When Nothing Happens

What should we do when we pray and nothing happens? When whatever you are asking or needing to become reality doesn't; because it just sometimes doesn't, what then? Why doesn't it happen? God has the ability to make it happen. God is sometimes silent; sometimes … lets be realistic … most of the time He's silent. Be still and quiet before Him just for a moment … silent; let's listen to what He wants us to hear. He will speak to you; maybe not right at this moment, but He will. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice" … meaning He is speaking. It's usually that we aren't listening.

We all have questions, things that have befallen us in life that have caused us to ask this question … "Why God?" Or perhaps we even question God Himself, the "reality" of God. But that last question doesn't last long; all we have to do is look around at His creation and we get that question over with in short order. All we have to do is "open" our eyes.

God understands our questions; He understands our doubts and frustrations with our faith, or lack of it since He made us knowing it was going to be "a fight." The Apostle Paul called it "the good fight of faith." But it shouldn't have to be like a fight to the death, should it?

I will admit I don't understand much within the realm we call … "Faith." So why am I writing this paper about the frustration that comes … "When Nothing Happens." Honestly, I think I write sometimes just to vent my feelings; to share my questions with anyone who wants to listen; we all need an audience sometimes.

Now for the truth … not that what I've said so far hasn't been the truth, at least as far as my understanding goes; but now I'm getting to the main stuff I want to share with you. Lately, I have been asking God to show me … "the truth of His Word." I need to know it. How can I operate in man's supposition … what man only thinks God said; I want to know exactly what the Word of God says about His promises to me.

Some say that there are many reasons why, when we pray, "nothing happens," when God stays silent and doesn't answer in the way we want; like giving us some evidence we can see or feel with our fleshly senses. After all we are more then just a spirit and soul; we have flesh and blood wrapped around us … our inner being may be an eternal spirit, but most of what we sense comes to us through our outside flesh. Like it or not, our flesh is just as much a part of who we are as are our spirit and soul.

I said all that to start with a foundation, something anchored in the fleshly side of my understanding, my reasoning … something I can get a hold on that is not of the unseen, invisible realm of faith; for that realm has only the "intangible," unproven to anyone except to the one believing for it. Yes, it may be real; but until it becomes visible to the natural eye, it is still just a tentative theory, a "concept" not yet verified by the manifestation of the answer from God, in accordance to your faith.

Isaiah 1:18 …"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD …" This is what I want to do; combine the Word of God, with reason, or understanding; which is not the normal approach to studying what God has said. The norm is to teach that only your heart or your spirit can understand the things of God through faith. If reasoning and understanding only use the mind and not the heart or spirit, then why did the LORD say …"let us reason together?"

So, with that thought in mind, I want to present perhaps some new or different concepts from the Word of God, while using "reason," applying it to our lives where prayer and answers to prayer, or the lack of answers are concerned.

I want to use as an example Abraham, who has been called, "the father of our faith." Why is he the father of our faith? I'm going to deal with just two of the reasons in this study. The first is that God appointed him to be just that.

Romans 4:17 …"As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed." (Amplified Bible)

God's promises are so certain, that He speaks of them as "already" in existence. God, instead of simply promising that He would make Abraham the father of many nations, speaks of it as already being done. In God's own mind, it was done.

The second reason we can more easily associate with today. The justification of the Church today proceeds from the same promise that was made to Abraham, our father of …"faith"… because he was the first to believe that when God said something, God would do it. He was the first to be justified by faith alone. Today we are justified by our faith in what Jesus has done. Jesus "alone" is our justification.

We will need to back up one verse to see that today, Abraham's promise is still sure to all; that is to … "all who believe" by the faith and grace of God.

Romans 4:16 …"Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all …"

The promise is sure, not on obedience to the law, but on the fact that God said it, meaning the promise is sure to all the seed … to all … both Jews and Gentiles, who, believing in Jesus, have a right to all the blessings contained in the covenant made to Abraham. We who are Gentiles need not doubt in the promise, for the promise was given to Abraham while he was a Gentile, while he was still in an uncircumcised state.

In the Amplified Bible, Romans 4:18 reads this way …"For Abraham, human reason for hope being gone, hoped in faith …" The word hope means to anticipate with confidence.

There's that word "reason" again. Abraham didn't use "reason" or the reasoning power of his mind to believe; it is the opposite of "faith" and will do you no good when trying to believe God for a "promise." Just as believing is a product of the "heart," doubt is a product of the "mind," as is reason. Be careful how you "reason."

Romans 4:20 states that Abraham …" staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God …"

There is no reason to stagger at, or hesitate because of unbelief about any of the promises of God, since they are made by God, the one that can not lie.

Romans 4:21 …"And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform."

He had not only faith, but being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able also to perform. This statement shows us how Abraham hoped on in faith, believing the promise God gave him. Look at what his faith and hope, even with human "reason" for hope being gone, brought to his spirit and soul.

To put it in as simple terms as I can … Abraham just believed God because … "if God said it," then he believed "God would do it." It's just that simple.

Now here is where I want to present perhaps a different concept concerning Abraham's faith. Abraham did not use his faith to "faith in, confirm or make sure" that the promise of his seed would make him the father of many nations. The Word spoken to Abraham makes it clear that it was his ability to "believe in the Lord" that God honored and counted to him as "righteousness."

Genesis 15:6 …"And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Yes, there was a promise made to Abram, that he would be the father of many nations; but it had nothing to do with Abraham's faith, at least in the ability to father children. It had everything to do with God … and God alone. God said it; therefore God was going to make sure that it would come to pass, that it would be fulfilled.

What I am trying to say is that if God tells you … "what is going to happen" … then it's going to happen with or without our help. God doesn't need it. Abraham's faith was only used for his righteousness …"his faith was counted to him for righteousness"… not for his fertility or any ability in producing offspring. God did that without faith.

God made sure he was able and capable by giving him the ability to produce his seed; he didn't have to use "faith" in the same way we do when we ask God for our healing or some other need we may have. I believe God just took care of it to fulfill His purpose; it was part of the promise. Abraham didn't do it … God did.

Now here is where I have a problem with the teaching that Abraham had nothing but great faith. So I ask this question …"If Abraham didn't stagger or waver in his belief that God was going to give him children by his wife Sarah, then why did he consent to the fleshly attempt on Sarah's part to have Hagar bare his seed to fulfill God's promise?" It looks like he tried to help God out; and I don't think it was done through faith.

Because Abraham was just like us, weak flesh; when unbelief came, and I'm sure it did, his unbelief still didn't stop him from receiving God's promise to him. Why not? Because as strange as it sounds, he still believed God while he was going "through" the unbelief as it says in Romans 4:20 …" He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief…" He didn't stay in the unbelief; he went "on through it." And remember, God was working to make sure His promise would be fulfilled.

Therefore, there is no reason for us to stagger at, or hesitate in any way, for any reason concerning the promises of God, when you consider who it is that made them. And who made them? God, right? Is God a man … that He can lie?

Abraham's confidence was this … "that the truth of God" … since God can be nothing less, bound Him (God) to fulfill His promise to him; therefore God could do nothing less or He wasn't God; and he was confident that God had the power and ability to perform it.

I have tried to say, that God's own "truthfulness" binds Him and obligates Him to fulfill all of His promises to believers … believers who are like Abraham … those who without any other reason for any expectation of God's promises being fulfilled in the natural, anticipate with confidence, and do not weaken in faith … just because God said it.

When we begin to use our faith; when whatever you are asking or needing to become reality doesn't …"When Nothing Happens"… and sometimes it doesn't; what are we to do? Wait patiently. Do not get ahead of God like Abraham and Sarah did; even when you begin to waver and doubt. Notice I didn't say if you doubt, because you will. I believe even the father of our faith did. But he went on; and you will go on.

If you believe God has a promise for you … go on through your doubt … till you receive your answer. If it is really a promise from God's Word, God is still honor bound to fulfill it. He is not only truthful … He is Truth itself; and you will receive it just like Abraham did. That's why Abraham is called the father of our faith, he went on through.

Even with doubts and everything.