Vincent, your uncle has an excellent grasp of the substance of faith in his newsletter, the Elijah Challenge. Let me post it here for you: DO YOU TALK TO TREES? (Jesus did.) In last week's Herald we saw that Jesus spoke in some anger to a tree, something that most of us would not normally do. The question we pose is: did Jesus actually expect the tree to "hear" and obey Him? The answer every believer knows is yes. But most of us do not know the great ramifications this has for us as followers of Christ, for Scripture says that His followers will do the works that He did. We invite you to read on... JESUS’ SECRET Mark 11:14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. …20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Indeed, the fig tree “heard” his words, and obeyed him as it withered from the roots. Due to this incident we see that “speaking to a mountain” might not be quite as metaphoric as it first appears to be. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” Peter’s response was likely due to curiosity as much as it was due to amazement at the miracle. Inasmuch as he had a tendency to imitate Jesus---for example, he tried to walk on water---he may have wanted to understand how Jesus accomplished such a feat. Perhaps Peter could learn to do the same. 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. According to the original Greek, Jesus literally said, “have the faith of God.” Let us assume that this strange choice of wording was not because of Mark’s lack of facility in the Greek language, but rather because this is exactly what Jesus wanted to teach. (This assumption, however, is not crucial to the teaching.) What exactly is the “faith of God?” Does God indeed have faith? To answer this, let’s continue with Jesus’ teaching. 23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Jesus proceeds to teach about speaking to a mountain. What follows is evidently a teaching about none other than mountain-moving faith: if someone commands a mountain to move, and has absolutely no doubt that the mountain will obey him and fully believes that his command will be obeyed, it will be done for him. This is the operational definition of mountain-moving faith. This is functionally equivalent to the “faith of God.” For example, can God move a mountain? Yes, of course. How might He accomplish it? He might do it by natural or human means (for example by detonation of powerful explosives), or He might do it supernaturally. If supernaturally, how might He move the mountain? Most believers would agree that He could speak to the mountain and command it to move, and of course the mountain would obey the command and move. Now, how would God speak to the mountain? When He speaks, would he entertain some doubt that the mountain would move? Might He wonder, if even momentarily, whether the mountain would actually move? Conversely, would he be completely confident and one hundred percent assured that what He said to the mountain would come to pass? The answers are of course obvious. No, God does not doubt or wonder when He gives a command. He knows who He is. As God Almighty, He has all authority, and therefore, whatsoever He commands must be done. This is the “faith of God.” When God said, “Let there be light,” he had no doubt whatsoever as to the outcome. He was God, and the light would obey, and appear. This is the “faith of God,” this is mountain-moving faith. When Jesus spoke, whether to a fig tree or a dead Lazarus or a demon or a disease, he also spoke with the “faith of God,” not doubting that what he spoke would be obeyed. Because His Father had given him all authority, he spoke and commanded with complete assurance and confidence. Authority from the Father combined with mountain-moving faith produced the miracles in the ministry of Jesus Christ. The disciples had also received a measure of authority over demons and disease from Jesus. But they failed to combine their authority with mountain-moving faith when they confronted the demon, so it did not budge. This is the faith the disciples lacked as they commanded the demon. They wavered, they were not confident the demon had to come out. The bottom line is they did not believe they had authority from Jesus over demons. If they did, they would not have doubted. We must have mountain-moving faith (the ‘faith of God’) if we are going to minister healing to the sick and cast out demons for the advancement of the Kingdom of God---for souls to receive the gospel. This ‘faith of God’ is based on the word of God which tells us that Christ has given us a measure of authority for the sake of the gospel. This is not “faith in our faith.” We speak with authority over demons that oppress people because Scripture says we have been given that authority. God does not doubt when He issues a command, for He knows His authority as God; all things must obey Him. This is the “faith of God.” We also have a measure of authority over disease and demons given to us by Jesus, and we must not doubt that they will obey us when we command them to leave. This is the “faith of God” that releases the power and anointing to accomplish the miracle for the sake of the gospel. If we want to see miraculous healings as ministers of the gospel, we must understand what authority we have in Christ, and then speak forth with that authority. It is one thing to know we have some authority over demons and disease, it is another thing to actually speak to them with that authority. Christ has given us a measure of his authority for the sake of the gospel. But for the power to be manifest, we must speak to demons and disease with the ”faith of God,” without doubting that they will obey our command in Jesus’ name. What is the difference between "faith in God" and the "faith of God?" In the next issue of the Elijah Challenge Herald, we will answer this important question.