In the prayer of faith for a need, we only ask once. From then, we give thanks because we believe we receive what we need, though we may not see our needs met.
Jesus said this after He ascended to Heaven.
a. We are to ask the Heavenly Father in His Name
b. Ask and believe you receive
c. And your needs will be met, and your joy will be full
Firstly, the prayer of faith is prayed primarily for ourselves. Very seldom can we pray the prayer of faith for someone else unless they are baby Christians. We can carry them temporarily on our faith in some instances. I believe we can do the same for unbelievers.
Secondly, there are situations where we cannot even pray the prayer of faith for ourselves.
One Occasion Jesus Could Not Pray the Prayer of Faith On Earth
Jesus had to pray all night; in the morning, He knew who to appoint to be His twelve apostles of the Lamb. If He could, He should have asked the Father, believed He would receive the answer, and go to sleep instead of praying all night. Jesus had to pray all night till the Heavenly Father revealed who the twelve were.
The Church and Peter In Prison Could Not Pray the Prayer of Faith
Herod arrested and imprisoned Peter for six days, waiting for the Passover to be over. He would have been executed after one week of the Passover celebration. The night before Passover ended, God sent an angel that led Peter out of prison. The Jerusalem church was praying fervently and persistently for that long. Peter and the church could not pray the prayer of faith and stop praying and wait for his release. They prayed in unknown tongues and supplication prayer because they were all baptised with the Holy Spirit. Under such circumstances, Peter could not even pray the prayer of faith for himself. The Word of God said he slept. There was no mention of him praying.
Jesus Did Not Pray For Peter So That He Would Not Deny Him
Jesus could not plead in prayer for Peter that he would not deny Jesus. But Jesus could pray that he would repent and turn back to Him. Jesus prayed that Peter would strengthen his brothers after that.
Jesus never told them who was to replace Judas Iscariot.
After Jesus rose again, He appeared to His apostles and disciples for 40 days. But He did not tell the eleven apostles of the Lamb who to pick to replace Judas Iscariot.
When Jesus ascended back to be seated at the right hand of the Father, the apostles began to pray.
They prayed the prayer of faith, but they had to continue to pray the prayer of supplication or to plead the case. And the other apostles and disciples had to pray to find out who to select.
Many things concerning our lives, the nation, and others will affect us or bless us, that the Father will not reveal to us unless we pray the prayer of faith, and continue with the prayer of supplication.
We need a praying church because there are many things the prayer of faith would not work to get our needs met. There are probably many situation where we will not realise that it was because of the prayers of the church that things did not go bad. We will never know how disastrous they would have been.
God puts us in a praying church to pray out our future. Pray for the fulfilment of His plan. It also includes averting many disastrous consequences.
God’s plans for us will only be fulfilled if we stay and pray consistently for seven years, ten years, or twenty years and to pray them through.