When reading the story of King Asa (2Chronicles 14-16), I was led to read Paul’s account of Abraham’s faith where he says that God “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).
Like Jesus, we are to say and do only those things which we hear our Father say and do (John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.). If my Father “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17), then that is what I must do.
We see God doing this when He changed Abram’s name (which meant “high father”) to Abraham (which means “father of a multitude”):
Genesis 17:5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
Notice that God didn’t say “for a father of many nations I will make thee.” For there is no time in God. That which we think is going to happen has already happened in the Spirit realm. Every time Abraham spoke of himself or Sarah called his name, they were saying, with God, that he was “father of a multitude”; they were “calling those things that be not as though they were.”
We see this again when God calls Gideon to “save Israel from the hand of the Midianites” (Judges 6:14), addressing him as a “mighty man of valour” (v 12) even as he was hiding from those he was to defeat (v 11). (See It Is Finished and Godly Fear). In the Spirit realm Gideon had already saved Israel from their enemies.
That’s why Jesus told us to believe that we receive when we pray, not doubting in our heart but rather “believing” that those things which we “say” “shall come to pass,” guaranteeing that we shall have “whatsoever” we “say” (Mark 11:23-24).
(Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.)
We are to “say” what we know and believe to be true in the Spirit realm before we see it manifested on this plane. That is the definition of prayer.
Prayer is not beseeching God to give us that which has been promised and which is already ours in the Spirit realm. (See What Is Prayer?)
Jesus told us that our Father knows what we have need of before we ask (Matthew 6:8); Isaiah says that God answers our prayers even before we ask (65:24). And Jesus said to Thomas who wouldn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he saw Him, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). It is because we refuse to believe that we receive until we see that so often we never see the answers to our prayers. It is not because God hasn’t given; it is rather because we have not received.
That’s why Paul said:
2 Corinthians 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak. (See BELIEVE—Then Receive.)
Because “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), we believe that we receive when we pray (not when we see it) and therefore “call things that be not as though they are” (Romans 4:17), confident that we shall have what we say.