Therefore, I say unto you, what things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24 (KJV)

I spent some time today looking at all the different ways Jesus tells us that we shall have them; them being the things we believe that we receive when we pray. Other translations say: they will be given to you, it will be yours, it will happen for you and God will give them to you. It should fill your heart with so much confidence that God wants to give you everything you ask for according to His will. His word is His will and faith can only begin when you know His will, so always find the promise for what you need or desire in His word. The Amplified version says, “For this reason I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you.”

I believe this is such a great promise to us by Jesus Himself. Jesus was talking about having faith in God, believing that God will do and has already done for you all that He has promised to do in your life. So, when you pray you are taking that which God has done for you and releasing it into this natural realm. Our faith is in God, in His word and in knowing that He hears us because we have prayed according to His will. 1 John 5:14,15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”

For you to have them, you must believe you received what you prayed for when you prayed. It is possible to do this only when you look at things from God’s perspective rather than our own, focusing on who He is, what He says and what He has already done. If you believe you receive when you pray, then as soon as you finish praying you put action to your faith by doing what you would do if it was in your hands right now – and for most of us that would simply start by saying, “thank you.” Thanking God because you believe you have received is one of the greatest expression of our faith. Thank you, Lord, I believe I have received my healing! Thank you, Lord, I believe I have had my needs met! Thank you, Lord, I believe I have received my miracle! Thank you, Lord,! This is faith and it has nothing to do with what is going on around you but has everything to do with God – who you believe God is and what you believe God has done and God will do for you. The Contemporary English version says, “Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you only have faith.”

I remember recently praying in a small group for people who were struggling with hay-fever, At the end of the prayer, everyone said Amen! However not too long after, I heard the people discussing how bad their hay-fever was and the plans they had made to keep it under control for the rest of the summer. Now, do you think they believed they received healing for hay-fever when we prayed? No, No, No, nothing had changed – their words were still the same as before we prayed. Instead they should have been thanking God believing they had received their healing and then they shall have it. On the other hand, one other lady who we prayed for and who believed came back a few days later with a praise testimony of how God had healed her of hay-fever and she no longer was using any daily tablets. God is not a respecter of person, the difference was their faith, believing they had received everything they asked God for before they had it. The Living Bible says, “Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you have it; it’s yours!”