So then, Phil, if I have understood correctly, faith and doubt have 
no place in the same prayer? If I were to pray for my sight to be 
restored, I must not doubt at all? For me, so far at any rate, this 
is an impossible suggestion.

So then, I ask again.  Have I misunderstood completely or not?

IN HIS MATCHLESS NAME,

purple Mari



At 11:28 AM 5/30/2007, you wrote:
>Lesson Three.
>
>II.  The Operation Of Faith.
>
>      This is going to be a rather detailed teaching so I trust
>you will review this lesson a great deal before making a judgment
>call.  We are going to examine what Jesus taught on faith.  I
>will begin by quoting an entire passage related to the topic of
>faith based upon His disciples interests.
>
>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.
>
>      Something that needs to be pointed out is what happen just
>prior to this teaching on faith.  So let me quote this passage in
>order to offer a complete picture of why our Lord's disciples
>wanted their faith increased.
>
>Mark 11:12-14
>12  And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was
>hungry:
>13  And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if
>haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he
>found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
>14  And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee
>hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
>
>Continuing the same story but skipping a few verses.
>
>Mark 11:19-21
>19  And when even was come, he went out of the city.
>20  And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree
>dried up from the roots.
>21  And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master,
>behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
>
>      Upon reading these two passages, it seems clear to me that
>faith works in a spiritual element or environment or what I
>sometimes refer to as a spiritual envelope.  A fish, for example,
>does fine in the water but out of water, he is short lived.  A
>bird is well protected when flying but ground him, or take away
>his trees, phone wires, fences, or roof tops, and he suddenly
>becomes prey.  Likewise, the law of gravity is the element in
>which we, as human beings, function normally.  Increase that law
>dramatically, or remove it all together, and we suddenly find
>ourselves unable to function at all because we are out of our
>element.  Two people, therefore, can stand several feet apart, and
>toss a ball back and forth to each other, thereby defying gravity.
>If they separate a little too far away, the ball drops short of
>its intended goal because the two people have stretched their
>operating element beyond limits.  I tend to think of faith in
>these terms.  It operates within the law of God, that is, faith
>defies the natural law of man.  Unbelief is the result.  Trying to
>implement faith outside of God's law, reduces faith to human
>terms.  that decreases faith to what we would call confidence and
>confidence is a poor substitute for effective working faith.  to
>expand upon this idea, just think of Heaven.  That is a complete,
>unadulterated, element where faith works every single time without
>fail.  Why?  Because it is a glorified state of being.  Our
>unregenerate minds and our fleshy environments will no longer
>exist.  Only Heaven will be our environment.  Faith will never
>have to be spoke in the glory Land.  the question then becomes,
>how do we use faith within the natural realm when it only works in
>the spiritual element for which it was designed?  The answer is
>found within Mark 11:22-24 where Jesus is literally teaching His
>disciples the element in which faith operates.  It is so clear,
>you will be frustrated with yourself for not seeing it in the
>first place on your own.  Don't feel bad because when I saw it, I
>felt silly, too.  In the next lesson, we are going to begin
>looking at what Jesus taught and how it applies.
>
>
>end Of Lesson Three.
>
>