Confession is Possession: The Three Golden Rules of Prayer

Scripture Reference:

Mark 11:24 (NKJV) Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Mark 11:24 (NASB) Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.

Mark 11:24 (MEV) Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them.

Mark 11:24 (KJV) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

 

It does not matter which translation you use, you will notice that there are three words which seem to appear in all of them. These three words are:

  1. Pray or Ask
  2. Believe
  3. Receive

These are what I like to call the Three Golden Rules of Prayer. Let us look at each one of them in more detail. When you pray, there are three actions required from the individual praying. Please keep in mind that the three words, Ask, Believe, and Receive are verbs which means they are words that show an action, occurrence or state of being.

 

1. The first Golden Rule of Prayer is that: You Need to ASK. Asking requires an individual to open their mouths and speak out. Words need to proceed from the individual’s mouth. Not just any word but the word of promises written in the Bible which correspond to your prayer request. For example, if you are praying for healing, find the scripture verse in the Bible where God promises to heal you. In this example, you can use Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24 etc. The word ASK is a very interesting word. If you were to look just at the four Gospels and mark every verse where Jesus used the word ASK in relation to prayer, you will realize that He used it a lot. I personally found seventeen places where Jesus used ASK in relation to prayer. Here are the seventeen verses:

 

Six Verses in the Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Matthew 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Matthew 18:19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

Matthew 21:22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Matthew 6:8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

 

One Verse in the Gospel of Mark

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

 

Three Verses in the Gospel of Luke

Luke 11:9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Luke 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Luke 11:13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

 

Seven Verses in the Gospel of John

John 14:13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

John 16:23 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.

John 16:24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

John 16:26 In that day you will ask in My name……

 

This makes one point about prayer very clear; Asking is a vital part of prayer and it is the first step of prayer as well. There is one advice I always give people on reading and studying their Bibles. Whenever you see a statement or point being repeated two or more times, that is a sign that it is very important to God and He is repeating it so that you pay attention to what it says. If it is so important to God, it should also become important to you. My advice is that you take a highlighter and highlight those verses of scripture so that you can pay extra attention to those verses whenever you read or study your Bible. One last point I want to make about prayer before I move to the second Golden Rule is that there is no such thing as silent prayer. Some Christians assume that since God can read my mind, I don’t need to pray vocally. God will automatically fulfill my request since He already knows it. Of course, God can read your mind. But this is scripturally false. As I pointed out earlier, that Jesus instructs us seventeen times just in the four Gospels to Ask when we pray and Asking requires opening your mouth and speaking forth words. So please keep this in mind as we move to the second Golden Rule of Prayer.

 

2. The second Golden Rule of Prayer is that: You Need to Believe. But believe who? Believe God for the answer. That’s what faith is. Faith is believing God for the answer to your prayers without seeing any physical evidence or manifestation of it. Don’t confuse Faith with what some people call nowadays Make Belief. Always remember God Can Not Lie, therefore God Himself is the guarantee that His Word will Work. Let us look at some scriptures that deal with the subject of believing:

 

Romans 10:8-10 (NKJV)

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

 

I want you to notice something very important in these three verses of scripture. Three times Paul uses the word MOUTH in relation to CONFESSION and three times Paul uses the word HEART in relation to BELIEVE. Let’s talks about the word Believe first. What is Paul trying to tell us by using the word Belief three times in relation to Heart? That Believing what you ask for in prayer takes place in the human heart which is the real person on the inside of you known as the spirit man.

 

I want you to notice another thing about these three verses. It does not say to believe in or with your head or mind or brain. A lot of Christians have this wrong idea that Believing has to do with the mind or head which deals with the sensual realm. Sorry to disappoint you but you cannot receive anything from God by believing up there because it is totally unscriptural. Well, someone may quickly ask, “But Brother Raj, how do we believe in our heart?” Simple: Through faith in God’s word; through faith in what God’s word says about your problem, situation, circumstance or any other prayer request or need.

 

3. The third Golden Rule of Prayer is that: You Need to Receive. But Receive WHAT? The answer to your prayer. But HOW? The same way you Believe; through faith in God’s word. My friends, there are over seven thousand promises in the Bible. How many of them are you living in today? Do you even know what those promises are? The main reason people’s prayers are not answered is a lack of knowledge of God’s word which is the Holy Bible.

 

Let’s review the three points I just made:

  1. You Need to ASK. Asking requires the use of your MOUTH.
  2. You Need to BELIEVE. Believe requires the use of your HEART which is your newborn spirit.
  3. You Need to RECEIVE. Receiving requires you to take God at His WORD. In other words, you receive the answers to your prayers by FAITH in what God’s word says about it. And how exactly do you get faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God – Romans 10:17. And where do we hear God’s word? Church Services, Bible Study, Home Prayer Meetings etc. That’s why it is so important to be found in places where God’s word is being preached and taught.

 

After you have done these three steps, ACT as if your prayers have been answered. In other words, change your confession from present to past tense. Let me define the word confession for you. CONFESSION is taking a promise of God from the Bible, personalizing it and speaking it out as often as possible. For example, let’s say you caught flu. Now you are praying to God for your healing.

 

STEP 1 ASK

Father, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ that you heal me from this sickness of flu that I am suffering from.

STEP 2 BELIEVE

Father, your word says that by the stripes of Jesus Christ, I have been healed. I believe what your word says, God. By the stripes of Jesus, I have been healed from this sickness of flu.

STEP 3 RECEIVE

Right now, in the name of Jesus Christ, I receive healing for my body. I command this fever, cough, and headache to leave my body in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

My friends, God has given you the authority to use the name of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. USE IT! HIS NAME WORKS!

The final blow is CONFESSION. Let’s have a quick look at a scripture verse that talks about confession.

 

Hebrews 10:23 (NKJV)

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

 

After applying the three Golden Rules of Prayer, confess the answer to your prayer in past tense. DO NOT PRAY FOR HEALING ANYMORE. In the example of flu, you can say something like:

 

Father, according to 1 Peter 2:24, I have been healed by the stripes of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for healing me. I praise and exalt your name for setting me free from this infirmity. I lift up your name and glorify it.

 

Now, remember that you need to hold fast to your confession of faith till the healing manifests. In conclusion, always remember these two things:

  1. God’s Word Never Fails – Isaiah 55:10-11, Hebrews 4:12
  2. God’s Word Always Works – Matthew 24:35, Psalm 138:2
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