(by Dr. Larry Ollison)

Sometimes people get in situations where their backs are up against the wall. Something has happened, somebody has done something, or a circumstance has come against them and they don't know what to do.

Here is what some Christians do when there is a problem. They get real spiritual and have all of these religious things that they say. The sayings are based on truth, but they can become a cliché to the point they are not spoken as truth. For example, somebody might ask you what they should do about a problem they have. You say, "You just need to take it before the Lord. You just need to lay it at the feet of the Master. Take it to the Lord in prayer. We'll just see what God is going to do." Actually, that's not completely scriptural.

It is scriptural to pray and to ask God for things, but it is not scriptural to just throw up a prayer like you're throwing dice and just hope that your number comes up and you win the prize.

It's not scriptural to ask God to do something He has told you to do. You may say, "Well, God can do a lot of things I can't do." That's true. There are many things God can do that we can't-like create a universe or save people. However, we have been given authority on this earth that many Christians are not aware of. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you (if you are born again)-not a different Spirit (Romans 8:11). The same authority that Jesus used on this earth is in you. Jesus gave it to all who believe.

Part of the reason we use religious clichés is because we want to make an excuse or create a loophole because of our lack of belief. If we truly believed in the fullness of faith, we would simply speak faith from the heart. Loopholes would not be necessary.

Faith is knowing in our heart that God has completed His work concerning our problem and speaking and acting on the faith that is established within us. When Jesus spoke, He spoke in faith and in authority. He spoke with confidence and did not leave room for a loophole. In Mark 4, Jesus spoke to the wind with authority and confidence: "Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!'" and they listened and obeyed: "The wind ceased and there was a great calm" (v. 39). Afterward, Jesus turned His attention to His disciples, who had not been walking by faith.

"He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, 'Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!'" (Mark 4:40,41).

The disciples feared exceedingly because they had just seen something miraculous happen. They saw a great storm and they heard their Master speak to it. Immediately the storm calmed down, just like He had commanded it to-and it shook them.

When we pray and pray and pray and it seems like nothing is happening, this one thing we know for certain. The problem is not God. That means we must examine ourselves. We cannot allow our confessions to become charismatic clichés. Our confessions must be the Word of God spoken from our heart. When we believe, speak, and act on the Word, that's faith. God responds to faith, not clichés.