JESUS:            “’Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”    (Mark 11:22-24)

      Another friend of mine, whom I’ll call Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. from one of the top ten universities in America, has published a technical monograph with what may be the top academic publisher in the world and teaches at a well-respected university.  Dr. Smith lives alone, and he told me recently that for a period of two months (which ended about two months ago as of this writing) he had seen overt demonic phenomena in his condominium.  It began with a specific piece of furniture moving in his living room, an event he witnessed with his own eyes.  Next, his phone began to ring repeatedly with no one on the line.  Shortly thereafter, when he went downstairs for breakfast, he found a large wreath which had been hanging on his wall lying in the middle of the floor about twelve feet from the wall as though someone had tossed it over there.  No one had entered his home during the night, nor does Dr. Smith walk in his sleep.  Finally, he has discovered pictures in his bedroom turned around 180 degrees from their ordinary position, and no one (at least no human) could have done this.  Dr. Smith has lived in his home for eight years, and nothing has ever happened like this until a friend came to stay with him.  The phenomena began a few weeks before the friend’s arrival, lasted for the two weeks of his stay, and continued for a few weeks after his departure.  Frustrated and frightened, Dr. Smith enlisted the help of a prayer team from his church who came and prayed over each room in his home.  As of this writing, since that time the manifestations have ceased.

In Search of a Confident Faith: Overcoming Barriers to Trusting in God, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity), pp. 157-58.

“Ask and you will receive; everyone who asks, receives. This is the eternal law of the Kingdom. If you ask and receive not, it must be because there is something wrong or missing in the prayer. Let the Word and Spirit teach you to pray properly. But do not lose confidence He wants to give you, that everyone who asks, receives. . . . As a child has to prove a sum to be correct, so the proof that we have prayed correctly is our answer. If we ask and get no answer, it is because we have not learned to pray properly. . . .  Christ had good reasons for speaking so unconditionally. Be careful not to weaken the Word with human wisdom. . . . Lord! Teach me to pray.”

Andrew Murray (1828-1917),

With Christ in the School of Prayer,

(New Kensington, PA: Whittaker, House, 1981;

originally published  London: James Nisbet, 1887), 40, 44.