On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it….As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” (Mark 11:12-14, 20-21)

Jesus said to a tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” Then the disciples marveled that the tree withered from the roots. Jesus replied that if anyone would have faith, he could even say to a mountain, “Throw yourself into the sea,” and the mountain would obey.

This episode offers insights concerning the mechanics of speaking in faith. These insights are not meant to restrict us, as if to limit how faith must operate. On the contrary, they enable us to perceive the freedom in the operation of faith, of how faith can operate, and of the great things we can do when we operate in faith. When we have faith in God, we can have confidence in life, we can have power in life, we can have power over ourselves, power over our circumstances, power over nature, and power to perform miracles.

Jesus talked about the fruit, but his words affected the roots. The tree did not only stop producing fruit forever, but the very roots of the tree died. When we speak in faith or when we pray, there might be no perceivable difference at first, but if there is faith, then the power of God is at work. We can expect that the issue is addressed at the roots. The power of faith can solve the problem down to the imperceptible part of the issue, the part that is not seen, known, or understood.

For example, when we speak to a disease and command it to cease, the disease might immediately be dead at its roots, but the symptoms or feelings associated with the disease might remain for a time. Trust in the power of God and the power of faith, not in your senses. It is not that the signs and the pains produced by the diseases have disappeared. Your senses indeed perceive them, but your senses cannot prove that faith is ineffective.

In fact, sometimes the power of God could eliminate the tangible signs of the diseases before your eyes, and then continue to attack the roots of the disease until the person is thoroughly cleansed from it. Whether the problem withers from the roots up or whether it withers down to its roots, the end result is that it is destroyed. It is solved, not merely covered up, and it can never resurface.

Jesus said no one would eat fruit from the tree again, but he did not command the tree to die. If we look at the words alone, there are other ways that they could have been fulfilled. For example, if all of humanity perished and the tree remained alive, his words would have become true. No one would have remained to eat fruit from the tree. But that was not what Jesus intended. He wanted the tree to die, and his intention was conveyed in his words. Of course, his words had to align with his intention, or words would lose all meaning, but the words themselves did not have to specify all the details in order for them to be effective. There is freedom and power in faith.

When we speak in faith, such as to command a healing miracle to happen, one way is to speak the end result. Whatever needs to happen will happen at the very root of the matter. Your intention and your meaning will go forth with your words. And of course, God knows your thoughts and desires. He comprehends the whole situation. What if you declare, “I will never be sick again,” and mean it? What if you say, “My youth is renewed like the eagle’s”? If you have faith, the roots of your health shall be transformed. When ministering healing to another person, what if you have the faith to say, “This pain will never bother you again”? The healing power of God will reach to the root of the symptoms and destroy the sickness or heal that part of the body. Or, it will remove the pain right away, and although you do not know the root of the pain, God’s power will continue to reach down to the root and heal the person.

You can declare, “I will never be depressed or fearful again. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” You may feel different immediately as your spirit responds to the word of God. But even if you feel the same, we walk by faith and not by our senses. Your faith will begin to work at the roots. Persist in your faith, and your feelings will follow.

Besides declaring the desired outcome by faith, you can also command what you want to happen. Jesus said that anyone who has faith can tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea. You can say to a crippled person, “Stand up and walk!” Jesus said things like, “Your faith has healed you,” and “Let it be done for you as you want,” and “You may go, the demon has left your daughter.” In other cases, he said things like, “Take up your mat and walk” and “Stretch out your hand” when the individuals could not do those things. Because he commanded them to do those things, then they could do those things, and they were healed. Whether he declared the outcome he wanted, or whether he commanded a certain action or result, notice the freedom of expression even within the same categories of statements. Faith is the essential factor.

We discuss the mechanics of faith not because we wish to prescribe rigid words and methods for people to imitate, but because there are people who have faith in the word of God but they do not know how to begin. They believe that they can pray, and God will answer. They know that they have faith, and all things are possible. But what should they do? What should they say? So here are some hints, but there is much freedom. Do not let the study of the mechanics of faith restrict you, but let it give you ideas about the freedom and power that you have in faith. Faith is a power that you possess from God. Faith is a right and a liberty that God gives you. It is not something that is ugly and burdensome. Faith is beautiful and empowering. You can go anywhere, do anything. You are beyond human, because you are a follower of God and believer in Jesus Christ.

This incident with Jesus and the tree is juxtaposed with his visit to the temple, where he overturned the tables of merchants and drove them out with a whip, and it becomes a profound commentary on faithless religion. The faithless religionists wished to appear as devoted worshipers of God. They portrayed themselves as serious about his commands and promises, when in reality they did not believe any of it. When God’s word became a man and walked among them, preaching the same things that the Scripture said, they killed him. They claimed they adored the Book of God, but when it became a tangible reality, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead, they nailed the Book to a piece of wood and buried it. So God condemned the entire system and declared, “No one will eat fruit from you again.” Within a generation, the whole nation and its religious system was burned to the ground.

Faithless religionists are the same today, especially when they call themselves Christians. They appear religious, but they are actors, not believers. They want to look serious about the word of God. Many of them spend years pursuing academic degrees. However, they do not believe any of it. They condemn God’s doctrines on faith, prayer, and miracles, and they refuse to obey him in these things. When the word of God becomes a tangible person in the form of a Christian, so that he begins to speak in faith and to expect miracles, they criticize him and persecute him. They call him ignorant and untrained, and they call him a deceiver. They wish to destroy his ministry. This is how their spiritual ancestors treated Jesus.

They are more invested in rituals than in miracles, if they believe in miracles at all. They are more zealous for their tiny crackers and juice cups than in healing the sick and delivering the captives. They are more fervent about baptism in water than the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which comes with speaking in tongues and the working of miracles. Instead of healing the sick, they are selling books on tolerating sickness. Instead of encouraging faith, they are preaching endurance and resignation. Instead of telling people to believe God to overcome circumstances, they are telling people to accept circumstances as God. They are constructing idols for people to worship. They are building a religious empire on people’s suffering. They are profiting from people’s pain, without demanding faith from themselves or their followers.

Let this kind of religion burn to the ground. God might even use the heathens to destroy it, as he did the old system. Keep attacking it. Keep damning it. Continue to curse it and say, “May no one eat fruit from you again!” But that is not enough. We must also teach the truth. Assert it strongly and simply. Let people know what Jesus taught, and give them a chance to believe and follow him. We will have faith that can attack the roots. We will teach faith that can move mountains. We will tell the people that Jesus said, “Therefore, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and you will have it.”