Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.  - Mark 11:24 (NKJV)

Faith, for many people, is a mysterious thing but the Bible gives us a plain definition of it. In Hebrews we are told,

Faith is...the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

Faith is your evidence. After prayer, it is the evidence you have that you have received what you asked for. The thing you asked for may be out of sight to your senses but it is seen by your faith.

How can you have this faith? God has already given you a measure of faith. You must take this measure of faith and with it hear God's Word. (Ro.12:3.)

Before you pray and ask for something, first hear with your measure of faith God's promises about it. In this way, you will receive the faith to believe you receive when you pray. (Ro.10:17.)

Now you are ready to pray and ask in the name of Jesus for what you desire. The moment you pray faith will be your evidence that you have received.

There is to be a having in the realm of your senses but, at the completion of prayer, you may not have it yet in that realm. The transfer from the realm of faith to the realm of your senses is yet to come.

How will this transfer happen? It will happen as you continue by faith and in faith.

You have prayed in faith and have received by faith. Now you will have to walk in faith and talk in faith to the place where a transfer can be made out of the faith realm into the physical sense realm.

A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it.     

James 3:4-5

So the words from your tongue set a course in your life - a bearing for your life to head off on. Your direction of movement, after you pray, is determined by what your tongue declares. By your words you will be taken towards having, or away from having, the thing you received in the realm of faith when you prayed.

Now if you accept the evidence faith gives you and not the evidence your physical senses give you, you will begin praising. You will begin thanking God for what you have received and you will begin confessing a scripture portion about your health. You might confess, "By Jesus' stripes I was healed". (1 Peter 2:24)

Your confession and your thanksgiving are by faith. Together these move you towards the place where what you have received in the faith realm can transfer into the physical sense realm.

You have set yourself in expectation of doing things that in your infirmity you couldn't do before. Continue on the heading your faith confession has put you on and you'll end up doing everything that you couldn't do before you prayed!

"I hear what you're saying but I believe in telling it like it is."  I occasionally hear this from people and then they sometimes add, "The Bible might say I am healed but if I feel sick I am going to say I am sick!"

James in his epistle acknowledges that this is a type of wisdom. He says at the same time though,

This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

James 3:15 - NKJV.

These are strong words but the heart of God is in them desiring perfect well-being for you.

God wants you to know that it is not His way to allow the report of your physical senses to control your tongue. He wants you to know, that no matter what your physical senses report, His Word about it is still the truth. Your tongue should be submitted to the truth not to your physical senses.

James exhorts,

Lie not against the truth       James 3:14 NKJV                                                   

 

God's Word is truth. James, by the Holy Spirit, is exhorting you here to stop contradicting God's Word.

What must you do then? You must line up your words with God's Word. For example, if God's word says you are a new creation but the report from your body and mind says you are not, you nevertheless determine to say the report that God's Word gives.