LACK OF PRAYER...
NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF FAINTING!

  By: Ceci Sullivan 

LACK OF PRAYER IS A NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF FAINTING!!!  Luke 18:1-2 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

The sin of fainting........fainting is really a carnal, sensual way of responding to life's problems.  One of the signs of people who TRULY are WAITING UPON THE LORD......HEARING AND OBEYING HIS VOICE IS....Isaiah 40:30-32 "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Hearing well from the father of lies is a quick trip to the land of fainting.  Jeremiah 49:22-24 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

We have a problem being sensual....carnal....living according to our senses, not God's word, therefore letting our passions, emotions, appetites, and desires, sit on the throne of our heart.  Christian or non-Christian, there are those who live according to their senses, what their eyes can see, and ears can hear!  When we are under God's government, THE HOLY SPIRIT, we exercise the fruit of HIS HOLY SPIRIT.....love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.  Against such there is no law.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

The Holy Spirit helps us see into the spiritual dimension of life to keep from conceiving "unholy" spirits.

Through the prophecies that have gone on before us, the Words God has given us......we are to make war!  Jesus dealt with the devil in the wilderness..........and kept His heart and flesh from fainting BY speaking and believing THE WORD OF GOD!  The WORKS of God, are to believe in Jesus, and when we let unbelief creep in.....we'll faint.  The father of lies lurks about like a lion........waiting to see what unholy things we'll let him whisper to us to make us faint.

1Thess.5...."The day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night." When the world says Peace and Safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But you are not in the darkness, that, that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day, we are not of the night nor of darkness.  THEREFORE LET US NOT SLEEP AS DO OTHERS, BUT LET US WATCH AND BE SOBER.....pray and not faint....

For they that sleep, sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night.  But let us, who are of the day, be SOBER, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.  For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. ......Quench not the Spirit (through sin and disobedience, and obeying the lust of the flesh).  Don't despise prophecies...

HANG ON TIGHT TO THE THINGS GOD HAS SAID TO YOU.......IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN OVERCOME!  Pray without ceasing, Rejoice ever more, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you!  Prove all things, Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from everything that looks evil.  And the very God of peace, sanctify you wholly, and I pray God that your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it!

When we give into fainting, we are exalting satan....his kingdom...his power and giving him the glory.  We have to set our will and have faith God will strengthen us in the battle.  What good is a solider in a war who has fainted?

Do you remember the last word Jesus spoke to you?  Are you walking in it? If you're not faithful in the little things, how do you think you'll be faithful in the big things?

DON'T GO TO SLEEP REGARDING THE THINGS JESUS HAS SPOKEN TO YOU! WATCH!!  BE SOBER!!.....That we would LIVE TOGETHER, with Him!!

Putting away childish ways, behavior, fainting, etc., is our reasonable service.  When He comes back will He find FAITH or fainting ON THE EARTH IN YOU?  What matters, what will be judged by God in our motives, is how we have applied faith, hope and love in all we touch in our lives.  And the greatest thing we have to give, the greatest power is Love!  Jesus was hated and killed for His love!!  So how much are we like Jesus?  Does the power of our love, expose the lack of it in others?  When we love others unselfishly, it exposes darkness.  Light does expose darkness, and we are called to be the children of light!

Not fainting is the only way we can battle the enemy of our souls. Deuteronomy 20:2-4 "And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, YE approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be YE terrified because of them."

God chooses the unfearful, and the unfaintful to do His work.  Now I personally was a fearful fainter, but I confessed my sin and had faith Jesus who has power to clean our conscience, could change my fearful, fainthearted soul, and he did, and still does.  Deuteronomy 20:7-9 "And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart."

Fainting is a sure sign of lack of fearing the Lord and fearing man instead.  Deuteronomy 25:17-19, "How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God."

If we have faith to see the devil's wickedness.....we will faint!  Psalm 27:12-14, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."

When we rebel against God's chastening.....we will faint. Isaiah 1:4-6, "Why should YE be stricken any more? YE will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint."

If we ask for God's Holy Spirit.....which He promises to give us, we will have the fruit of the asking in our lives. Otherwise God would be guilty on the day of judgment.  He promises to give us His Spirit when we ask. Isaiah 40:27-29, "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding."

Isaiah 40:28-30, "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."

Forgetting the Lord in our ways is a big cause of fainting.  Jonah 2:6-8, "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into Thine holy temple."

"Give us this day our daily bread..." Not getting our manna from heaven every day will cause us to faint.  Also, when God's children don't have good shepherds in their lives, they will faint.  Matthew 9:35-37, "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."

If we are walking and fulfilling God's calling in our lives, we won't faint.  2 Corinthians 4:1-2, "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not."

When we don't see the greater picture and have our eyes on our kingdom, our power, our glory......WE FAINT!  2 Corinthians 4:15, "For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God.  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!"

When we get weary in our love and don't ask God for gas for our tanks.....we faint.  Galatians 6:8-10, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

When we fail to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus....we faint. Hebrews 12:2-4, "For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest YE be wearied and faint in your minds."

When we despise His chastening in our lives.....WE faint.  Hebrews 12:4-6, "And YE have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him."

The mark of the "real church" is written of here..... Revelation 2:2-4, "...And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted."

I did faint because I failed to believe to see the goodness of God in the land of the living. I lost the color in my eyes; I was so depressed. I had no life in my bones. 

If you want to read a horror story that turns into a love story, my testimony: "A MAN SENT FROM GOD," will make you think twice before you get tempted to faint or feel sorry for yourself. 

Staff Note:  Here is a writing on prayer we also greatly appreciate:  http://www.spirithome.com/prayer_2.html#spirit