Prayer Keys - Faith
“‘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. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’” Mark 11:22 24
Until this study, I had not noticed how often Jesus expressed disappointment that his disciples and even the people who came to him for miracles lacked faith.
“And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” Matthew 13:58.
“He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith.’” Matthew 17:20.
“He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” Mark 4:40.
“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here: see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’” John 20:27.
At least three times he told them what they could do if they had faith. At least three times he referred to the unbelieving generation. At least five times he said, “O you of little faith.”
R. A. Torrey wrote in “The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power” that when he saw these verses shortly after becoming a Christian, he became so excited. All he had to do was work up his power to believe and he could have anything he wanted. A a a n n n y y y y thing.
Can God choose to give us anything? If God chooses to make your numbers come up for a Publisher’s Clearing House Super Prize, can anything prevent those numbers from coming up? God can give us anything. He can do anything for us. The Bible says that what is impossible for men is possible for God in Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27, Luke 1:37, and Luke 18:27.
In writing about what God can do, Paul struggled to find the words. Can you imagine him telling his scribe to take a letter to the Ephesians. As he dictates it, he gets to the point where he wants to say that God is able do what we ask, then he thinks, “No, that’s not good enough.” He wants to be more emphatic. “To him who is able to do ALL that we ask.” No, that’s not good enough either. “To him who is able do all that we ask, OR THINK.” That’s better. I can think of a lot of things, and God is able to do all of them.
Yes, that’s better. But it’s still not good enough, because God is able to do things that have never occurred to me. “To him who is able to do ABOVE all that we ask or think.” That still seems to be too limiting. “To him who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY above all that we ask or think.” That’s getting closer. “To him who is able to do exceeding ABUNDANTLY above all that we ask or think.”
That is the God in whom we are to have faith. That is the God who tells us, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
I understand why R. A. Torrey thought this was such an exciting verse. But is it possible to abuse this verse? Can we build up our faith so much that we can force God to give what he does not want to give? I have read sermons and so called “Bible studies” that come very close to saying that.
You probably know my answer to that question. Faith is NOT a way to force God to give what he does not want to give. Faith is a way to receive what God DOES want to give. Faith is a way to receive what God would be DELIGHTED to give. I suspect that most of us never receive most of what God wants to give. If Jesus walked the earth incarnate today, would he look at me and say, “O you of little faith.” Do you think he would say that to you?
In 1973 or 74, I was teaching a Bible study for deaf college students. Just before the study was to begin, the phone rang. Someone was calling because they needed an interpreter for a revival service on Friday evening. They wanted to know if I knew any interpreters. I told them I was an interpreter and I was available.
They said it was for the United Pentecostal Church on N. Main Street. The night before, someone had been speaking in tongues during the service and the interpretation was that on Friday, they were to bring the blind, the deaf, and the lame. After the revival, they would have a healing service.
Someone did find a deaf person to bring to the service that Friday.
I won’t take the time to describe the service. I don’t remember anything about the sermon. I guess it was not particularly moving or particularly outrageous. I do remember the invitations.
The first invitation was for people to go forward and be saved. The second invitation was for people to go forward and receive the Holy Spirit. A couple of people came, stood on both sides of me, and tried to take my elbows while I was interpreting. One asked, “Would you like to go forward and receive the Holy Spirit?”
I said, “I already have the Holy Spirit.”
She said, “Really? I heard you were a Baptist.”
Eventually, they had the invitation to go forward and be healed. The pair that found the deaf person took him by the elbows and led him to the front. The evangelist put his hands on the man’s head and prayed. He stuck a finger in one ear and shook it. He stuck a finger in the other ear and shook it. Then he went to the next person and began praying for him.
While all this was going on, a frail, gaunt woman on a pallet was struggling to get up. She was lying on her side. She struggled to raise her head. She tried to push herself up. Her arm trembled, but her shoulders didn’t budge. She was in her 80 s. She was dying of cancer. The “evangelist,” the one who was supposed to be sharing good news, talked about how if her faith was strong enough, she would get up. He said that if her faith was strong enough, that she could cough up that tumor, that he knew of cases of grapefruit sized tumors being coughed up and it could happen for her.
But it didn’t.
That so called “evangelist” was telling her, “If you’re not healed, it’s your fault. Your faith is too weak. Too bad.” He came very close to suggesting that if we have enough faith, God has no choice but to do our will.
Was he right? “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Was he right, or was he abusing verses like this one?
As we have said before, the word, “therefore” means, “because of what has come before.” We need to know what came before this verse before we can understand this verse.
The immediate context tells us, “‘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. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,’” Mark 11:22 24.
“Jesus answered…” What is Jesus answering? It looks like we have not gone back far enough. The lesson on faith is a response to a withered fig tree. To go back to the beginning, we have to go back to 11:12.
“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season of figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard him say it.” Mark 11:12 14
Between the cursing of the tree and finding it withered, Jesus cleanses the temple.
Back in the 70 s, I heard the Bob Craig, Director of the Baptist Student Union at Lee Junior College in Baytown, TX, preach on this passage. He said he decided to talk to a horticulturist at the college to find out what he could about this fig tree.
Fig trees produce tiny figs before they produce leaves, so this tree, in leaf, should have at least had tiny, green figs on it. Bob said the horticulturist told him that was not the most important point in this passage. What’s more important is that trees that are supposed to bear fruit, but don’t send all the energy that should go into producing fruit goes into producing leaves. The trees, so full of lush leaves, are beautiful, but they don’t do what they are supposed to. They are fruitless, but they look good.
The temple was bearing no fruit. All its energy went in to sustaining the religious system and making a profit instead of producing fruit. The Jewish system of religious legalism, like the fig tree, was cursed and would never produce fruit.
Jesus taught about bearing fruit, then he taught about prayer. But we still don’t have the full context. Immediately after the lesson on faith, Jesus says, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins,” Mark 11:25.
The verse starts with “and.” That ties it with the lesson on faith.
Jesus gives three keys to bearing fruit: faith, prayer, and forgiveness. At the same time, bearing fruit, faith, and forgiveness are three prayer keys. These four things, bearing fruit, faith, prayer, and forgiveness, are inseparable.
R. A. Torrey wrote that when he saw Mark 11:22 24 shortly after becoming a Christian, he became so excited. All he had to do was work up his power to believe and he could have anything he wanted. Anything.
But it is not just a matter of working up your power to believe. A faithful person will be fruitful. A faithful person will be forgiving. As we bear fruit, our faith grows. As we forgive, our faith grows.
We have our larger context. Now, let’s look at the immediate context. “‘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. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,’” Mark 11:22 24.
The immediate context tells us to have faith in God. That so called “evangelist” came very close to teaching, “Have faith in faith.” Faith in our faith is worthless. Faith in God is everything.
The immediate context goes on to say, “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.”
I have here a bowl, a bottle of water, and a pebble. We don’t have a sea nearby, so I am just going to pour this water into the bowl, set it on the floor, and use that for our “sea.” We don’t have any mountains nearby, so I will just substitute this pebble. I am setting it on the stand just above our “sea.”
Steve, you’re a man of faith. Would you be willing to help me with this demonstration?
I want you to work up your faith and command this mountain to cast itself into the sea. I want you to believe it will happen and not doubt. Go ahead. Command it…
Try again…
Thank you for your help.
If God had wanted to drop that pebble into the bowl of water, he could have sent an earth tremor at the exact moment Steve spoke to shake that pebble off the stand. God can do things like that. Most of us in prayer meeting believe that or we wouldn’t be here. In these verses, faith is not about believing what God CAN do. Faith is about believing what God WILL do.
God can send an earth tremor at the right time to cause the pebble to fall into the bowl of water. God can send the greatest earthquake in the history of the earth to cast Mt Everest into the Indian Ocean. God CAN do those things, but WILL he? The only way it is possible to believe and not doubt that God WILL do those things is for God himself to reveal it.
After R. A. Torrey had been a Christian for more than forty years, someone asked him to visit a family and pray for one member who was dying with typhoid fever. God revealed to Torrey that the man would live. He told them that when he arrived. The doctor, who was there, said, “That’s fine for you. But he cannot live. He will die.”
Dr. Torrey said, “That’s fine for you. But he cannot die. He will live.”
Later that night, he showed the final signs of impending death. Then he recovered.
In his book, R. A. Torrey emphasized that he could pray for every sick person to recover, but he could not believe and not doubt for every sick person to recover. He could only do that when God revealed it, when God gave him the faith that a person would live and not die. Only then could he pray without doubt, believing in his heart that it would happen.
His book didn’t say if he ever had an experience like that before or since. But that one time, he could pray in faith for a sick person, without doubt, believing in his heart that it would happen. And it did.
If God reveals to you that he is going to do something, you should believe it and not doubt it. If God reveals to us that he will do a marvelous thing when we step out in faith, we should step out in faith. If we don’t step out in faith, we will miss the marvel.
Obedience is an act of faith. Any time God leads, we should follow. Sometimes, obedience can be challenging. We, like the disciples in Luke 17:5 can say, “Lord, increase our faith.” We don’t have time to study that passage tonight, Jesus gives them a lesson on obedience and implies is that we should use the faith we already have. As we obey the things we already know God wants us to do, our faith will grow.
In the passage tonight, we have seen that as we bear fruit our faith will grow. As we forgive others, our faith will grow.
When we studied perseverance as a prayer key, we noticed in Luke 18 that when we persist in praying, our faith will grow. Faith is a key to prayer and prayer is a key to faith.
But while praying, we cannot neglect God’s word. D. L. Moody said, “I prayed for faith & thought that some day it would come down & strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing & hearing by the word of God.” I had up to this time, closed my Bible & prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible & began to study & faith has been growing ever since.” [SermonCentral.com] He did not give up praying. He just realized that for him, at that time, Bible study was his weak link.
What is your weak link?
Faith is NOT a way to force God to give what he does not want to give. Faith is a way to receive what God DOES want to give. Faith is a way to receive what God would be DELIGHTED to give. I suspect that most of us never receive most of what God wants to give. If Jesus walked the earth incarnate today, would he look at me and say, “O you of little faith?” Do you think he would say that to you?
Will you join me in a renewed commitment to be an obedient, fruitful, forgiving Christian who spends time in God’s word and in prayer “to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think?” Our prayers will be empowered as our faith grows.
