Originally posted October 2019
Have faith in God. 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. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mk 11,22-23.
Read the parallels in Mt 17,20 and Lk 17,6, before you read on.
And it would help to have a (physical) Bible available.
THE CONTEXT FOR THIS TYPE OF PRAYER
In Mark´s version, Jesus is using the cursing of the fig tree as an opportunity to teach his disciples something about prayer.
The mountain is the Mount of Olives, and the sea is the Dead Sea, which can be seen from the Mount of Olives.
It is most helpful to see this as hyperbole; taking the mountain and the sea metaphorically.
We must see this type of commanding prayer in the context of Jesus ministry:
This was how e.g. Jesus healed the sick – he didn’t pray for the sick as such – he commanded them to be healed.
If we read Mark´s Gospel, we see that it´s about the coming of the Kingdom of God, and the overthrow of Satan.
We see that wherever Jesus goes, he restores God´s order, in healings, exorcisms, nature miracles: Peace not storm (ch 4), freedom not slavery, health not sickness (please note Acts 10,38). He does it by the WORD OF COMMAND – for the sick to be healed, the demon to come out, the storm to be quiet.
Basically, I think that on this occasion, Jesus was teaching his disciples to do what he was doing (see the context in Matthew). We know that he sent them off in pairs, to preach the Kingdom of God, heal the sick, drive out demons, raise the dead (Mt 10; Mk, 6,7-13; Lk 9,1-10 and 10, 1-20).
WHAT ABOUT TODAY?
So, what do we make of this teaching from Jesus today?
I am sure there are Christians around the world who are reticent about engaging in this type of prayer. Certainly, sensitivity or discretion, and a degree of realism is needed (see below). In principle, however, I think we should practice what Jesus taught. Better, to ask God to teach us to pray.
So – surely, if we are confronted with a situation which our sound Christian instincts tell us can’t be God’s will, we may still command it to change in Jesus’ name, today!
Caution yes! – BUT WE WILL TAKE A DEFINITE STAND OF FAITH ON THE MATTER!
WORDS OF CAUTION
I have seen Christians come to grief over particularly Mk 11,22-23. They believed and believed and believed and confessed that the mountain was moved. It didn´t happen, and one person I know walked away from their Christian faith.
What was wrong?
Sometimes we can confuse our own strong will for something to happen, with what we think is strong faith. But note what Jesus says: “If you have (real) faith – it only takes a mustard seed – the smallest of all seeds – you would see that mountain moved” (Mt 17,20).
It might have been God’s will, but deep down we doubted, our faith being our own fabrication.
Again, we might have been deceived (by our own strong will) into thinking something was God´s will, when….
And our “strong” faith was just an imposter, masquerading as the real thing – it will not twist God´s arm to do what he doesn´t want to do.
Such faith is brittle, like a dry branch that breaks in the wind!
WHEN DO WE HAVE REAL FAITH?
The short answer to that is that real faith produces results.
However, the prayer situation just described is a lonely one, because the Spirit is not sanctioning it. It feels like you are out on a limb. It´s hard, and in the end fruitless.
It needn´t be like that.
We can all be wrong about the will of God in a situation, and be out on that limb – believing for something we think is God´s will. But it is ok to stop and ask God: “Father, am I right here? Can you please help me?” How should I pray?
This is not doubt – I call it humility!
And it makes for a faith which is more resilient. More resilient, because you have put yourself in a place where God can correct you. You have a humble heart and can be taught. You are like a supple branch, able to bend in the wind, when it comes!
God is going to set us right! He is going to teach us as we go along (please note: AS WE GO ALONG – we have to be moving, we have to be praying we have to be acting in faith for something, we have to be practicing – making mistakes! OR WE WILL NEVER LEARN).
And then we are not going to feel alone in engaging our faith in this type of prayer.
Every time we address this situation in prayer – as we will continue to do, until we see some change – we are going to feel the Spirit right there with us, helping us. We are going to feel his presence.
Rom 8,26: Likewise, he (the Spirit) helps our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought…..
Behind the word «helps” in this verse, is the Greek verb synantilambanesthai (συναντιλαμβάνεσθαι). The verb is lambanesthai (λαμβάνεσαι) which means to take. There are two prepositions placed in front of it: syn which means with, and anti, which means against. So, Paul is saying that the Spirit will “take hold with us against”.
This is what it feels like when we are praying for something in the Spirit, according to the will of God.
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
So – this is about changing a situation which should not be, by speaking to it in faith – commanding it to change in Jesus name! – for the glory of God, and for the uplifting of Jesus Christ. We then believe that we have what we have asked for (Mk 11,24). Then we don’t stick around, “waiting to see what happens”. We commit the business to God! We may see no change, but we stand in faith, believing that God´s power (NOT the power of our faith) is at work.
The situation can certainly concern our own needs, or those of our family. We speak to the situation, and command it to change – that is what Jesus said we could do!
Because I am a Christian, and have the Holy Spirit, I trust my gut feeling about a situation, and act upon it. And I think you should trust yours. Your default position should not be one of doubt, but of affirmation. I say this, because the Spirit though he may convict us of wrong*, is the Spirit of paraclesis – encouragement; he is NOT the bringer of doubt, but of FAITH. He breathes faith into our hearts when we listen to him – he is the bringer of Christ into our situation, and of power to believe.
[*if you dare, you can look up Acts 5,1-5; but note Jn 16,8-9: the Spirit primarily convicts the world of sin, not the Christian]
So, I affirm what I feel in the Spirit, but am also open to correction.
I reckon that as a Christian, I have been sent by the Lord (Jn 20,21), and have the authority to pray Mk 11,22-23. This means that I exercise this form (and all other forms) of prayer IN THE NAME OF JESUS! It is his power, and his power alone which performs the works of God.
A WORD ON DOUBT
The verse says: “and does not doubt in his heart”.
In the New Testament; with respect to God, it is the heart (not the mind) that believes, and it is the heart (not the mind) that doubts. In both cases, however, the mind is of course involved.
The heart, in the Bible is the centre of things (see e.g. Mt 12.40). There are only a few places where the word translated as heart, certainly means the physical organ.
The Bible does not have an accurate conception of our internal physiology. The Bible thinks of man in terms of subjective experience, not objective scientific observation.
So, the word “heart” (and NOT the brain) denotes what is thought of as the centre of man, and can describe his thought, his attitude, his will, his decision. (The seat of man´s emotions, is thought of as the bowels, intestines – the lower organs.)
So, what does “does not doubt in his heart” mean?
We often think of banishing from our minds all thoughts of doubt (which I submit to you, is impossible).
Diakrinesthai (διακρίνεσθαι) – means to doubt.
This is two Greek words, the preposition dia (δια) in compound with the verb krinesthai (κρίνεσθαι), from krinein (κρίνειν) to judge.
The middle form of this verb, together with the preposition point to the meaning of doubt, namely to an internal process going on in you – that your judgement on a matter is not fixed, but is in a state of flux and transition – perpetually.
So, doubt certainly starts with our thoughts, but will then affect our decision – our will, our attitude, our purpose. It is the heart – the centre, that is being affected!
The kind of doubt that is going to impact our praying, is not first the thoughts of doubt, which are going to be there at times. It is when these thoughts cause us to waver in our decision – our will to believe; and thereby also our actions. This is what James says (James 1,6-8): “For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind……..he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways”
IN CONCLUSION
So, these are important scriptures for the disciple of Jesus – those who are sent in his name (Jn 20,21), – we are going to need to pray according to Mk 11,22-23 on occasion, and thus co-operate with God in seeing his will done on earth.
It is very important that our faith is realistic. There is no point in embarking on prayer adventures which we know we don’t really have faith for! What do I mean? Before we start raising the dead – let´s go with the faith we have got!
In our situation, in our families, in our school, at our place of work – wherever, we are being led by God!
A WORD OR TWO ON THE GREEK TEXT OF MK 11,22-23
“Have”, in “Have faith in God”, is present tense. This means that the idea is: Have, and keep on having faith (not just when you pray).It is possible grammatically to translate “Have faith in God” with “Have God´s kind of faith”, but this is very unlikely, and I have seen no translation do this. The word “whoever”, in “whoever says to this mountain”, means just that, and is accentuated in the Greek – literally, ANYBODY who says to the mountain – so no Christian is exempt. The important verbs in verse 23, with the exception of the last one, are in the subjunctive mood, and express POTENTIALITY – what will potentially happen if….! This is more explicit if we translate: Whoever SHALL say to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea, and SHALL NOT doubt in his heart, but SHALL believe ….. (see the King James Version). The last verb, the one which in English is expressed by “it will be done for him”, is a straight future tense of the verb to be: i.e. “it shall be to him” The subjunctive mood expresses a degree of uncertainty. You may or you may not say to this mountain, you may or may not believe in your heart. But if both these conditions are fulfilled, the result is certain (expressed by the future indicative): it WILL BE to you!
