Faith’s Unlimited Potential

The only limits to faith are those you put on it; God does not put any limits on it!  As long as what you believe for is promised in the Word, there are no restrictions.  You can believe for all the health and healing you want, all the prosperity you want, all the joy you want, all the peace you want, all the move of God you want, all the removal of your problems you want!

If this sounds too good to be true, the Scriptures cited below should settle this matter for you once and for all.

Luke 1:37:
For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Matthew 17:20:
Assuredly, I say unto you, If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 19:26:
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Mark 10:27:
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible.”

Jeremiah 32:17:
Ah, Lord God!  Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm.  There is nothing too hard for You.\

Genesis 17:1:
…I am Almighty God…

Genesis 18:14:
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?  At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Genesis 28:3:
May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you…

Genesis 35:11:
Also God said to him, “I am God Almighty…”

Matthew 21:21-22:
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.  And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Luke 17:6:
So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Mark 11:22-24:
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.”

There is no point in watering down these verses! They mean exactly what they say. Jesus is literally talking about mountains. He shows us here that there are no limits to what we can believe for. The issue is not what is possible because all things are possible to him who believes. The issue is what we will believe for!

Mark 9:17-23:
Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”  Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and  he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So He asked His father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And often he has thrown him both in the fire and into the water to destroy him.  But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

In the case above, we can see that the man thought that the issue was the limit on Jesus’ ability. Jesus showed the man otherwise – that the only limit was what the man could believe. The man’s “if” was if Jesus could do anything about the seemingly hopeless situation. Jesus’ “if” was if the man could believe.

So many Christians today are in the same position as the possessed child’s father because they have not learned the lesson from this passage. They pray faithless prayers like the boy’s father prayed: “Oh God, please do something!  Do whatever you can about this situation! Intervene somehow, O God!” Since Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, we should expect that the answer will be the same today: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes!” The responsibility does not rest on God’s ability; it rests on our ability to believe. (Think about it: If it were solely up to God’s ability, no one on earth would have any kind of problem!)  As we saw in the previous lesson, it is up to us how much faith we have.  By hearing the Word of God, we increase our capacity to believe.  Or by neglecting the Word, we can end up like the disciples – knowing the will of God but still unable to believe for it.

A tragic error made by Christians (including ministers) all the time is to assume that something is not God’s will because they do not receive an answer to their prayer.  Prayer in unbelief is offered for healing, then the people are told, “Well, nothing happened, so I guess it must not have been the Lord’s will or timing to heal this person.” This would be no different from the situation if the people in Mark 9 concluded, “The disciples prayed and nothing happened. They were Jesus’ hand-picked representatives, yet they got no results. So it must be God’s benevolent, loving will that this child be demon-possessed and suicidal.”  The lack of results proved only the unbelief of the disciples. When Jesus acted in faith, the boy was delivered.  Jesus told His disciples that the reason they could not cast it out was their unbelief, as we noted in the previous lesson.  When there is a failure to receive, don’t point and angry finger at God and blame Him!  That would be like blaming the radio station for your bad reception when the problem is that you need to tweak your dial to tune in better.

Some people get quite offended at the Bible’s teaching on faith because they think it puts a guilt trip on people who do not receive. No, the Bible does not put a guilt trip on you – on the contrary, it tells you how to receive so that you can get results next time! Is it better to fail to receive over and over because you didn’t receive once? Of course not! It is similar to the situation where someone gets saved and realizes that some of his departed loved ones are in hell because they were not born again.  Should people fail to receive the new birth themselves because someone else failed to do so and it feels crummy to know that the other person did not receive what he could have received? No, they should receive it anyway. Why be limited by someone else’s failures? The new birth was available to everyone. The problem was neither God’s will nor God’s ability to save that person. What we have here is a failure to RECEIVE! It is not a failure to GIVE or OFFER on God’s part.

John 14:12-14:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

John 16:23-24:
And it that day you shall ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Can you see it?  The language of faith is “whatever you ask.”  Of course, you need to ask according to the Word of God, since prayers for things with no Bible basis have no basis for faith.  Faith comes by hearing God’s Word, so if it isn’t something you’ve heard God’s Word on, you have no basis for believing for it.  But if you’ve got Scripture for what you’re asking, you have God’s guarantee of an answer to the prayer of faith.

1 John 5:14-15:
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 John 3:21-22:
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Matthew 7:7-8:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.

John 15:7:
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Let’s not “have not because we ask not” (James 4:2). Instead, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

[On to Lesson 5:  Receiving][Faith Bible Study Index][Bible Study Index][Home]