How does faith work?

Mark 11: 22-23 "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."

We have already established that faith is based on the Word of God. So many are trying to operate in faith without the Word. That will not work. The only basis for faith is God's eternal Word. But how do we operate in faith? We operate in faith in two ways. First we believe with the heart, and second, we speak with our mouths. Instead of speak we can also use the word confess. The word confess comes from a Greek word that means "to say the same thing." Romans 10: 9-10 says "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation." From that Scripture we can deduce two things. One, the heart believing and two, the mouth confessing. Your heart believes what God has said in His Word about your situation and the answer to it. But your mouth also has to confess or affirm your faith. We believe in our hearts for Salvation or healing or whatever else we need from God as revealed in His Word, and we speak our faith after we have believed.

Jesus made a similar statement about how faith works. In Mark 11: 22-23 Jesus said, "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." Note carefully the heart must believe and the mouth must confess or speak what the heart believes. So we must find the Scriptures that pertain to our needs, meditate on them and believe them in our hearts, then confess what we believe with our mouths. Our confession cannot contradict our believing. We must confess exactly what we are believing in our hearts based on the Word of God. What does the Word say about healing? "By His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah: 53:5: 1. Peter 2:24). What does the Word say about our needs? "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:19. Our confession should be that God's healing power is at work in our bodies affecting a healing and a cure. That God is supplying every need of ours no matter how impossible it may seem, according to His riches in Jesus. Hallelujah!

This principle of believing and saying runs throughout Scripture. King David when facing difficult situations and even death itself said in Psalm 116:10, "I believed, therefore I spoke." The Apostle Paul when he faced similar situations quoted from that same Psalm in 2. Corinthians 4:13. "And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what was written, 'I believed and therefore I spoke,' we also believe and therefore speak." Paul calls believing and saying the spirit of faith. The disciples made a request of Jesus in Luke 17: 5 and 6. They asked the Lord to increase their faith, to which Jesus replied, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." The foregoing Scriptures are just a few examples of how faith not only involves believing but also speaking. Most of the time we master the believing part but we fail in the speaking or confession part. Both must be practicedfor results to be accomplished. Saying what God's Word says about our situation, no matter how dismal it may seem to the natural mind brings the power of God to bear upon the situation, which will result in the miraculous happening in your life. But the opposite is also true. When we believe and speak negatively it hinders the miraculous from happening in our lives. Therefore we must purpose in our hearts to constantly believe and speak nothing but the Word of God so that His Grace and Power may be manifested in our lives.

Father, thank you for the power of faith. Help us to consistently apply your Word to our needs by believing and speaking. And may your mighty power be manifested in our situations. In Jesus name. Amen!