“BELIEVE THAT YE RECEIVE”
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24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
On the first day of Passion Week a gleam of light fell athwart the Master’s path as He rode into Jerusalem. It was a lowly triumph. The humble ass was escorted by poor men, Galilean pilgrims, and children, who excited the haughty criticism of the metropolis. May a similar procession enter your heart and mine! “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.”
With irresistible might the Lord drove forth the buyers and sellers from the Temple. According to the ancient prediction, He sat as a refiner and purifier of silver, to purify the sons of Levi. And whenever He enters the heart, He performs a similar work. He drives out bestial forms of sin, and mere traffic, so that the whole nature-spirit, soul, and body-may be surrendered to God. What our Lord said of the Temple should be true of each church of the living God. It should be His residence, where men of all nationalities should come to a unity, as they worship, confess sin, and intercede. Certainly God’s house must not be a place of merchandise and traffic.
The great lesson taught by this stricken tree justified its doom.
It was not yet the time of the fig harvest, but some of last year’s fruit might still be found, and the abundance of young leaves further aroused hope.
It was a type of profession without performance. In addition to proclaiming the doom of promise, which is not followed by performance, our Lord drew from the miracle the great lesson that faith can reckon on God’s faith, His faithfulness.
Throughout His life, as we look into the heart of Jesus, we find only forgiving love, humility, faith. Forgiveness and love are the conditions of all successful prayers, Mrk 11:24-26.
We do not show sufficient appreciation for our Lord’s marvelous intellectual power. He was more than equal to these clever intellects trained to argue. They were beaten at their own game.
It has raised the question in many hearts: How can I attain the faith that knows that it receives all it asks?
Our Lord would answer this question today. Before He gave that tremendous promise to His disciples, He spoke another word, pointing out where faith in the answer to prayer takes its rise and ever finds its strength.
HAVE FAITH IN GOD: This word precedes the other. Have faith in the promise of an answer to prayer. The power to believe a promise depends entirely, but only, on faith in the ONE who gave the promise.
Trust in the person begets trust in his word. It is only where we live and associate with God in personal, loving intercourse, where GOD HIMSELF is all to us, where our whole being is continually opened up and exposed to the mighty influences that are at work, where His Holy Presence is revealed, that the capacity will be developed for believing that He gives whatsoever we ask.
This connection between faith in God and His promise will become apparent if we consider what faith really is. It is often compared to the hand or the mouth, by which we take and appropriate what is offered. But it is of important that we should understand that faith is also the ear by which I hear 80 With Christ in the School of Prayer what is promised, the eye by which I see what is offered me.
The power to take depends on this. I must hear the person who gives me the promise; his voice gives me the courage to believe. I must see him; in the light of his eye and countenance, all fear as to my right to take passes away. The value of the promise depends on the promiser; it is on my knowledge of what the promiser is that faith in the promise depends.
For this reason, Jesus, ere He gives that beautiful prayer promise, first says, HAVE FAITH IN GOD.' Let thine eye be open to the Living God, and gaze on Him, seeing Him who is Invisible. Through the eye, I yield myself to the influence of what is before me; I allow it to enter, exert its influence, and leave its impression upon my mind. So, believing God is just looking to God and WHO He is, allowing Him to reveal His presence, giving Him time, and yielding the whole being to take in the full impression of what He is as God, the soul opened up to receive and rejoice in the overshadowing of His love. Yes, faith is the eye to which God shows what He is and does: through faith, the light of His presence and the workings of His mighty power stream into the soul. As what I see lives in me, so by faith God lives in me too.
Even so, faith is also the ear through which the voice of God is always heard, and intercourse with Him is kept up. It is through the Holy Spirit that the Father speaks to us; the Son is the Word, the substance of what God does; the Spirit is the living voice. This the child of God needs to lead and guide him; the voice from heaven must teach him, as it taught Jesus, what to say and do. A heart opened towards God, that is, a believing heart waiting on Him to hear what He says, will hear Him speak. The words of God will not only be the words of a Book, but, proceeding from the mouth of God, they will be spirit and truth, life and power. They will bring in deeds and living experiences that are otherwise only thoughts. Through this opened ear, the soul tarries under the influence of the life and power of God Himself. As the words I hear enter the mind.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
WHAT a promise! so large, so Divine, that our little hearts cannot take it in, and in every possible way seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable instead of allowing it, in its quickening power and energy, just as He gave it, to enter in, and to enlarge our hearts to the measure of what His love and power are ready to do for us. Faith is far from a mere conviction of the truth of God's word, or a conclusion drawn from certain premises.
It is the ear that has heard God say what He will do, the eye that has seen Him doing it, and, therefore, where there is true faith, it is impossible, but the answer must come.
If we only see to it that we do the one thing that He asks of us as we pray: BELIEVE that ye have received; He will see to it that He does what He has promised: Ye shall have them.' The key-note of Solomon's prayer (2 Chron. vi. 4
4 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying,
IIChro6:5
5 Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel:
is the key-note of all true prayer:
the joyful adoration of a God whose hand permanently secures the fulfillment of what His mouth hath spoken. Let us in this spirit listen to the promise Jesus gives; each part of it has its Divine message.
All things whatsoever.
At this first word, our human wisdom begins to doubt and ask: This surely cannot be true. But if it is not, why did the Master speak it, using the strongest expression He could find: All things whatsoever'
And it is not as if this were the only time He spoke thus; is it not He who also said, If thou canst believe, All Things are possible to him who believes; if you have faith, nothing will be impossible to you.
Faith is so wholly the work of God's Spirit through His word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple that the fulfillment may come; faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer. Yes, ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye receive! Human reason tends to interpose here, and with specific qualifying clauses, if expedient, if according to God's will,' to break the force of a statement which appears dangerous. O let us beware of dealing thus with the Master's words. His promise is most literally true. He wants His oft-repeated ALL THINGS to enter into our hearts and reveal to us how mighty the power of faith is, how truly the Head calls the members to share with Him in His power, how wholly our Father places His power at the disposal of the child that wholly trusts Him. In this all things' faith is to have its food and strength: as we weaken it we weaken faith. The WHATSOEVER is unconditional: the only condition is what is implied in the belief. Ere we can believe, we must find out and know God’s will.’
Believing is the exercise of our Mind, Will, And Emotions surrendered and given up to the influence of the Word and the Spirit; but once we do believe, nothing shall be impossible.
God forbid we should try and bring down His ALL THINGS to the level of what we think possible.
Let us now take Christ's
WHATSOEVER
as the measure and hope of our faith:
it is a seed word that, if taken just as He gives it and kept in the heart, will unfold itself and strike root, fill our lives with their fulness, and bring forth fruit abundantly.
All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for! In prayer, all these things are to be brought to God, to be asked and received by Him. The faith that receives them is the fruit of the prayer. In one aspect, there must be faith before there can be prayer, in another faith is the outcome and the growth of prayer. It is in the personal presence of the Savior, in a relationship with Him, that faith rises to grasp what at first appeared too high.
In prayer,
1. we hold up our desire to the light of God's Holy Will that our motives are tested,
2. proof is given whether we ask indeed in the name of Jesus, and only for the glory of God. In prayer,
3. we wait for the leading of the Spirit to show us whether we are asking the right thing and in the right spirit.
It is in prayer
4. that we become conscious of our want of faith,
5. that we are led on to say to the Father that we do believe,
6. and that we prove the reality of our faith by the confidence with which we persevere.
7. in prayer that Jesus, our intercessor, teaches and inspires faith.
He that waits to pray, or loses heart in prayer, because he does not yet feel the faith needed to get the answer, will never learn to believe.
He who begins to pray and ask will find the Spirit of faith is given nowhere so surely as at the foot of the Throne.
Believe that ye have received.
We are to believe that we receive the very things we ask. The Saviour does not hint that because the Father knows what is best He may give us something else. The very mountain faith bids depart is cast into the sea.
There is a prayer in which, in everything, we make known our requests with prayer and supplication, and the reward is the sweet peace of God keeping heart and mind. This is the prayer of trust.
It refers to things we cannot determine if God will give them. As children, we make known our desires in the countless things of daily life and leave it to the Father to give or not as He thinks best.
But the prayer of faith of which Jesus speaks is something different.
When, whether in the greater interests of the Master's work, or in the lesser concerns of our daily life, the soul is led to see how there is nothing that so honors the Father as the faith that is assured that He will do what He has said in giving us whatsoever we ask for, and takes its stand on the promise as brought home by the Spirit, it may know most certainly that it does receive exactly what it asks.
Just see how the Lord sets this before us in
Mrk 11:23 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.
This is the blessing of the prayer of faith of which Jesus speaks.
Believe that ye have received This is the word of central importance ou hit recited no of mina de thing.
you ask for.
It may only be later that you shall have it in personal experience, that you shall see what you believe; but now, without seeing, you are to believe that it has been given you of the Father in heaven. The receiving or accepting of an answer to prayer is just like the receiving or accepting of Jesus or of pardon, a spiritual thing, an act of faith apart from all feeling. When I come as a supplicant for pardon, I believe that Jesus in heaven is for me, and so I receive or take Him. When I come as a supplicant for any special gift according to God's word, I believe that what I ask is given me: I believe that I have it, I hold it in faith; I thank God that it is mine. If we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him.'
And ye shall have them. The gift that we first hold in faith as bestowed upon us in heaven will also become ours in personal experience. But will it be necessary to pray longer if once we know we have been heard and have received what we asked? There are cases in which such prayer will not be needful, in which the blessing is ready to break through at once if we hold our confidence fast and prove our faith by praising for what we have received in the face of our not yet having it in experience. In other cases, the faith that has been received must be further tried and strengthened in persevering prayer. God only knows when everything in and around us is fully ripe for the manifestation of the blessing given to faith.
Elijah knew surely that rain would come; God had promised it, yet he had to pray seven times. And that prayer was no show or play; an intense spiritual reality in the heart of him who lay pleading there, and in the heaven above where it had its effectual work to do. It is through faith and patience we inherit the promises! Faith says most confidently, I have received it. Patience perseveres in prayer until the gift bestowed in heaven is seen on earth.
Believe that you have received, and you shall have!’ Between what you have received in heaven and what you shall have on earth, believe: believing praise and prayer is the link.
And now, remember one thing more: Jesus said this.
Hearts feel shame that we have so little availed ourselves of our privilege and full of fear lest our feeble faith still fail to grasp what is so clearly placed within our reach. One thing that must make us strong and full of hope: Jesus has brought us this message from the Father. He lived a life of faith and prayer when He was on earth. When the disciples expressed their surprise at what He had done to the fig tree, He told them that the same life He led could be theirs, that they could command the fig tree and the mountain, and it must obey. And He is our life: all He was on earth, He is in us now; all He teaches, He gives.
He is the Author and the Perfecter of our faith: He gives the spirit of faith; let us not be afraid that such faith is not meant for us. It is meant for every child of the Father; it is within reach of each one who will but be childlike, yielding himself to the Father's Will and Love, trusting the Father's Word and Power. Dear fellow-Christian! let the thought that this word comes through Jesus, the Son, our Brother, give us courage, and let our answer be: Yea, Blessed Lord, we do believe Thy Word, we do believe that we receive.
'LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!