So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.”
Mark 11:22, NKJV
The Greek text for Mark 11:22 literally says, Have God faith. Jesus’ response in our language could be better translated as “Have the same kind of faith that God has.”
God-faith, or the faith of God is the topic of this series. We are not interested in pseudo-faith, or some sort of outward faith that seems holy but doesn’t produce the kinds of results we see in the Bible. We are after the kind of faith that the Bible describes; faith that works. My friend, we are the ones on the earth whom God has anointed, equipped, and empowered for the proliferation of the gospel with power in this final season of the Church age. We are after that kind of faith.
The faith of God is the faith that receives the promise; this is the kind of faith that produces results. What is it? How can we operate in it? Jesus said that we should operate in it, so it is imperative that we understand the mechanics behind how and why it works the way it does.
Our last blog laid the foundation for this entire series. As we continue studying what the Bible says about operating in God-faith, it is imperative that you understand this simple (yet easily missed) concept: You are not ready to ask or pray “in faith” until you are fully convinced about God’s will concerning the matter.
I will borrow the following paragraph from our last blog, Faith That Receives I, because this truth is foundational for the framework we are about to lay out:
If we don’t know God’s Word, which is His simple written will, we will have nothing on which to hang our faith. This is one reason why many people don’t receive what they are asking for in prayer. If you aren’t completely convinced that God is willing to heal you, for instance, you will never ask in faith – and, according to James 1:6-8, without faith you won’t receive anything from the Lord.
Human-Faith Won’t Get the Job Done
Here’s an embarrassing personal story to illustrate how human-faith doesn’t produce results in the same way God-faith does.
Remember in The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke Skywalker was trapped in the ice cave, waiting to be eaten by the giant ice monster (for the Star Wars fans, yes, I am aware it was a Wampa)?
His feet frozen in solid ice, Luke had no hope for escape. Until he saw his trusty lightsaber jammed in the snow a few meters away… but how would he get to it? He was completely immobilized.
Inspiration! Mustering his strength and focusing his energy, tapping into the limitless power of the Force, Luke reached out his hand and Force-pulled the lightsaber to himself just in the nick of time, freeing his feet and fighting his way to freedom.
The morning after I was radically baptized in the Holy Spirit and had experienced the raw, tangible power of God for the first time in my life, I tried to do the same thing in my bedroom! Without the hungry Wampa and lightsaber, of course. But it was cold that morning.
Still humming with the electric, liquid power of God coursing in my veins, I must admit that I attempted to Force pull something from my dresser across the room into my hand. I reached out my hand and believed with all my heart that the power of God would levitate that object all the way across the room and into my hand.
I promise you this, I had pure belief in my heart. I believed with all my heart that I was going to see that object come flying off my dresser and into my hand—just like Luke Skywalker and his lightsaber!
I had just experienced such a life-changing power that baptized my spirit, soul, and body that I really did believe with every fiber of my being that I was going to see the power of God work for me right then and there! I was legitimately surprised and confused when nothing happened. I had heard Mark 11:22-24 preached once or twice, and after my experience with God, I had thought I was operating in real faith.
Of course, you can see where I went wrong, but I had no clue. I was bothered that nothing happened. I thought faith always worked. I thought, If Jesus says I can speak to a mountain and have it fly off and into the sea, certainly I can do this! Either it works or it doesn’t. I didn’t see the results, but I knew God’s Word was true. What gives?
Here’s the deal: Jesus never provided the power of “Force Pulls” to pick up items around our houses when we don’t feel like walking across the room. Could I really say that it was God’s will for me to reach out my hand and have that happen? I could not. In that moment, I did not have a Word from God regarding that matter, either in the Bible or by the Holy Spirit. Andrew Wommack, a powerfully anointed teacher of the Word, says it eloquently: “Faith only appropriates what God has already provided by grace.” This was the key to my problem.
Faith Works for Healing
Fast forward a few years. A friend of mine and I were leading a ministry and healing service in the middle of a hot, moist jungle outside of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We had told every family in the village that God was going to heal people and that they should bring the sick to the church service that afternoon.
The concrete church quickly filled up. A long line of people pressed forward during the ministry time. At one point, a woman stood before me; hopelessness written over her every feature. My translator said, “She is here for healing.” I looked at her and saw the beautiful woman God had created her to be, though it was hidden beneath the outer shell of a hard, poor life. I asked her what she needed, but she mumbled something unintelligible and shrugged.
I told her, “Are you ready for Jesus to heal you?”
She acted as if she didn’t understand but nodded anyway.
Ok, she’s in! “Let’s pray for just a moment,” I said.
I began praying in other tongues, trusting the Holy Spirit to arm me with whatever tools He wanted to use in the moment. I have found this method to be much more effective than jumping right into laying hands on people without conferring with the Lord first. He is the Healer, after all! It’s best to get directions from the Holy Spirit before doing things the way we think they ought to be done.
It wasn’t long before I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to my heart, Blow on her right ear and command healing over it.
I paused. I had never heard something like that before. Usually the Lord shows me an affected area or issue, and after speaking or laying hands on the area, healing flows and everyone is happy. But I knew that I had heard from the Lord, so I shrugged and decided to go for it.
“I’m going to blow on your ear, that’s what God said to do.”
She nodded gamely.
Here goes. I drew in a deep breath and…
POOF! “Ear, in Jesus’ Name, I command you to be completely healed!”
Instantly, the woman recoiled. (Wouldn’t you if someone just blew in your ear?) But this was something different.
Her eyes grew wide as she began smiling and speaking rapid-fire Spanish. My translator filled me in.
“She says that she never told you, but she was completely deaf in her right ear and when you blew on it, she felt ‘something fly away from it’, heard a loud POP, and now her hearing is returning! She can hear the sounds of the room! She can hear everything!”
I knew the written Word of God on the subject of healing the sick, and I had the Holy Spirit give me a now word regarding His specific method for manifesting her healing. There was no doubt as to what God was going to do. And faith, motivated by the love of God, produced a wonderful result.
Faith Works by Love
This is the main point of today’s teaching: Faith works, and it works by love.
When you study out the ministry of Jesus, you will not find that He performed a single miracle outside of love. Jesus is still performing miracles today—through His Body on the earth—the same way.
Galatians 5:6 expresses this truth explicitly:
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
In this part of his letter to the church at Galatia (and also to you and me today), the Holy Spirit through Paul is making a case for the grace of God that supersedes religion or personal achievement as a way to relationship with the Father. Jesus is the only way! We must cling tightly to the absolute truth of this Gospel in these last days. Jesus is the only way to the Father, no exceptions. There are not “many paths to God”, as many spiritual people claim today.
In this context, the Holy Spirit uses the phrase neither circumcision nor uncircumsision avails anything, but faith working through love.
The word avails in the Greek is the word ischyō, which carries a powerful meaning. According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ischyō has a sense of ability, capacity, power, or strength. It overlaps with dunamis but carries a greater stress on the power supplied. This word can be translated to be strong, healthy, able; to be superior; strength; ability.
We now have a double meaning in Galatians 5. Faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation; it alone has the power to totally bring the individual into a right relationship with God. Second, the use of ischyō implies that faith with love contains a powerful ability, capacity, power, and strength. This is the way of faith as described by Jesus in Mark 11 and other scriptures.
Short Circuits
Notice that in my two stories, I was confident in the power of God working through me. I was confident that God wanted to flow through me in a supernatural way. In the case of the unsuccessful Force Pull, I had neither the Word of God on which I could base my faith, but I had love. My love was for the Father and to operate in the fullness of His goodness in my life.
When trying to Force-Pull that object off my dresser, I had no God-faith, only human-faith. I was operating in human-faith alone because I had no business believing God for something He never provided through grace or His Word. Although I had love and belief in my heart, nothing happened. You will not find scripture that says if you have belief and love in your heart you will see mountains move. Faith moves mountains, and faith that produces results is always built on the Word of God and is motivated by love.
On the other hand, you can carry out Mark 11:22-24 to the letter, but without love, you will never see an ounce of faith produce any results. Why? God created the physics of faith (the Bible calls it the law of faith in Romans 3:27) to obey certain laws, much like the natural world follows physical laws. This blog is an attempt to address and shed light on some of these laws.
You can short-circuit the power of God in your life by not cooperating with the law of faith outlined in Bible.
How To Check Your Love Walk
Checking on our love walk has to be a daily routine. It is essential that we cultivate a lifestyle of love toward God, our families, and every other person, every day.
Here is a powerful way you can tune in to your love walk right now:
Check out 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in the Amplified Classic Translation.
Read this passage through out loud, every day, when you wake up, and before you go to bed. Personalize it with your own name, like this: Justin endures long and is patient and kind; Justin never is envious or boils over with jealousy…
Reading the Word of God out loud is hugely powerful, and is–as we will see in our next blog–an integral component of the physics of faith. We will see that the power of words filled with the faith of God (which is energized by love) will move mountains.
Photo by Jamez Picard on Unsplash
Source
Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich. Eerdmans, 2006).