By Ken Fletcher
Mark 11:22-24 KJV “22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Verse 22 is the command directly right from Jesus for us to have faith in God. Verse 23 is the details about speaking directly in faith to something in the natural realm. Verse 24 are details about petition prayer in faith to the Father. These verses are all about our part in the application of faith in our life! Whether in prayer or in speaking to something we want to move or change. Faith-filled speaking is important to understand.
To be born again requires faith in what God has said. Faith comes by hearing the truth of God’s Word, The Bible. We believe in our heart the scriptures proclaiming that God has raised Jesus from the dead for our redemption. We speak (or confess our heart’s belief) that Jesus is now our Lord.
Because of God’s amazing grace gift of love, and because of our personal faith in Jesus, we enter into the Kingdom of God totally righteous. That’s simple saving faith in operation. But, it’s the greatest miracle that we can ever experience! It’s our transfer from death to God’s eternal life!
We are now forever united with God. Our believing the clear message of the New Testament is aligning our belief with it–positioning ourselves to receive what God has done because of our faith in what He has said to us! We believe it! Simply because He said it. So simply do we believe His Word because we know that God CANNOT lie! It’s not possible! There is no darkness or untruth in Him!
Believing God’s Word. Acting upon it because we believe it’s true. If God’s Word is not really true, then we need to throw it in the trash can. But, it IS true! And it IS precious! And eternal! The question is, do we believe it? Do we believe it enough to act upon it?
We’re talking about the truths we find proceeding out of the mouth of Jesus our Lord in Mark 11 and Matthew 21.
Some may try and act upon it without really having faith in their heart. That’s like getting the cart before the horse or trying to get heat out of the stove without putting the wood in first! What these folks have going on in their mind is what brother Hagin calls, mental assent.
This is agreeing in the mind that it’s true, but there’s doubt still in the heart. I’ve been there–done that more times than I can count! Real faith is of the heart or the soul, not of the head, dear friend. Faith comes to us from what God has said. We believe it from our heart!
So, the question is, do we REALLY believe? That’s the problem! That is what activates God’s Word in our lives! Since faith is of the heart, we must be filled with God’s Word concerning the area of faith we are building inside.–Running the doubt completely out! It comes through meditation in what the Word says. Mulling over and over what God has said. Eradicating any vestige or any tiny sliver of doubt from our heart!
Many times, we have doubt lodged in our heart coming from various places that must be dealt with and cast out. The truth always exposes the doubt for what it is. So, the more truth you focus upon, the more doubt is exposed and eliminated.
There’s a thing called the law of displacement. For example: When you fill the gas tank of your lawnmower, you are displacing the air that occupied the empty space in your tank with gasoline. Filling all the way up with gas coming out of the mouth means there is no more air left in the tank. It’s all gas, no air anymore! Think of faith like that!
If you fill up your heart with God’s Word, faith in God will result! If your tank is completely filled with faith, it displaces any doubt that may be in there. That’s the idea! Getting so full of the truth that it runs all the untruth out. Faith will displace the doubt! But, even knowing that, what are we focusing on? Is it the truth of the Word or something else? Are we focusing on what is true? Committing to it? Acting upon it?
Matthew 21 KJV Verse 21: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”
Notice how many times Jesus said “ye or you”. Jesus said “you” 3 times. Who is “you”? Some would say that He was only directing this to the disciples because Jesus is talking to them. It’s obvious that if He was speaking only to them, you and I would certainly be excluded. But, thank God, it was NOT only for them! But us also!
Look at our other account in Mark11 and verse 23: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”
“Whosoever” means anybody, everybody. It means, you and me! We’re in this scripture! We qualify! So that blows the theory that this demonstration and teaching with explanation from Jesus was only for the disciples. No friend, Jesus said it to you and I. These are our verses from the Lord!!
Notice, how many times “say or saith” is in this verse. The word, “whosoever” means you and me. If [your name] shall “say”. There’s 1. Number 2, “….shall believe that those things which [your name] “saith”…. And, …[your name] shall have whatsoever he “saith”. There’s number 3. Jesus said in the verse, “believe” one time. He refers to us saying 3 times.
Does that mean that we should emphasize saying 3 times more? Well, it means that saying is what is proceeding from the faith we have in our heart. We speak our faith because that is where we are!
Speaking is our expression of belief in our heart. Saying is action! We are confessing what we believe is true in our heart. We’re not guessing. We’re not hoping. We’re in faith believing and acting on the Word of God. Speaking in faith is acting in faith!
Speaking is one way we act on what we believe in our heart. We act (speak) because we believe! The book of James tells us that faith without works is dead faith! If faith is active and alive, then it’s working! It’s doing something! It’s acting and speaking!
Jesus said, .”..and shall not doubt in his heart…”. So, when we come to the place of belief and no doubt in our heart, then we can speak to the mountains of our lives in the will of God from the faith proceeding out of our heart! These are spiritual realities that I’m talking about in these articles. Jesus plainly shows us!
To not doubt in our heart means we are filled with faith. Faith in what? The end result! What God says is ours! We are certain because we are believing in the will of God. We love Him and WANT to do His will from our heart!
The doubt in our heart must be eradicated if we want to see this verse work in our lives. Doubt will lock us out every time! So WE need to get rid of the doubt in our heart before we can successfully use the verses. Do you see?
As far as we’re concerned, God has a part and we have a part. It is not total us or total God. It is us and God! It’s US in cooperation with God! Understand, God has already completed His part and has opened it up to us. We must personally believe what He has done. We must personally believe what He has said to us about it. Through our personal faith, WE DO IT. WE BELIEVE based upon what God has told us is ours.
Some people believe that we’re trying to manipulate God. Well, that would be futile! Wouldn’t it? Certainly! No, we’re not trying to get God to do anything! He has already done it! Completed it! Finished it! Our believing is based upon this fact. We can now believe and act when we hear what God says! Whether from the Bible or from inside our spirit where Jesus lives.
What’s the problem since God has already done it? It’s on our end, dear ones! If God’s will is not coming to pass in your or my life, it’s not His fault! He has, is, and will do everything He can to help you get into faith about your situation! But, we have a will of our own, don’t we!
My friend, the more you study and spend time in practicing these verses in your life, then the more real and practical they become.
It’s an amazing thing. I have seen such resistance in some churches and Christians to the teaching of these verses in Mark 11 and Matthew 21. You would think Christians would be glad to hear and believe the words of Jesus. Everything He spoke was true! But, denial of these things by people does not negate that they are true! They are true regardless! People can deny if they wish. I want to believe and learn to do what Jesus said!
I would say that Jesus had, and has, a unique perspective that sees through the fog of earthly deception and religion. It comes down to us individually and personally. I can’t believe these verses for you and you can’t believe them for me. To really believe and do these verses means miracles in our lives! Will we commit to digging in and really learning what Jesus said? It takes practice. Living life here on earth gives us so many opportunities to use these verses.
Hopefully, you will stay with me for the next article on the subject of faith and The Fig Tree Incident. I am encouraging you to meditate in these scriptures for yourself since it’s your personal faith in what Jesus said that matters.
Friend, knowing, understanding and practicing these verse can mean the difference between life and death in your life and others. It can mean the difference of being healed and suffering with some disease. Or, many other things we encounter here on earth. God’s will is good. He wants us to implement it in our lives!
We will continue with more on the subject of faith and The Fig Tree Incident on the next article. Hope you will join me then. Until next time, I’m praying for you!” KF KenFletcher.org
