19 Nov IHOP (International House of Prayer) I Heard You the First Time! Part 4
Over the last few weeks, we began discussing “Three Common Misperceptions Concerning Answered Prayer”:
Misperception #1: Quantity is what determines answered prayer (Matt. 6:7).
Misperception #2: Feelings determine answered prayer.
This week let’s continue…
Misperception #3: The answer is not the answer for answered prayer (Mark 11:12-24).
This one’s a little tricky! Just because you get in my car and drive it, doesn’t mean you own it! You better get the title to it before you drive it away! The Bible tells us, “And on the morrow when they were come from Bethany He (Jesus) was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon, and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, ‘No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever’ and His disciples heard it” (Mark 11:12-15).
Mark 11:20-24 goes on to tell us, “And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Up to this point in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all the examples of Jesus’ ministry were instant miracles. This was the first incident that after Jesus had spoken happened in a process. He used this process to teach them about faith (see also Hebrews 6:13, Mark 4:26-29). In Mark 11:21 Peter was astonished and pointed to the answer. “Wow, the fig tree you cursed is withered away!” Jesus redirected Peter’s attention from the answer and to what brought the answer (again, refer to Mark 11:22-24)…faith!
Notice in Mark 11:24, “when you pray believe you receive.” “When” points to a particular time frame. If I say, “When you get in your car, call me” or “When you get to the office, call me”, I am clearly referring to a particular time frame in which you are to do something. The only time frame found in Mark 11:24 is WHEN YOU PRAY. After that it’s “and you shall have them.” “Shall have” has no particular time limit. “When you pray” is my part and in my control. “Shall have” is God’s part and in his control. In other words, I believe I receive when I pray…not when I see the answer!
If my focus is on the manifested answer and I see nothing has changed after I pray, I may be very dejected. I completely forgot that faith is the title deed (see Hebrews 11:1)! I see this all the time when people come to me and say, “Pastor, my doctor has given me a very serious possible diagnosis and I’m going to the hospital for some tests. Agree with me that I get a good report.” Please don’t mistake me, faith will eventually obtain a good report (see Hebrews 11:2…in other words, God’s healing power can eventually be verified by the doctors), but faith should not be in the test results but in the report of the Lord (see Isaiah 53:1). You see, without knowing it, you have subtly moved your faith from God’s Word to the manifested answer.
It is imperative that we become more focused on the “title deed” of God’s Word than the manifested answer. Since the only thing in my control is WHEN I PRAY, if I will focus on the “title deed” of God’s Word I am free to rejoice and enjoy my life before I ever see the answer! If you truly believe you receive when you pray, you can simply praise God and rest and rejoice in God’s Word no matter how long the answer takes to manifest! When you finally see the answer it’s almost anticlimactic. Remember this, when you are truly believing God, time won’t torment your faith.
Going back to our original restaurant example, just place your “order” and rest and rejoice…knowing it’s simply a matter of time until your order shows up!