Have Faith In God!

Mark 11:20-24

Have you ever needed God to come through in some huge way? Can you recall the last time you cried out to God for great things? During those prayer challenges, did you wonder how you could increase your chances of a positive answer? Well, God responds favorably to our requests when we appeal to Him in faith. When the five primary conditions for “yes” answers are satisfied, (right relationship with God; a method including thanksgiving, specific requests, and persistence; petitions based on God’s promises and respectful of His will; prayers submitted in the Name of Jesus; and faith,) we will receive positive answers from the Lord more frequently.

You see the prayer requests we submit to God, must meet His qualifications for a positive response. Not only must we avoid the hindrances to prayer, but we must also satisfy the qualification for positive responses. When our desires and requests meet these conditions, our Father is happy to grant us our requests. In the Scriptures our Lord has outlined prerequisites for receiving ‘yes’ answers to our pleasure. Be assured that His responses always reflect our best interests and our eternal welfare.

Not only are a right relationship, method, requests, and framework required, but the attitude must be right also. Yes, we must have the outlook of faith as we pray. We must take our Lord's counsel seriously and "have faith in God" (Mk. 11:22). So how do we exercise faith in God as we pray? What steps should we take? 

I.       Choose God as the Object of Your Faith (Mk. 11:22) “…Have faith in God.” 

A.     Avoid the Mistakes Often Associated With Faith And Prayer.  Do not merely believe in yourself.  Do NOT place faith in your faith or even faith in prayer.  Do not waste your time trusting people beyond what is reasonable—they are only human.

B.     Pray Effectively in Faith.  This requires "faith in God," not faith in the object of your request.

                                                1.      If you focus only on your request, you will be left with nothing if your request is refused.

                                                2.      You see, faith believes God and is a confident attitude toward Him; a persuasion that God’s statements are true; and it involves commitment to His will for your life (Phil. 1:27; 2 Thess. 2:13).  The primary idea is trust and there are many degrees of faith all the way up to full assurance of faith –being fully persuaded and absolutely free of doubt (Heb. 10:22).

                                                3.      Faith is the belief that God is real and that God is good. Faith is not a mystical experience or a midnight vision or a voice in the forest.… It is a choice to believe that the one who made it all hasn’t left it all and that he still sends light into the shadows and responds to gestures of faith.… Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. Faith is the belief that God will do what is right. –Max Lucado

C.     Place your Faith/Trust/Belief/Confidence in the Lord God.

                                                1.      Remember Jesus Emphasized Faith (Mk. 11:12-14, 20-22).

a.       Why was the fig tree both cursed and withered? The passage emphasizes the power of true faith. No doubt the fig tree represented ‘faithless’ and therefore, ‘fruitless’ Israel, who would soon face the judgment of God. But there would be no limitations in divine blessings for the disciples living in faith!

b.      The next morning the fig tree had withered away. Its deadness was now exposed, even as Jesus was about to expose the deadness of Israel’s religion.

c.       Jesus told the disciples the truth. The true power of religion is not found in buildings or ritual, but in a personal relationship with God which is expressed in faith. The person who trusts God completely can move mountains! We are to pray, believing. We can be sure as we focus our trust in God that we will receive what we ask. —Richards, Larry

d.      Our Lord’s answer to Peter, on the surface seems totally unrelated to Peter’s question (11:21, 22).

e.       Swete offers the following explanation: “The answer is remarkable; the Lord does not explain the lesson to be learned from the fate of the tree, but deals with a matter of more immediate importance to the Twelve, the lesson to be learnt from the prompt fulfillment of His prayer.”

f.        This was a lesson in faith then!

                                                2.      Choose to Believe God as a Matter of Habit.

a.       Jesus also used this miracle to teach us a lesson on faith. The next morning, when the disciples noticed the dead tree, Jesus said, “Have faith in God,” meaning, “Constantly be trusting God; live in an attitude of dependence on Him.” –Wiersbe, Warren W.

b.      You see, the first step in prayer must be faith in God. Paul stated this same principle: “But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

                                                                                                                           i.      Place unwavering trust in God’s omnipotent power and unfailing goodness. Faith rests resolutely in an Almighty God of steadfast kindness (Mk. 5:34).

                                                                                                                         ii.      God is always ready to respond to obedient believers’ prayers, and we can petition Him knowing that no situation or difficulty is impossible for Him.

c.       If you don’t believe in God, friend, then the skeptic is certainly correct when he says that prayer is a madman talking to himself. Having faith in God is the first step.—McGee, Vernon J.

                                                3.      Understand that Christ’s Constant Faith in God is a Model for Us.

a.       This is just another instance in the life of our Lord that brings to view His humanity and His dependence upon God the Holy Spirit, for the words He uttered, the prayers which He prayed, the miracles He performed, and the life which He lived, was as the Man Christ Jesus, doing all this in the energy of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord exercised faith in the cursing of the fig tree. He presses home the lesson of the necessity of faith to the disciples. —Wuest, Kenneth S.

b.      Prayer is not an emergency measure that we turn to when we have a problem. Real prayer is a part of our constant communion with God and worship of God. —The Bible Exposition Commentary

II.    Exercise Mountain Moving Faith (Mk. 11:23)

Not only should we choose God as the object of our faith, but we must also exercise true faith, which recognizes no limitations on the love and ability of God to respond to our requests.

A.     An Illustration. Jesus was using a figure of speech (hyperbole) to show that God could help in any situation if we truly believe without wavering in our confidence in God. 

                                                1.      “This mountain,” refers to the Mount of Olives and represents an immovable obstacle. 

                                                2.      “The sea” is the Dead Sea, which is visible from the Mount of Olives. 

                                                3.      The illustration of casting an enormous mountain into the sea is an extreme example of the absolutely impossible.

B.     An Amplification. God doing the impossible is precisely the point. Having faith in God can accomplish the unfeasible, the hopeless, unrealizable, and unattainable.

                                                1.      Jesus’ point is that in our prayers to God we must believe without doubting that God can do anything consistent with His character and will.

                                                2.      Jesus was encouraging faith as the means to remove extreme difficulties. If we have faith in God, we can deal with the problem of fruitlessness, and remove mountainous obstacles.

                                                3.      Mountain removed:

When William Carey went to India, many well educated men would have said to him, "You may just as well walk up to the Himalaya mountains, and order them to be removed and cast into the sea." I [William Arthur] would have said, "That is perfectly true; this Hinduism is as vast and as solid as those mountains; but we have faith -- not much, yet we have faith as a grain of mustard seed"; and William Carey said, "I will go up to the mountain."

Lonely and weak he walked up towards the mountain, which in the eye of man seemed certainly one of the summits of human things, far above all power to touch or shake it; and with his own feeble voice he began saying, "Be thou removed! be thou removed!" And the world looked on and laughed, a well known clergyman, looking down from his high place in the Edinburgh Review, was much amused with the spectacle of that poor man down in Bengal, thinking in his simple heart that he was going to disturb Hinduism; and from his high place he cast down a scalding word, which he meant to fall just as of old boiling lead used to fall upon a poor man from the height of a tower. He called him a "consecrated cobbler."

All the intelligent world laughed, and said he was treated as he ought to be treated. However, he went on saying to the mountain, "Be thou removed! be thou removed!" And one joined him, and another joined him; the voice grew stronger; it was repeated in more languages than one: "Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the depths of the sea!" and now there is a large company who are uttering that one word, "Be thou removed!"

I ask the living representatives of the very men who first smiled at this folly, "What say ye now?" "Well," they answer, "you have not got into the sea yet." That is true; but do you say that the mountain during the last forty years has not moved? No man can say that it is in the same position as it was when William Carey first went up to it. It is moving fast; and I call upon you to swell that voice, the voice of God's Church, which seems to say, "Be thou removed, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the depths of the sea!"

Cast into those depths it will be; and a day will come when the nations of a regenerated East will write in letters of gold upon the first pages of their Christian history the name of the "consecrated cobbler."—William Arthur. The Biblical Illustrator

C.     An Application.

                                                1.      The kind of prayer Jesus meant was not the arbitrary wish to move a literal mountain.

                                                2.      Instead, he was referring to prayers that we would need to endlessly pray as we faced mountains of opposition to our gospel message. Our prayers for the advancement of God’s kingdom would always be answered positively—in God’s timing when we exercise real faith.

                                                3.      Maybe your mountain is financial difficulties, struggles in marriage, challenging conditions at work, a straying child, loneliness, anger, sorrow, or even confusion about God.  Approach the mountain in faith to see it removed from your path of progress.

                                                4.      Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge—Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer; in His arms He’ll take and shield thee—Thou wilt find a solace there. –Osbeck, Kenneth W.: Amazing Grace

III. Beware of the Hindrance of Lingering Doubts (Mk. 11:23) “…shall not doubt in his heart…”

In order to have faith in God as we pray, we must choose God as the object of our prayers, exercise mountain moving faith, and then thirdly beware of the negative power of doubt to hinder positive responses from God.

A.     Always Make Your Petitions Free Of Any Doubting.

                                                1.      The word “doubt” means “to judge between two,” thus, a divided judgment, or a wavering doubt. Don’t tolerate even a single moment of doubt.

                                                2.      Faith And Doubt

Doubt sees the obstacles.

Faith sees the way!

Doubt sees the darkest night,

Faith sees the day!

Doubt dreads to take a step.

Faith soars on high!

Doubt questions, “Who believes?”

Faith answers, “I!” —Gospel Banner

                                                3.      1 Timothy 2:8, I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

                                                4.      Read Rom. 4:18-21; Heb. 11:17-19; James 1:5-7 for further helpful counsel. 

B.     Always Pray With An Attitude Of Faith In God.

                                                1.      Psalm 27:13, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

                                                2.      Matthew 21:22, And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

                                                3.      Jesus’ insisted on simply believing God (Mk. 9:23, 24).

IV.  Participate in Believing Prayer to Receive from God (Mk. 11:24)

We must choose God as the object of faith, exercise mountain moving faith, beware of the hindrance of doubt, and finally pray fully expecting God to answer us and honor our faith.

A.     Believe God’s promise of positive answers to our believing prayers!

                                                1.      When we are really living in touch with the Lord and praying in the Spirit, we can have the assurance of answered prayer before the answer actually comes.

                                                2.      These verses do not give a person authority to pray for miraculous powers for his own convenience or acclaim.

B.     Don’t Forget the other Conditions for Prayer.

1.      Every act of faith must rest on the promise of God. If we know that it is God’s will to remove a certain difficulty, then we can pray with utter confidence that it will be done.

2.      In fact, we can pray with confidence on any subject as long as we are confident it is according to God’s will as revealed in the Bible or by the inner witness of the Spirit.

3.      Nor should we interpret Mark 11:24 to mean, “If you pray hard enough and really believe, God is obligated to answer your prayers, no matter what you ask.” That kind of faith is not faith in God; rather, it is nothing but faith in faith, or faith in feelings. True faith in God is based on His Word (John 15:7; Rom. 10:17), and His Word reveals His will to us. It has well been said that the purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth. —Wiersbe, Warren W.

C.     Be Confident in God’s Desires to Meet Your Need. On what do we base our faith?

                                                1.      On the promises of Scripture and the fact that God wants only what is best for us. If we ask for what we are certain God desires for us, we must ask as if we are already in the process of receiving it.

                                                2.      The Pastor’s Text

In the early years of his ministry, Dr. George W. Truett took the following verse as his text for a morning’s message: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 18:19). Having quoted his text, Dr. Truett asked:

“Do you believe it?” Of course he did not expect an answer, but one was forthcoming nevertheless. As he paused for a moment that his question might be understood, a very poor member of the congregation, poor in this world’s goods but rich in faith, rose to her feet. “I believe it, pastor,” she said, “and I want you to claim that promise with me.”

“It staggered me,” said the pastor. “I knew I did not have the faith to claim the promise, but before I had time to answer, a big, burly blacksmith in the congregation rose to his feet; “I’ll claim that promise with you, Auntie,” he said, and together the two, the poor washer-woman and the blacksmith, dropped to their knees in the aisle and poured out their hearts in prayer for the salvation of the woman’s husband.”

Now it happened that this man was a riverboat captain on the Rio Grande, a swearing, foul-mouthed drunken sot, and he was at that moment sleeping off a drink at home.

That night, for the first time in many years at least, the old riverboat captain was in the church and while the pastor preached the woman prayed, not for the salvation of her husband, rather she was thanking God for it, for she seemed to know it would happen that night.

And of course when the invitation was given this old foul-mouthed captain came to give his heart to the Lord and he became one of the most dependable and faithful workers in that church. —Baptist Standard

D.    Trust God to Direct Your Faith. You may say, “But what if I am asking for the wrong thing?”

                                                1.      If you are, and you are asking in the context of a right relationship and framework, being specific and definite and thankful, and asking to the best of your understanding of God’s will … then the Lord will show you if you are asking in error.

                                                2.      You aren’t omniscient and God doesn’t expect you to be. What He does expect of you is that you operate in the fullness of your present level of understanding and faith, and also with an open heart for Him to correct you and guide you into the precision of perfection that He desires for you. If you come to Him with that attitude, He will grant you many yes answers, and He will lead you to ask only for those things that He can answer with a yes!

                                                3.      Contrary Answers

In his Confessions, Augustine relates that when as a young man, having expressed a purpose to visit Rome, his mother protested, and prayed earnestly that he might be prevented from going, her reason being that she feared the effect upon the young man of the temptations and vices with which the great city overflowed.

He went, however, and during his stay there was converted to Christianity under the preaching of St. Ambrose. Augustine writes that her prayer was answered, though not in its outward form, but in its inward heart. What she really prayed for was that he might be saved from the ways of sin. —James Freeman Clarke

In conclusion consider this healthy and final bit of biblical counsel. Do it All for God’s Glory. When we voice our prayers out of an attitude of faith… to a very great extent we can be assured that we are praying in Jesus’ name and that our requests will be in keeping with God’s will.

The reason God says yes to our prayers is not only that we might find fulfillment and meaning and joy in our lives, but also that God might be glorified. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16). The primary goal of every believer is to glorify our heavenly Father. When non-believers see us living in right relationship with God and God answering our prayers, they are drawn to God. They desire to know Him better, even be saved, and to receive more fully from Him.

God desires to say yes to you when you pray. We must make it our desire to pray in such a way that He is free to say say "yes" to us.