From the book ‘A Year of Powerful Prayer’, Gene R. Cook writes:
Believe. The first thing to remember is the simple word believe. By that I mean to have faith, to not doubt, to not have fear. Jesus said you must believe first, then you would see the blessing: “I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mark 11:24.)
When you start praying you’ve got to believe as if your request has already been granted. That’s the kind of belief the Lord is talking about. Of course, our belief and our faith are in Jesus Christ, who has both power to grant blessings and the desire to do so. We must always center this belief in Christ, knowing that he will do what is best for us and trusting that our prayers will be answered according to his will.
Repent: The next thing to remember is to repent. Part of repentance is to “sacrifice, to pay the price.” We need to find out what we need to change in our lives, what we need to do differently, and then we need to do it.
Pray: The third key is to remember to pray as if everything depends on God. By trusting in him, by relying on his strength and power, we receive strength and power unto ourselves to see us through to the end.
Work: The fourth principle is to work as if everything depends on us . . . . The Lord reveals his will many times in half steps. He does this so that we will be pressed into exercising faith in order to receive the next step. We might think of this principle as walking to the edge of the light. We must do all in our power, walking to the edge of the light we have and maybe a little way into the dark, and then the lights of revelation will turn on again. But until we walk to the edge of the light and do all in our power to perform, we will often not be ready to receive more from the Lord. ~Gene R. Cook, A Year of Powerful Prayer (Salt Lake City:Deseret Book) p. 60-61 (continued)
