Posted by 90 Days of Prayer – Day Five
Mark 11:22-23
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.
His disciples must have been astonished by this overnight miracle with the fig tree. In response to their remarks, Jesus gives them the simple conditions for faith, namely; no doubting and no indecision in the heart. They must absolutely believe that what they are saying and praying will indeed come to pass. Their confidence must be in God alone, for it is with Him that all things are possible.
Genuine faith in God must come from Him through His word. God’s word is His will, and faith cannot be exercised where the will of God is not known. Whether declaring or praying, faith produces predictable results. “Have faith in God” is more accurately rendered “Have the faith of God.” Genuine faith always originates with God and can come to us in any number of ways. We must hear God’s specific promise concerning an issue in order for us to have real faith for it. His written word is always the starting point since He intends to do everything He’s promised.
Faith is birth out of Fellowship with God
Andrew Murray states: “Faith is simply surrendering: I yield myself to the impression the tidings I hear make on me. By faith, I yield myself to the living God. His glory and love fill my heart and have the mastery over my life. Faith is fellowship; I give myself up to the influence of the friend who makes me a promise and becomes linked to him by it. And it is when we enter into this living fellowship with God Himself, in a faith that always sees and hears Him, that it becomes easy and natural to believe His promise as to prayer.”1
Faith is Partnering with God
The miracle of the fig tree is an illustration of the Church’s power to use God’s faith for God’s purpose on earth as it is in heaven. Here is where so many part ways with the biblical writers and the proper use of faith. Jesus spoke of having miraculous mountain-moving faith for commanding or when praying, as God’s faith (the faith of God Mk 11:22). That’s a faith imparted for the occasion, not the measure of faith we’ve all been given. Remember Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven? Well, that eliminates any idea that we can go around commanding, demanding, and/or declaring anything we set our minds to, and expect God to do it.
The “will be” in “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” of Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, is rendered in the original as “will have been bound” as in “already done.” In other words, we can only bind and loose on earth, what God had already bound or loosed in heaven. This is what it means to pray Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven; in the realm of miracles. We get to do the miracle, but the power to perform it must be released from heaven at God’s discretion, not ours.
E.M. Bounds has said: “Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God. How great — without qualification or limitation — is the power of faith! If doubt be banished from the heart, and unbelief made stranger there, what we ask of God shall surely come to pass, and a believer has vouchsafed to him “Whatever he says.”2
Faith is simply believing and saying what God has already said
Having faith in God’s Word is the same as having faith in God Himself – God and His word are one. God’s word is spoken from His heart to ours in perfect sincerity and integrity. God always keeps His promise, He never lies and always means exactly what He says. Our solid foundation in prayer is always God’s written word made real to us by His Spirit.
Nothing is impossible for any of us who have learned how to hear God’s word in prayer and to speak it exactly as He has given it to us. Nothing is impossible with genuine faith from God. Be intimate with God, be filled with His Spirit and His word, follow Christ by doing what he’s doing and saying what he’s saying. Be confident and Be Encouraged! – JSP
End Notes
- Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer (by Whitaker House 1981), 91-92
- E.M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer, (by Baker Book House ninth printing July 1983) 10
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