Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Mark 11:24 (NKJV)
Jesus exhorts His disciples to have faith in Him. True authentic faith is critical at this hour; it will cause God’s power to increase. Faith is not a feeling or an encounter, or even an emotion, even though it may impact our emotions. True, strong and well-developed faith stays steadfast long after the feeling has gone. Faith is confidence and assurance and is akin to spiritual law (Hebrews 11:1). If we know that God will act on our behalf, there is nothing or no one that can faze us. Heaven always responds to the heart that completely and totally trusts in God. We therefore need to pray, fast, worship and act in faith. Faith gives prayer wings and power.
Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. One of the greatest plans of the enemy for our lives is to cloud our vision concerning the fact that God really cares about us. However, God cares about our simplest needs. We just need to believe. Anyone who tells the mountain to move in faith, will see God move heaven and earth on their behalf.
Hebrews 11: 8-10 tells us that by faith Abraham went out to live when God sent him and believed God for his son. In Genesis 12, Abraham sets out in faith. In this same chapter, he is afraid and lies about his wife’s identity. Note also, that at first, he doubted God’s promise of a son and went with Hagar. By Genesis 17:1, God tells him to walk blamelessly in Him. He meant for him to stop doing foolishness. God then promised to bless him and to multiply his seed. When Abraham’s faith was settled, God asked for Isaac as a sacrifice and Abraham obeyed. His steadfast faith is seen in his answer to his son that God would provide the lamb for the sacrifice. This is where God wants to take us in faith. He wants to raise up that which seemed dead in our lives. In 1 Samuel 17, we see David who was overlooked by his family being God’s choice for king.
In Matthew 8:26, Jesus equates the disciples’ lack of power with their lack of faith. In verse 23, we are told that a violent storm overtook the disciples’ boat and they woke Jesus up in fear. He got up and called them men of little faith. In Matthew 17:20, the disciples struggle to cast out a demon from a man and Jesus tells them that they failed because they had little faith. In Deuteronomy 6:6-9, God tells us to keep His Word in our hearts. In Mark 4, Jesus teaches on faith, telling us how it begins to grow – He likens it to a mustard seed.
In Acts 3:1-8, the lame man asking Peter and John for alms was told by Peter that he had neither silver nor gold, but promised him what he had instead, which was faith in God to heal him. The disciples had received the anointing in the previous chapter and could heal others. In James 2:14-26, we are told that faith without works is dead. In Mark, we are shown that we must have faith for healing. This is where the man had a son who was possessed. The demon threw him into the fire to hurt him, but the man had faith that his son would be healed by Jesus. Matthew 9:18 tells us that the woman with the issue of blood was healed. She had faith for this. The ruler whose daughter had died also had faith and believed that Jesus could heal his child. To do so, Jesus put the unbelieving people out of the room first. They had said that she was dead. Note also, that Jesus took certain disciples with Him. To receive our miracles and breakthroughs, we must have the Word of God in our hearts, walk before God blamelessly and step out in faith.
