For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed and be cast
into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be
done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when
you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
(Mark 11:23-24)
These are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God. God has designed that the just will live by faith (Rom. 1:17), no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God's Word is sufficient. One word from Him can change a nation. His Word is "from everlasting to everlasting" (Ps. 90:2). It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this incorruptible seed, that we are born again and come into this wonderful salvation. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). This is the food of faith. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom 10:17).
God's Word is sure
Everywhere men are trying to discredit the Bible and take from it all that is miraculous in it. One preachers says, "Well, you know, Jesus arranged beforehand to have that colt tied where it was and for the men to say just what they died" (see Matthew 21:2-3). I tell you, God can arrange everything. He can plan for you, and when He plans for you, all is peace. All things are possible if you will believe.
Another preachers says, "It was an easy thing for Jesus to feed the people with five loaves. The loaves were so big in those days that it was a simple matter to cut them into a thousand pieces each" (see John 6:5-13). But he forgets that one little boy brought those five loaves all the way in his lunch basket. There is nothing impossible with God. All the impossibility is with us when we measure God by the limitations of our unbelief.
Reaching out in faith
We have a wonderful God, a God whose ways are past finding out and whose grace and power are limitless. I was in Belfast one day and saw one of the brothers of the assembly. He said to me, "Wigglesworth, I am troubled. I have had a good deal of sorrow during the past five months. I had a woman in my assembly who could always pray the blessing of heaven down on our meetings. She is an old woman, but her presence is always an inspiration. But five mouths ago she fell and broke her leg. The doctors put her into a plaster cast, and after five mouths they broke the cast. But the bones were not properly set, and so she fell and broke the leg again".
He took me to her house, and there was a woman lying in a bed on the right-hand side of the room. I said to her, "Well, what about it now?"
She said, "They have sent me home incurable. The doctors say tha I am so old that my bones won't knit. There is not nutriment in my bones. They could not do anything for me, and they say I will have to lie in bed for the rest of my life."
I said to he, "Can you believe God?"
She replied, "Yes, ever since I heard that you had come to Belfast my faith has been quickened. If you will pray, I will believe. I know there is no power on earth that can make the bones of my leg knit, but I know there is nothing impossibile with God."
I said, "Do you believe He will meet you now?"
She answered, "I do".
It is grand to see people believe God. God knew all about this leg and that it was broken in two places. I said to the woman, "When I pray, something will happen".
Her husband was sitting there; he had been in his chair for four years and could not walk a step. He called out, "I don't believe. I won't believe. You will never get me to believe."
I said, "All right", and laid my hands on his wife in the name of the Lord Jesus.
The moment hands were laid upon her, she cried out, "I'm healed."
I said, "I'm not going to assist you to rise. God will do it all". She arose and walked up and down the room, praising God.
The old man was amazed at what had happened to his wife, and he cried out, "Make me walk, make me walk."
I said to him, "You old sinner, repent."
He cried out, "Lord, You know I believe."
I don't think he meant what he said; anyhow the Lord was full of compassion. If He marked our sins, where would any of us be? If we will meet the conditions, God will always meet us if we believe all things are possible.
I laid my hands on him, and the power went right through the old man's body. For the first time in four years, those legs received power to carry his body. He walked up and down and in and out of the room. He said, "Oh, what great things God has done for us tonight!"
"Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Desire God, and you will have desires from God. He will meet you on the line of those desires when you reach out in simple faith.
A man came to me in one of my meetings who had seen other people healed and wanted to be healed, too. He explained that his arm had been set in a certain position for many years, and he could not move it. "Got any faith?" I asked.
He said that he had a lot of faith. After prayer he was able to swing his arm round and round. But he was not satisfied and complained, "I feel a little bit of trouble just here," pointing to a certain place.
I said, "Do you know what the trouble is with you?"
He answered, "No."
I said, "Imperfect faith." Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
Did you believe before you were saved? So many people want to be saved, but they want to feel saved first. There never was a man who felt saved before he believed. God's plan is always the following: if you will believe, you will see the glory of God (John 11:40). I believe God wants to bring us all to a definite place of unswerving faith and confidence in Himself.
In our text from Mark, Jesus uses the illustration of a mountain. Why does He say a mountain? If faith can remove a mountain, it can remove anything. The plan of God is so marvelous that if you will only believe, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).
Love has no doubts
There is one special phrase from our text to which I want to call your attention: "And does not doubt in his heart." The heart is the mainspring. Imagine a young man and a youg woman. They have fallen in love at first sight. In a short while there is a deep affection and a strong heart love, the one toward the other. What is a heart of love? It is a heart of faith. Faith and love are kin. In the measure that the young man and the young woman love one another, they are true. One may go to the North and the other to the South, but because of their love, they will be true to one another.
It is same when there is a deep love in the heart toward the Lord Jesus Christ. In this new life into which God has brought us, Paul told us that we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, so that we should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead (Rom. 7:4). God brings us into a place of perfect love and perfect faith. A man who is born of God is brought into an inward affection, a loyalty to the Lord Jesus that shrinks from anything impure. You see the purity of a man and woman when there is a deep natural affection between them; they disdain the very thought of either of them being untrue. In the same way, in the measure that a man has faith in Jesus, he is pure. He who believes that Jesus is the Christ overcomes the world (1 John 5:5). It is a faith that works by love (Gal. 5:6).
Just as we have heart fellowship with our Lord, our faith cannot be daunted. We cannot doubt in our hearts. As we go on with God, there comes a wonderful association, an impartation of His very life and nature within. As we read His Word and believe the promises that He has so graciously given to us, we are made partakers of His very essence and life. The Lord is made a Bridegroom to us, and we are His bride. His words to us are spirit and life, transforming us and changing us, expelling what is natural and bringing in what is divine.
It is impossible to comprehend the love of God as we think along natural lines. We must have the revelation from the Spirit of God. God gives liberally. He who asks, receives (Matt. 7:8). God is willing to bestow on us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). Oh, it was the love of God that brought Jesus, and it is this same love that helps you and me to believe. God will be your strength in every waekness. You who need His touch, remember that He loves you. If you are wretched, helpless, or sick. look to the God of all grace, whose very essence is love, who delights to give liberally all the inheritance of life and strength and power that you are in need of.
Be cleansed today
When I was in Switzerland, the Lord was graciously working and healing many of the people. I was staying with Brother Reuss of Goldiwil, and two policemen were sent to arrest me. The charge was that I was healing the people without a license. Mr. Reuss said to them, "I am sorry that he is not here just now; he is holding a meeting about two miles away, but before you arrest him I would like to show you something."
Brother Reuss took these two policemen down to one of the lower parts of that district, to a house with which they were familiar, for they had often gone to that place to arrest a certain woman who was constantly an inmate of the prison because of continually being engaged in drunken brawls. He took them to this woman and said to them, "This is one of the many cases of blessing that have come through the ministry of the man you have come to arrest. This woman came to our meeting in a drunken condition. Her body was broken, for she was raptured in two places. While she was drunk, the evangelist laid his hands on her and asked God to heal her and deliver her."
The woman joined in, "Yes, and God saved me, and I have not tasted a drop in liquor sence."
The policemen had a warrant for my arrest, but they said with disgust, "Let the doctors do this kind of thing." They turned and went away, and that was the last we heard of them.
We have a Jesus who heals the brokenhearted, who lets the captives go free, who saves the very worst. Do you dare spurn this glorious Gospel of God for spirit, soul, and body? Do you dare spurn this grace? I realize that this full Gospel has in great measure been hidden, this Gospel that brings liberty, this Gospel that brings perfect health to the body, this Gospel of entire salvation. Listen again to the words of Him who left the glory to bring us this great salvation: "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed... he will have whatever he says." Whatever!
I realize that God can never bless us when we are being hard-hearted, critical, or unforgiving. These things will hinder faith quicker than anything. I remember being at a meeting where there were some people waiting for the baptism and seeking for cleansing, for the momento a person is cleansed the Spirit will fall. There was one man with red eyes who was weeping bitterly. He said to me, "I will have to leave. It is no good my staying unless i change things. I have written a letter to my brother-in-law and filled straightened out." He went home and told his wife, "I'm going to write a letter to your brother and ask him to forgive me for writing to him the way I did."
"You fool!" she said.
"Never mind," he replied, "this thing is between God and me, and it has got to be cleared away." He wrote the letter and came again, and immediately God filled him with the Spirit.
I believe there are a great many people who want to be healed, but they are harboring things in their hearts that are like a blight. Let these things go. Forgive, and the Lord will forgive you. There are many good people, people who mean well, but they have no power to do anything for God. There is just some little thing that come in their hearts years ago, and their faith has been paralyzed ever since. Bring everything to the light. God will sweep it all away if you will let Him. Let the precious blood of Christ cleanse you from all sin. If you will only believe, God will meet you and bring into your lives the sunshine of His love.
If you want to leave a comment on this article, please click here
from the book "Smith Wigglesworth on FAITH" - Whitaker House