Read Mark 11:22-25⤒🔗

There are five components here, five elements, five necessities for powerful prayer, effective prayer, okay? I’m going to show them to you. Five elements, necessities, features of powerful prayer. Some are implicit and some are explicit. Let’s start with the first one.

First of all, powerful, effective prayer has a historical component. Okay? It has a historical component. What do you mean by that?

Well let’s look back at this one little brief incident as kind of an insight into that. Peter says, “The fig tree which You cursed has withered.” He is saying, I have seen the display of Your power. The historical component is to remember, is to remember, being reminded or remembering, Peter said, “Wow! The Fig tree You cursed has withered.”

The historical foundation of an effective prayer life is to understand that God has put His power on display in the past and you’re aware of it. They didn’t realize that the fig tree withered immediately when He cursed it the day before. They just didn’t see it till 24 hours later. Peter is startled, “How does this happen, such power?” And he remembers the display of power. That’s where all effective prayer begins, with some sense of God’s past power displays. Why would you call on the Lord now if He hadn’t proven Himself in the past?

When the children of Israel came to the promised land in Deuteronomy and they were about to enter the promised land after all their years in Egypt and then forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the book of Deuteronomy was given, the second law, the law is repeated to set them in order before they go into the land to possess it, and fifteen times in that book of Deuteronomy we read, “You shall remember...You shall remember...You shall remember.” You’re going to go in there, you’re going to face formidable (challenging and forbidding) opposition, you’re going to face all kinds of problems, you’re going into a foreign land, you’re going to conquer the land, you’re going to kill the people, you’re going to take over the land, there’s going to be all kinds of obstacles and all kinds of opportunities, you need to remember. You need to remember.

Remember what? Remember the God who reserved you, remember the God who delivered you out of Egypt, remember the God who rescued you from the death angel at the Passover, remember the God who let you walk through the water untouched and then drowned all of Pharaoh’s army, remember the God who fed you manna in the wilderness, remember the God who provided water from a rock, remember, remember, remember, remember. That is the foundation of effective prayer now and in the future.

And I will just tell you this, the more you remember, the stronger your confidence (that you can rely on) in God. People who are new in the faith, who don’t have the history of what God has done in the past, either in scriptural history, church history, or personal history are at a disadvantage from those of us who have been around a long time praying and seeing God answer. There are some advantages of being old, and that’s one of them. I’ve lived to see the mighty hand of God in answered prayer more times than I could ever, ever, ever count.

The prophet Isaiah says, “Remember...remember...remember,” it’s a great passage in Isaiah 46, “Remember...remember there’s no God like Me, remember, I know the end from the beginning.” Psalm 77, Psalm 78, Psalm 105. Psalm 143, on and on it goes. One of the components of worship is to recite the deeds which God has done because that’s fuel for worship, isn’t it? Peter remembered. That’s just a little glimpse (small look) of that and it’s only implied there, but the truth is the same. We start with an active, powerful, effective prayer life when we have confidence in the revelation of God’s answers to prayer in the past. The more you know about the Old Testament, the more you know about redemptive history (God’s acts of redemption from creation to the present), the more you know about the New Testament, the more you know about the history of the church...I love to study history because I love to see how God displayed His power in such mighty ways through choice and faithful servants, cause that...that anchors my own confidence that He hears and answers prayer. So the historical element is to remember and the more you have to remember biblically, historically, and personally, the stronger the foundation of your confidence in prayer.

Secondly, there’s a theologically (study of God) component. The theological component to prayer and we see that in verse 22,

“Jesus answered saying to them, He’s including all the Apostles and disciples that are there, ‘Have faith in God.’”

That’s the first clear statement with reference to prayer...Have faith in God.

Now the point here is not about faith. It’s about God. This is the theological element of prayer and what it means is trust God...trust God. Matthew 21, a parallel passage, adds, “Have faith in God and don’t doubt.”

It’s not the nature of faith here that is the issue. It’s the character of God that is the issue. Another way to say it, “Trust God.” I will tell you, look, if you want to have an effective prayer life, you must trust God. You must trust His power, but you also must trust His purpose and His promise and His plans and His will. In other words, you have to trust that He knows better than you do, trust God, trust God.

In the disciples’ prayer when the disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray,” He said, “Pray this way. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.” That’s how you pray. “God, whatever honors Your name, advances Your Kingdom, and accomplishes Your will, that’s what I pray.” That’s how you really pray.

The other way to pray is to pray to consume it your own lusts, on your own desires, to demand things from God. And James says, “You ask and you don’t receive because you ask to consume it on your own desires.” All prayer starts with Your honor, Your Kingdom, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what it means to trust God.

First John 5:14 essentially says that. And these are familiar verses to all of us, but I need to remind us of them. “This is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to...what?...His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we’ve asked of Him.” If you ask in His will, you’re going to receive what you ask. If you ask to consume it on your own lusts, you’re not going to receive it. In fact, James also tells us in James 4:15, “We ought to say if the Lord wills we will do this or that.” In John 14:13 and 14 it says, “Whatever you ask...Jesus says, whatever you ask in My name, I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son...in My name, consistent with My person, consistent with My purpose, consistent with My plan, consistent with My will, consistent with My Kingdom.”

So, the historical necessity in prayer is to remember. The theological necessity in prayer is to trust God, to submit to God. A couple of illustrations of that. Philippians chapter 1, Paul is a prisoner here which was not a happy experience, very primitive horrific circumstances. He says in verse 12 of Philippians 1,

“I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known through the whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else.”

And then this,

“And most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear.”

That’s a great statement. Others are trusting in the Lord that even if they end up in prison; it’s going to end up for the furtherance of the gospel as my imprisonment has. The operative phrase here, “trusting in the Lord.” That’s what we’re talking about. When Jesus says, “Have faith in God,” He’s saying, “Trust the Lord...trust the Lord.” Nothing...nothing could be better and more secure than that.

Listen to 1 Peter 4:19. “Those who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.”

Trust God, trust your life to Him, trust your circumstances to Him. The believer who prays with a great sense of history, and understands the power of God, the believer who prays with a great sense of trust and understands that the best of all things is the will of God, unleashes heaven’s power.

This is so important for these men to learn because life was going to take a dramatic, dramatic turn. I would never tell God what I want, demand from God what I want, corner God. I just want what He knows is right and true and good and best.

There’s a spiritual component to add to the historical component and theological component. Pretty simple, verse 23, a spiritual component, “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes...there’s the operative word, that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”

What is the spiritual component? Believe...believe. You know, that is an amazing verse. Truly, that’s emphatically (clearly and forcefully) letting us know that in spite of the fact that this seems too much, too outlandish (strange), too outrageous (bold and unusual), too over the top, too much to give, too much to offer, too big, it’s true. This is exactly what God means...truly. And it’s Jesus saying it personally, “I say to you, ‘Whoever...I like that, don’t you? I see me in there somewhere and all of you...Whoever.’” And here comes this illustration, “Whoever says to this mountain...” Now people have written pages and pages on what mountain it is. Really. It could be a hypothetical (not real, imagined) mountain, but since He’s standing on a mountain, maybe it’s the mountain He’s standing on. Some people think it’s the Mount of Olives. I don’t know, maybe it is the Mount of Olives, maybe it’s the Temple Mount, whatever mountain He’s pointing to, it doesn’t really matter, it’s just the general principle, “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up, or lifted up, and hurled into the sea,’” That’s a pretty big order. “‘And doesn’t doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.’”

Now you wouldn’t take that literally, would you? I mean, you could test it, if you want, I really don’t think it’s going to work. You can go stand in front of any mountain you choose, even a small one, and it’s not likely to get up into the air and go out over the ocean. Nor did Jesus ever do anything like that in His life and ministry.

What in the world is this? This is simply an analogy, this is hyperbole (claims not meant to be taken literally), nothing more than that. In other words, it’s part of their understanding of how illustrations develop, so of traditionally. If you read the Babylonian Talmud which has a lot of Jewish sayings in it, rabbis are identified there who could solve severe problems as movers of mountains, or rooters up of mountains.

We might say about a person who is a formidable person, “That person can move mountains,” and we know what that means. We know exactly what that means. Well there were no less figures of speech in the biblical languages and in the biblical times then there are today. This is talking about really difficult things, hard things. I remember as a boy, my father used to say to me, “You can make a mountain out of a mole hill.” You probably said something like that. You don’t literally mean that, that’s just a figure of speech and that’s what this is. There may be some serious issue, some severe issue confronting you, some grave concern that doesn’t seem to have a human solution. If you will not...look at the verse, 23...

"doubt, one who doesn’t doubt in his heart down deep, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”

Wow, doubt will not serve you well because who are you doubting? You’re doubting God. Now remember this, folks. You hear all this stuff today about the faith movement where it’s your faith that has the power. That’s not true. That’s a lie. Your faith has no power and your words spoken in faith have zero power. That is a deception. God has all the power. Your faith is only a way to activate God’s power within the framework of His purpose.

Listen to James 1, however. The doubt here is not doubting your own faith. You hear that, you know, these TV preachers, you know, you can’t doubt the power of your words. You can’t doubt the power of your faith.

You better doubt the power of your faith and you better doubt the power of your words because they’re impotent. The power is with God. We’re not talking about doubting you; we’re talking about doubting Him. Don’t do that. James 1:6, “He must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” Just blown all over the place if you doubt. “For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord because he’s a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

The issue here is whether you believe God, or whether you doubt God. Don’t doubt. Believe and believe that what He says is going to happen and it will be granted him. This is calling for faith...faith in the power of God, faith in the power of God to do this, faith in the goodness of God, faith in the wisdom of God.

Now let me give you an illustration. You say, “How much faith do I have to have to activate this?” Well let’s look at Matthew 14 for a minute...Matthew 14, and we’ll go to verse 29. Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water. Came toward Jesus, then he saw the circumstances. Saw the wind, became frightened, began to sink and said, “Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand, took hold of Him and said to Him, ‘You of...how much faith?...little faith, why do you doubt?’”

Wow. Jesus heard his prayer. You know what the key principle here is? Little faith is enough...little faith is enough...little faith is enough. There’s a threshold there. Did Peter have great, stupendous sweeping faith? No. He had little faith. But he was granted his prayer even though his faith was small...little faith.

Look at Mark 9 and I’ll show you another illustration. Kind of build an understanding of what we’re talking about here when we’re talking about faith, how much faith. Mark 9 verse 14, The disciples and Jesus meet and when Jesus comes back to the disciples from His transfiguration, there are some scribes arguing with them. One in the crowd, verse 17, says, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with the spirit which makes him mute.” This is a demon-possessed boy. “Whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, they couldn’t do it...couldn’t do it. And He answered them and said, ‘O unbelieving people.’”

Peter could walk on water because he had little faith. They couldn’t do anything for this boy because they had no faith. They didn’t even have enough faith as the father of the boy. “They brought the boy to Jesus...verse 20...when he saw him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion. Falling to the ground he began rolling around foaming at the mouth and He asked his father, Jesus did, ‘How long has this been happening to him.’ and he said, ‘From childhood. It’s thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘If You can? You haven’t heard about Me?’ And the boy’s father cries out, ‘I do believe, help my...what?...unbelief.’”

It’s always going to be faith mixed with some doubt. We don’t have perfect faith, do we? You were saved by faith, true? Was it a perfect faith? A hundred percent, to the max, to the wall, to the limit, no shadow of doubt? No. You live by faith, you walk by faith...is it a perfect faith, is it a supreme faith, ultimate faith? No. But there’s a threshold at which no faith becomes little faith and little faith, “I believe, help my unbelief.” is enough to activate the power of God.

Is that good news? Is that good news? Yes. I think it’s great news because we all live there. I mean, we’re human and we’re walking by sight and struggling with faith.

In Matthew 6 He says you have little faith because they didn’t believe in His provision. In Matthew 8 He says, you have little faith because they didn’t trust Him in the storm. In Matthew 14 He says they have little faith because of the incident again on the water. In Matthew 16 they have little faith because they don’t believe that He can provide and supply for the crowd. I mean, they just constantly had little faith. Little faith...needs elements that are humanly manageable. You know, when they had the clothes and the food and the calm seas and the visible resources and Jesus was there, they had little faith. But when He’s leaving now, they were going to need more than that.

Just exactly how much faith is this? Oh, according to Matthew 17:20, it’s the faith the size of a grain of mustard seed. That is more good news...more good news. Faith isn’t the power, faith is the empty hand that receives the power from God. And they needed to learn this. They were going to have to at least get their faith up to the size of a grain of mustard seed because in Matthew 17:20 Jesus actually said the same thing, “If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Be removed’ and it will be removed.” Even a small amount of struggling faith can draw down the power of God in the life of a believer. What an amazing promise. Is that not grace upon grace upon grace upon grace? So, the spiritual component is to believe.

 

John MacArthur