A teaching by Rev. Barbara Williams, President of the Ministry of the Watchman International
Week of July 4-8, 2022
MONDAY
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.”
Mark 11:22
Have faith in God. This is a very powerful and sobering statement. Today it is fashionable for people to talk about their faith. Successful people tell their testimonies and state how important it is to “follow your dreams,” “believe in yourself,” or “have good thoughts” about the things we are trying to accomplish. You can be positive about everything and yet be positively wrong.
Many people keep a good confession, speak positive, think positive, but it is the anointing that destroys the power of the devil. The anointing is the power of God. If our faith is not in God—His nature, His character, His power—then all our positive thinking and speaking is in vain.
There is no power in our brains that can remove sin, sickness, death and poverty—the curse of the broken law. While it is better to be positive than negative (I’ve been both), it is much, much better to put one’s trust in God. Once we know the Living God, we can rest assured that what He has promised He is able also to perform.
This passage is sometimes translated as “Have the faith of God.” You mean we can have God’s faith? Yes, if we are born again we live by the faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2:20). It is referred to as most holy faith. It is increased by feeding on the word of God, meditating on scriptures, and praying in the Holy Ghost (Jude 1:20). We can have this kind of faith working in us. By exercising it through our confession and corresponding action, we can receive the results that God guarantees.
If you are in need of healing, there is good news! Proverbs 4:20-22 SAYS:
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
So there is life and health in God’s word. Since God’s word is medicine, we must take it like we would a prescription. I suggest three times a day, like you would your food. Remember, healing is the children’s bread. Consider this your “dose” for today. Remember, read, and meditate three times a day the following:
Rx: Nahum 1:9 ~ What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15
If you’ve never studied the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we invite you to join us as we read through the Bible in a year. Read and meditate on these chapters this week:
July 4: Joshua 6:6-26, Psalms 135-136, Isaiah 66, Matthew 14
July 5: Joshua 7, Psalms 137-138, Jeremiah 1, Matthew 15
July 6: Joshua 8, Psalms 139, Jeremiah 2, Matthew 16
July 7: Joshua 9, Psalms 140-141, Jeremiah 3, Matthew 17
July 8: Joshua 10, Psalms 142-143, Jeremiah 4, Matthew 18
July 9: Joshua 11, Psalms 144, Jeremiah 5, Matthew 19
July 10: Joshua 12-13, Psalms 145, Jeremiah 6, Matthew 20
TUESDAY
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
Mark 11:22-23
If we put our faith in God, and speak to the mountains in our lives (instead of running from them, around them, and talking to God about them), then Jesus guarantees those mountains will be removed from us.
Do we believe that our own words will come to pass? They do anyway. But in order for this type of godly faith to work in us, we must have faith in God, and He has told us that this type of active faith is available to us. We can speak to a mountain and it will move.
What is a mountain? It is anything that stands between us and the promise that God has given us. A mountain maybe within us. It may be our own unbelief, willfulness, stubbornness or lack of discipline. However, most mountains are outside of us. Mountains include illnesses, symptoms, debt, fear, unjust people in our lives, or disappointment. God has given us authority to speak to any obstacle in our lives and command it to move.
If we have faith in God, then we know that these mountains must obey us. We develop the God-kind of faith by meditating and feeding on the word of God. Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will and it will be done for you by my Father which is in heaven” (see John 15:4-9). The more we build our faith through hearing the Word, the more powerful our speaking-to-the-mountain will be. The more we speak to the mountain, the more our faith increases. We do this repeatedly until one day, the mountain moves. We can have what we say, even when opposition arises.
Faith continues to say it even though it hasn’t happened yet. Faith never quits, it is never fatigued, and never doubts that the mountain will move. Faith simply believes God.
WEDNESDAY
[Jesus continued,] “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Mark 11:24
We must believe that we receive the things we desire when we pray. This is the key to our success. Many people want to see something first and then believe. We want to get supernatural results by natural means.
Faith is the substance and evidence of something unseen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is very real and is tangible.
Many people ask for what they desire without first building their faith by meditating on the Word. Merely asking without the Word abiding in you will not get you very far. If you would study and meditate on the Word until the substance of faith is rock solid inside of you, then you can speak to any thought or situation contrary to the word and it will move.
When we pray we ask the invisible God using our invisible faith to give us something from the invisible realm. Why then do we want to see something before we believe we have it? Why can’t we believe that it is given even though it is not seen?
We use this kind of faith all the time. We apply for a loan and get the approval. We then go out and make plans for what we are going to spend it on. Why? Because we judge the lending institution faithful to keep their word that we have met their standard of approval and have been granted our request.
So it is with God. When we ask in faith, we ask knowing that God will keep His word to us. This is the unwavering child-like faith that pleases God. When we believe that our faith has pleased Him, we can have what we say we desire.
Thanking Him for what we have requested before we see it is another means of showing Him our faith in Him. We will have what we ask of Him, if we give Him thanks for it ahead of time.
THURSDAY
[Jesus added,] “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Mark 11:25
Unforgiveness is rooted in iniquity, but forgiveness establishes us in the faith of the Son of God. Whatever sins have been committed against us should not be allowed to stand in our way of receiving from God. After the resurrection, Jesus empowered His disciples with the Holy Spirit saying, “Whosoever sins you forgive are forgiven” (John 20:23). This is part of our authority as sons of God. We are commanded to freely forgive as we have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:32).
Forgiveness makes us more like God. We take on His character and nature. We walk before Him holy as He is holy. As a holy people, we have an audience with God; and we know we can come boldly to His throne of grace and obtain the mercy we need.
Unwillingness to forgive is a form of pride; God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Stay humble under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due time. He will honor you and give you the desires of your heart. Have faith in God. He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we are cleansed, we will see God, and know His ways. When we know God’s ways, then we have a confidence and assurance that our faith in Him will produce what we desire.
FRIDAY
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Mark 11:22-25
Remember the children of Israel after crossing the Red Sea? Each challenging experience they faced was met with murmuring and complaining against God or the leader. This is unforgiveness. They were angry with God because everything was not easy for them. They acted out against Moses, who was chosen by God to lead them, and took their anger out on Moses by talking about him. This would make anybody uncomfortable. God will not allow us to treat His servants with this type of disrespect, so the people were not allowed to enter into their promised land. They lacked faith in what God told them when they came out of Egypt. He said that He would lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey. However, whenever they met an obstacle, they accused God of being unfaithful. God never said there would not be any problems. They could only trust that God was with them when things were going right.
They walked around the same mountain over and over again. Complaining magnifies the mountain, so you can only go round it. God gives us the power to speak to the mountain and it must move. We do this with our faith. Faith comes when we hear, and hear, and hear the word of God. We need to listen to the Word continuously to keep mountain-moving faith abiding in our hearts. Even if we start with mustard seed size, when we sow it by speaking to the mountain and feeding on the Word, it grows into a large plant that uproots any mountain we may have in life.
What mountains are standing in the way of your promise? Feed on scriptures that promise you success against that mountain and begin to speak to it. Initially you may feel puny against it, but I guarantee that if you continue to stand and not doubt, you will soon look like the “Jolly Green Giant” and your mountain will look like a pebble. Kick it out of your way with faith in God.
Believe and not doubt! Keep love in your heart through forgiveness and you will see mountain after mountain crumble before you.
Have faith in God.