Also, faith is believing and therefore must spring forth from the deep and clear well of truth. Many who pray hold tightly onto their false beliefs which impact the way they perceive and understand, and therefore impede the purity of their faith. By the beliefs that they tightly hold onto which are not true they muddy their ability to have strong faith.
The Church of God is multi divided with all people holding the central truth about salvation through Christ, but not agreeing on many other important truths. One Church or belief system may believe certain things right and certain things wrong, and others believe wrong about other certain things and right about other certain things. Often adherents are adamant and proud about what they think is their corner on all truth. Few admit that they may hold to things that are not true. I doubt that at this present time very many Christians have and hold all important truths correctly.
Since faith, which is correct believing, is wedded to truth, our false beliefs impede it from working as it should. When God's people seek Him for truth, and stop relying on their denominational prejudices for their personally derived understandings of truth, then truth will flourish. We need to study The Word of God carefully and prayerfully before Almighty God, seeking and asking Him to show us what is true.
Also, the Bible says that faith works by love. How many Christians really walk in God like love as we should? How can faith work, if it works by love, if we do not love one another as we should?
I liken faith to the airplane. For ages man did not know how to fly so he often believed it impossible. Because man could not fly didn't make it impossible. When we finally learned how to fly we began to be able to fly on a regular basis. When Christians finally learn to find truth out from God through His Word, learn to love each other with fervent love, and learn to commune with The LORD on a continuous, love filled and intimate level, then our faith will become powerful, and will flourish as it should.
The one thing that is often missed about faith is that faith is asking God. It isn't a formula, it is a person, the person of God. We cannot manipulate God, but must purely ask Him. Whatever it is that we are asking Him for has to come from Him. It will come from an act of His will. It will come from His power to perform it. It is all of Him. Like getting saved, all we can do is ask. We do not have the power to bring it about. The power does not in any way originate from ourselves.
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Luke 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when [thine eye] is evil, thy body also [is] full of darkness. 11:35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. 11:36 If thy whole body therefore [be] full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.
Oh, and btw, you wrote
Whatever it is that we are asking Him for has to come from Him.
Speaking of Christian music, why does this remind me of Sixpence None The Richer? (whose name also derives from C.S. Lewis)...
Cheers!