A Condition of Prayer: Must Believe

Disassociating "Ye Receive" and "Shall Receive" is not Believing

There is yet a positive condition that must be fulfilled, and that is, one must believe. Otherwise prayer will not be effectual. The incident in Mark 11:12-24 shows us clearly the necessity of faith in prayer. The Lord with His disciples came out from Bethany. He hungered on the way. Seeing a fig tree afar off, He approached that He might find some figs, but He found nothing except leaves. So He cursed the tree, saying, "No man eat fruit from thee henceforward for ever." The next morning they passed by and saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. The disciples were astonished. And the Lord answered, "Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have [receive] them."

One must believe when he is praying, because if he believes then he shall receive. What is faith? Faith is believing that he receives what he prays for.

We Christians often have a wrong concept of faith. The Lord says, he who believes that he receives shall receive; but we Christians maintain, he who believes that he will receive shall have it. Thus we have here two different kinds of faith. The Lord uses the word "receive" twice: once "he receives," then he "shall receive." Many believers, however, fasten their faith to "shall receive." We pray to the Lord, believing that we shall receive what we ask. We believe the mountain will be removed to the sea. Great seems to be our faith. But we have disassociated faith from "he receives" to he "shall receive." This is not the kind of faith our Lord is talking about. The faith of which Scripture speaks is associated with "he receives." It is far more exact than "shall receive."