“If You Can Believe”
By Pastor Mark Taylor
Mark 9:23
Jesus said this about the impossible: “Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9:23). And "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
Many of our Lord Jesus Christ’s main teachings were of having faith and believing. “Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you." (Matthew 9:29. “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20).
Our Lord wants us to open our minds to discover possibilities that might not seem obvious at the time. For each of us it could be achieving goals that we have. It requires that we have a vision and faith to reach those goals. The vision needs to be something we can see. Can you see your vision? “Where there is no vision, the people perish?” (Proverbs 29:18). Our Heavenly Father created our Earth out of things that did not exist. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrews 11:3). God operates by speaking words of faith.
But seeing the vision is only the first part of putting your faith to work. The second part is to set goals to achieve your vision. You need to set some short term and long term goals to accomplish your vision. Is your vision worth taking the time, energy, and money to achieve? If it is you should begin to inspire yourself to take steps to put your faith to work. Put your personal vision into words. “I want to see God accomplish this vision in my life.” Put that vision in words and begin to speak words of faith and ask the Lord Jesus to give you a way to make it happen.
Your vision and goals need God’s blessing and involvement in order for the vision to become reality. He is not going to give you anything that goes against His Word and His Will. In teaching us how to pray and believe He also said: "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” (Luke 11:2). If it is not God’s will, then your vision is the wrong one, and even the things you believe you want will not happen because they are not His Will. For instance, it is not God’s will that we live forever on this earth in this body, so perfect health for now is not going to happen. Everyone that the Lord Jesus healed and even those He caused to be raised from the dead, eventually died. The perfect health did happen, when they entered Heaven. You can still receive healing now, but it will only be temporary. Our bodies are not designed to live forever. Our soul will receive a new body that will.
How will you know if it is “God’s Will”? You won’t unless you are a child of God and you ask Him. “Yet you have not, because you ask not” (James 4:2). You can ask God for peace in your vision. “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). If you need something more concrete ask God to give you a “sign” as He did for Gideon in Judges 6:37-40, and as He did for Abraham’s servant Eliezer from Genesis Chapters 22-24. A prayer I usually pray goes something like this: “Lord, if you want me to do this thing, open the doors so I can go through them. If it is not Your will, close them, lock them, and do not let me go through them.” He has honored that prayer many times in my life. Just understand that He may not let you go through the door even if you want to.
Obstacles In Believing
“Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9:23).
We serve a great and awesome God!! “O LORD, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep” (Psalms 92:5). He is not only great, but He wants to share His greatness with you and me. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
If “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23), and the Lord wants to bless you with “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11), then why don’t we have the things we want? The answer is complex and I hope to present to you some obstacles that might be keeping you from really believing and receiving from God.
You were made by God and given certain abilities and gifts to accomplish your purpose during the time you are here on earth. You may be unfulfilled in your life because you have not found the purpose God has for you. We need to understand that it is not God’s fault that our dreams and hopes are not fulfilled. “It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19). God has given us many promises that are waiting for us to receive.
One the first obstacles to receiving what we are “believing”, is that we really haven’t identified what we really want. We are not sure of the purpose for wanting it, and we are not sure what we are going to do with it when we get it. God’s will and purpose for your life is not a secret. "The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will” (Acts 22:14).
A second obstacle is making sure that the thing we are “believing” for is God’s will. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:13-15). God is not going to give you something that is going to cause you harm or bring dishonor to His Name. You can trust that He has your best interest at heart. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
A third obstacle is understanding that our “believing” is something that often takes time to receive and often requires action on our part. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26). Receiving what we ask for might require a journey and we have to find out if it is really worth the cost we might have to pay to get it. Just wanting something is not “believing”. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it (Luke 14:28-29). What is the “impossible” thing you are praying for? The word “believe” is an action word that requires more than a mental exercise. I “believed” that God would give me the ability to get a college education, but it took me many years of hard work to see it happen. Noah “believed” God would save him, but he had to build an ark. Moses “believed” God could and would deliver his people, but he had to lead them across the Red Sea. We are encouraged to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much. (James 5:16). To have the “things” you are praying for, you have to get with God and identify them as His will for you, and then wait upon Him. “But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31). When the Lord Jesus gives you the direction you are to go, then start running and flying toward seeing your prayer become reality.
