So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.” 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. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Mark 11: 22-24, NKJV
Precious Lord, we know that if You remain with us as we study, we will be greatly blessed. So we ask that You bless us with Your divine presence. For Christ’s sake, we pray; Amen
The highlighted portion of our promise is what we will be considering today. Taken by itself, you may agree, it constitutes a rather broad statement. The word “whatever,” makes it even more so. In the gospel according to Mark, chapter 9, we find a rather interesting story about a young boy who had a deaf and dumb spirit. While Jesus, Peter, James, and John, were on the mountain top (where Jesus was transfigured); the boy’s father brought him to the rest of the disciples, seeking his healing. The disciples were unable to heal the boy. I believe this is the first, and only, time, we read of Jesus’ disciples not being able to heal someone who came to them seeking help. From this incident emerges two propositions. We will consider the first one today:
Verse 23: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” It is very interesting that, in many of the instances, when Jesus healed people, His words to them were, “your faith has made you whole” Luke 8: 48; Luke 17: 19; Mark 10: 52. And we saw yesterday, that faith in God, is the main ingredient in powerful, victorious, praying. So upon this evidence, we agree that the belief Jesus is talking about in this instance is equivalent to faith. This is important to understand because all belief is not faith (James 2: 19). I have taken the time to explain this because of what the boy’s father said to Jesus, when he brought Him his son, “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us” (22). Emphasis provided. Is it any wonder Jesus answered the way He did? “If you can believe…”
What Jesus was actually doing was helping this man to have faith! He was saying, “you need to know that the problem of impotence is not mine. Because I and the father are one, Mine is ‘the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever‘ ” (Matthew 6: 13)! Emphasis provided. It is you who need the ability to believe once more. This young boy had been sick since childhood! If there is anything that will wear you down, faith and all, is to watch your child suffering, and not being able to help that child! Lord, have mercy! To make bad matters worse, I imagine those who had told him about Jesus, had assured him, “When all else fails, He won’t fail you.” Then He comes with all his hopes up high, just to find that Jesus is not in the office that day, and His assistants cannot do anything to help his son; it hardly gets worse than that!
But, dear friends, if there is one thing we need never forget, is that Jesus may find you in the pits, but if you allow Him, He will never leave you there! So Jesus offers him the help he needs to believe, “If you can believe, [even your son, as impossible as it may seem, can be healed]. ” Tomorrow we will see what Jesus’ words did for this father.
Until then, “Have faith in God!”