By Faith 

Believe it or not, I struggle to cope with the heat despite my origins in one of the most temperate regions of the world! The thing is that this wonderful and fearfully crafted body of ours adapts to the new environment using circulatory, metabolic and sensory adjustments and sometimes, the foreign environment takes over completely. I couldn’t tell you the extent to which I am looking forward to the autumn, and particularly the September week of prayer when my thermometer begins to cool down and my head and mind resets at the agency of the cool breeze and focused prayer.   

 

As we look forward to coming together again to unite our hearts, and minds in prayer, I would like to encourage us with a profound truth of certainty of answers to our prayers. After the flood in Noah’s time, God made a universal covenant of natural stability of creation with Noah in Gen8:22 “While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.” In the same manner, our prayers are yielding harvests both in the short and long term, while the earth remains. Whether we feel it or not, we will reap a harvest to every seed of prayer that we sow. Let’s keep sowing in faith. 

This autumn prayer week, we would challenge and encourage ourselves to grow our faith and put it to work. We learn from scriptures in Hebrews11:6, that without faith, it is impossible to please God. In fact, Romans14:23 states that anything done outside of faith is sin! And faith without works is dead! 

 

But what is faith? Hebrews11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” In one way, we can liken faith to a software in the hardware of the human mind that shapes how we process data and drive our daily actions and results. This “software” operates through a crucial three-step pattern: 

-Saying: Speaking the word  

-Seeing: Visualizing the result 

-Calling: On Jesus to establish His purposes on the earth as it is in heaven.  

 

Prayer provides us the conducive atmosphere to speak, visualize and call out in obedience to Gods word. 

Matthew 9:20-22 NIV (New International Version) 

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. 

We see a demonstration of this in Matthew 9. A lady with an issue of blood says, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” The act of stepping through the crowd reveals her faith in action and finally, while no-one heard her call, Jesus saw her silent cry to Him and healed her.  

Faith and Love go hand in hand, and it is important to remember that our faith in God is motivated by love, which defines God.  Faith works through love. 

 

By faith Abraham -left his homeland for an unknown, undisclosed destination when God called him. 

By faith Deborah -arose a mother in Israel at a desperate time and turned things around.  

By faith David-although a young lad faced and defeated the giant Goliath with a stone and sling. 

By faith Esther-risked her life by approaching the King without an invitation.  

What about Mary, Joseph, Ruth, Rahab, and what is God calling you to do by faith? 

 

God remains the same all through the ages and he will also grant us success as we take little steps of faith towards him. I can’t wait! can you? See you there!

 

by Grace Orkar

 

Meeting times: Sunday 13^th September to Saturday 19^th September 7:45 to 9:30pm daily (Saturday 7:45pm – 12:15am)

 

(Updated 9th September 2026)