Published by admin on 14 Oct 2011 at 12:51 pm
ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH
When we think of faith, we associate it with prayer to God. The Lord Jesus told us in Mark 11:22, Have faith in God. The literal Greek translation is, Have the faith OF God. He didn’t tell us to have just any old kind of faith, but the GOD kind of faith, the very faith that He used to call the entire creation into being. And you will notice throughout Genesis Chapter 1 that God never said, I sure hope this will work…. However, ten times in the first chapter alone, it says “And God said….” It says in verse 31, “And God SAW…” What did He see? He saw what He said!
He went on to say in Mark 11:23-24, 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. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
I guess the first thing I have to ask is, Are YOU a “whosoever”? if so, you need to pay close attention to what the Lord Jesus said. The reality is, He gave us the very secret to how He created everything there is. There’s no deep and dark secret here, He spelled it out plainly for us, in fact, so plainly that we would have to work hard to misinterpret it.
Here’s where the rubber meets the road as they say. I have a huge sycamore tree in my front yard. Now, I can get up in the middle of the night and look for that tree, and it’s always right there, and I’ve never seen it tip-toeing around in the yard looking for a better spot. No matter what, that tree never moves from its spot. So, do I truly believe in my heart that if I tell that sycamore tree to be removed and planted in yonder place on the other side of my yard that it will move? In all honesty, no. BUT…the Lord Jesus said IF I believe in my heart that those things I say shall come to pass, I shall have whatsoever I say. Interestingly, we had a tornado this summer nearby that blew over several trees in our subdivision, but I stood out there and declared my tree will not blow over, neither shall any branch be broken off. And that’s what happened. If you know anything about sycamore trees at all, you will know they easily lose branches. But this one stood tall in the storm and never lost a twig. In fact, NONE of my trees suffered damage, and I had the only yard in the subdivision without damaged trees. Why? because I invoked the faith of God there, and yes, it works.
People have told me, I’ve tried doing that faith stuff and it just didn’t work like Jesus said in Mark 11:23-24. I tell them, Yes it did EXACTLY like He said it would. You didn’t believe in your heart it was done, and so it wasn’t. So you got exactly what you truly believed in your heart. People don’t like to hear the truth sometimes, but does God lie?
We read of an account in Mark 5:25-34 about a lady who desperately needed to be healed.
Mar 5:25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
Mar 5:26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
Mar 5:27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
Mar 5:28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Mar 5:29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
Mar 5:30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
Mar 5:31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
Mar 5:32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
Mar 5:33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
Mar 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
The Lord Jesus made a very interesting statement to that lady. He didn’t say, MY faith hath made thee whole, but rather, THY faith has made thee whole. Did you catch that? Jesus never laid hands on her, in fact, she sneaked up on Him and actually pulled the healing anointing out of Him, and He never even saw her coming. But, oh boy, He sure knew that healing power had gone out of Him, didn’t He? That woman had said If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. She had made a declaration of faith that not even heaven itself could deny, and Jesus knew it!
When was the last time YOU made a faith statement with that kind of power that got you an instant result? I’ll tell you when it was, it was the last time you actually believed. You see, if you can do it once, you can do it over and over again. That lady made ONE faith statement, and acted upon it by putting forth the effort, no matter what it took, to touch Jesus. Keep in mind that in that culture, a woman with an issue of blood was considered “unclean”, and if she was caught out in public, the penalty was death by stoning. She was willing to risk even death to make her way to touch Jesus, for she had SAID and believed in her heart. She didn’t let circumstances sway her faith. She didn’t let the doctor’s report move her. She was one determined lady that even heaven could not stand in the way of. And she got her way with God. Before you say you can’t do that, remember how Abraham bargained with God over Sodom over there in Genesis Chapter 18:20-33? Abraham was the “father of faith” as we know it.
How about YOU? Are you speaking TO your mountain, or ABOUT your mountain? Most speak ABOUT their mountain: Oh, I don’t know how I’ll ever pay the bills this month. There’s more month than there is money. Or maybe it’s: The doctor says I only have a few months to live, that this cancer will be the death of me. Are you speaking what you have, or are you speaking what you WANT? Of course, all the speaking in the world is of no use if you don’t believe what you say. For example, how many of us have said, That just tickles me to death. Are you dead? No, because you LIED!! You didn’t believe you would die if you were tickled. So therefore, if you can’t believe your OWN words half the time, how will you believe GOD’S words? Yeah, preach it Brother Jerry…Make your own words true and you will have no trouble believing God’s Word.
God gave you HIS own faith, don’t you think it’s high time you started using it? Or will you spend the rest of your life letting the devil run over you? God clearly spells out in the Holy Bible the awesome blessings He has available for us and wants us to enjoy right here in this life. But it takes faith and obedience to make them come to pass. You can’t just expect God’s blessings to just happen because you would like to have them, or need them. Everyone needs things, but everyone doesn’t get what they need. Your faith is involved. YOUR faith, not my faith. My faith can help you get a breakthrough because when I pray I expect results. But if you want to KEEP your breakthrough and walk in the divine blessings of God, you will have to use YOUR faith every day of your life.
Another thing about believing: Let’s look at Matthew 9:
Mat 9:27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.
Mat 9:28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
Mat 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
Notice Jesus didn’t say, Believe ye that I am WILLING to do this? He is ALWAYS willing to help you. But are you able to BELIEVE He is willing? That’s another thing altogether. Is He able to heal you or take care of that need? Of course. Is He willing? Absolutely. When will you have it? when you believe, and not a moment before. According to your faith be it unto you.
John Foster on 18 Oct 2011 at 6:12 pm #
Good article. Another aspect of faith is that it never gives up. Jesus said if you ‘say’ to this mountain. In the greek the verb is active, meaning that you keep saying to the mountain to be removed no matter how long it takes.