Surprising Connections Between Faith and Prayer
Will God Really Keep His Word and Bring Justice to the Earth?
A short clip of a teaching on Luke 18:8 about the important connections between faith in God’s justice and our persistence in prayer before the return of Christ.
Takeaways
Faith is essential in prayer, and it comes from hearing and aligning with the word of God.
Consistency and persistence in prayer are rooted in faith and the belief that God will bring justice and advance His kingdom.
Prayer is a partnership with God in bringing about transformation in the world.
The ultimate fulfillment of prayer and the longing for justice will come when Jesus returns and establishes His kingdom in fullness.
Video Transcript
Presence Pioneers (00:00.078)
And there's this connection here in verse eight. It says, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? There's this connection to faith. We have to understand the role of faith in all this. Jesus is saying, will not God bring justice to his elect who cry out day and night? And he connects that idea to the idea of those who have faith. So he's saying those who pray consistently have faith. Those who cry out day and night are the ones that have faith. Now, what does prayer have to do?
with faith. Well, Romans 10 17 says faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. So faith is when we hear the word of God and we agree with it and we believe it. So faith is saying yes to the word of God, its alignment with his word. And so when we hear the word of God and we and we see what God says and we agree with it, it gives us faith. What does this have to do with what I've already said? Well, when we.
hear what God says about himself, who he is, we say, yes, that's faith. When we see what God's word says about who we are, we say, yes, and then that's faith. When we see what God wants to do and we say, yes, Lord, do it, that's faith. So our consistency, excuse me, and our persistence in prayer is rooted in the word of God. It's our faith in him. It's our faith in his word. We say, yes, you are who you said you are.
Yes, I am who you say I am and I believe you're going to do what you said you're going to do. And so I'm going to keep coming to you because I'm seeing who you are and I'm believing that you really are who you say you are. I'm believing that I am your son and your daughter and I can come into your presence and you love me and that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. I believe that you're going to pour out your spirit. I believe that you want to release your kingdom onto the earth. And so those things, those revelations,
of who God is and who we are and what he wants to do. The faith that comes in response to his word. That's what roots us and ground us in in faithful prayer. That's what he's saying. When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? Will he find people who have said yes to his word, who have believed in what he has said, how he has revealed himself to be? And therefore they are praying because if they believe me, then they're going to keep coming to me. They're going to keep.
Presence Pioneers (02:25.806)
agreement and alignment with my word, and they're going to stay in faithful prayer. So there's this connection between faith and prayer. We won't pray until we hear his word. We've got to hear his word and believe it. And that's what keeps us steady for the long haul. And he won't delay when he hears our prayers. So of course, you know, we want to be faithful in prayer, but what does, what does it say here about God? It says,
Will not God give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay longer over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. So God has promised in Luke 18, those who cry out day and night, he's going to release his justice. What is God's justice? It's making the wrong things right. It means that his kingdom is beginning to break in. In the kingdom of God, there's justice, there's righteousness. That's the foundation of his throne.
And so he's saying, as you cry out, I'm going to begin to release my kingdom. As you pray, I'm going to release justice into the earth. I'm going to confront evil. I'm going to confront evil in your life and in the life around you, in your city, in your nation. As you pray, cry out as an intercessor day and night, I'm going to release my justice. I'm going to change things. When I hear your prayers, I'm going to move and act. Listen, guys, God could just
In a moment, he could just make everything right. He could just immediately fix the world if you wanted to do that. But the way he's chosen to do that is through partnership with humanity. He always changes the world through partnership with humanity. He brings his kingdom to the earth through his people. And one of the major ways he does that is through intercession, through intercessory prayer. So he says, I want to bring justice to the earth and I'm going to delay unless.
unless there's an intercessor, unless there's those who cry out day and night. If there's those who cry out day and night, then I won't delay. Then I will release my kingdom. I will release my justice. And that happens in a measure right now as God's kingdom advances and people are saved and healed and the world is transformed. But it's going to come in fullness when Jesus himself returns, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? So there's going to be this culmination of
Presence Pioneers (04:54.887)
revival and the movement of God's Spirit in the earth. There's going to be amazing things that the Lord does on the earth, a great harvest, I believe, at the end of the age. But ultimately, the justice we're crying out for and longing for is going to come. The kingdom of God is going to come in fullness when the Son of Man returns, when Jesus himself comes to the earth. And that is the ultimate culmination of our of all of our prayers and all of our cries for his kingdom and for.
justice on the earth. So he won't pray. We won't pray until we hear his word and he won't delay when he hears our prayer. So we need to believe God. We need to know who he is. We need to see him rightly. We need to know who we are. We need to have faith and believe that he is who he says he is, that we are who we say we are, that he says we are, that his kingdom is going to come, that all of his promises are yes and amen. And we need to cry out.
consistently day and night for his kingdom. I pray today that the word of God in Luke 18 and Jesus's words will stir your heart and root you and ground you in deeper faith. God.