Mark tells the story of Jesus and the disciples ministering on the Mount of Olives and staying in Bethany. Each day, Jesus went down to the city of Jerusalem to minister the Word. Jesus would not stay in the city in the evening because throughout the day, He caused such a stir among the people that at the end of the day He would have to leave. Jesus and the disciples walked two miles up the Mount of Olives to Bethany, and there they would spend the night. Each morning, Jesus and the disciples would come back down the mountain two miles to the city of Jerusalem to speak the Word and preach.
As Jesus came down the mountain, they came to a small city called Bethsaida, which means city of the figs because the fig trees were in abundance. Each morning they would stop and get the ripe figs from the trees and have breakfast.
One morning, Jesus came to the tree, parted back the leaves, and all He found were more leaves. He parted back those leaves and all He found was more leaves. Then Jesus did something strange. While the disciples were standing there, Jesus said to the tree, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever," and turned around and walked off. He didn’t speak under His breath; He didn't whisper; He didn't say it in His heart. He spoke it out loud because the Bible says his disciples heard it.
The disciples probably looked at each other and wondered whyJesus was talking to trees, but they kept their mouth shut. They probably talked about it among themselves, but the Bible never indicates they talked to Jesus about it. When they walked away from that tree, nothing looked different. The tree was still green, and the bark was still brown. The tree looked the same. They walked off and didn't notice it until the next day.
Mark 11:20-22
And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Peter is talking about a dead fig tree and Jesus says, "Have faith in God." What does a fig tree have to do with faith in God? Jesus had cursed that fig tree, and now He points out that He did it by the faith of God.
Ask any Christian, "Do you have faith in God?" and they will answer, “Yes, I have faith in God.”
Most of the time their faith in God is this: “I have faith that God can do anything He wants to. I have faith in God. If God wants to turn this building green, He can do it. God can do anything.” In other words, I have faith that God can do whatever He pleases, but it's divorcing God from me. God's out there; I’m over here. My faith in God is that He's over there doing His thing; I'll stay over here and do my thing.
Jesus now pulls the two worlds together and explains that He caused this natural manifestation in a physical tree by faith in the unseen creator--God. In the Greek, He didn't say, "Have faith in God." He said, "Have the faith of God." To have the faith of God simply means to have God's faith. He's saying you can have God's own faith. Have the faith of God.
Mark 11:23-24
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.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
He started out in verse 22 saying, "Have the faith of God.” Notice He didn't say to have the faith of Peter or John. God forbid. He didn't even say to have the faith of Jesus. Why? Because faith comes from God — period.
Don't men everywhere have faith? Yes, they do to some extent. They have natural, human faith. The whole world operates to some extent on natural, human faith. You sit in a chair, thoroughly expecting it to hold you up. You walk into a room and flip on a light switch, fully expecting a light to come on. Our natural, human faith says, “I've done it a million times before and it's going to work this time just like it's worked every other time.”
Could there ever come a day that a seat wouldn't hold you? Could there ever come a day when you flip on the light switch and it didn't work? Yes, that's happened time and time again. If that seat fell through, you would be astonished. “What happened? I can't believe…who's the crummy guy that made these chairs? It just fell through on me!” Or you walk into a room and flip on the light switch and nothing happened. You'd get about two paces before you stopped and you'd say, "What's happening? I expected the lights to come on. What's wrong? Is the electric company out of business? Did my light bulbs burn out again? I bet one of those fuses is out. I might have to throw a breaker somewhere." In other words, you are surprised when the seat falls through. You are surprised when the lights don't work. We're usually surprised when God's faith does work, and it's more sure than human faith.
He didn't say have the faith of men because the faith of men could fail. But the faith of God will never fail. If your lights don't work, it’s probably a problem with your light bulbs, a fuse, or the circuit breaker. I doubt very seriously the electric company went out of business. I doubt that seriously. There's something wrong on your end.
When your faith does not work it’s not God's fault. He'll never go out of business. It's your fault. One of the quickest ways to tell if it's your light bulb or one of your fuses, look out the door and see if everybody else's lights are on. If their lights are on, it's guaranteed you've got a fault somewhere. One of the strangest things to do is look around and see everybody else's faith working and say God doesn't like you. There's nothing wrong on God's end. Faith is working everywhere. People are getting their needs met so if you're not getting your needs met, it is your fault.
The Word of God is quick to tell us where we make mistakes. It's not like God says, "Here, have the faith of God. And if you make any mistakes, I'm going to keep it hidden from you." God is more anxious for you to get your faith working than you are to get your faith working. God has put in the Word of God why and when faith does not work.
Understand that the type of faith He's talking about does not come from men. Can God be seen with the natural eye? No. Neither can faith. If faith comes from God and God can't be seen, then faith cannot be seen. But does that mean that faith is not real because we can't see it with our eyes? No. We know God is real. You know there's a God. Have you ever seen Him? No. The Bible says no man has ever seen God. But even though you haven't seen Him with your natural eyes, you still know He exists. Do you believe in angels? Have you ever seen an angel? Some have, but many people have not. However, you know they exist. When you’re at church worshipping God, they are right there with you. When we lift up our hands and praise God, they lift up their hands and praise God. They worship along with us. There are angels all around me right now. When I walk, they walk. The Bible says the angel of the Lord encamps around those that fear Him. I believe the more you start walking in faith, the more angels God sends to protect you and be around you.
It was stated of Elisha that when the servant's eyes were opened, he saw horses and chariots of fire on the mountains around him. That tells me Elisha was the center of where all the angels were. They were all around him, but they surrounded Elisha so much, even to the point that they went all the way into the mountains. I believe that's me. When I take a step, thousands move. I believe in the spirit world you can hear horses stomping their feet. You can hear the angels with all their chariots. You can hear all the war-horses. You can hear all the armor. When I take a step, it sounds like a symphony in the spirit world.
I believe you’re the same way. When you start to walk in faith, you become a bigger threat to the devil. It takes more angels to protect you. I can't feel an angel with my hand, but I believe he's standing right next to me on every side. Just because I can't feel an angel with my natural hand doesn't mean that angels don't exist. Nor does it mean that angels do not have substance. Substance must be defined. There is substance in the natural world, and there is substance in the spirit world. Substance in the natural world can be handled and felt by natural hands. But I'm thoroughly convinced that if I could step over into the spirit world, I could feel angels. I could shake their hand. I could feel their wings. I could stroke their hair. I could ask them questions. Because in the spirit world angels have substance.
Corinthians tells us there are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. Terrestrial bodies are what we have right now on this earth. But glory to God one of these days I'm going to have a celestial body just like that of the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be handled; it can be felt, but it's part of the spirit world.
Just because you can't see faith doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Hebrews 11:1 says faith is the substance…” Did you know that faith has substance? It's just not substance in this world; it's substance in that world. Did you know faith is as real to God as that chair is to you that you're sitting on? God can handle it. He can feel it. It has substance. I believe in the spirit world when you believe God's Word in your heart and you say it with your mouth, you produce substance in the spirit world. I believe if we could see in the spirit world, when you make a faith confession, substance appears and that's the substance God takes to mold and to shape the thing that you desire and the thing that you want. And then what? He brings it back into this natural world.
If you have been born again, you are a citizen of two worlds. You enter into a world by birth. In the United States we have the Bill of Rights. It starts out this way, "To everyone that is born is given certain unalienable rights." Those two words go together¾birth and rights. When you're born into a kingdom, you have rights. When I got born into this natural world, I had natural rights that I had to learn about. But when I got born again into God's world, I got some rights in His world. There are some laws that operate in His world.
I’m in this world and I'm in God's world. I have an earthly daddy and a heavenly daddy. I have two citizenships¾one on earth and one in heaven. But I have to learn to use my citizenship that God has given me because it's even greater than the citizenship I have on this earth. I have rights in the spirit world, and they're even greater than the rights I have here.
Romans 12:3
To every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Now every man there must be qualified because the beginning of that verse says, “I'm speaking to every man that is among you." Among you are the Roman believers. Verse one starts out, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." He's speaking to brethren--those who are born again.
We were all given the measure of faith when we got born again into God's kingdom. Second Peter 1:1 says to every man He's dealt "like precious faith." We all have like, or equal, precious faith. Did you get more faith than I did? Did that great minister get more faith than you did? There's a tendency to say, "Oh, yes. Definitely!" No. We all got the same measure of faith, but some have done more with their measure than others have. The potential is there. We've all been given the measure of faith, but it's up to us to increase and use that faith by feeding it with God's Word.
Where did that measure of faith come from? Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Jesus was simply bringing out a principle or a law that was established in Genesis. Flesh produces flesh; spirit produces spirit. Everything produces after its own kind. If you sow one thing, that's exactly what you're going to reap. You can't throw green beans in the ground and expect tulips to come up. Dogs produce dogs. Cats produce cats. Monkeys produce monkeys. People produce people. Monkeys don't produce people. It's a law — everything produces after its own kind. Monkeys never have produced people nor will they ever. Everything produces after its own kind. God, who is the Father of spirits, produces spirits. That which is born of spirit is spirit.
Your outward man was not born of God; it was born of man. Your inward man was born of God. When you got born again, nothing in the physical changed. When 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new," that's speaking of the inward man. My spirit man was made new in the Lord, and my spirit man was produced of God. When He came into my life, He didn't produce my body because God is not a body. He didn't produce my mind because God is not a mind. God produces after His own kind, and He produces spirits. My spirit was born of God.
Everything has attributes. Cats have whiskers, dogs have tails, and elephants have trunks. You wouldn't mistake a cat for a dog. It doesn’t have any dog attributes. It looks like every other cat. When a cat produces a cat it passes on cat attributes. It doesn't pass on monkey attributes. Cats produce cats. All the attributes of a cat are given to that cat when it's born. When a dog is born it has a tail just like other dogs and a nose just like other dogs. It looks just like a dog. Each individual animal has the attributes of that animal when it is born.
When I was born into this natural world, I received all of man's attributes. I have hands because I was born of man. I have feet because I was born of man. I have ears because I was born of man. I have a nose because I was born of man. All those came because I was born of man. But when I was born of God, I received all His attributes¾love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, meekness, temperance, faithfulness. The measure of faith was given to me. Why? It's an attribute of God. He didn't say have the faith of men. He said have the faith of God. Therefore, if faith is an attribute of God, I had to get it when I was born of God. Children don't grow up to be five years old, and suddenly a hand appears. They don't grow up to be ten years old, and suddenly a foot appears. No, they had their hands and their feet when they were born.
When I was born, my hands were small, but I have the same hands I was born with. I have the same feet I was born with. I have the same ears, nose, and eyes that I had when I was born. When I was born, these hands had the capability of increasing to their present size. My feet automatically had the ability to increase to their present size. But there are things I must do to get these hands and feet to increase — feed them and use them.
Have you ever seen a baby when he discovers his hands? He didn't gain those hands when he discovered them; he discovered what he already had. The most useless prayer you can pray is, "God, give me faith." You already have it! Remember the day you realized you had faith? You didn't get faith when you found it; you discovered what you had always had from the time you were born again. It's an attribute. When you discover those hands, you begin to use them.
When you discover your hands and start to use them, you will make many mistakes. When you discover your feet, you'll make many mistakes. Children do not start out walking or running. Children start out crawling. When they take their first steps, they fall — not once, but many times. But they don't get up after they've fallen one time and say, "See there, feet don't work. See there, hands don't work. I dropped the bottle once; therefore, hands don’t work." But how many times do we as Christians, say, "See there, faith doesn't work. I didn't get my healing. After all, I believed God for two whole weeks so it just doesn't work."
You will make mistakes. At one time, my hands couldn't hold a bottle but can now drive a car. These eyes that at one time couldn't focus can now read a book. These feet that at one time couldn't even hold me up allow me run if I so desire. They've matured. I still make mistakes. These feet that are able to run still stumble once in awhile. I don't care how much you grow in faith, you're still going to make mistakes now and then, except your mistakes become fewer and fewer and your successes greater and greater!
Faith is an attribute of God. Everything produces after its own kind. Everything has attributes. I received faith because I was born of God, and faith increases and matures the same way a part of your body increases and matures — by feeding it and using it. Hands don't grow by straining. Have you ever seen somebody go, "Grow! Grow!" No, no, no. Faith has the ability within itself to grow if you'll feed it and use it. My hand is bigger than it was thirty years ago, but I didn't do anything. I just kept feeding this body and using this hand, and it grew. Faith is the same way. If you are straining in your faith, you're probably out beyond where your faith is. Faith rests assuredly on the promises of God and steps confidently out on His God. Why? Because it knows what God has said. Some people think faith is a blind leap into the unknown. That is stupidity. Faith is a calculated step on the Word of God. Faith has plenty of the Word of God under it before it ever makes the first step. It is not a blind leap.
Faith is present at the new birth because God produces our spirit. Faith has the ability to grow. Jesus said in these scriptures, "Have the faith of God for whosoever shall say…” This is the way faith is released. Everything produces after its own kind. Everything has attributes. Everything has a voice. Cats meow. Dogs bark. Cows moo. Sometimes we get so far out there in faith we don't see the basics. God does everything with purpose and order. If a dog walked up to you and meowed, you’d think something was wrong with that dog because that's not the voice of a dog. When a child is born in this earth, it cries just like every other human being because it has a human voice. When your spirit man is born of God, it has God's voice. The voice of the inward man calls those things, which be not, as though they were. It's just as natural for your spirit man to call those things which be not as though they were, as it is for a cat to meow, a dog to bark, and a baby to cry. Your spirit man desires to call those things, which be not, as though they were.
Jesus said, “Have the faith of God.” We are a citizen of two worlds — the spirit world and the natural world. But when we get born again, it's not like God's way off over there and we're over here. No, we are a member of both worlds. Jesus showed us how to get things out of the spiritual world and bring them into the natural world by faith. Faith is the link between the two worlds. Faith joins the natural world on one end with the spirit world on the other. When you become born of God, He gives you that link and it's up to you to use that link to stretch out into the spirit world and bring back into the natural world the thing you desire and want. Faith is what causes your prayer to go up to God, but it's also what causes the manifestation to come back down to you. Faith joins the two worlds and brings that impossible situation out of the spirit world where nothing is impossible.
Quit looking at situations in the natural and start looking at them through the eyes of the spirit. Understand your spirit is hooked up to its Creator, God the Father, and all of God's attributes belong to you. If nothing is impossible with God, then nothing is impossible with me. Why? Because I have His life, nature, and ability down on the inside of me. Faith reaches out into that unseen world and brings it back into this natural world. Faith is produced is by the words of your mouth. Faith takes what's on the inside and brings it out and causes those two worlds to become linked up.
When Jesus cursed the fig tree, the next day Peter came by, calling to remembrance said, "Master, the fig tree which thou cursed is withered up from the roots.” Notice, faith-filled words do not attack the leaves. Faith- filled words do not attack the bark. Faith-filled words go under the ground into the unseen world and attack the problem at the roots. If you're sick, the roots of your sickness are not in the lumps on your body or in the pain you feel. The roots of that sickness are in the unseen spirit world, and when you use faith filled words, those words attack that problem at the root and kill it from the root. It's just going to take time for the leaves to change color and the bark to fall off.
Whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed. Faith goes down and starts working on the foundation of the mountain where you can't see it. But one of these days, that mountain will fall into the sea. Having problems with Satan? Sickness and disease? Speak faith-filled words. Walk off and leave your problem, knowing that your faith is working on the roots. Faith-filled words speak to those lumps on your body and know that they’re cursed from the roots. A few days later you'll begin to see the color change. You'll begin to see that thing drop off. Don't speak faith-filled words and look at the bark and the leaves. That's not where faith is working; it's working in that unseen world of the spirit and causing your problems to disappear and the blessings of God to manifest where the problem once was.
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Copyright 2010 by Bob Yandian Ministries.
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