Week of July 6

Mark 11:23 Works for the Devil Too! 

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea;
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe
that those things which he saith shall come to pass;
he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Mark 11:23

The devil loves to make a playground out of people’s minds and imaginations. He delights in filling their perceptions and senses with illusions that captivate them, paralyze them, and ultimately destroy them. How can believers avoid falling victim to the devil’s attacks? They must make a spiritual and mental decision to take charge of every thought that enters their minds!

Taking your thoughts captive is going to require determination and energy. Once you made the decision to do it, you still have to stick with that decision. If you’re not really committed to seizing every thought the devil tries to inject into your mind and emotions, he’ll be back to strike you again and again. And if you don’t stop the enemy’s thoughts from invading your mind, it won’t be long until your faith begins to empower those thoughts and they become a bona fide reality in your life!

Mark 11:23 is a powerful verse about faith and confession that believers claim and use around the world. But the principle in this verse works both in a positive and negative sense - or to put it another way, this principle works both in the realm of God and in the realm of the devil.

Mark 11:23 says, “For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” According to what Jesus taught in this verse, you can bring to pass whatsoever you say and believe in your heart.

Did you notice that Jesus said if a person confesses something “and shall not doubt in his heart” - in other words, if he believes the words he is speaking with his mouth - he will have exactly what he says. The word “doubt” is from the Greek word diakrinomai, which means to hesitate, to waver, to doubt, or to differ. In context, Jesus is saying that when a person’s heart doesn’t differ from what his mouth is saying, the combination of his heart and mouth in agreement will always make things happen!

I call this concept “the heart-mouth connection.” For instance, if you believe in your heart that Jesus purchased your healing, and you put your heartfelt faith together with the confession of your mouth, you can literally bring that healing into manifestation in your physical body.