Commanding Faith

Unbelief prays to God about the mountain.  Faith commands the mountain to move.

Unbelief asks God to do something about the devil. Faith commands the devil to leave.

Unbelief tries to talk God into healing you. Faith commands sickness to get out of your body.

There is an aspect of faith that most of the church world has missed.  Most Christians pray to God about things that they have been given authority to speak to themselves!

At first, it freaks people out to think that they could talk to inanimate objects. Do mountains have ears?  (Haven’t you heard of mountaineers? Just kidding.) Can trees hear you?  Can storms understand what you’re saying? Apparently so, because Jesus spoke to a tree and it obeyed Him.  He spoke to a storm and it obeyed Him.  He rebuked a fever and it obeyed Him. He said that believers would do the same things that He did (John 14:12), so you can do things like that, too.  And you should!  This opens up a whole new aspect of faith.

God commanded there to be light and there was light. He spoke words and created things. Most of us think, “Well, He’s God, only He can do that.”  They don’t realize that our words have creative power.

We have discussed changing your circumstances by believing you receive what God has already provided when you pray.  But there is an alternative that works just as well in most cases, and better in others.  This method does not involve prayer!

Mark 11:23:
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.

Note that there is nothing here that remotely qualifies as prayer. You aren’t praying to a mountain; you’re speaking to it and commanding it to move. Note that there is no mention here of praying to God about the mountain, which is what almost everyone in the Church world would do, because few people know they have the authority to speak to circumstances themselves!

The incident that led up to the verse above was as follows.  Jesus said to a fig tree, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”  (Mark 11:14)  In the morning, the disciples saw the fig tree dried up from the roots (Mark 11:20). This shows that after you command something to be done in faith, you still may need to walk by faith and believe it’s done.  Apparently the disciples could not see the death of the tree until the next day, though can safely assume that it immediately started to wither on the inside where no one could see it. The symptoms of life remained in the tree for a while, but it was as good as dead once Jesus spoke to it.  The symptoms of illness might stay in your body for a while, but the illness is as good as dead when you command it to stop existing in your body in the name of Jesus.

Jesus rebuked a boat-filling storm with the words, “Peace, be still!”  And the wind ceased and there was a great calm (Mark 4:39). In Luke 4:38-39, Jesus rebuked a fever that Peter’s mother-in-law had, and it left!  Most of the religious world says, “Yes, but that was Jesus, He is the Son of God.” It’s true that Jesus is the Son of God, and also true that the Son of God still says to you today through the Bible, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works that these will he do, because I go to my Father.” (John 14:12)  You can do what Jesus did.  You can rebuke storms and fevers and make them go!

So when should you use Mark 11:23 and speak to things, and when you should you use Mark 11:24-26 and believe you receive when you pray after you forgive anyone you’ve got something against? Here are some general guidelines I think are helpful:

If your need is healing

You can do either. You can believe you receive healing when you pray, or you can command sickness to leave your body in the name of Jesus.  Either is fine, and in fact there are several other good and Scriptural ways to receive healing. (Others are laying on of hands as per Mark 16:17-18, anointing with oil by the elders in James 5:14-15, praying the prayer of agreement as in Matthew 18:19, using anointed cloths (Acts 19:12), simply “megadosing” on the Word, which is medicine to all your flesh (Proverbs 4:22), even praising and worshipping, since one word for these can be also be translated “heal”.  You can also receive through the gifts of healings in 1 Corinthians 12, but you won’t have the same guaranteed success with this method as with Mark 11:23 and Mark 11:24-26.)

If your need is to get Satan off your back

Believing you receive deliverance from Satan is NOT the Scriptural way to deal with him. The Bible tells you to resist him. You have authority over him and can command him to leave.  Commanding works better than receiving in this case. Also, it is best to follow Jesus’ example and counter anything he lies to you about with what the Word says about it.

If your need is money

You can believe you receive the money or you need, or you can speak to money to come in. Both will work.  But make sure you’re tithing and giving before you do this, since otherwise you’re operating outside the conditions under which God promises to prosper you supernaturally.

If your need is wisdom and direction

It would be better to believe you receive wisdom when you ask for it, according to James 1:5-8.  Commanding wisdom to come doesn’t have a Bible precedent, though believing that Christ has been made wisdom unto you (1 Corinthians 1:30) does.

If your need is favor for job interviews

God surrounds the righteous with favor as with a shield (Psalm 5:12), so there is no need to “receive” something that is already yours. You can declare that you have it and thank God for it.  Then expect results! This won’t necessarily get you a job for which you aren’t qualified, but it will help get you picked from a field of equal applicants.

(This is the end of our “Faith” Online Bible Study.)

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