Ask, Believe, Receive?

Apr

Ask, Believe, Receive?

Posted on April 19th, 2010 in Faith by Fred McKinnon

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22 And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11: 22-24)

This is a remarkable passage. Yet, how many of our prayers seem to go unanswered?
Why is that?

http://www.robmckinnon.net Robert McKinnon

I ain’t touching that one with somebody ELSE’S ten-foot pole. But I love ya anyway!
http://www.russhutto.com Russ Hutto

Maybe the focus of the prayers isn’t aligned with the “focus” of this passage?

If you read the preceding passage(s) we find the stories of Jesus cleansing the Temple and the cursed fig tree. Even though each “sub-story” has a heading of it’s own a lot of times it’s helpful to understand passages by reading them in a larger context.

The fig tree wasn’t cursed only because it produced no fruit. Look carefully. The “fruit” wasn’t there because the season for fruit was near, but hadn’t yet come. The fig tree might possibly represent the “church” (the Jewish church). The time was almost near for fruit, but there was none.

Jesus then proceeds to cleanse the Temple. The Temple itself had also become “barren” and fruitless. Hence the need for the cleansing.

Anyways, after that episode they come back past the tree and it has withered. I believe the withered fig tree represents the “church” that operates outside of faith and moves more in a “works” mentality (as the Jewish church had become).

When the Peter brought it to Jesus’ attention He answers with the passage you’re asking about.

If you really think about it, Jesus speaks to us in heart matters most, if not all, of the time. Not that we couldn’t literally move a mountain in the power of God, but I read this more in the context as being a heart issue.

Jesus just cleansed the Temple because the “heart” of the folks there weren’t in the right place.

So as they revisit the withered fig tree, they “see” a picture of what happens outside of “faith.” They see a picture of works in action. Or at the very least Jesus’ uses the withered fig tree as something to concrete that lesson.

So when he answers about the “prayer of faith” and moving “mountains” I personally believe that it is specifically a prayer about removing the mountains of doubt, regret, bondage to sin, works mentality, etc.

And doing so confidently believing that God will indeed answer.

Personally, that’s how I see this in the light of context, I don’t believe it’s a blanket license to pray for any and everything we might “want” or even “need” to a degree. Not that we shouldn’t. But I just don’t think this is that type of prayer.

If I had to categorize it, I’d say that Jesus is referring to the prayers of repentance, forgiveness, and ultimately, Salvation. But that’s just my take.

http://www.robmckinnon.net Robert McKinnon

Well, Russ, . . . . maybe I’d touch this subject with YOUR ten-foot pole.

Excellent response. I have never really “seen” the fig tree like that. I guess what ticked Jesus off was that (even though the fruit may not have been ripe) the tree didn’t even have the EVIDENCE of fruit coming on! Wow.

Kudos, bro! On all you are saying.

Seth

Hey Fred,

That’s a powerful scripture…

I’ve always believed that God answers prayer in 3 ways…Yes, No and Wait. I feel like many times it’s “Wait my Son, I’ll show you in my time. Trust that I’ll provide.”

So many times in hindsight (sometimes 2-3 years of prayer) those seemingly unanswered prayers are being formed and planned and laid-out that I didn’t even realize what He was doing the whole time.

That builds up the solid foundation of faith to trust and know that the next thing I pray will be in His Hand.

Blessings!
Seth
Joel Sizemore

It’s 100% true. I laid my hands on my feet asked for pain to be removed from my feet, I believed and I recieved instantly. That was two years ago 2008. I encourage all to do as you are told.
http://www.onevoiceworship.org Harold Forbis

One thing to consider is that there’s a context of “in the will of God” that’s implicit to the intent of our prayers, the assumption that our hearts are becoming more and more in tune with God’s, and our desires (what we would ask for) are becoming more and more congruent with His as we live our lives with Him.

One example of this is when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, it was first and foremost “Your kingdom come, Your will be done”, THEN asking for our needs to be met in the simple, trusting form of “give us what we need for today.”

Another place we see this in scripture is in I John 5:14-15 [NLT] “We can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.”

This doesn’t mean, however, that we have a fatalistic, ‘que sera, sera’ way of approaching life. It means when we seek Him we find Him. It means that, although His ways are higher than our ways, He has given us the mind of Christ. We should pursue knowing the will of God, praying and asking Him to have His way, believing that He will.

We see Jesus teaching this in John 15:7 “if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you may ask what you will, and it will be granted – this kind of fruitbearing brings glory to God” (my paraphrase).

Paul prayed this for the Colossians in 1:9-12 [NASB], that (because he had heard of their faith, vs. 4, and their love in the Spirit, vs. they would “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increaaing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”

All I can add is – amen!

FredMcKinnon.Com

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