

I do not want to create some false distinction therefore between the faith of God and having faith in God ; all faith comes from him and is to be placed in him, however the thought that I want to convey is that in this passage in mark Jesus is urging us to have the faith of God in that we exercise our faith precisely the same way that he exercised his.

Earlier in the passage Jesus expounds to his disciples exactly how to exercise their faith as they are taught to speak to the mountains as he spoke to the fig tree, and to believe that when they pray, their prayers are answered before they see any evidence of this.



This principle begins really in mark 11 v13 where we are told that Jesus "seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, went to see if perhaps he might find something on it. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.


In response Jesus said to it" Let no one eat fruit from you ever again" .And his disciples heard it.


At first glance some could be tempted to think "poor old fig tree", since it was not the season for figs why did Christ deal so emphatically with it.?


But there was a reason and that reason became the opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate what exercising His faith in God looked like, and we are told that the disciples took note for they distinctly heard him. (v14) A closer inspection of this passage reveals an all important word in v14 "in response Jesus said....


I prefer the authorised version which translates this "And Jesus answered and said to it . No man eat fruit from thee hereafter forever."


"He answered it" Answering somebody or something suggests that that person or thing has spoken first, you do not answer if you have initiated the first words in a conversation. This would suggest that the fig tree was saying something first to Christ, in the sense that it was defying and challenging him.


Here before it stood the Son of the living God who had multiplied the five loaves and the fishes to feed the multitudes, who spoke to the life threatening storm and all was calm, who commanded Peter to cast his line over the other side of the boat and the catch began to break the nets. He was the one who had commanded Peter to cast his line into the sea and take out the first fish to find the drachma coin to provide for the temple tax. He was the same one who knew where to make preparations for the celebrating of the passover, and knew where there would be an unbroken colt waiting to be ridden into Jerusalem, and this same Christ went to look for evidence of fruit on this tree.


All he found was leaves.He went to see if possibly there might be some fruit on it.


Jesus knew the seasons of the agricultural year, but this indicates that there was never the less a possibility for fruit to be discovered. It could have yielded early. It could have shown the evidence of fruit in the bud. Instead the tree was challenging Jesus. It was challenging him that he would not find any fruit and it was unreasonable of him to expect any fruit. Answering it he said....





The parallel or application to us is clear. How many times have we faced challenges that defy us, defy our prayers, and defy our earnest expectations that challenge most importantly the revealed will of God in our lives. We too must answer it with our faith by learning to exercise our faith and release our faith deliberately and on purpose directing it specifically as Jesus spoke deliberately and specifically to the fig tree.


Jesus did not ask His heavenly father to curse the fig tree, he commanded it to bear fruit no more.


Likewise how often have sincere Christians cried out to God to remove the mountain when instead He is requiring of them to discern their need and duty to use their faith to speak to the obstacle, knowing that their faith is in actuality His faith living in them and speaking through them as His children. What Christ is showing us in this example therefore is one of the ways that we must learn to exercise the faith of God is by speaking to the mountains in our own lives and commanding them to be removed.


How do we do that ?

In v20 the disciples pass by the fig tree accompanying Christ and Peter, remembering, said to him,


"Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has whithered away. "So Jesus answered and said to them,"Have faith in God or have the faith of God"


"For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,


"Be removed and be cast into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart , but believes that those things he says will come to pass ,he will have whatever he says.


Whoever says to this mountain Be removed...... and does not doubt in his heart but believes. Whoever says.....


It is evident that we are required to speak to our mountain and command it to go, so what Jesus is speaking of here is our responsibly in the place of prayer.




Many people struggle with the idea of speaking to the mountains in their lives and taking authority over them. It sounds like either presumption to them or foolishness and if they try to do so they only feel awkward and doubtful of anything really being accomplished. But the words of Jesus are very plain and are necessary for us to obey if we desire to see the answers to our prayers. Such attitudes will only ensnare us and hold us in bondage if we persist to hold onto them. Jesus is not asking for our opinions in this matter he asks only for our obedience.

It is so vitally important to understand that the act of speaking to our mountain is not just some mental exercise. We cannot speak to the mountain out of our heads with some notion that we will give it a try .You do not experiment with this, you have to "say" , " not doubting in your heart "v 23. This is heart Christianity in its most distilled essence.

We are in the west far to greatly governed by our minds, by the cerebral, and we desperately need to become men and women who both understand by the eyes of our hearts and live by the faith and love of God that is in our hearts.
Some people think of any reference to the heart as being a demonstrative emotional kind of Christianity, as opposed to a well thought out "biblical" approach. Such a confession only reveals how far we have moved away in the west from an understanding that as proverbs 4 says, we are to "guard diligently above all things our hearts for it is out of there that the issues of life flow, or our life force."

I use rather the word heart here to speak of the spirit of man which the bible refers to as our essential nature or our inwards parts. It is there that we must begin to inwardly absorb the promises of God word and be nourished by its goodness. It is there that we must store up the word of God richly so that it is a living and abiding presence and force in us for good.

Remember how Paul said in Romans1 v15 "So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also."

Paul would preach out of the overflow of what was in him, and we can only speak with authority out of the overflow of what is in us.

So we need to be assured and full of Gods promises so that our "saying" to the mountain comes forth from a wellspring of living water within us, and not from a haltering mind of doubt and unbelief.

But how do we speak to the mountains you may ask? I believe that there are two simple approaches to this both of which are necessary and powerful when applied.

Firstly we speak to the mountain by addressing it in that place of prayer, we speak to it directly and call it by its name. For example if it is a physical sickness that we are battling against we address it and say to it "You back pain in the name of Jesus, I command you to leave my body now, be removed and be cast into the sea." And we continue to meditate upon Gods healing scriptures and to believe that Gods healing grace and power is at work in us as we continue to stand in our faith.

Or if our mountain is an unsaved loved one for whom we have cried out earnestly in prayer we say to the veil of unbelief that lies over their hearts "Be removed" ,"Be removed you spirit of blindness that darkens the understanding of my loved one."

And we continue to believe the promises of Gods word that cover that specific situation, not doubting that we shall see the fulfillment of them in their lives.

That is the first aspect of saying, however I believe that we also speak to the mountain by speaking the word of God directly into that situation, in the confidence that as the fig tree yielded to Jesus so the mountain will bow eventually to the greater authority of the Word of God.
We should grow in our skill in doing this as a skillful mechanic would know which specific tool to select to tackle the specific challenge that he faces ,so the Holy Spirit will train and teach us to wield the sword of the Spirit in prayer as we commit to directing Gods word by saying it into the face of those challenging circumstances that defy us.
How few, how very few Christians believe in the spiritual authority that they have been given and can exercise in the place of prayer.
Jesus is the resurrected Lord who has been made the head over all things for the church.
There is no discrepancy in the place of authority that belongs to Christ or that resides in his body which is the church. All authority has been given to Jesus Christ the Lord both in heaven and on earth and that authority over evil and demonic forces has been delegated to the Church.
How many situations are being hindered or fowled up in our lives by direct satanic interference?
How many circumstances in our lives if the veil was drawn back and we could see into the realm of the spirit would we see the efforts of our enemy and of Gods to seek to withstand and thwart Gods best purposes from coming to pass in our lives?
To whom has the authority to deal with the devil been given in the new testament?
It came as a shock to me the first time I realised that the authority to deal with what the devil is seeking to do in my life has been given to me as my responsibility .
God will come against satan as I take my stand to resist and come against him in whatever guise he may be seeking to deceive.
The whole nature of a covenant relationship is as the book of Hebrews tells us a joining or binding together of two parties into one new identity.
God is that one party and we as his covenant people and as his children through faith in Christ are the second party
And God the father has irrevocably bound and joined himself to us forever to "be a God to us, " and that we should be a people unto him.
When we speak in the name of Jesus into the face of that need whatever the mountain may be, as it seeks to mock our faith and defy what we know the will of God to be, we speak to it in the name of Jesus and declare before it the Word of God.
As we speak in that name it is as if we are standing in Christs stead as his representatives on this earth, as His mouthpiece and his joint heirs, as his ambassadors clothed with his authority
This is by definition what being in a covenant relationship means.
So I can in all good conscience stand and speak in the sight of Almighty God and say "In the name of Jesus I shall not die but I shall live, to declare the works of the Lord to my generation" I can say "All my children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of my children" Isa 54, and "This is the covenant that my Father in heaven has made with me, His Spirit that is upon me and His words that He has put into my mouth shall not depart from my mouth, nor from the mouth of my children nor from the mouth of my children's children from this time forward and for ever more,says the Lord."Isa 59.

My children will have the Word of God in their mouths and the anointing of Gods Spirit upon their lives because I account him faithful who has promised.

The last element which is that of believing that we have received those things that we ask for in our prayers works in precisely the same way.
We take the word of God and the promises of Gods word that pertain to our specific situation and that cover our need and we hold fast to that rather than any other circumstance to the contrary.
If Gods word says that all my children shall be taught by the Lord and that great shall be the peace of my children then that is the way that it shall be. I have laid that matter out before God in prayer and my confidence is only in what he has said.
As smith wigglesworth the great apostle of faith once said "I am not moved by what I see, I am not moved by what I feel, I am moved only by what I believe."
And I would add we also say like Mary, "I believe that it shall be towards me just as God has spoken and according to what he has said".
In so doing and in so saying we can believe that we receive what we ask for in prayer because the ground of our confidence and the foundation of our hopes and the certainty of our convictions is based only and wholly upon what He has said.

When Jesus returns to this earth the searching question is asked "Will he find faith upon the earth?" This seems to be the single greatest quality that the risen Lord is looking for.
I would like to end by recounting an experience that a woman I know had that reveals the heart attitude of our Lord towards those who live and walk in faith.
In this visionary experience this woman was taken and saw the globe and found herself looking down upon different lands and geographical regions.
What she saw was a blanket or covering of darkness and here and there she saw lights shining through the darkness and emanating out of the surrounding darkness.
The Lord spoke to her and said that these lights represented those of his people who chose to live and walk by faith, taking him at his word, and the darkness represented those who did not.
She sensed the grief in Gods heart and imagined that it was for the lost.
To her utter surprise the Lord said that his grief was for those of his people who did not walk by faith.
They were born again in many cases Spirit filled believers who nevertheless would not take him at his word and did not live by faith in Him and in His word, and the contrast was as great as between the light and the darkness that this woman had seen in the vision.
I remember speaking to this woman the day that the Lord spoke to her in this vision.
I had just got back from a ministry trip to Poland and as I spoke to this woman I could literally sense the light of Gods presence pouring out of her eyes. My first response to her was "whats happened to you ", and then she told me of her vision.
To entertain doubts and nurture unbelief in our hearts concerning any part or portion of Gods word is not only spiritual suicide but robs God of his witness in this world, as being a people in whom he will discover faith when he should return.
May we be counted rather in 2010 among those who live in and walk in the light of Gods glory and presence which we truly carry within us as we determine that we will walk in that same Spirit of faith that so many who have gone before us have been commended for " I believed therefore I have spoken "