“Have the faith of God. (margin rendering) 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.” Mark 11:22-23
The first aspect of faith I want to look at is the side we’ve all been made aware of for some time now—believing. We all believe (or have faith in) things we’ve been told. For instance: we believe the word of our employer that if we perform our job we’ll be paid so much at the end of the week, right? So, day after day we labor believing the day is coming we’ll receive the reward of a pay check. That’s faith.
Most of us will get into a car, start the engine, and put it in drive expecting the brakes to work when we press on the peddle; that’s another way to view faith, expectation: to believe in something.
To have the faith of God you have to hear His Word on a matter: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Another way to say it is: Faith begins where the will of God is known. It’s impossible to have faith where someone’s will is unclear, God’s or anyone else’s.
On a side note, I believe that’s the biggest problem we have in the church today! There’s been so much watering down of the pure Word of God, the Body of Christ isn’t sure if God is willing to do anything for them anymore or not! Prosperity, healing, provision and protection have all been relegated to the sweet by and by. Bunk! If one would just soberly look into the perfect law of liberty (the pure Word of God) and read for themselves they would clearly see the Father’s heart and great desire to bless His children! That’s a whole other subject, though.
The other side of faith is the action side. To act on what you believe. Notice, our foundational verse says the believing one will say something. That’s action. I’m not talking about confession here. The initial role of confession is to school the heart to believe: “The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart” (Romans 10:8a). The human heart (spirit, inner-man) is designed to believe, and it will believe first what you say, that’s why it’s so important to not be frivolous with your words. If you’re always joking around and saying things you don’t really mean, your heart won’t know what to believe and your faith will be hindered. “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.” The desired result will only come from a heart (inner-man) that truly believes.
There’s more to this action thing than just saying something though. Let’s look at what James has to say about faith: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
The Amplified New Testament puts verse seventeen this way: “So also faith if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power—inoperative, dead.” James goes on to say: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (v. 18). What’s he saying? Mike Leach translation: You got a lot of nice talk, but you ain’t doin’ anything (i.e.: put up or shut up)! Someone said it this way once: I can’t hear what you’re saying, ‘cause your actions are speaking so loudly.
It’s time we as the Church stop talking about how powerful and loving God is and start showing it! The world doesn’t need any more preaching on how filthy they are, but God loves them! We need to show them His love by taking care of their needs; healing their sick, freeing them of demonic oppression, binding up their broken hearts! Freely we’ve received—freely we must give!
Jesus made an interesting statement in Luke’s account of the Gospel: “…when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b). I don’t think He was talking about the faith that comes by hearing God’s Word here, I believe He’s looking for people who’ll be acting on it! “But, be doers of the Word, and not hearers only!” (James 1:22).