“Have faith in God,” replied Jesus to them. “I tell you that if anyone should say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself into the sea’, and without any doubt in his heart believe that what he says will happen, then it will happen! That is why I tell you, whatever you pray about and ask for, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, you must forgive anything that you are holding against anyone else, and your Heavenly Father will forgive you your sins.” Mark 11: 22-26 – J.B. Phillips New Testament.
It doesn’t matter if you’re just beginning your walk of faith or if you’ve been walking by faith for many years, Mark 11:24 is your baseline verse to stand on when you want to receive something from God! The prayer of faith won’t work unless you believe in your heart.
Sometimes believing is easier than it is at other times; however, the key is to learn to take God at His word and stand! Mark 11:24 tells us how simple it is… “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” – English Standard Version. There is something magical that happens when you bin believing. Not in a weird sense, but it’s a sense of confidential settling in your spirit man that you will receive what you’ve asked God to give you.
When you fail to receive what you’re believing God for, many times it’s because you’re walking by sight and not by faith in the promises God’s given you in His Word. When this happens it’s called “Thomas” faith. I’m sure you’ve heard someone called Doubting Thomas before. This comes from John 20:25, “So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
However, you should desire to walk in faith like Abraham walked in faith. In Romans 4:18-19, it reads, “against hope believed in hope…according to that which was spoken…and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body…” Abraham didn’t consider his natural circumstances. Instead, he believed he already received God’s promises many years before he actually saw the answer to his prayer, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac.
The Word says to believe that you receive when you pray, and you will have it. More often than not, people don’t receive when they pray because they are so tied to the natural realm instead of the spiritual realm. They want to reason everything out in their minds and see it with their natural eyes first, and then they’ll believe they’ve received it.
It’s takes effort to believe God’s Word and stand on His promises, but it’s time to go beyond your five physical senses and take God at His Word. You must renew your mind with the Word of God or your own thinking will try to keep you in the natural realm. Faith is believing God’s Word in your heart…just as Jesus said in Mark 11:23, “….all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you”.
To grow spiritually, be persistent in believing God’s Word in your heart, and you’ll grow strong in faith – no matter what your head tells you, you’ll get results.