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Good health to you Caspar. Be strong in the Lord. As I readied myself to respond to your wishes and prepared to write to you on the prayer of faith, that request of the Lord’s disciples came to my mind: Lord teach us to pray. The experience led me to seek with them a similar request from the Lord, but I expanded it more fully: Lord teach us, in the first place, to experience what the prayer of faith is which is given by the spirit of faith and secondly, teach us not only to pray, but grant by your kindness that it be done in faith and according to your will. Amen.

The prayer of faith is mentioned in the fifth chapter of James the apostle: And the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up…. Following the same author we are able to define our subject in the following manner: The prayer of faith occurs when you pray in faith, so that you make no judgements, nor experience anything in your heart other than those things which steadfast and prayerful faith raise in you. It will accomplish its own ends….

From the first epistle of John, the fifth chapter, we are able to say that to pray in faith is to make a request in the confidence which we have before God, that if what we request is according to his will, he will hear us. It is according to the will of the Lord that we seek, and according to his will that we be heard. But why do we not say with the Lord himself? It is prayer in the spirit (from which you have faith) and in truth (through which you pray) which gives you what you request. For the Lord, who often remained through the night in prayer for us and abided in the prayer of faith prescribed what the prayer of faith should be in Matthew 17:21: This kind of devotion, never comes about except through prayer and fasting. Therefore I say this: The prayer of faith is that by which demons are cast out and every power of the adversary is trodden under foot. By true fasting the body of the praying man is chastened so that he prays in his faith for an increment and plenitude of spiritual gifts. From this indeed we learn the power and manner of prayer and, moreover, the nature of faith. Faith prays and faith seeks. Wherefore true prayer is not without faith, nor is faith idle, but it fasts and teaches one to pray.

Moreover in prayer as Christ described and required it, faith everywhere holds the victory palm….

Furthermore it is made clear what the prayer of faith is, namely, believing while praying, knowing and understanding for certain that you will receive what you request. These things indicate as well that every hesitation ought to be absent from our heart in prayer and the certainty present that we shall be heard. In like manner it is pointed out that not every prayer is of faith or in faith nor that prayer in faith is able to be undertaken by everyone, but it is for those in particular who are for the most part mature in the spirit and apprehend more fully the knowledge and truth which is Christ.

For through this prayer whatever God created is made holy (1 Tim. 4:4–5), and in this prayer one must always remain steadfast and succumb (Luke 18:13). Paul urged us to pray constantly. Now someone might note that Paul says that we do not know how to pray as we ought. And this is true, for prayer, unless it be at the instigation of the Holy Spirit, as the following references indicate, will not be powerful enough to be the prayer of faith. Therefore we ought to pray insofar as the spirit of his truth is in us….

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