Believe you receive! : by James Lantz

       I want to draw our attention to some of the most gracious words that ever were spoken by our Lord and master! Jesus said, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. We should not think this strange for God, who is a rewarder, to offer such extreme grace to those who will believe Him. Faith pleases God because believing is the method of transfer from the realm of the unseen into the realm of the seen.  Heb. 11:6  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.  I realize that there are plenty of doubt peddlers in our world and sadly even in some of our own families and churches. These are the people who say that was just for the original twelve disciples or this does not apply to natural things like jobs, cars or houses. If it was only for the original twelve how foolish would it be for God to have these words recorded for all of eternity. These words, of all the things that Jesus said, were specifically selected by the Father to be included in the Holy scriptures. God said that in these last days he spoke to us by His Son whom He appointed. The very example that Jesus used to demonstrate how the faith of God was to be unleashed was the cursing of the lying fig tree.  Mark 11:13  And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.  Some commentary’s record that these fig trees normally had ripe fruit when they had leaves. Jesus was expecting to get some figs but when he came close he found that this was a lying fig tree.  Mk. 11:14  And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.  And his disciples heard it.  The next morning, when Peter saw the fig tree, he exclaimed, Master, look, the fig tree which you cursed is withered away. Jesus answered them, saying, have faith in God! The understood thought being you can do this, you have faith in God.

Jesus expects you and me to release the faith of God with our words!

Mk. 11:22  . . . Have faith in God.  Jesus continually commented about peoples’s faith, or lack thereof, bringing awareness to our responsibility to believe. Daughter, your faith has made you whole, go in peace, and be whole of your plague. According to your faith be it unto you. I have not found so great faith in all of Israel! The apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans, your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. One evening after a lot of teaching and expounding of the parables to his own team, Jesus said, let’s go to the other side of the lake. Jesus, being very tired, laid down in the ship to sleep. A great storm arose and when the ship was full of water. The disciples awaken Jesus, saying, Master, don’t you care that we perish. Jesus rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  Mk. 4:40  And he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? how is it that you have no faith? Jesus disciples had seen the power of God manifested many times, they heard him teach, in fact, Jesus had personally expounded the meaning of the parables to them prior to sailing. This was not ok for them to have heard the faith command, Let us pass over to the other side, and to refuse to believe what Jesus said.

      Mark 11:23  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.  This scripture shows us how to release faith to remove obstacles from our life. This is exactly what Jesus did when he cursed the fig tree. He believed that the words he spoke would come to pass! If we want to have faith that our words will come to pass we need to be one of those who speaks the truth expecting them to come to pass. “In order for our words to be more effective we need to be more selective.”  Death and life are in the power of the tongue! This is an awesome privilege that God has granted to man, the ability to choose life by the power of our will and the words of our mouth. Many people choose instead, to believe in the law of excuseology, saying it doesn’t matter what I say because you never know what God will do. God is not a respecter of persons and He does not have a law of excuseology. Jesus said

There is no such thing as the law of excuseology!

that we will be held accountable for every non-working (idle) word that we speak.  Mt. 12:37  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.  This wisdom is not new, it is found in one of the oldest books of the Bible.  Job 22:28  Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways. 

       The twenty fourth verse is very much like the twenty third, except it reveals how to receive good things from God!  Mk. 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.  First of all this word is to Jesus disciples, those of us who follow him and believe in him.  Secondly this is a wide open invitation to whatever you desire. This includes eternal life, baptism in the Holy Spirit, healing, prosperity, protection and every other promise of God. This of course would not include things that the scriptures forbid, such as God giving you someone else’s spouse or even giving you a spouse against their will. Jesus did warn us that when we stand praying we must forgive if we have ought against any. Thirdly, it is our responsibility to have a strong desire to receive this thing from God. A half hearted desire is not what Jesus is referring to here.  Fourthly, we are to receive this thing by faith when we pray. We do not receive it physically by reaching out with our hands but we do need to take it by faith when we pray. The greek word translated receive is also translated take in other places in the Bible. We are not taking something from God that He does not want us to have. How foolish to think that we could force God to give us something He doesn’t want us to have. It was God’s idea to give us every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus! For many years the church has been praying on the wrong end of things. We have many times been pleading with God to heal us when He already has! Many people are pleading and begging for God to fill them with the Holy Spirit! He already sent the Holy Spirit. Our prayers are to be receiving what God has already given. Our finances will flow as we get into our God ordained place and put the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first place. The Holy Spirit led prayer in Ephesians is for our eyes to be opened to what God has already given us. That we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe. If you want your little electric heater to give you some heat, plug it into the the power source and turn it on. Most of the time the problem is not with the power company not sending the power but that you didn’t plug in. God’s power is never turned off and He can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us. Isaiah 59:1  Behold, the Lord ‘s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:   Fifthly  Understand that the having whatsoever we have asked God for comes after we believe that we have received it. We can check up on ourselves to see if we are in faith.  2 Cor. 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (unapproved or rejected)?   If we believe that we have it then we are expecting it to show up at any time. We are joyful because we know that God always delivers! It is ours so we are making plans as if we have it now! We are thankful and full of praise to God! We will be tempted to think about what if it dosen’t show up or to worry about how we are going to make it till it shows up. We must cast those thoughts down and hold on to the promises of God that say we have it by faith until it materializes. Remember, believing is a choice and a privilege, not a feeling. If you do not have scriptures for those things that you desire you must hear from God because faith to receive comes by hearing from Him!