Mark 11:22-23 “So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. (23) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
In this section we want to look at just how to apply faith in our daily lives, and more specifically we want to see how our words play a role in the working of our faith. In the passage of scripture quoted above Jesus taught us that it is possible for anyone to have whatever they say, for Jesus said “whoever”. Whoever means exactly that, “whoever” or anyone, which means that this teaching that Jesus gave on faith is for every child of God. In this short statement that Jesus made He taught us some very clear principles on just how faith works. And so those individuals who are prepared to take these principles and apply them in their lives will experience the outcome that Jesus said would happen, “they will have whatever they say”. When our Lord Jesus said that these individuals would have whatever they say He was not teaching principles of “positive confession”, for if you read the context of this passage our Lord Jesus had just cursed a fig tree and that fig tree had literally withered up and died. No amount of positive confession will have any impact on a fig tree. You can stand in front of a fig tree for the rest of your life and make “positive confessions” over it every day and nothing will happen. In this passage Jesus used the example of a mountain being picked up and being cast into the sea as a result of a person’s words spoken in faith. Someone foolishly said that Jesus wasn’t talking about a literal mountain in this passage, forgetting that it was His cursing of a literal fig tree that prompted Him to teach on the subject of faith in the first place. And so no amount of “positive confession” will pick up a mountain and cast it into the sea. It takes supernatural power to cause a fig tree to wither up and die overnight, and it takes supernatural power to pick up an entire mountain and have it cast into the sea, and that supernatural power is the power of the Almighty God. And so the first principle of faith that Jesus taught us in this passage of scripture is in His opening statement, for He opens with the following words, “Have faith in God”. Jesus was teaching us to have faith in God our Father and His power, for it is only the power of Almighty God that can pick up a mountain and cast it into the sea and it is only the power of Almighty God that causes a fig tree to wither up and die overnight.
1 Corinthians 2:5 “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
As believers, we are instructed by the Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture that our faith should only be in the power of God and nothing else. And so if we want to be included in that group of individuals that will have whatever they say, then the first principle that we have to apply is to recognize that our faith can only be in God our Father and in His power.
Mark 11:22-23 “So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. (23) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
The second principle revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture is that we must not doubt in our hearts. As mentioned earlier, depending on the context of the passage, the heart can refer to either the spirit or the mind of the believer. In the context of our Lord’s teaching He is referring to the mind, for we have already established that the spirit cannot doubt. And so the principle that our Lord revealed is that we must have no doubt in our minds, for if we have any doubt then we can be fully assured that our faith will not work (James 1:6-7). If we want our faith to work for us then we must first become fully convinced in our minds as to the truth and reality of God’s word on the subject in question. Earlier we discussed the steps that believers must take to overcome doubt in their minds, i.e. renewing their minds through meditation and controlling their thinking to fall in line with the word of God. We also said that part of that process is to confess God’s word over our lives until we become fully convinced in our minds as to the truth and reality of God’s word on the subject. In the same teaching where our Lord taught us not to doubt in our hearts, He went on to say that we must believe, thus implying that we must believe in our minds, i.e. become fully convinced.
Mark 11:22-23 “So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. (23) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
As revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, the third principle revealed in our Lord’s teaching on faith is that we have to speak to the mountain. It is significant that in this one verse of scripture that Jesus used the word “say” three times, whereas He used the word “believe” only once. Most of the time we as believers, put the emphasis on our believing, whereas in this passage Jesus put the emphasis on our speaking. Don’t misunderstand me, we have to believe, but very often our faith doesn’t work for us because we do not watch what we say. Jesus did not only teach us that we will have what we believe, He also taught us that we will have what we say. And so we see the principle that we have to speak what we believe in our hearts if we want to see it come to pass.
Michael E.B. Maher
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