“I tell you the truth, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” (Mark 11:23)
God is sovereign. He rules over all things, all beings, and all events. This is true, and it is a fundamental principle in our thinking about theology and the world. In order for our thinking about God to be correct, God has to be God. However, most people who begin from this principle make the wrong application from it.
This includes most of the influential theologians and preachers throughout history. As a result, they have formulated doctrines that are false, and that are detrimental to the gospel and to humanity. They think that because God has all power, we have no power, and because God has all control, we have no control. Thus to them faith does not mean to insist that something happens for them, but it means to accept whatever happens to them, because whatever happens to them is the will of God.
They claim that God’s revelation is in Scripture, but in reality they believe that God’s revelation is in their environment, as in the things that happen to them and the ways that people treat them, because their environment is the will of God. In effect, their environment becomes an extension of God, or we can even say that their environment is God, and that is what they worship and believe in. Then they even use their circumstances and experiences to interpret what God says in Scripture.
This is backward, and it is a grave mistake. God’s word is God’s revelation to us, and we must let him tell us how to interpret our circumstances and experiences, and what to do about them. Jesus is the Word of God. Only he is God’s will personified. The Bible calls him the “exact expression” or “exact representation” of God’s nature. Our environment is not God, and not the exact expression of God. Our circumstances, our feelings and experiences, are not the exact representation of God’s being.
Jesus said something very different about how we must regard our environment. Again, many people have reasoned that God’s power implies our weakness. They think that because God has all power, we have no power, and because God has all control, we have no control. Jesus did not think this way. He reasoned from the supremacy of God to the opposite conclusion.
First, Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Have faith in this God who is sovereign. Have faith in this God who has all power. Have faith in this God who has all control. Then what? The preachers and scholars say, then watch and accept whatever happens. But Jesus said, have faith, and then you do not have to put up with anything. He said that if you have faith, you can command a mountain to throw itself into the sea.
In another place, he said that if you have faith, you can command a tree to replant itself in the sea. In other words, faith is able to not merely restore the natural and healthy order of things, but it can compel even unnatural and bizarre things to occur. Doesn’t this sound like a power that belongs to God alone? Surely, but by faith in God we also wield this ability. An angel said what we admit: “For nothing is impossible with God.” But Jesus also said, “All things are possible to the one who has faith.”
In the journey of life, if something stands in your way, you do not have to accept it. You can tell it to get out of your way. If there is a sickness in your body, you do not have to accept it, thinking that it is the will of God. That is not faith. For if you have faith, you will tell it to pick up itself and get out of your body.
Jesus reasoned from God’s power to our ability to exercise power and take control, and faith is the bridge in this thinking process. Therefore, when someone reasons from God’s power to our lack of power and lack of control, it must mean that this faith factor is missing in his life and in his thinking. It must mean that there is no faith in his religion and there is no faith in his theology.
Thus to reason from the sovereignty of God to our lack of power and control is in fact the line of reasoning that can belong only to the unbeliever, to someone who is still headed toward hell. Only someone who does not follow Jesus and who does not have faith is supposed to think this way.
If you have faith, you do not need to follow this way of thinking. It is not the theology of the pious and the humble, but the theology of the faithless and the disobedient, even the theology of the reprobate. So do not accept this kind of doctrine. Do not fall into this trap. And do not join yourself to people who think like this.
If you follow Jesus, and if you have faith in God, take your thinking in the opposite direction. Because God has all power, you have power. Because God has all control, you are in control. Because all things are possible to God, all things are possible to you when you have faith in him.
We have power, because we follow the one who has all the power. We have power, because he has infused faith into our hearts. We have power, because he has revealed to us the truth of the universe and the way of faith. We have power, because he has called us and anointed us with his Spirit.
Because I follow Jesus Christ, the world cannot push me around, and Satan cannot bully or harass me. I am never a victim. I am always able to take command. I am always in control under God. Because I follow Jesus, I possess a sense of control and power. This is not control over God and not power against God, but control over creation and circumstances, and power against problems and obstacles, and the forces of evil and decay.
The unbeliever is helpless in life. He is a victim of circumstances and a victim of demons and diseases. He has no power. He is not in control. On the other hand, the Christian must affirm the tremendous power and control that he possesses under God. He has been made supernatural by the faith that God has given him.
Following this God who has all power does not mean that we have no power, but it means that we have more power than all the people who do not acknowledge him. Faith in God elevates our possibilities to superhuman levels, because God is more than human. God is sovereign, and therefore we can decide to move mountains and work miracles by faith in him. It is because God is sovereign that we can take control in life.
Why does the idea of God take people in these two different directions? What is the difference? The difference is faith. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Then you have power. Then you have control. Then you can dominate creation itself. The people who reason contrary to Jesus do not have faith. They do not know that they lack faith, or they do not want to admit it, and this is why they resort to redefining faith itself. This kind of teaching drags the church down into defeat and misery.
Once you understand how faith makes such a difference in theology, you are now able to see people for what they are. You are now free to cast aside faithless preachers and theologians. You are free to topple historic and modern religious idols. You are free to renounce faithless creeds and traditions. Have faith in God. Dominate your circumstances. Demolish your obstacles. Destroy your demons and diseases. Proclaim your freedom and success in God. Then tell people this good news about faith. Tell them: Faith can change your life. Faith can save the world.