Phil,

If I understand you correctly, there "should" be no doubt in our 
minds when we pray for a "something" which we desire. I have used the 
exegetical method, or something akin to it, when using different 
methodologies in literary criticism. Where some might find it 
tedious, it piques my interest. Unfortunately, I do not have, in my 
possession, the Biblical resources to perform a useful exegesus of 
the Word of God, therefore, I lack the ability to even conceive of 
studying it as I would like. I believe this is why I have been so 
reticent for so many years to even attempt to do so.

I appreciate and respect your abilities as a Biblical scholar, and am 
always so hungry for the next lesson.

In spite of all that Jesus has done for me over the year of 
intercessory prayer sessions, you especially would believe that I am 
not by nature a doubter and a questioner. I hope that you do 
understand these facets of my natural thought patterns. I hope 
someday to have absolute faith because possessing it and cultivating 
it would cause a deeper relationship with THE LORD to flourish in me.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to share your knowledge with us.


IN HIS MATCHLESS NAME,
Mari and her faithful scribe, Reeva Parry.


On Saturday 6/2/2007 01:06 PM, Phil Scovell said:

>Lesson Four.
>
>      I'm going to begin by quoting once again the same passage.  I
>am going to use the * before and after all the words we will be
>talking about.
>
>
>Mark 11:22-24
>22  And Jesus answering *saith* unto them, Have faith in God.
>23  For *verily* I *say* unto you, That *whosoever* shall *say*
>unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
>sea; and shall not *doubt* in his heart, but shall *believe* that
>those things which he *saith* shall come to pass; he shall have
>whatsoever he *saith*.
>24  Therefore I *say* unto you, What things soever ye *desire*,
>when ye pray, *believe* that ye *receive* them, and ye shall have
>them.
>
>      Let's start with two things.  First, a list of all the words
>I indicated.
>
>Saith, Verse 22
>
>Verily, Verse 23
>Say, Verse 23
>Whosoever, Verse 23
>Say, Verse 23
>doubt, Verse 23
>Believe, Verse 23
>Saith, Verse 23
>Saith, Verse 23
>
>
>Say, Verse 24
>Desire, Verse 24
>Believe, Verse 24
>Receive, Verse 24
>
>      Secondly, let's get something cleared up right now.  the
>word "saith," is not pronounced, "sayeth).  The word "saith" is
>pronounced as in the name Seth.  Yes, there is a difference as
>you will see when we look at the very words used in our text.  By
>the way, the word people pronounce "sayeth<" isn't even in the
>Bible but they think "saith" is pronounced that way.  No, this
>isn't theology.  It is just a hobby horse of mine.
>
>      This passage of Scripture has four main points that stick out
>like a sore thumb right off the bat.  they are:
>
>A.  Saying It.
>B.  Praying It.
>C.  Believing It.
>D.  Receiving It.
>
>      Let me offer some other ways of viewing these points.  For
>example, Saying It, and Praying It, could be called Confession and
>Conception.  Believing It, and Receiving It, could be called
>Commitment and Contentment.  Once again, Saying It, and Praying
>It, could be called Vocalization and Verbalization.  Yes, there is
>a big difference but we'll talk about that later.  Once again,
>Believing It, and Receiving it, could be seen as Visualization,
>and Validation.
>
>      woe, horse!  No, I am not talking about the eastern religious
>practice of meditation which involved visualizing what you want, a
>peaceful seen, a fancy car you want, or a beautiful woman.  Well,
>I guess it could be a handsome man, too, for that matter.  Yes, if
>you are thinking, some evangelical, Charismatic, and Pentecostal
>movements have recommended this very methodology as Biblical, you
>would be right and they would be wrong.  Unfortunately, New Age
>philosophy has crept in into our churches undetected.  We have
>some psychology in our churches which we have to thank for that
>because this is a commonly used tool, visualization, that is,
>practiced by many therapist and yes, even Christian therapist.
>Honestly, we don't have to believe everything that comes across
>the Christian television or Christian radio program just because
>some big, well known preacher, or some Christian psychologist,
>said it.  Don't even believe it just because I say it.  Get a life
>and start thinking on your own.  We will be discussing more of
>what I am talking about at a later time.
>
>      Now, about this time, somebody out there is saying, ""This
>sounds like faith and confession."  Yep, you'd be right.  "This
>sure sounds like the name it and claim it crowd."  Right again.
>"Well, it sounds an awful lot like positive thinking to me."  No,
>fooling?  You mean, you'd rather find out Jesus was teaching us
>about negative thinking?  Come on here!  "Well, I'm a little
>concerned that this might be brain washing."  Bingo!  I can't
>think of anything more descriptive than being brain washed with
>the Word of God to the point that we just can't think any other
>way.  Wow!  No telling what might happen when that type of bible
>based faith is at work.  "Well, I don't know.  This could be mind
>control."  Congratulations!  You are 100 percent correct.  Nothing
>like having the mind of Christ when it comes to faith.  God bless
>you, my brother and sister, for getting it right.  "Well, I am
>just worried that you are trying to teach that we can get
>something from God although He really doesn't want us to have it."
>Do you know just how stupid that sounds?  I mean, for crying out
>loud, don't give me this ungodly, unholy, unbiblical bilge that we
>are going to talk God, the God of the universe, into doing
>something He doesn't want to do.  Stop that right now.  That's
>dumb and if you even remotely believe such a thing, you know
>absolutely nothing about the sovereignty of God.  Finally, I hear
>someone saying, "Well, this sort of thing makes me nervous."  Me,
>too.  I mean, living by faith is just something most Christians
>flat out don't want to do.  why?  It means getting closer to the
>Lord.  It means making Jesus, not just the Savior of your life,
>but the Lord of your life.  It means more spiritual responsibility
>as a Bible Believer.  Nobody said it was going to be easy.  You
>want to go back to living by rules and regulations?  You want to
>live by the Old Testament law for your daily life and your
>relationship with God?  How about sticking with the legalism you
>were raised on?  You want to stay there with your list of things
>you do which are good and the other list of bad things you don't
>do as a Christian?  If so, go right ahead and stop reading right
>here.  From this point forward, you will be responsible for what
>the Holy Spirit shows you about living by faith; like it or not.
>
>      The real problem at this point is our flesh.  Our minds, and
>our physical bodies, called the flesh physically and spiritually
>in the New Testament, isn't saved or Born Again.  It must be
>disciplined by the Word of God or it rebels.  Read this next verse
>carefully.
>
>Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
>and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to
>save your souls, "James 1:21).
>
>      I could write a book just on this verse alone.   If you read
>it carefully, on the other hand, it becomes pretty clear what the
>verse means.  I suppose, however, that I should be pointing out a
>couple of things we need to know.
>
>      the word rendered "engrafted" is used just this one time in
>all of the New Testament.  That's right.  It never appears any
>place else in the Bible but in this single verse.  It must be,
>therefore, mighty important.  It, in fact, means what you think it
>means, that is, implanted, as in, the implanted Word of God.  My
>dictionary defines "implanted" this way.  (To establish
>permanently, as in the mind or consciousness).  That's what it
>means biblically, too.
>
>      The word "save" means saved.  No, why should it be any more
>complicated than that?  The Greek word is "sozo" which refers to
>the totality of the salvitic experience.  It means way more than
>being spiritually saved or Born Again.  Study the word for
>yourself if you doubt what I have said.  I know the first time I
>studied the word, I was totally amazed, and overwhelmed, when I
>learned all that Jesus gave His life for and confirmed it through
>His bodily resurrection.  It isn't, "saved" that is, a
>metaphorical term the Bible uses.
>
>      The word for "soul" is a Greek word from which we get the
>English word (psyche"  Yes, this is a psychological term but where
>do you think they got it?  It means the real you, in simple terms,
>and we don't need to complicate things by launching off into some
>psychological study when the bible speaks for itself.
>
>      So, the interpretation of the passage is simple.  The Word of
>god is used to discipline that part of our psyche, our individual
>human makeup, which is not yet redeemed, regenerated, or in more
>simple terms, born again.  That literally means, the part of us
>which is not saved.  If our minds were saved, we wouldn't have bad
>thoughts.  If our physical bodies, were Born Again, we wouldn't be
>dying, having high blood pressure, or tooth decay.  Does this make
>sense?  Am I getting the message across?
>
>      My point is this.  Yes, our spirits have been created anew at
>the moment of salvation.  This is what the Apostle Paul was
>talking about.  "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a
>new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
>become new," 2 Corinthians 5:17).
>
>      Not wishing to stray to afar from the topic of faith, let me
>return to the important words in Mark's Gospel.
>
>      I am going to begin quoting the same passage again, step by
>step, I said it might be tedious but such is the nature of
>systematic Bible study, and as we continue through the passage,
>I'm going to explain the Greek meanings of the important words
>necessary to gain the needed understanding to the application of
>faith to which Jesus referred.  We will also be following the four
>subpoints of the outline.
>
>      Before a closer examination of this verse.  Perhaps it would
>be more sensible to explain the difference between two Greek
>words.  One is "lego" and the other is "rhema."  These two words
>are often translated to be, (say, saying, saith, spoken, speaks),
>and a lot of other words which we will examine shortly.  Why?
>Well, it isn't because they mean the same thing.  It is due to the
>King James translators and what they thought as they used old
>English terminology to apply to what they felt was the true
>meaning of the passage.  If you do not believe what I am saying,
>just use a Strong's concordance and pick out just about any word
>in the New Testament and look it up for yourself.  You will
>discover, often times, dozens of different words used by the
>translators which all mean the same thing.  I'll demonstrate
>exactly what I mean by this as we continue our study of faith.
>
>      For now, the Greek term "Lego" basically means the totality
>of a Statement.  For example, we may say, "I spoke to John
>yesterday."  What we mean is, most likely, we have had a
>conversation, long or short, with John.  The word "lego" means all
>of the conversation collectively.  The Greek word for "rhema," on
>the other hand, is mostly used as a singular, short and to the
>point, succinct statement.  For example, a statement that is sort
>of a one liner but carries with it finality.  For example, "Your
>bank balance is 150 dollars and 29 cents.  When the bank teller
>tells you this, you don't say, "Are you sure?"  Unless, of course,
>you were expecting it to be twice that amount.  "She, or he, is
>reading it right off the screen by accessing your bank account and
>stating a fact.  You can, sort of speak, bank on what they have
>said.  You know they are right and it isn't a conversation you are
>having.
>
>      Another way of looking at it may be that "rhema" generally
>refers to a promise; a stated, vocalized, promise.  The Bible is
>full of them.  How about, "For whosoever shall call upon the name
>of the Lord shall be saved," (Romans 10:13).    That's just the
>beginning.  If you are unable to recognize the difference between
>"The Word" of God verses "The Promise" of God, then the rest of
>what I have to say on the subject of faith, as Jesus taught it,
>will have little, if any, meaning to you personally.  These may
>not be good examples but, as I said, I will show you precisely the
>difference between "lego" and "rhema" as we progress.  I thought
>it prudent, however, to make mention of this before we get into
>the details of additional Greek terminology.
>
>      End Of Lesson Four.