The Force Of Faith
Part Two. The Origin Of Faith.
Installment Five.
By Phil Scovell.
Introduction.
How Faith Works.
Text.
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.
General Comments.
If you are a dispensationalist, this passage just quoted will
have absolutely no meeting to you whatsoever. In fact, you might
as well get out your scissors and clip those verses out of your
Bible since they are no longer applicable to today's New Testament
church and Christian. You see, many today have chosen to believe
that miracles were only used by Jesus to authenticate His Deity as
the Messiah. May I respectfully submit that Jesus has never
needed to do anything to authenticate his Messiahship but, of
course, I digress? My point is, on the other hand, many believe
that when the last apostle died, whoever that was, the gifts of
the Holy Spirit, along with miracles, passed away. Some call this
former period of time the apostolic age. No gift of tongues, gift
of knowledge, discerning of spirits, or any such thing, they say,
is available to us today. In short, if they were truthful, they
would have to say that God has chosen to limit His authoritative
power to other periods of times, which they call dispensations,
and therefore, we, as the body of Believers, have a somewhat less
powerful God to worship. Furthermore, it must please our Lord,
according to this dispensational Biblical interpretation, to leave
His people helpless in so many areas. Well, so much for the
sarcasm and cynicism for which I am so often criticized. I tried,
though. To be succinct. Hog wash!
Since we are discussing how faith works in the life of the
Christian for today, I won't take the time to prove that the
passage just quoted is, in fact, a promise for the church and
Christians today. You either believe or you don't believe and I
am not obligated to try and convince you one way or the other.
Background.
It is important, I believe, to note, before going further
with this discussion, to identify the context of this passage of
Scripture.
Jesus and his disciples were walking along and Jesus was
hungry. Approaching the fig tree, they found it fruitless. Jesus
commanded the tree to bear no more fruit and they continued their
journey with any explanation by Jesus concerning what He just had
done.
The next day, they passed the same tree, that is, they were
going the opposite direction, or simply stated, they were
retracing their steps, but, as Peter so graphically pointed out,
the tree was withered and dried up from the roots. That means the
tree was dead. At this very point, Jesus stopped and spoke the
words I have just quoted in Mark 11 verses 22 through 24
concerning how faith works. Why? He knew the disciples were
wondering how He had killed the tree by just speaking to it. Make
no mistake about it; Jesus spoke and killed the tree because Peter
said so.
In this second of a five part study, we are now going to
consider the topic of The Operation Of Faith, or, how faith
works. If your faith is currently working at top notch for you,
don't bother reading the rest of this study. If, however, you
aren't satisfied with how your faith is working, that is to say,
how it isn't working, then continue reading and listening and
thinking.
Try your best to keep focused on the fact that Jesus just
spoke to a fruitless fig tree and it died. No, not right away,
but within 24 hours as they passed by the following day.
Additionally, try and keep in mind, as we consider this
study, that the tree looked absolutely no different to the
disciples when Jesus spoke to it, commanding it to die, than it
did before He spoke to it. Peter noticed it the following day
and made comment. See Matthew 11:21 and previous verses if you
doubt this.
Statement. Faith works only within the framework of a
spiritual environment.
Illustration. A ball is made to toss threw air. Without the air,
throwing the ball won't work. For example, try tossing a ball to
a friend under water and see how it works. It is the wrong
element for the ball to function. Tossing the ball threw the air,
however, works but to do so, it must defy the law of gravity.
Note. the same is true with Faith. Confessing certain things
over and over will produce confidence but confident isn't faith.
confidence is a human character trait. Faith is supernatural and
works only in a supernatural environment.
Question. If faith works only in a spiritual environment, how do
we, as Christians, create such an environment?
Answer. The answer to this question is clearly evident in Mark
11:22-23 which we are about to study.
end Of Installment Five.
I Flew Kites With Jesus
www.safeplacefellowship.com
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