As the disciples were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. And being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen; it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.” Mark 11:20–24.
“Believe that you have received them.” … faith is the substance of things hoped for … Hebrews 11:1a. It is a substance as real as money in your pocket, as real as anything in the world. It is not a material substance; but it is the spiritual essence of what you hope for. That is where the reality of it exists.
Faith is the substance of the thing hoped for. When you ask from the Lord, believe that you have received, because the divine provisions are complete and perfect. The promises of God adequately declare it—you have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (II Peter 1:3). These are ours, and we rest upon the promises of God because the provision has been signed over to us in the name of the Lord.
When we ask for anything, it must be on an explicit basis that God has already given it to us. We’re not struggling in our battle against Satan to try to overcome him; we’re coming before the Lord and appropriating the victory over principalities and powers that Christ won and gave to us. We do not come to the Lord and say: “Lord, I pray that You’ll make the great decision to heal me.” Rather, we look back to the whipping post and know that by His stripes we were healed (I Peter 2:24), and we claim that what the Lord has already given us might spring forth. Because we believe it, faith is the substance of the things we’ve hoped for; it’s the evidence of the thing we’ve not seen, and we rest in this promise.
All the way through the Scriptures, the Lord clearly tries to tell us what God has for us, how great is His love for us. “My peace I give unto you” (John 14:27), “Oh, that My joy may be in you” (John 15:11). The Lord is always giving to us. If we do not have the promise, it is because we do not sense that it is ours and enter in with faith to appropriate it. Why must we pursue this faith violently? Because our violence stirs us from our lethargy and passivity; from the tendency to adjust to things as they are.
Insist on things to come forth as God has witnessed them to be in the spirit. You are not asking for something that is not yours; you’re claiming something God has given you. Do you want things to change? Then shout, “I live this day, this twenty-four hour period, under protest, because I know there are things which God has given me that I’ve not yet entered into.” This is not rebellion against God but an uprising in your spirit against your own reluctance to enter in and possess; against being conned by the devil into a lesser, lower state of existence than God intended for you. You protest, and go after it in the name of the Lord.
Don’t go about it passively. Don’t think, “It’s going to be just another week,” and begin it Monday morning by dragging around. Get up saying, “This week I shall claim things from the Lord! I claim this walk, I claim the changes, I claim the things that God has promised me. In essence, these were given to me at the moment I first comprehended them, even before I was in Christ.”
Oh, that we might know the marvel of our inheritance. God raised Him up and made Him to be the Head over all things through the Church, which is His Body, and we are to be the fullness of Him that filleth all things (Ephesians 1:22–23). We are not to be empty, poor exhibitions of Christ; we are to be the fullness of Him. God grant that we claim it, and not go about it in a semi-starved or semi-defeated spiritual state. We must claim to be exhibitions of the grace of God who manifest the victory of Christ in every respect.
A number of years ago, the head office of a large cereal manufacturer hired an expert to go over the entire plant to see who was working efficiently and who wasn’t. Every operation passed fine until he came to the secretarial pool, which was located at the entrance of the plant. The efficiency expert set up a certain standard that the girls who worked there had to look as if they had been well-fed, for in a sense they were reflecting the cereal product being manufactured.
Let’s see to it that we look like we’re more than conquerors. Don’t come to the services discouraged; come rejoicing in the Lord. People who come to us desire to see a people who believe they have received the blessings of Christ Jesus. Day after day there must be a violent rejoicing and pursuing after that which God has given. We hold these rights to inalienable: life, liberty, and the pursuit of the fullness of God! Amen.