A Serious Study of the Best "Name-It-and-Claim-It" Verse Ever: The Mark Series pt 43 (11:22-25)

all right today um i delayed teaching this for like two weeks in addition to the normal week of prep i would i would have because i struggled with this topic but what we're going to deal with is really the number one word of faith verse at least in my opinion others will probably disagree which is fine and the ultimate question i want to ask is how correct are the people who teach kind of that word of faith uh theology and i recognize this too that within the whole word of faith camp there's different subcamps and all that i'm talking about the stuff that we we who aren't in the camp we tend to see promoted online that's what i'm sort of responding to and here's the verse though this is the passage read it and and listen don't just read it think how do i with integrity not affirm what kenneth copeland is saying when he uses passages like this that's kind of a tough question actually so listen in and we're going to get into all kinds of details it's going to be a long and thoughtful and thorough study with insights from history as well as more important than anything else the context of scripture to guide us at any rate here is mark 11 verse 21 where peter sees the fig tree that jesus has cursed and it's withered and then he says to jesus rabbi look the fig tree you have 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 will be granted to him granted him and then and then this verse which actually we should pay more attention to because it's even a more broad thing than what was in verse 23 he says therefore i say to you all things for which you pray and ask believe that you have received them and they will be granted you whenever you stand praying forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father who's in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions but if you do not forgive neither will your father who's in heaven forgive your transgressions now this this text um to be completely honest as i do the mark series um i've been dealing with prosperity preaching a number of times and sort of that that you know camp of the word of faith that i'm familiar with from being online and i want to beat it up like i'm just full disclosure right i want to refute it but i sense an awareness in myself being someone who loves the word of god and who i've seen so many people stumble when they're when they use scripture with an agenda already in their mind i want to refute this teaching how can i in this scripture refute that teaching and so i was worried like that i was going to be skewed in my own understanding of the bible that my interpretation of this passage would be messed up because i had a commitment to what i didn't want it to say and so here was the solution and this is always the solution this is what you should do as well i decided to sidebar the debate to say only put you know kenneth copeland over here and let me do a thoughtful careful verse by verse study of of mark this passage the context of it in the rest of mark as well as you know historical you know insights which i will share with you guys i want to understand mark in its context because the gospel of mark isn't dealing with prosperity preaching directly okay it's not dealing with kenneth copeland he didn't exist it's dealing with what's going on at the time and if i can understand what it's saying to the the original audience then i can understand how to apply it and how not to apply it today and that is where the beauty is that is where the treasure is so i've spent a lot of hours on this i think for every minute i mean it's gonna be a long study but for every minute you hear me teach i've probably studied for at least half an hour i'm not exaggerating and um the my point here is i just want you to know like this is a valuable teaching on the topic not because of me at all but because of the information you're about to receive it's valuable it's important it's helpful and it's not stuff that's easy to find because most people just don't spend that much time on the passage right they offer some comments and then they move on so this is this is mark's teaching on prayer this passage and we're going to we're going to isolate our anachronism we're not going to read back our current debates into the text we're just going to look at the passage we're not going to spin it we're just going to let it happen and i will mention one book that helped which oh i do have here written by um sharon dowd i'd read several things i read a guy's dissertation on this on this one passage which wasn't helpful it took a long time though uh this was a helpful book sharon dowd's book prayer power and the problem of suffering very insightful it's this is a scholarly book right so it's got untranslated greek untranslated german and the german you can just kind of work around and the greek it'll there'll be a couple passages where you're like yeah i'm not really sure what she's saying there but there's still some valuable insights although she writes like a scholar and you will find it annoying i i'm telling you you will but there's great insights there and and i'm going to share them with you so i guess you don't have to get her book at any rate sorry sorry sure in doubt no offense um at any rate here's here's the bottom line i'm really excited about what we're about to learn about the power of prayer and it doesn't water down the beautiful wonderful powerful promise of jesus of access to miraculous working of god through us just believing and praying but it also doesn't water down how faith while faith is is key in in seeing miracles it's also key in dealing with suffering and that is where you get the book ends that bring this this whole teaching around and it becomes fruitful and helpful and edifying and encouraging and it has a community of christians who are you know trusting for god's supernatural power in response to prayer and trusting god's goodness and sovereignty and will when he says no and so here we go this is the mark series part 43 we're dealing with mark chapter 11 verses 21-25 deep dive bible study stuff here if you're interested the whole playlist for the whole mark series if you want to follow along um it's in the video description right now you could go click there and check it out and this is this is deep stuff you know and this is my channel it's people who want to go deep right you don't want the 30 second answer you want all the data but the relevant data and not just rambling so here we go mark chapter 11 verse 21 through 25 we're going to read these verses one more time and then we're going to dig into it understand it in context compared to the rest of mark look at the rest of the new testament look at some ancient historical stuff and then get our conclusion which is that kenneth copeland is wrong by the way coincidentally he's totally completely wrong but we want to make sure we're biblical not just anti-kenneth copeland all right mark 11 verse 21 peter says to him rabbi look the fig tree which you've cursed has withered and jesus answered saying to them and he turns the fig tree of withering into a lesson on prayer 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 will be granted him therefore i say to you all things for which you pray and ask notice all things all things for which you pray and ask believe that you have received them and they will be granted to you whenever you stand praying forgive if you have anything where did i go there if you have anything against anyone so that your father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions but if you do not forgive neither will your father in heaven who is in heaven forgive your transgressions um if i remember i'm gonna come back to verse 26 and why there's brackets around it all that kind of stuff if i forget today because it's a long study i will address this next week in the mark series because i think it matters it's just such a side issue compared to what we're talking about at any rate um here's here's some things to notice jesus takes the cursing of the fig tree which is related to the temple we'll talk about that in a minute but he uses this as a general teaching on prayer there are those who want to isolate what jesus is saying about the mountain as if it only applies to the temple i'm going to give you like six reasons why i don't think you can do that and that would be like for instance uh jeff durbin uh from who i love jeff durbin he's he's a my brother in christ and he's got a lot of really great content and some stuff i don't agree with but in this case i i watched his teaching on this topic and i think that he got it wrong right and so i'm gonna give like six reasons why that's the case and he represents a whole bunch of people who have that kind of perspective um but here's how the word of faith people will use it right i don't want to limit it to just being about the temple but the word of faith people what they'll tend to do at least to kenneth copeland style of people they'll act like this is like the whole story on prayer and they'll have complicated ways of doing this so i don't want to oversimplify but they'll say something along the lines of you know god's will is assumed we assume god's will agrees with you and then all you have to do is be confident and believe this thing and they won't usually say you can you can spend it on your pleasures okay they won't usually say that but when it comes to things like um suffering physical pain or you have marriage problems or you've got um job issues going on and usually it's always in those spheres right it's like physical health wealth and relationship and business like these are the things that they're always going to apply to and you just have to believe god believe that god's giving you the things and of course he will because god's will is just assumed and suffering then is what's implied is that suffering that you go through especially health-wise especially if you're sick especially if you're ill it's it's a lack of faith on your part or it's some sort of spiritual battle that you're going through or you're being attacked and you need to pray and just have more faith and then it might be related to sin in your life but but those are the only issues it's never because it's god's will okay that's how they tend to use it so that so that jesus when he says anything you ask for believing it's pretty much a blank check for prosperity at least in some sense maybe not super rich prosperity but at least some measure of prosperity that's what it ends up being about let me talk about some possible approaches um well here's here's my approach first we're going to deal with mark 11. we're going to look at this stuff in context then we're going to expand out to the rest of the gospel of mark and we'll see especially mark 14 there is a needed counterpoint a passage that is meant to provide the needed response to this bold teaching on prayer and we're going to get there mark 14 and then we're going to also expand into other areas of the new testament let's talk though about this passage in mark how do people interpret it there are those who i mentioned like jeff durbin who would say that the this mountain the concept of it being this mountain you can say to this mountain be moved and cast into the sea that it's that it's about the temple specifically it's just about the jerusalem temple and there okay there is a case that can be made for this let me offer that some of those points uh contextually jesus is actually predicting the destruction of the temple in mark 11 and mark 12 13. this is very much about the temple this whole section of scripture is about the the jews how they reject jesus and the destruction of the temple that comes as a result so contextually the temple is very much part of the topic that's that's flowing through the passage also the temple is on a mountain right like the temple mount it's it's on a mountain okay well that also helps us suggest that maybe this temple refers to that so therefore jesus and and i'm gonna offer here um and the reason why i'm using jeff durbin is because he's one of the few who offered a clear interpretation as opposed to a lot of people who just kind of whim wham their way past the passage which is sad um no he offered like an actual clear interpretation you could actually unpack and look at but he basically said what jesus is offering is the idea that that god is going to destroy the temple in jerusalem as a result of the jews having rejected jesus and then the church is being told that they can have imprecatory prayers or prayers for the destruction of the temple in jerusalem and that god will answer it so it's not about prayer being answered in general it's about one specific prayer being answered that is god destroy the temple and um this strikes some of us as being a bit odd now i'm not against god's judgment or god's wrath i think god's wrath is good and appropriate and proper but i i think that this has and i'll just give you here's my six reasons why i think that this particular interpretation doesn't work uh first one and this is again these are this is not a fully convincing reason but it's interesting the the phrase is the temple will be taken and thrown into the sea into the sea now when jesus does later in mark 13 2 talk about the destruction of the temple he talks about it in more specific terms and he doesn't continue to use this just thrown into the sea terminology now if if later on in mark 13 2 when jesus talks about the destruction of the temple he says it'll be thrown into the sea and maybe he meant it metaphorically or something then i would say there's definitely a connection but here in verse 2 it says do you see these great buildings not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down and so he's predicting the destruction of the temple which quite literally was fulfilled in in very specific detail this the stones themselves are gone all that's left of the ancient temple is is one of the walls that was part of the uh the structure the temple was built on not even the temple itself there isn't a stone left on top of another there's a pile of stones down by the western wall that maybe one of them was originally from the temple at any rate i don't think that connects to being thrown this sea i think that that concept being thrown in the sea sounds more like a generic thing and not specifically just about the temple here's another reason in verse 24 in mark 11 24 jesus applies and this is this one's a strong reason he implies that what's really going on here with this prayer promise isn't just about one issue but it's a general truth about prayer therefore i say to you all things all things for which you pray and ask believe that you have received them and they will be granted to you and so this is a general truth about prayer this isn't about one particular prayer getting answered so i don't want to limit the power of um god responding to my prayers when they're offered in faith and say it was just about one thing now the reason why some might go down this road is because they are cessationists i think this is my thought on it a cessationist they believe that the gifts of the spirit have largely ceased in the church not entirely and it's complicated right but basically we're not going to be seeing those kinds of miracles very often or at all depending and so you know a general promise about the power of god answering prayer miraculously on a seemingly regular basis is going to be something we're going to need to explain a different way but i'm not a cessationist and so so yeah that's my second reason the third reason why this interpretation doesn't work is that paul's use of the phrase moving mountain it doesn't fit the idea that it was just about the temple right so paul the apostle now keep this in mind paul the apostle in the first century like this he has understanding of what jesus taught that is not only probably from the gospels but also from his encounters with the people who heard jesus themselves so he knows things about what jesus said and he's referring to something jesus said in first corinthians 13 2 he says and look how he uses the mountain moving phrase it's not about the temple it's just about generic miraculous things if i have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge and if i have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love i am nothing so paul uses the term removing mountains as a generic term for amazing acts where i trust god and and god does amazing things okay so it doesn't fit paul's use of jesus's saying here paul's probably referring to jesus and he seems to apply it generally it's kind of a promise that god can just do amazing things as we believe all right let's look at another reason the gospel of matthew has a parallel passage and this is and it's interesting how the video is you know the titles that it's about kenneth copeland but the first part here i'm actually just refuting the opposite side the cessation aside and then i'm going to deal with that side elsewhere but my point here is i at least you know guys like jeff durbin those guys they're trying to go to the text they're trying to go to the first century to try to get a contextual understanding of the passage and that's why i like and respect that view even if i think the conclusion is incorrect so matthew 21 shows jesus repeating this same kind of concept but again it's generic it's not just about the temple so seeing this the disciples were amazed and asked how did the fig tree wither all at once and jesus answered and said truly i say to you if you have faith and do not doubt you will not only do what was done to the fig tree but even if you say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea it will happen and all things you ask in prayer believing you will receive so if you're going to say the fig tree's about the temple and then the mountain's about the temple and everything's about the temple then why is there an either or why is it you can not only do this you can even do that but if they're symbolic of the same thing well they're not that's the problem and jesus supplies it all things again it's a general application all things you ask in prayer believing you will receive and i will deal with the idea later and it'll be towards the end am i supposed to just make myself believe things that i don't think i really believe and and just try to force myself to believe is that what god wants me to do and if he does then i want to do it but i have a different theory and i think it's supported by scripture so we'll come to that later all right let me give you another reason why i don't go with the the more cessationist style interpretation that's luke 17 verse 6 where jesus has a similar statement about not about a mountain now but about a mulberry tree and this implies that this is just something jesus taught on a regular basis it wasn't just about the temple the lord said if you had faith like a mustard seed you would say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and be planted in the sea and it would obey you okay well i mean i mean it's everything's only about the temple this just seems to be about prayer in general the context in luke 17 i don't think is telling us that it's about the temple in fact there's no temple context in luke 17. it's a general truth about prayer you pray believing and god will do it how do i then interpret that rightly put it in its context in the bible and apply it correctly into my life where it doesn't just create anxiety and weird false expectations and i think we can answer that question with scripture finally there are some old testament passages about moving mountains or uprooting them and in those passages um it represents general powerful acts it's not specifically about the temple mount and so an example is job 9 verses 5-6 and psalm 46 verse 2 i'll give you those for your further personal research but you'll see it it's not just about the temple that's my whole point here it's not just about the temple you can't limit you can't take the promise and limit it to only being about the temple but can i take the promise and expand it out so that it is about everything and and the only issue is me believing my my belief is the only issue and then i will have miraculous prayers answered with a yes and i think that that is also a mistake we'll come to there as we as we journey through the text so what is the connection with the temple i am acknowledging there is a connection with the temple it's just not limited to the temple that's my whole case yes mark 11 through 10 through well i guess 11 through 13 you know really major emphasis on the temple but so it's connected it's just not the whole story because he broadens it out to be a general truth about prayer so here's the point of what we got so far mark there are humanly impossible acts and that's what's meant by mountain moving even in the jewish talmud and this is content in this particular stuff in the talmud written long after the time of jesus they would use the term mountain moving to refer to sometimes a rabbi who was really good at oratory that when he spoke he could move mountains because he was just so good at like explaining the bible explaining the old testament um but there but it's now that's used but it's also used of just doing amazing miraculous feats but it is here's the point though mountain moving is generally a euphemism for the naturally impossible or things that were our feats that would be super hard or impossible for humans to do and that's the thing it's not like god's like you're going to just tell that mountain to move and it's going to move well the mountain's an illustration of what's humanly impossible that's the point that's the right understanding of the passage god's the one who does the impossible and this is consistent in the gospel of mark in general right so jesus heals the paralytic that's impossible and jesus does it jesus heals the blind that's only god can heal the blind and he does it and this is kind of a big deal in the first century context that he heals a blind man in particular in mark 10 25-27 he says that it's impossible for a rich man to get saved right it's humanly impossible but with god all things are possible that's the whole idea is that there's things we can't do that god can do and the teaching in mark 11 is you can access those things through prayer by believing prayer accesses the power of god you need faith you must believe that's what god wants on your part and part of this is beautiful because it means that prayer is relational we think of faith as being like a work we have to perform to believe i just make myself but when we think of faith as a personal trust in god and his power and his goodness you realize prayer is all about relationship and that is where we should spin our wheels and not on some of the stuff we see from other places so um so prayer is all about faith salvation itself is also all about faith and and this is actually a never nobody ever teaches on this well maybe somebody does but i don't know about that about them so galatians 3 5 it shows that not only is salvation by faith but prayer and miracles come by faith and now this is take let's take it outside the word of faith context for a second let's put it in its new testament context where the emphasis on something coming by faith means you don't earn it that's the emphasis it's not about how perfectly convinced you are it's it's about you not earning it so here galatians 3 5 does he who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by the or by hearing with faith you just believe so miracles god doing wonderful powerful things in your life healing you of your sickness doing you know answering prayer and moving mountains so to speak these things come by you just believing and the emphasis on believing is you didn't work for it you didn't earn it you didn't do anything and on this i want to draw out some important things faith is weak we often think faith is strong faith is powerful faith is this big giant deal of that you're doing but actually i think in scripture the emphasis is kind of the opposite the emphasis is that your faith is weak that's why jesus is like faith the size of a mustard seed you could say the mulberry tree be removed and cast into the sea why why does he make your face so small because you just need to know that your faith is not you earning it it's not you stirring it up you're not pulling up some kind of supernatural power within you you're just trusting god it's just faith is weak faith is you doing nothing except believing god and god doing everything and that's how miracles are accessed that's the teaching here you just believe but there's so much more we need to consider the the temple context in the gospel of mark so in mark's gospel the this is key look um i think a lot of my viewers you get excited by understanding rightly the word of god in its right proper context but there are those you're so used to short quick answers that a long thoughtful careful study is annoying because it requires too much work but you've got to have it here you need this long study look i did i don't know 80 or 90 hours of prep you can handle one hour of listening through or an hour and a half probably today um to try to get this because it's not just about mark 11. it's about prayer it's about your relationship with god and it's about the nature of the church and it's about suffering and pain and how that relates to our prayer life and isn't that important yeah absolutely so let's consider the immediate context here's the immediate context the the the prayer the whole prayer thing that jesus is telling the disciples it was not true prior to the cross it was true post-cross and the big pivotal thing that's happening in the gospel of mark and this is why this prayer promise comes couched in the middle of a promise about destroying the temple the whole pivotal thing is that the destruction of the temple changes prayer from prey uh to the temple and the temple is your access to god to jesus is your access to god you just pray straight to god it's it's moving from the old covenant to the new covenant it's moving from the shadow to the reality this is that pivotal shift and so a teaching on prayer is needed and here's why because we missed this because we're not jewish and we didn't live in the first century but the function of the temple is so central to judaism that judaism like doesn't even work without a temple and i know that's a big statement but let me unpack it i want to give you some quotes the number one quote though is going to be from the old testament which is going to be in second chronicles this passage second chronicles 6 24 through 40 i'm going to read a big chunk of scripture here and i'm going to highlight i'll just kind of emphasize a few different words that solomon is saying when he inaugurates the temple when the temple's first built and they're telling you the function of the temple right the function of the temple this place where the sacrifice takes place and it gives us access to god and it's god's dwelling place within the people of israel and i mean it's just it's jesus in shadow that's the temple right so this is why in the middle of saying the temple will be destroyed he he announces the power of personal prayer to the church here we go second chronicles 6 24 if your people israel are defeated before an enemy because they've sinned against you and they return to you and confess your name and pray and make supplication before you in this house then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people israel and bring them back to the land which you've given them and to their fathers well let me bring up i want you guys to see this too so the prayer has to happen in the house then here from heaven right and bring them back to the land verse 26 when the heavens are shut up and there's no rain because they've sinned against you and they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from your sin from their sin when you afflict them then then when they pray towards the temple hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people israel teach them the good way in which they should walk and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for an inheritance if there's famine in the land so these are all a bunch of if-thins he's like if this happens and we pray to the temple and we reach out to the temple and we access you through the temple then hear us and help us here's here's another one if there's famine in the land if there's pestilence if there's blight or mildew if there's locust or grasshopper if their enemies besiege them in this in the land of their cities whatever plague or whatever sickness there is whatever prayer or supplication is made by all by any man or all your people israel each knowing his own affliction and his own pain and spreading his hands toward this house then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each according to all his ways whose heart you know for you alone know the hearts of the sons of men that they may fear you to walk in your ways as long as they live in the land in which you've given up to our fathers also concerning the foreigner so now let's talk about foreigners so the israelites can pray through the temple and get access to god what about the foreigners the foreigner who is not from your people israel when he comes from a far country for your great namesake and your mighty hand and your outstretched charm when they come and pray toward this house then hear from heaven from your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your people israel and that they may know that this house which i have built is called by your name when your people go out to battle against their enemies by whatever let me just highlight this i kind of pass over but the idea is that when god answers prayer that's pointed towards the temple it will it will be a way of them knowing that the temple is truly god's temple and that it's it's really built in his name okay so it's it's considered a validation of that fact when your people go out uh to battle against their enemies by whatever way you shall send them and they pray to you toward this city which you've chosen and the house which i've built for your name then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication to maintain their cause when they sin against you for there is no man who does not sin and you are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near if they take thought in the land where they are taken captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity saying we've sinned we've committed iniquity we've acted wickedly if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity where they have been taken captive and pray toward their land which you've given to their fathers and the city which you've chosen and toward the house which i've built for your name then hear from heaven from your dwelling place their prayer and supplications and maintain their cause and forgive your people who you have sinned against who has it against you excuse me that's definitely the wrong version uh now oh my god i pray and this is the conclusion let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place okay do you get the idea and this is consistent in the old testament that the the temple is how they accessed god now something happened in 70 a.d it was the destruction of the temple this actually caused rabbis and we have ancient records on this to even wonder if it was even possible for israel to pray anymore since the temple had been destroyed now that in context you realize why when jesus predicts the destruction of the temple he also inaugurates true receptive prayer that happens apart from the temple just because we have a relationship with god through christ it's very important that he gives a theology of how we might have prayer when the temple is gone now let me give you some quotes this comes from the talmud the talmud uh which has the talm is not like the bible in that it doesn't just teach this is true that's true it's rather the talmud which is a jewish ancient jewish text religious text it often carries debates so it'll be like this rabbi said this this rabbi said that and you're trying to figure out what is it teaching and sometimes it's just recording a debate often whoever spoke last is the one that wins the debate and kind of carries the weight so it's a little weird to read it but it's always interesting so the talmud says this rabbi eleazar said from the day on which the temple was destroyed the gates of prayer have been closed as it says yea when i cry and call for help he shutteth out my prayer lamentations 3 8. so rabbi eleazar this this is in um in the babylonian talmud and he records this this this passage in lamentations 3 8 now context lamentations is written after the destruction of the first temple and it says here our our prayers are not being heard by god and so this rabbi says look the temple gets destroyed god doesn't hear us anymore that's it we don't have access to god anymore rabbi eleazar also said i'm quoting the talmud again since the day the temple was destroyed a wall of iron divides between israel and their father in heaven this is something we miss the people of israel understood at the time that the destruction of the temple was devastating to their all their theology to their access to god now the christians the messianic jews they knew that jesus provided the new access to god the full and complete and total better access to god but those who rejected jesus they don't have a temple they have nothing left they don't have this promise of prayer through christ that they can apply and so that's what we get we get the rise of rabbinic judaism now rabbinic judaism is modern day judaism for the most part there's other branches but modern day judaism's rabbinic what that means is the rabbis they they had to rework and in a sense reinvent judaism change it around to work without a temple so they made up new things and changed things around to function with no temple yet there were some rabbis that were resisting this in the talmud and they're like no we have no prayer that's it guys that there's there's no solution anymore and so now they replace sacrifices in the temple with good works and good deeds which is actually i think offensive to the very concept of sacrifice at any rate this is a big deal it's a big deal it's still relevant today this is the theological point that we gentiles miss when we're reading our new testament god wasn't ending prayer when he destroyed the temple here's the point he was making a new and better way to pray through christ you pray in his name and jesus talks about this a lot of times actually in the bible but one in particular is john 4 21 where he's talking to the woman at the well and she's asking hey are we supposed to worship in jerusalem or here and he tells her you know you guys don't know what you're worshiping obviously jerusalem is the place because that's where god set up his name that's the temple but he also adds this woman believe me an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in jerusalem will you worship the father location won't matter right because god's going to put a spirit within you because guess what christian you know this you're going to be the temple that's deep and this is this is like totally central this is why the promise of prayer is couched in the context of the destruction of the temple you're the temple you pray to god god hears your prayers you pray through christ this is what the book of hebrews a lot of it is all about now we're the temple we pray directly and confidently jesus is my access jesus is my mediator because of jesus christ i have direct relational access to god in prayer and all i have to do is trust him i don't need the temple i have jesus i have the new temple i have the greater and better one commentator put it this way on this market passage the jerusalem temple is condemned and replaced by the praying community and i think that is very relevant very very true now to show you that this this isn't just um i like seeing that scripture is interwoven with these theological messages this is kind of the unity of the bible for those who think um they're just a bunch of scattered books randomly written it's god inspired these writings and when we see these same concepts subtly but powerfully taught in mark and then more clearly explained in other passages in the new testament i think that's powerful so first peter 2 5 you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ you're the temple guys the temple's been destroyed that access to god has has shifted over to jesus christ he's the fulfillment of it it was just a shadow all along anyways and now you're the temple so you have direct access ephesians 2 19 so then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of god's household having been built right you're you're the household you're his house the house for his name right that's the temple that's temple language having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets christ jesus himself being the cornerstone well the cornerstone is the cornerstone of the temple in psalm 118 which we've talked about not long ago in whom the whole building is being fitted together it's growing into a holy temple in the lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of god in the spirit do you see this is this is what jesus is giving us in mark 11. it's this theology it's this theology so i think that this is exciting um and it helps us understand the promise about prayer isn't just always believe and you'll get whatever you're believing for that's not just it it's about a massive theological disaster the destruction of the temple and how jesus is replacing and superseding it with something more it's just better in every way and that our prayer to god comes directly to christ now to the simple christian who doesn't know the background the old testament stuff i'm basically saying god hears your prayers jesus is making you into the temple you have access to god at all times you are to be that house of prayer powerful powerful beautiful stuff now let me give you some more stuff on mark 11 that i think is important before we start to branch out because we're going to have to counter point this promise of um of answered prayer with jesus in mark 14 and his unanswered prayer and i think that we're supposed to hold these two together to understand the full teaching on prayer but on mark 11 the point here i want to point out before we go further is that the the person who's praying their part is faith but god's the one who does the miracles now that might not seem like a big observation but let me let me tell you what that means it means that the people who say that your words have power and they kind of act like almost like it's like some star trek type you know like your midi chlorines are firing off and stuff like i said that's how old i am i said star trek and then i referenced star wars um that's how you know you're getting old you can't tell the difference between star trek and star wars at any rate um the it's not about the power of your words it's not about the power of my words my ability to like speak things so what i'm saying is two people both believing with all their heart declaring things in faith they both have the same lack of power in all their words that's there's just nothing there all they have is their belief and their belief is weak belief simply faith that is weak and that's why jesus calls it a mustard seed faith is small whereas prosperity preachers often want to act like faith is massive it's just a simple small little thing of i just believe you lord i just believe prayer is weak faith is small god is strong so we see this in the mark 11 passage because the active and passive terms so you have faith in god that's that's active you're doing that i'm having faith in god whoever says to this mountain be taken up cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes he believes that's what you're doing just believing it will be granted to him so this is passive now he's not doing it he's not the one moving anything he's just believing god and then he goes on again an active and passive context all things for which you pray and ask believe that you've received them active you're believing passive they will be granted to you so all i'm suggesting is that it's god's power who's doing it all and we should highlight that it's not the power of my words it's not the power of my prayer it's not the power of my faith that's really important all right let's talk about forgiveness in this marked passage we get um i'll just i'm going to focus on verses 24 and 25 or actually just verse 25 whenever you stand praying forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father who's in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions i think the context of this is to suggest that um unforgiveness will hinder your prayers right that this is a necessity in your prayer life is that you forgive other people and so i need to talk about this for a minute because one thing that's going to hinder the answer to your prayers and the answer to my prayers and my ultimately hinder my my relationship with god it's going to hurt my relationship with god is my relationship with others involving bitterness and unforgiveness this is kind of a big deal now this this connects with the sermon on the mount in matthew 6 where jesus he says forgive us our teaches us to pray for give us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors which assumes that i've already been forgiving even when i come to god in prayer in um matthew 5 23 this is going to be a challenging thing maybe something you didn't expect when you clicked this video but this is going to be kind of a challenging thing and i do want to challenge you this should challenge you we should take this very seriously and i think as christians we we um we just you know look we live in a culture and some of the things in our culture are conducive to our christianity but a lot of the things are not and the general attitude of bitterness bottling things up and not seeking restoration in relationship this is this is not conducive to my walk with christ matthew 5 23 and 24 therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar you're coming to god now you're the temple so you're offering spiritual offerings right you're offering prayer worship when you're doing that and you remember there that your brother has something against you that is he has you've hurt him he's got something against you leave your offering there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering don't you get this this is saying like every time i come to god in prayer and the holy spirit reminds me which i've had this happen there's this person i've sinned against i should stop actually stop and go and repent and seek restoration with that individual before i come to god and continue in relationship with him that's a big deal why because god loves that person and you've sinned against them so reconciliation this is this is personal it's individual and reconciliation is actually attempted before you're offering things to god and jesus here in marx seems to indicate that um that this is central in you getting answers to your prayers now we can even reinforce this more and we'll talk about marriage which this applies to me first peter 3 7 it says you husbands in the same way live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker since she's a woman and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life so that your prayers will not be hindered i think it's just about women physically being weaker like and if you deny that women physically in general are weaker than you're you're not living in reality uh you know christianity at the same time teaches that all human male and female have equal value or made in the image of god but we're not equal in every in every way we're not well i just say we're not the same in every way our values always equal but our sameness is is ridiculous to pretend that we're the same and um and this is not a political point there's a reality point and it's it's here okay i have to recognize that um there's there's areas in which my wife is gonna be weaker but here's the here's the trippy thing i need to show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life see our values exactly the same so that your prayers will not be hindered wait if i mistreat my wife my prayers will be hindered my prayer to god will be impacted by my lack of forgiveness and love and compassion and grace to my wife okay this might actually explain some unanswered prayer and this is a big deal like the bible makes a big deal about this i wouldn't because as a pastor i don't really like confronting people i'm just like i don't like confrontation any more than anybody else i'm just constantly compelled by by the truth of christianity to be more confrontational hopefully in a godly way and this is an area where we need to do that and to to get up and to learn how to how to create reconciliation not just cut people out of our lives with social media it's like we can so easily just remove this person and then add this person but then we create a trail of shallow friendships that are very unfulfilling often the most fulfilling and best relationships are the ones that have endured through years where you've worked through problems and you've sought reconciliation when there was issues and in marriage you absolutely have to do this all the time don't isolate reconciliate to make it i'm just looking for some alliteration i guess um so if you're forgiving others then conclusion if you forgive other people and you're repentant of sin i think we all understand you know sin will block prayer um unrepentant and have faith in god so if you're doing those things then you have access to god's miraculous power and you can quote ask anything thus is the positive statement in the gospel of mark that we're dealing with ask whatever you want yeah you're in that place of right spirituality forgiveness right relationship with god and others at least as much as depends on you now you can ask whatever you want so then we ask the question okay but what about when god says no right i realize god can't answer prayer and and if i ask believe him but i've asked believing and he said no there's times where i've really believed and he said no and i was no sin that i'm aware of in my heart there was no unforgiveness i'm aware of in my life what about that and here let me give you a quote from sharon dowd's book that i think was really helpful for me here's the quote and listen carefully this is this is where it's going to shift this is this is the missing piece of the puzzle this is why the um why i should not go down the cessationist route on on mark 11 but i also don't want to go down the kenneth copeland route and i think that this shows how you can not abuse this passage of scripture here it is this quote from sharon dowd's book prayer power in the promise of suffering page 129 the theological function of prayer according to 11 22-25 is that prayer serves as the vehicle by means of which the god who can do the impossible meets the needs of the christian community it remains to be seen however how prayer functions when god chooses not to intervene god's negative response to the prayer of jesus in gethsemane raises within the marking text the problem of theodicy and the function of prayer when miracles are not forthcoming okay this is the missing piece of the puzzle and here's the missing piece of the puzzle if i can summarize it for you because i'm going to get into detail here mark presents this blank check kind of teaching on prayer now in context there's a lot more to it than that which we've already covered but still is there anything to counterpoint this is there anything that's going to balance this out for times when god simply says no and the answer is yes and it's in the gospel of mark in chapter 14 when jesus prays the following and god says no so here we are mark 14 35. this is the counterpoint this is the missing piece of the puzzle and he went a little beyond them and fell to the ground this is in gethsemane right before he was uh betrayed and then brought before the courts and then finally crucified and he fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible the hour might pass by him jesus wants to avoid this suffering and he was saying and it wants to doesn't mean he's he's choosing to but of course there's a desire to and he was saying abba father all things are possible for you remove this cup from me yet not what i will but what you will this is in a nutshell exactly the prayer that is anathematized by the prosperity preachers and the word of faith guys and it's the prayer on jesus's lips look when you're telling me to not pray the way jesus prays something's wrong with your teaching mark 14 presents the perfect counterpoint and filling out not disagreeing but filling out the rest of the story of mark 11. and that's what we need so jesus let me let's let's apply mark 11 right he says jesus have unforgiveness in his heart well no of course not right is there sin in his life no of course not does he have true and genuine faith you know towards towards the father absolutely absolutely total perfect faith and then he and then he asks and now jesus is god here but he's but he's standing here as as providing an example for humans on how we interact with god okay that's the point and so jesus has faith no sin no unforgiveness in his life and he prays and he believes all these are possible for you and then he adds this whole idea of but yet let your will be done lord not mine father excuse me he says father your will be done not mine and this is exactly what i've heard over and over from the word of faith preachers never to do that it's a prayer killer and that praying thy will be done to god is a miracle killer and i think this is this is very bad okay this is where you're wrong if you've um it sounds so mean as i'm saying this that i consider good correction right a kindness okay this is this considers a kindness i think that you should consider it that way which is this if you've taught people don't say lord your will be done not mine if you've taught that you've taught them to to reject jesus's prayer you've also taught them to reject the sermon on the mount where jesus teaches us how to pray right jesus teaches you how to pray and says god you know father in heaven hallowed be your name your will be done right your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven so the whole premise of prayer is that god's will not mine is being done so while yes faith is essential god's will is a determiner that ultimately will trump all of that because jesus here he's got faith he's gotten you know perfect prayer and yet the answer is no the answer is no and in a nutshell what i'm saying with all this is that jesus's prayer in the garden stands as an intentional counterpoint in counterpoint to the teaching in mark 11. it stands there under the inspiration of the spirit that was written down by mark under the intentionality of jesus making sure that the disciples could experience and hear and and see him struggling through this moment so that they would learn that they have to suffer too according to god's will that's the lesson faith faith means not only i believe god for miracles faith means i believe god in suffering and if you don't have both of these you have a sub-biblical view of believing now there are those who want you to be so emphasis emphasized or you know focused on the idea of healing and miracles that they will argue against the gethsemane passage and that is a problem faith trusts in suffering when according to god's will the answer to your prayer is no there is still a different yes that's going on yes to god's help right his assistance to you his comfort his empowerment yes to god's work you know he's using this in the world for his glory yes to his glory yes to god working good in your life through even the tough things you go through so those are all guesses and where to take peter's attitude towards suffering without watering down the miraculous power of god working through prayer we also add in this other element first peter 4 19 therefore those also who suffer according to the will of god look at this phrase suffer according to the will of god and what's my posture when i'm suffering according to god's will is to entrust my soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right that is that's the deal suffering is part of the faith-filled believer's life um on page 158 doubt says the following i thought it was very insightful what and and of course she talks like a scholar so you may find it slightly weird but that's how they are uh and i'm not a scholar but i read these guys and try to translate their language back into normal people language a little bit what makes discipleship in the marketing community so difficult is not that it involves suffering but that it involves suffering by those who participate in god's power to do the impossible the god who wills to move the mountain does not always will to take away the cup those who belong to jesus's true family do the will of god whether it involves miracles or suffering that is so right on um the problem that mark is dealing with that mark's addressing sort of behind the scenes is you have this incredible access to god where you believe and he works miracles and yet there are times where you're believing and he's saying no how do we do this the theodicy the term of the theology it's like trying to understand the problem of the suffering that's going on in the life of a believer who knows you see it's it's not it's not just that god isn't healing me or my child or or the situation that's going on it's not that the pain is knowing that he could do you understand this is where i think the battle comes with believers who pray and god says no to healing and he does say no to healing on occasion or maybe even more often than not i don't know in my experience it's more often no than yes now there are times where i've seen god heal talk about that a little bit later uh miraculously but but there are times when he says no and it hurts the heart of the pain of it is thinking that god could have said yes like you you said no but you could have said yes so you have the power i'm believing you you love me you care about me what what's going on here and to this we have mark mark 14 we have jesus we have peter saying those who suffer according to the will of god here's your job just like you thought faith was key key in accessing god's miraculous power you must also believe that faith is key in dealing with suffering when god says no if you think i believe god for healing and he says no do you really believe him if you don't believe him when he says no do i really trust him or was he just like a vending machine i put the coin of faith in and i get what i want and if i don't i i kick and punch the vending machine venue machines don't have wills you just input output machines god has a will and we must submit to that and that does involve our suffering i teach on this all the time because i think that it's super duper relevant every day to the christian life so this is a theodicy in mark an attempt to explain the problem of pain as it relates to prayer problem of suffering it's been a theme in mark often times when when there's a high moment in the ministry of jesus that's the moment jesus takes to tell people like and you're gonna have to take up your cross and follow me and i'm gonna i'm yeah i'm the christ guess what i'm also going to die and suffer and be betrayed and and then die and rise again in three days and peter he stands as the guy saying no lord don't let it happen this is mark eight right no no no you this won't happen he's rebuking jesus about suffering because he just can't see how that could be in god's will and then jesus calls him satan and tells him he's mindful of the things of man and i'm going to say this that i i do really think um and i i don't want you to use this as a hammer to hit people with but i do think it's just true that those who teach that god's will is for you to never go through suffering pick the type of suffering financial um emotional or or more likely they're focusing on um on sickness disease disease is like the thing they'll probably focus on now when they say it's never god's will for you to do that they're like peter rebuking jesus no that would never happen god forbid and i think that they're mindful of the things of man and not the things of god they're trying to push their will onto unto the lord at that point the word of faith teachers they lose the context of suffering as god's will and they can be represented by peter when he refuses to condone suffering by god's will and he's rebuked by jesus as ultimately having a satanic mindset in other words peter's not ruled by god's will but by his own will prayer is not about me ruling god over my will in fact that brings us up to the next issue which is the issue of magic and um the reason why i'm bringing this up is because in the first century we say magic today and it's kind of complicated right we have like fantasy magic and then we have like actual witchcraft which is a big deal even nowadays and wicca and all this kind of thing um but in the in the context of the first century magic was a prominent enough issue that that you know in in having the gospels written god wants to make sure that he differentiates the truth of christianity from the activity of witchcraft and magic and that sort of thing so let me give you some context from the first century that will help us to understand this and there's just one issue that i'll focus on earlier in mark we dealt with how jesus wasn't doing uh magic actually in one of the studies in mark i've dealt with that but this is a different aspect and it's about it's about um how magic is different than than the pious religious person uh in a positive sense the the magician or the witch you know in the first century times the the goal of their magic tricks of their incantations and of their tools that they use when they cast their spells is to force the will of the god or the deity or the gods to obey them at least this is what they're believing right they're they're deceived by demons and all that but they're believing that they're forcing their will upon these supernatural powers and the powers have to obey them whereas in in the gospel in christianity and in right religion before god it is us submitting to the will of god and accessing his power to do what he wants that's the purpose now let me read to you some details on this that i think you'll find interesting there's an austrian scholar named alphonse barb and he says the following the magician forces the supernatural to accomplish what he desires and avert what he fears whereas the religious man submits to the will of the deity of course this is you know like scholars the way they talk is you put this in a christian context you're saying wow okay so if if i'm sort of declaring that my will is the initiator and not god's will then i'm actually moving into the realm of witchcraft contextually of the in the first century and out of the realm of prayer which is what jesus is trying to get us to be in there are several examples from this in in dowd's book in chapter 7 and on page 139 i'll read you one of the weirdest ones one of the most chilling passages in the literature on magic comes to us from the contemporary of the author of mark the roman poet lucian so here this is written at this you know around the same time as mark living at the same time as mark so this is very much first century thinking about magic uh in the in the in the bad not not fantasy in the bad sense here in the account of sextus pompei's dealings with the witch a rich though lucan informs uh lucian informs the readers the reader that thessaly and here's the quote thessaly produces the poisonous plants and magical stones used for encantry purposes by witches who wish to make the gods subservient moreover the impious spells which these infamous women utter do in fact force the reluctant gods to pay heed now here's why i bring this up a distorted teaching on mark 11 in prayer it makes it so that the miracles source in my will instead of in god's will the power of god to heal to do wonderful things it comes from me and not from him i think a biblical teaching is that it comes from god and i respond now another response to this though is where the word of faith preachers are going to say but mike is always god's will to heal it's just always his will and a lot of people do think this i don't agree i don't think that that's biblical and i've given lots of examples in the marx series of that sort of thing but here are a couple practical things i'll mention um and mainly i want to do this i want to say all of these word of faith preachers they acknowledge that sometimes it's it's it's in god's plan to allow the martyrdom of say stephen or the or the death of christ that it's sometimes in god's plan to allow suffering he certainly allows us to die nobody's going to live eternally we're suffering death that's a consequence of the fall but the word of faith preachers will arbitrarily draw a line between all suffering and then sickness and they'll specifically really rail against illnesses so if your suffering is caused by germs or viruses then it can't happen it's always outside of god's will but if you have even greater suffering and it's being caused by persecution you know well that may be according to god's will and you have to say it because i mean first peter the context is you're suffering persecution according to god's will like you it's the most plain teaching uh on the topic so here are some examples right there's apostolic suffering and keep in mind that the apostles were the chief amongst those who were performing miracles in the early church they were called the signs of the apostles because not everyone was doing miracles like that so paul who had these signs he suffered physical ailments and he suffered the ongoing effects of things that he would like to pray away the thorn in his flesh yeah and i'll do a teaching on that topic one day i know it's controversial but some kind of physical thing he was going through yet he saw god's will in it now i've recently taught this but i'll just mention timothy had regular stomach issues now keep this in mind paul the apostle he would go around and heal crowds full of people the handkerchief right heals people and yet timothy has regular stomach issues and paul's not like i'll pray for you you'll be healed i have faith or timothy you have faith instead he's like drink some wine not just water because of your frequent stomach issues now some word of faith people try to say that timothy's real issue is that timothy has nervousness and he's socially awkward and if he drinks wine it helps him to relax a little bit so he can be more socially comfortable i want you to ponder that for a minute um no no the reason why they have to say that is because what's obvious is that timothy had stomach problems and the wine not only water because the water he was drinking was actually uh you know he's a missionary he's traveling it's probably causing him troubles and so he's to drink some wine to help with that um erastus paul's healing everybody right but but erastus he says he left sick and my leaders he just leaves him there right paul heals everybody he just leaves eras to sick in my latest epaphroditus almost died he had a prolonged illness he was a missionary with paul he had a prolonged listen he almost died because of it it was a prolonged illness long enough where their slow mail service could tell other cities about it so it was a long illness but arbitrarily they want to say that we can't have sickness no no no we'll talk around these passages and we'll say christians can't have sickness right it's not like god sometimes does miracles and sometimes says no it's always god's will to heal but this is completely arbitrary right you can't get a cold according to god's will he doesn't will for you to ever be sick you can't have a cold but you could have a mob of of of people come in who are satanically inspired who beat the tar out of you who stab you who cut off limbs of your body and that's okay like that can be in god's will for you but not a cold this is arbitrary right i'd rather be protected from persecution than from the flu if i have a choice about this um yes so this is it's arbitrary um all right now let's let's move on um so so i'm just here i'm just trying to refute the idea that it's always always god's will to heal sicknesses but but not a bunch of other topics arbitrarily anyhow let's talk about this really important issue of am i supposed to make myself believe things is that what this teaching is like the teaching is like if you believe you're going to receive you don't doubt in your heart believe that you have received it this is a really strong teaching and i think that the answer to this is and i know this is a long study but i think everything i'm sharing with you is very valuable i think i've spent three weeks working on this one this one issue and um maybe i should cut this part out and put it as a separate video but i think here's the idea do i have to believe and make myself believe things and that's really the the main and only factor right like to the point where i'm even kind of convincing myself of things that i don't really think i believe is that what i'm supposed to be doing is my job to stir up belief where i don't feel like i have belief and i'm not talking about belief in god yes you need to believe in god i'm talking about belief that god will do x okay i'm sick god will heal me i have cancer god will heal me i have to make myself believe this and i think the answer is no i think the answer is no and here's my case as to why first off jesus had a responsive ministry to god not an initiatory ministry to the father you know jesus is god the father's god but he is living an example for us so that we can humanly follow as much as possible in his footsteps and in his example he's not the one initiating the work of god the work of the father he is the one responding to the father so this is in the gospel of john in particular it's like a theme in the gospel of john maybe you've noticed it and wondered why it was there i think it relates to the issue today john 5 19 therefore jesus answered and was saying to them truly truly i say to you the son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the father doing whatever the father does these things the son does in like manner so all the things that jesus do does healings miracles healing the paralytic that kind of thing he is seeing somehow spiritually aware that the father's going to the father wants to do this the father is going to do this and so then he responds in john 12 49 and this applies directly to the idea that you have to like force yourself to believe things in john 12 49 for i did not speak on my own initiative but the father himself who sent me has given me a commitment as to what to say and what to speak so again there's there's a there's a deep relationship between the father and the son they're you know the father's god the son is god the the relationship is deep and intimate and it is it is the initiatory act of the father that the son is responding to as he walks on this earth in his humility another passage for this is john 15 7 and this is where it starts to turn into something that applies to you okay i hope i'm explaining this well i sure hope so because i think it's very important john 15 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you look at the condition jesus puts on prayer like you can ask whatever you want but the condition is that you're abiding in me and my words are abiding in you why because when you're abiding in christ relationally when you're filled with the spirit the things that you believe god will do you believe them because god is telling you he's going to do them that's my theory that's my theory it hinges on abiding now in john 15 it's about abiding well john 14 and 16 it's about the promise of the holy spirit this is all about your relationship intimate relationship with god meaning that the thing i'm believing god for god has told me by the spirit he's going to do i'm only responding he's initiating i'm responding now the anxiety that's created in the heart of christians because they think they have to initiate the belief that god will do this right you can i don't know how to initiate belief god will do this i can always do the god is this god you know i have a relationship with god through christ god hears my prayer i have access to him he loves me i trust him these are things i can always have confidence in prayer but god will get me this job really i don't know how to have confidence of that and when i don't know i don't i can't pray that kind of prayer of faith that god will do that i just pray god your will be done help me out here i don't know what the plan is um so faith for miracles here's a second point i need to give you this is some heavy theology stuff i hope it and i never hear anybody teach this um so i'm interested in the pushback i'll get on it actually to be completely frank i do think it's very biblical and here's my case on how you can be a you can believe in the in the miraculous work of god ongoing responding in prayer and faith but also believe that people aren't supposed to fabricate beliefs that are not being led by the spirit all right so the second issue is this faith for miracles is different than saving faith and that faith for miracles just like what i read in john as it related to jesus faith for miracles is initiated by god we actually have teaching in the new testament that seems to indicate that you believing that god will do x is coming from god not from you doesn't mean you don't have a choice because you again and this is this is key you do have a decision of whether you will trust the thing that god is revealing to you and that's your that's your faith moment that's your that's the thing but the initiation of thinking god will do in the first place that's coming from the holy spirit okay so here we go faith is different faith for miracles is different than saving faith this is important otherwise every christian has perfect faith for miracles and should see miracles all the time first corinthians 13 2 paul says if i have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love i'm nothing and the implication here is that paul's saying like uh yeah you know if you believed for all of these powerful things to happen then that would be amazing but if you had love it wouldn't matter but the implication is that not all christians have all faith to believe for all these things my only point here is faith for miracles is not the same as faith for salvation okay so these are not the same thing that's it i think that's an important point the second issue is this the the miracle faith of all it's called miracle faith it's initiated by god and you are responding to it by believing what he's revealing to you and i think we can build a case for this starting with romans 12 3. and this is if this is something you've never heard before it might take you a second to wrap your head around it maybe you have to watch this video seven or eight times no you shouldn't have to do that if i've done my job good maybe twice romans 12 3 for through the grace given to me i say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think um is that the right verse oh yes um but to think so as to have sound judgment as god has allotted to each a measure of faith okay so these are christians they're all christians and they're all given a different measure of faith that's interesting now um again this is this is different than just faith for salvation we're talking about faith in the context of spiritual gifts and miracles so this is coming from god faith is a supernatural enablement it's a gift in a sense from god it still involves a choice so don't try and calvinists are going to try and hijack what i said there but it still involves a freewill choice and that's key and that's why jesus whole con whole teaching on prayer matters is because you have a choice to believe these things or not but look at what it says here about prophecy since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us the different faith given to us each of us is to exercise them accordingly if prophecy according to the proportion of his faith so that the prophet is is the one who speaks prophecy whether they're in the in office of a prophet or not but they speak out prophecy they're always doing it in response to something god has instilled in them god gave them an awareness of the truth of something and now they're to declare it to others that's the spiritual gift of prophecy now this is the opposite of what say bethel church has been teaching people which is that they can they can make prophecy happen right they could just make they just walk it to someone and just start talking and and just trust that whatever they say is gonna going to be true because they have like somehow the mind of a prophet or something but this is actually different than scripture scripture is saying god initiates this unless you have this from god this awareness that he is doing this thing then you trust that because you're in that you're believing god and you proclaim it so you're responding god gives you this faith in a sense in in a yeah it's probably kind of complicated to unpack at all but he gives you simplistically he gives you faith you're responding by saying okay i'm going to believe the thing that you're revealing to me lord and i'm going to pray that now this may be exactly how miracles work i think it is actually and it fits my own life there's been times where i've prayed for people and it's not been many times but there's been a handful of times where i prayed for people someone's like um i got this report they found cancer in my body this this happened in our sunday night service years ago someone says they you know they found cancer in my body and i prayed over this man and i just had this awareness okay maybe some people think i'm weird but look either you have a there's a real relationship with god or i'm a weirdo one of the other well maybe maybe both at any rate um i really just sensed from the lord that he was going to heal this man that this was going to be answered that his answer was going to be yes and that did change my faith while i was praying the funny thing is i didn't say like be healed jesus i didn't i just prayed like normal like lord we just pray that you heal him i just pray like normal because i think i just have to have mustard seed i don't have to like be weird and god healed he came back now i've had this happen a few times where there's times where i just there's a sense of my spirit that god's going to heal somebody and it's been accurate okay it's been reliably accurate now if you're not reliably accurate you're mistaking your heart for god's spirit and you need to learn the difference how i can't tell you how you need to learn by going well that wasn't the lord so now i know but that means it's initiated by god that that's what this whole idea is it's a it's a given by god it's initiated by him and then i respond which means i don't have to pretend to believe things or make myself believe things god will do x when i don't know if god's going to do that i know god is good i know god hears me i'm going to pray about that i'm going to pray according to that unless the holy spirit reveals to me god will do x i don't need to pretend that i'm convinced he will please take the anxiety out of your prayer okay acts chapter 14 verse 8 i think gives us an example of this in the book of acts check this out at lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet lame from his mother's womb who had never walked this man was listening to paul as he spoke who when he'd fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well said with a loud voice stand upright on your feet and he leaped up and began to walk look at how this plays out in paul's ministry paul's teaching there's a guy there who's crippled i mean you know if you have a choice if if you can just have faith and make a miracle happen right then then why didn't paul just go hey be healed and that's a great way to draw attention for a sermon right be healed and now that i got your attention i'm gonna tell you about god that's a fantastic way to approach things but no paul doesn't do anything until he sees that the man has faith to be made well what does it mean to see that the man has faith i don't think paul did this through natural human ability it's not like you can look at somebody and go i see that you have enough faith and proper faith in order to be healed today i don't have any natural ability to do that paul's responding to the work of the holy spirit and this is the the whole case right jesus he's his his work of miracles it's initiated by the father he tells us that our answered prayer is contingent on us abiding in him and that's probably partially because we must respond to god revealing that he wants to heal someone by believing that he will heal them that's the deal all the anxiety is gone it's just about faith now so we get this ask anything according uh you know according to faith well it's got to be initiated by god it was initiated by god in the father in the relationship with with the father and the son and it's said to depend upon our abiding and we see an example here um paul the apostles responding that way yet there's many times where he doesn't heal people what could possibly explain this is paul's faith faltering no it's just the will of god which is why first john 5 14 it tells us this is the confidence we have before him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and i don't know that god's will is never for anyone to have a cold i don't know that i don't believe that i think it's arbitrary and weird but god does heal and and prayer offered in faith to god is powerful and we need to not water this down we're not like this is why no one will ever get healed like this of course not that's not that's not the biblical teaching we're just saying that like let me give you another example okay here's another example we can see this in scripture james 5 15 is one of the prayer passages that's used that should be used about god healing in prayer and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who's sick and the lord will raise him up and if he's committed sins they will be forgiven him the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who's sick now on my theory my theological understanding is that that faith is a gift of is a gift of god i'm responding by believing what god's revealing okay so in other words this is this is in the context of verse 15 is when it's god's will to heal you'll just believe and god will heal them guaranteed absolutely but does james limit this to god's will in the book of james and the answer is yes one chapter back james 4 15. he rebukes people for having business plans business plans um and not submitting to god's will he doesn't even want you planning your next quarterly cycle without submitting to god's will so in verse 15 he says instead you ought to say if the lord wills we will live and do this or that and it's arrogance to just boast that you just know what god's will is when you don't ah that's the counterpoint that's the balance faith is initiated by god god's will is not always known to me i'll submit to it and and then if he's initiating it it will absolutely happen another passage that speaks to this is first corinthians 12 and this is in verse 8. first corinthians 12 8 here's another one that helps bring this stuff together for the one who is given the word for to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit right it's a gift of the spirit and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit and to another gifts of healings by the one spirit there's a variety these things are based upon the initiation of god not the initiation of my belief what right your belief is is the weak link in the chain if god wants to heal somebody he shows you he's going to heal them but you don't choose to trust him in that moment yes that's going to be a failed attempt uh and to another the effecting of miracles into another prophecy into another the distinguishing of spirits and to other various kinds of tongues to another interpretation of tongues and then here's key but one in the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually just as he wills he wills miracles are based on his will individ and it's not given to everybody it's depending on the will of god in the particular moment and i'm i mean i like that because i want the will of god in my life so um oh i was i was showing you i was showing you all these wonderful things in first corinthians and you missed it because i didn't show it to you so the conclusion is the healing is going to happen if god wills which you will know by the revelation of the holy spirit in your life because i'm charismatic and there is a human choice to respond to this and that's the encouragement of mark 11 that you believe god when he is inspiring you that he's going to do something that you trust him for it that's what mark 11 is teaching here's the contextual conclusions let me let me wind this all down mark is about prayers function in the new covenant with the old temple gone and the new temple is the church and we have access to god through through faith in christ and this is the simplest most overlooked thing we're just saying that prayer works that prayer is real and that you just need jesus for your prayers to be heard by god that it's based upon your forgiveness by god and of course will be hindered by sin your unforgiveness of others or a lack of trusting in god it's also about having faith in the sense of not works right you don't earn the things you're not doing anything effort wise to give to make god respond to you or to earn his favor it's just believing in him that's required and so you're not working for it it's all by grace so that all his miracles and works are done by god's grace and that real faith real faith this brings in mark 14 as well real faith is believing believing when the answer is no real faith is believing when the answer is no and that god's will for your life does involve temporary suffering and can i say this like maybe you're listening to this and you've been influenced by kenneth copeland or influenced by those who were teaching that if you just believed enough you would be healed and you've been trying to convince yourself that god's going to heal you and i'm just saying like that i think that that convincing should come from the holy spirit and not from you and not from kenneth copeland and one of the hardest pills to swallow and it is hard i've talked to a family member who has chronic issues and i asked him one time i i thought it was important i just said what if god decides not to heal you what if it's god's will for this to continue and he's going to use it in your life and and i mean as i tried to give these pastoral encouragements biblical encouragements the path was cut off because while this person wants very much to believe to be healed there is almost no faith for suffering and that i would say is the harder path of faith it's easier to believe god for healing than it is to believe when you know he could and he has said no jesus gives us the example of trusting in the midst of anguish and suffering that you that you don't understand or that you can't explain that is just simply according to god's will for whatever reason he has you you fall back on who he is and you say lord i trust you i trust your goodness and i'm resting in you so that with healing or not healing faith is the key faith is the key i hope that this has been helpful um i'm trying not to water anything down or hold anything back i think that what i've given is a thoughtful and thorough explanation of these of these issues and if you guys have questions or thoughts please put them in the comments and i'm going to try as much as i can i try to watch the comments and be aware of how these things are impacting you guys other than that um i will a weird note to end on i'm an in on prayer actually but i will offer a video later this week about my new logo because you guys presented a bunch of new logo ideas for bible thinker and i have picked one and i'm gonna present it later this week and then friday we'll do the q a 1 p.m pacific time answering your questions maybe there'll be questions about today's video i'm welcome to receive anything you guys have to say but let's close in prayer let's close in prayer father it's all really about not just believing you'll do things but about believing you believing in your character believing your goodness believing in your love and trusting in your sovereignty and desiring your will above all else we absolutely pray for healing in our lives for help where we're suffering and struggling but we also pray your will be done and if you reveal to us that you are gonna heal then lord it's our job to trust you that you in fact will do that but when we're in the dark and we don't know what the the plan is or we even know that your plan is is to say no to something then it is not time to stop believing but it's time to start trusting you for suffering lord help us with this because this is a massive issue it was massive issue for the the people reading the gospel of mark initially it's a massive issue for us today let us be people who really believe not just for miracles but for suffering in jesus name amen amen all right thank you all and lord bless you

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 161,461

Rating: 4.8927202 out of 5

Keywords: Mike Winger, Mark 11, fig tree, the mark series part 43, the mark series, kenneth copeland, mountain moving sermon, how correct is kenneth copeland, name it and claim it, praying in faith, word of faith, word of faith prayer, whatever you ask

Id: VvA5ZWDSdmo

Length: 83min 28sec (5008 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020