Mark 11:12-22 “Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. (13) And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. (14) In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again." And His disciples heard it. (15) So they came to Jerusalem. … (19) When evening had come, He went out of the city. (20) Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. (21) And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away." (22) So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.”
In our previous example we saw a partial miracle take place. The reason for that was because although Peter initially began to walk by faith, he allowed himself to be influenced by what he could see in the natural, which resulted in the flow of God’s power being cut off. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit has given us an example of a completed miracle taking place as a result of our Lord Jesus walking by faith and not by sight. In this account we see that the Lord Jesus cursed a fig tree and that fig tree then withered up and died. And so we will examine this miracle from the point of view that if we want to experience the power of God being made manifest, then we must not look at the things which are seen but rather at the things which are unseen. This account starts off with Jesus coming out of Bethany in the morning on His way to Jerusalem. When He passes the fig tree He stops to see if the tree has any fruit on it because He was hungry. Finding no fruit on the tree He then speaks to the tree by saying, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again", and His disciples heard what He said. Jesus then turned around and went on His way into the city of Jerusalem, where He spent the rest of the day teaching in the temple. At the end of the day He and the disciples went back to Bethany because that was where they were staying at the time. They all walked past the same fig tree that Jesus had spoken to that morning. There was no visible change to the fig tree and it looked just the same as it did when Jesus spoke to it that morning. Jesus paid no attention to the tree as they walked past, for He had spoken to the tree that morning and as far as He was concerned the matter was closed. The following morning when they once again passed the same fig tree on their way to Jerusalem, the disciples now noticed that the fig tree had completely withered up and died. Jesus however, still paid no attention to the tree because Peter had to direct His attention to it, for he said, “Rabbi, look!” It was at this point that Jesus took this as an opportunity to teach the disciples principles about how faith works. And so in this account Jesus taught us by example, the principle of not considering or rather ignoring that which is seen. From the moment that Jesus spoke to the tree He never again took any notice of the tree, He completely ignored it. For a full twenty-four hours it looked like nothing had happened. But I want you to notice something that the Holy Spirit reveals to us when Jesus spoke to the fig tree, which is very significant. The scripture tells us that, “they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots”. The disciples could not see the roots of the tree because its roots were underground. They could only see the part of the fig tree that was above ground. Nevertheless the Holy Spirit, in this account reveals to us that the fig tree was dried up “from the roots”. The reason the Holy Spirit reveals that to us is to show us that from the very moment that Jesus spoke to the tree its roots began to whither up and die. And so that which began the moment Jesus spoke, was finally completed twenty-four hours later when the whole tree eventually withered and died. In the same manner when saints confess God’s promises over their lives in faith, from that very moment God’s power begins to work on their behalf to bring the full manifestation of their confession into reality, i.e. that which can be seen. From that moment on, saints must ignore that which can be seen and look only at His word regarding the subject, and walk according to that. It is when saints do that, then over whatever period of time it may take, they will eventually see manifested in the natural, that which they believe in the spirit. Sadly this is where many Christians miss it in their walk of faith. They believe God’s word, and they go before Him in prayer and in faith, ask Him to meet whatever need they are praying about. In faith, they even thank Him for answering their prayer and then they go their way. Not long after however, they look at their circumstance and see no change in the natural, and thoughts of doubt begin to enter their minds. The moment that happens they step out of faith into doubt, and stop the power of God from working in their lives.
I will close off this section with a personal example. I have a family member who was struggling to find accommodation, and my sister asked me if the Lord would provide this family member with accommodation. I explained to my sister about the prayer of agreement, and said that if two agree on earth as touching anything that they ask the Father, it will be done. I said to her that I’m going to ask the Lord and you can agree. I then said that after this prayer we must continually thank Him for answering our prayer every time we think about this family member’s situation. We then prayed the prayer of agreement. Just over six hours later an incident occurred in this family member’s life that tried to get my sister to look in the natural and take her eyes off of the promise of God. I told her that all we needed to do was thank the Lord for answering our prayer. Three days later, another incident occurred that caused my sister to want to look in the natural. I assured her once again that our Lord had heard our prayer and we were to continue thanking Him for the answer. On the twelfth day the accommodation that we had asked our Lord for in prayer was manifested, and it met the exact requirements that we had asked for. From the moment we prayed, God began to put things in place (which my sister and I could not see) which would ensure that the answer to our prayer was manifested in the natural. Many times in the lives of believers, there are instances when our prayers are heard and we see the results manifested immediately. But there are times when our prayers are heard and even though God has answered our prayer we cannot see what is taking place in the unseen (remember the roots of the fig tree). As long as we continue to look at the unseen and thank Him for the answer to our prayer, we will eventually see the full answer manifested in the natural.
Michael E.B. Maher
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