I want to give you a wider picture about faith, and I feel I have to return to some subjects I have already dealt with. I don’t want to teach on faith as a generalisation, but look at the practicality – what effect faith will have in your life, how we can enact it, live it out, see the results. I want to show you the pitfalls, the difficulties – and the phenomenal result of faith.
So I want to go back to the well-known passage in Mark 11. You all know it. Jesus and His disciples were coming from Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, to Jerusalem. I’m very familiar with this road, because all those years ago when I had the travel company, the hotel I used was in Bethany. It was owned by a local sheik and we were major clients – he built an extension onto the hotel to accommodate the numbers! Bethany was very important to Jesus – this is where Mary and Martha lived, the one home that we know was always open to Him, where He and His disciples spent much time, and of course, it was in here that Lazarus was raised from the dead.
So as they were coming from Bethany, vv12-14, they see a fig tree, and Jesus was hungry. He went to the tree, but didn’t find the fruit that He expected, which is apparently a small early growth of fruit before the main harvest. He found nothing but leaves! The trouble with some Christians is this, that like this fig tree, they’re full of leaves – but no fruit! People can make a lot of noise, get very excitable – but Jesus isn’t looking for the noise and the excitement, He’s looking for the reality of the fruit!
So Jesus cursed the tree, saying, “Let no man eat from it forever.” And the disciples heard what He said. The following day, when they were again going this way to Jerusalem, v20, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree was dried up from the roots. It was Peter – he was always the outspoken one – who challenged the Lord and said in some shock and surprise, “Master, look, this fig tree is already dead!” And Jesus answered straight back, “Have faith IN GOD!”
Our faith is not in people, it’s not in the preacher or the evangelist. Our faith has to be directly IN GOD!
THIS is the crux of our faith. Our faith is not in people, it’s not in the preacher or the evangelist. Our faith has to be directly IN GOD! We have to emphasise this when we talk about faith. Too many people look to me, and think I’m some healer… No! God is the Healer. I explain this in every evangelistic meeting before I pray for the sick, “I am NOT a healing evangelist! Jesus is the Healer, He’s the One you have to ask!” And I teach them how to call on Him for their healing.
Have faith IN GOD! That was Jesus’ first response, but He continued and said, “Truly I say to you, WHOSEVER shall say to this mountain – the Mount of Olives – be removed and cast into the sea – that’s down to the Dead Sea below – and shall not doubt but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he says!” We need to examine this. It’s critical.
In response to the death of the fig tree, Jesus says, if you will SPEAK to the mountain and COMMAND it to move, that mountain WILL MOVE! But it will ONLY do so if you DON’T DOUBT! Too many people think they are speaking in faith – but they are NOT! It has to be an absolute certainty. On many occasions when I have seen phenomenal, absolutely incredible miracles, it has been a moment when there was not a shred of doubt – the Holy Spirit was so STRONG in me that I KNEW that what I said would happen! So there is this condition that you must have NO doubt, but you have to BELIEVE that the things that you say will happen.
Now look at v24, Jesus continues, “Whatsoever things you desire – this is a different aspect – WHATSOEVER you DESIRE, when you pray, BELIEVE that you will RECEIVE what you are desiring – and you will…” This isn’t moving mountains, this is down-to-earth, bread-and-butter, everyday Christian living. When you desire something and you know it’s in the Will of God, when you pray and you are asking for it, you WILL have it!
So often we’re praying because we have a request, but not out of certainty – we don’t know the answer… Yes, there are times when we can do that. There are times when I do it. There are times when I go to the mountain to pray, and it’s a request, I’m still asking, but I’m not asking yet with the desire that it shall be fulfilled. So we’ve got to learn and understand the difference. We’re looking at how to get faith, and how to put it into practice, how to make it work. Jesus is saying, when you are needing and desiring – and there are times when I am needing and when I’m desiring and I’m saying, “O Lord, do this, grant this” – and if I BELIEVE, God WILL grant it, He will!
And in v25, Jesus adds a footnote, “And when you stand praying, forgive… If you’ve got anything against anyone, forgive, in order that the Lord will also forgive you!”
Now I want to take you to the simplicity of Matthew 17. I have already dealt with this, But I need to come back to it. Peter, James and John had been on the Mountain of Transfiguration with Jesus. The other nine have been at the bottom of the mountain for some time. When Jesus finally returns, a man runs to Him and says, “I brought my son to Your disciples and they could not cure him!” I want to be clear here. There are times when I have prayed – and I don’t see the miracle! But if we’re really serious in dealing with God, that raises questions that have to be dealt with! I know in my life, I had to grow, to mature – and as I grew and matured, my faith grew.
Faith, like everything else in our Christian experience, must mature and it must grow.
Faith, like everything else in our Christian experience, must mature and it must grow. And sometimes you have to get an answer to the question, “Why? Why not? Why didn’t it happen?” And Jesus will give you an answer. Here He rebukes the disciples, “Faithless and perverse generation – that was what was going wrong at the bottom of the mountain – how long will I be with you and how long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me!” He rebuked the devil, cast him out and the boy was healed.
Now we’re talking about a time before the giving of the Holy Spirit. The emphasis of the Gospel is on the ministry of Jesus, but here it is clear, the disciples were expected to do the same thing; they were seeing miracles, they were healing the sick. But how and why? The answer is simple. They had Jesus with them! They had the Power, they had the Anointing – because Jesus was with them! Hence He says, “How long will I be with you?” – knowing that He would not always be with them. And before He left them, He promised, He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, John 16:7. The Holy Spirit was to replace the Person of Jesus! So, the disciples could do the miracles whilst Jesus was with them, but when He was gone, they would need the ‘replacement’ – the Holy Spirit! And so the miracles continued.
We need a very strong relationship with Jesus. What happens in our ministry is not dependent alone on ‘faith’, but on our relationship with Jesus! So when the disciples ask, “Why couldn’t we do it?” – the answer is, “Because of your unbelief. Truly I say to you, if you have got faith as small as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove from here to there, and it shall remove.” And the last bit is so often neglected, where Jesus says, “NOTHING – this is some Power – NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU!” I’m challenging you in your faith, come to the realisation that Jesus ACTUALLY SAID, that IF we fulfil the conditions, IF we act in faith, IF we believe, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE for us. It’s not just moving mountains, not just healing the sick – this applies in EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE!
This was how, when I was Bible smuggling, I could cross the borders, how I could challenge the authorities, that’s how I could do what I did under communism, because I was moving under a covering of faith. I can hardly think of a miracle of healing during those years, there may have been some unknown to me, but I can’t actually remember even one during those years! But what I do know is, I was going under that same covering where Jesus says NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! When I went to Jerusalem for the first time in 1961, behind the Iron Curtain, through the hostile Middle East countries, it was so dangerous, my father was praying I wouldn’t go! He was afraid I would be killed! But I went under that same covering of faith where NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! If I went with Jesus, under the call of God, NOTHING WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE! AND NOTHING WAS IMPOSSIBLE! Of course we did it and came back safely!
But Jesus does add another footnote here in Matthew 17, dealing with the casting out of evil spirits and the healing of the sick, “This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting.” I need to pray a lot, and before I go on any special ministry, I go for a special time of prayer. I also believe in fasting. But that is another issue.
Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. (James 5:14)
Now I want to turn to James 5:14ff. My Bible is an old Bible, and this page is virtually torn out, I’ve had to stick the page back together, because I use it so much! That’s because it’s about faith and miracles of healing! Here James says, “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” – this is not just healing, but forgiveness of sin! So there’s the miracle of healing and the forgiveness of sin, and let’s go on, v16, “confess your faults one to another, pray for one another that you may be healed.” This is not the ministry of the evangelist. This is the ministry of the Church! Come on! Pray one for another that you may be healed!
And now we come to something that I hold on to very much, still in v16, where James continues, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”! ‘Effectual fervent’ means this is very powerful prayer. The Greek word used for powerful is ‘dunamis’. We use this word in English for a dynamo (to generate electricity, to generate power, to run your home, your car); and for dynamite (a very unusual explosive which doesn’t waste its energy on the open air, but pushes the wall down, breaks open the rock face). So when we’re talking about prayer, your prayer must not be wasted on the air, but like dynamite, it must be dynamic enough to move the mountain out of the way! To move the sickness! To move the obstacle! If your prayer is not doing this, it’s not doing its job! Dynamite is used in mining, it’s dangerous, but used correctly, it’s powerful! It achieves its objective! In the same way, the dynamic prayer of a righteous man avails, it works!
And James continues, vv17-18, “Elijah was a man just like us, subject to the same passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain…” He was no different to you and me, but as a result of his dynamic prayer, it didn’t rain on Israel for three and a half years! You know the story, how he prayed again, and the rain returned. And James goes on to say in vv19-20, “If any of you err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he that converts the sinner from the error of his way shall SAVE A SOUL FROM DEATH.” I believe the reason James says this in the context of Elijah, is that I have always believed that the miracles I see, the healings that I see are for a PURPOSE – to convict and convince the unbeliever! To turn him from his sin and unbelief. My main ministry is not in the Church, but as an evangelist, where I need to see, not just healing, but all the other miracles, in order, by demonstrating the Power of the Gospel, to see people delivered from hell!!!
Knowing all this, we see the early Church, 120 disciples gathered on the Day of Pentecost in the Upper Room – in fear! Bolting the doors, closing the windows, for fear any sound of their praying should get out! But when the Holy Spirit came down, the transformation was immediate, instant! Peter jumps up on the roof, preaching the Gospel – and 3000 people get converted! And from that moment on, they went out – and all the miracles followed on.
The story of the early Church is the story of the miraculous! We need, at this specific moment in time as we come out of the Covid lockdown, THAT SAME DYNAMIC!
The story of the early Church is the story of the miraculous! We need, at this specific moment in time as we come out of the Covid lockdown, THAT SAME DYNAMIC! We need another Pentecost in the Church! Coming out of the fear, the lockdown – when we couldn’t get into the churches, when we’re afraid to pray in public – WE MUST COME OUT WITH THE DYNAMIC OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! Come on Church!!! We’ve got to release the Power of God and see the miraculous! What we need today – in my life and your life and in the Church – is a restoration of the miraculous, and then God will move! O God, grant it in Jesus’ Name!