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Mar 11:24 – “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” (NASB)

Jesus rebukes his Apostles all the time for their lack of faith and their unbelief. He tells us here that when we pray, we should believe we have already received what we’ve asked for. So the question is, how do you believe at that level?

The more you try to believe, the less you really believe. Belief doesn’t come from the discipline to believe something you’re not really sure about. Belief doesn’t well up from an exertion of your will to want to believe. Belief comes from an intrinsic understanding deep in your spirit that it is true. And there is little you can do at any given moment to change your belief.

To pray, believing you have received, takes time to think and see as Jesus thinks and sees. True belief comes from knowing Truth. God’s word is Truth. And to know God’s word at the level that Jesus knows God’s word requires the renewing of your mind and the transforming of your mind into the image of Christ’s mind. Only at that point can you truly believe because only at that point do you have the mind of Christ.

Now obviously there is room for gradients of belief. Just as the father of the epileptic son said to Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief.” The belief the father had was simply enough belief to bring his son to Jesus. Even though he did not see and believe the truth as Jesus did, his limited belief was still enough for God to act.

However, the belief to move a mountain takes more than just the limited belief the father had for his son. It takes seeing from Jesus’s perspective, seeing as Jesus sees, and therefore believing as Jesus believes.

So if you truly want to believe you’ve received the prayers you have requested, it’s a process of renewing your mind into the image of Christ. No amount of personal discipline or effort to believe will work. You either have belief or you don’t.