Scripture Reading: Mark 11:24
The promise of Mark 11:24 is very comprehensive. It is one of the biggest verses in the Bible. John 3:16 speaks of "every one," but this verse speaks of "all things." John 3:16 tells us that "every one who believes into Him...would have eternal life"; Mark 11:24 tells us that "all things that you pray and ask...you will have them." This is a very comprehensive verse; "all things" includes everything. But this verse has a condition: we must believe. If we do not have faith, we cannot have what we ask for. This verse not only tells us of the necessity of faith but also the nature of faith. As far as I can tell, this is the only verse which tells us of the nature of faith.
What is the nature of faith? What should we believe? When we see something spiritual and reach for it, how should we believe? I am not here dealing with the necessity of faith — this is apparent. The question is about how to believe, and this is the only verse which answers this question. "Believe that you have received them, and you will have them." How should we believe? "Believe that you have received." The way to believe is not that we will receive or can receive or that we are able to receive or are going to receive, but that we already have received. Faith is that we have received, not that we will receive one day. There is nothing so wrong as believing with all our heart that we can receive or that we are going to receive. This is hope, not faith. Faith refers to the past, it has nothing to do with the future. What is in the future is always hope, not faith. Our Lord did not say, "You must believe that you are going to receive." On the contrary, He said, "You must believe that you have already received." It is something already done by God, something given to us by God. Whenever our faith is in the future, it is not faith but hope. Let us see from a few illustrations what the right kind of faith — "have received" — means.
Suppose I am a gospel preacher, and a sinner comes along and asks me to tell him the way of salvation. I do my best to make it clear, telling him about the blood, the cross, atonement, redemption, and that the Lord has done everything. Then he says that he wants to be saved. We both kneel down together. Then I pray a little and ask him to pray. He says, "Lord, I know that the blood of Christ Your Son cleanses from all sin, so please forgive my sins. Amen." Before getting up I ask, "Are your sins forgiven? Are you saved?" He replies, "I believe I will be saved, I believe God will forgive my sins, I believe with all my heart that God can forgive my sins." Is this man saved? No! Are his sins forgiven? No. What should he say? He should just look up and say, "Praise the Lord, all my sins are forgiven; praise the Lord, all my sins have already been forgiven; praise the Lord, I am saved." There is only one kind of faith — have received. This principle operates in regard to everything else. So much of so-called faith is only hope. Many say that they have faith, but it is all in the future. They think they are going to get something some day. But we are not going to get something some day, we have already got it!
In the past I have been asked quite often to pray for the sick. Immediately after the prayer, I knew whether or not the person was going to be healed. After entering the room I would anoint him, depending upon the situation, and after my prayer I would ask, "Well, how is your sickness?" The answer would show at once whether or not the person had faith. If he said, "Praise the Lord, it is all settled," he might still feel very weak and have a high fever, but he could praise the Lord. I would then ask, "Do I need to come back and pray again?" If he said that there is no need because it was all done, I could leave in confidence, no matter how serious his condition seemed to be, because he did not believe that God would heal him, but that He had already healed him. Sometimes when I asked a person about his sickness, the answer was different: "I believe that the Lord is going to heal me. I am as certain as anything that God is going to heal me. I believe with all my heart that I am going to be healed." He may seem to have all the faith in the world that he is going to be healed, but I go home disappointed. I know that he is not going to be healed. There was no divine touch, no faith. The man said that he believed, but he did not believe at all, he only hoped.
Do we see the importance of Mark 11:24? God says we must believe that we have received. Once the Lord granted me a wonderful healing, and I testified to a few of the believers. Among them was a sister who had very serious eye trouble. Every week she had to travel a considerable distance by steamboat to be treated by a doctor, under whose care she had gradually improved. She heard my testimony and thought, "Though the doctor said I would be better, he said I never could be normal again." So she prayed and believed that the Lord would heal. But she had an appointment with the doctor and so she went to see him. He gave her some glasses and a jar of ointment. After she got on the steamboat, she prayed again and said, "Lord, are You really going to heal me?" She believed that the Lord had already heard her prayers and that the thing was done. So she said, "Lord, what do I need these glasses and ointment for?" However, Satan said, "Do not be so quick; do not be excessive; do not be fanatical. Wait and see if it works. If it does not work, you will still have your glasses and ointment to fall back on. In this way, you will be protected on both sides." But she said, "My prayer has been heard; it is already done; I am healed. There is no need for glasses or ointment." Then Satan said, "The glasses cost thirty dollars. If you throw them away, you will be wasting thirty dollars. If your prayers and faith do not work, you will have to spend another thirty dollars to replace them." But she said, "I am already healed. What do I need ointment and glasses for?" So she threw them overboard. (I am not suggesting that you throw your glasses away, and that we do not need the help of doctors. But if we have faith, we can do anything.) She went back and her eyes were really healed. Remember the Lord's word, "Believe that you have received them, and you will have them." Faith is always in the past tense, though experience may be in the future. If we make faith a matter of the future, because experience is still in the future, our faith is hope. After the sister returned, she testified of what the Lord had done, and a brother who was in exactly the same circumstances heard her testimony. (He was also present when I spoke of what the Lord had done for me.) This brother had exactly the same disease and went to the same doctor, who prescribed exactly the same treatment for him. He said to himself, "If God is able to heal her eyes, is He not able to heal my eyes?" So he prayed. Then one of my co-workers came to me and said, "Do you know that Brother So-and-so is trusting the Lord to heal his eyes? Is this not grand?" "No," I said, "We should wait to see whether it is hope or faith." He also had an appointment with the doctor, and he too went to get glasses and ointment. After he got them, he boarded the same boat and argued, "If I am healed, should I not throw away my glasses and ointment?" He remembered that the sister had thrown her glasses and ointment into the river, and so he did the same thing. He said, "I will trust the Lord and the Lord alone; I will not trust the doctor or medicine." On his return he came to see me. I asked him, "Why did you throw your glasses and ointment away?" "Oh, I trust God. From today I will not trust man but God alone," he replied. "What about your eyes?" I asked. "I can trust God," he said. Then I said, "But you have only those two eyes; they are very precious. If anything happens to them, you can never replace them." He said, "I believe God is going to heal my eyes." "Do you really believe that God is going to heal your eyes?" I asked. He said, "Yes, if I did not believe that God was going to heal my eyes, do you think that I would have been so foolish as to throw away my glasses and ointment?" I said to him, "I am sorry to say this, but your faith is too big for God to do anything. I am afraid that one day you will have to go back to that doctor and buy another pair of glasses." "What do you mean?" he asked. I replied, "You have hope in God but no faith." He was rather irritated, and he went out and said to another brother, "One day Brother Nee will see that he is wrong. I will prove to him that I have faith. I know God is going to heal me." My co-worker came in and asked, "Why did you say that he has no faith? Why do you believe that God is not going to heal him?" I replied, "Because he has no faith at all; he has only hope." "What do you mean?" he asked. "Do you not remember that Mark 11:24 explains the nature of real faith?" I said. He responded, "Do you mean to say that a person who risks blindness does not have real faith? If this is not faith, what is? Do you mean to say that a person who throws away thirty dollars for his faith and throws away fees amounting to a hundred dollars does not have real faith? If that is not faith, what is?" I said, "These are all works, not faith. It is all something that he has done; it is not believing in what God has done." Of course, I was more than willing for him to be healed. I did not want him to not be healed so that I would be proven right! A month passed, and nothing happened. Two months passed, and I saw him again. His eyes were redder and the discharge worse. One day he came to me and said, "Do you still believe that I do not have faith?" I said, "I fear that this is the case." He replied, "I believe that God is going to heal me. One thing I know: God has shown me that I must go up the river to preach. I will stay for two months, and when I come back, I will be healed." I said, "Try your best to believe that you will be healed." I said nothing to discourage him, but I said to my co-worker, "He believes that if he does something for God, God will do something for him. His belief is related to the future, not the past." He came back unhealed, and he had to resort to glasses. Today he still wears them.
These two cases were exactly parallel. One was healed and one was not healed because one had faith and the other had none. One believed and the other only hoped. We think that if people risk something, they have faith; however, these are the works of men, not the faith of men. If we believe, we should say, "Praise the Lord, it is done."
Regarding salvation we must believe that it is already done. The same principle applies to healing. Deliverance is on the same basis. We must know that it is accomplished.
There was a man who was an elder of a church in a large city. He was very zealous for the Lord. He had three or four big stores. He also supported the pastor in his church and preached with him. Furthermore, this man had a very hot temper! He came to me early one morning with tears in his eyes and said, "I am due to preach in church this morning, but I am afraid I cannot." "What is your trouble?" I asked. He said, "You know I have an awful temper. I realize this, and I hate it. I know that I should not lose my temper. I confess and then lose my temper again. I tell all my employees about the Lord Jesus, and then I lose my temper. They say, `What is the use of being a Christian?' I have lost my temper in all of my stores, so I have lost my testimony too. Yesterday, I was very annoyed with some of my employees. I managed to control myself even though I was very irritated. I thought, `It is my turn to preach tomorrow, I dare not let my temper flare,' so I kept it under control until I got home. I was shaking all over with suppressed wrath. Then I was irritated by happenings at home, but again I thought, `It is my turn to preach tomorrow so I dare not flare up.' So I kept it all under control. This morning when I got up, I recalled what had happened yesterday and shook all over at my remembrance of it. Then my daughter did something to upset me. Then, to aggravate matters, my wife burned the food. After all that I said, `This is beyond endurance; even if it is my turn to preach, I cannot keep this under control any longer. I cannot control myself, and I just cannot preach because I am about to burst!' Now what about this?" I smiled, and he said, "Do not make fun of me." I said, "I feel very happy." "Why?" "I am rejoicing in another great case for the Lord," I said. "Do not think that my case is easy; my temper is beyond my control," he replied. I said, "It may be too much for you, but it is not too much for the Lord. I believe in practical salvation, not in theoretical salvation." Then I turned to Romans 8:2 and read, "The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death." I asked him, "Are you in Christ Jesus?" "Certainly I am," he replied. "All right, then what does the Word of God say?" "The law of the Spirit...has freed me." I asked him, "What tense is used?" "Past!" he exclaimed. "Yes, God says that the law of the Spirit of life has already made you free. Are you free?" "Of course not," he replied. Then I said, "I did not ask you whether or not you have lost your temper today. I am asking whether or not you are free. According to the Word of God you are free because it says, `has freed me.'" He replied, "According to Romans 8:2 I am free, but according to my experience I am not free." Then I asked, "Are you going to believe in your experience or in God's Word? Which is more reliable, God's Word or your experience?" He answered, "Of course, as a Christian I must say God's Word, but I cannot say that I am free." I said, "God does not so mind your temper as much as He minds your evil heart of unbelief. God's Word says, `The law of the Spirit of life has freed me.' When you say that the Spirit has not freed you, you are saying that God's word in Romans 8:2 is not true. I do not mind your bad temper as much as I mind your evil heart of unbelief." He said with tears, "I am convicted of unbelief, because I am hoping that I will be free but cannot believe that I am free. I cannot believe the Word of God that I am already free." I said, "This Sunday morning I have to speak; I must go and prepare. I am sorry that I cannot stay any longer, but I can let you have my sitting room. You should deal with God about this sin of unbelief." I came back a half hour later. The brother gripped my hand and said, "Praise the Lord, hallelujah." "What has happened?" I asked. He responded, "Praise the Lord, I am free!" I asked, "What about your temper?" "I only know this, I am free. I care about nothing else because I am free," he replied. Then I asked, "Are you going to be free, or are you free now?" "I am free now," was his reply. As he went out the door, he said, "Praise the Lord, I am free." Two months later I met him and asked, "How are you now?" His answer was simply, "Praise the Lord, I am free." Four months later I met him again and asked the same question. He still answered, "Praise the Lord, I am free." After six months he still had the same answer to my question. This is faith. Faith is not, "I will be free" or "God is able to make me free." Faith is standing on the Word of God and saying, "I am free."
How can we have faith? We must have our eyes opened. This is the most important point in regard to faith. We cannot just sit down and say, "I am saved; therefore, I am saved" or "I am healed; therefore, I am healed" or "I am free; therefore, I am free." This is auto-suggestion, not faith. Instead, we need our eyes to be opened; we need revelation from the Word of God so that we can say, "God has heard my prayer, I know it!" We may not understand, but we know. We may not be able to explain whether we heard a voice or saw a vision, etc., but we just know. How do we know? We know; that is all. How do we know our name? We just know it. We do not need to go to a registry office to verify it or look in our passport once in a while to make sure. We know. Someone may say, "The Word of God says so." This is all right, but it may mean nothing. Yes, the Word of God says so, but do we know it? If we reason, "Since I have had a revelation, I have faith," and ask, "What should I do next?", then we have no faith! Faith is spontaneous. Faith is: "Lord, I praise Your name; it is done." Praise is the natural outcome of faith, the spontaneous result of faith. We do not have to work it up. Whenever there is faith, God honors it; whenever there is faith, there will be praise and prayer will cease. We will say, "Thank You," and we will not plead. No one will need to urge us to praise because we cannot help but do so. May God teach us the true nature of faith. All prayer is heard on this basis. (Recorded by P.D.)
