Shout!

“The sound of joyful shouting and salvation

 is in the tents of the righteous;

 The right hand of the Lord

 does valiantly.”  (Psalm 118:15 NAS)

Well Glory!  I just feel like shouting this morning!  How about you?  I’m not entirely sure why, but I am happy in the Lord today!  It is a good day filled with great possibilities for the glory of the Lord to shine forth.  Over the last few days I have been drawn back to one of the first scriptures that made a permanent and powerful effect on my life.  That verse is found in Mark 11:24.  I even pulled out the first Bible that I had ever bought for myself way back in the early eighties in order to study the copious notes that I had written in the margins near that scripture.  Up until that point I had been using a Bible that my wife (girlfriend at the time) had given me when we were attending Chico State College in 1973.

Recently I was counting up my collection of Bible’s and I realized that I have over 40 with very few translation duplications!  Anyway, that 1978 version of the New American Standard version was my trusty companion for many years!  It was the brand new Bible that I took with me to that little Word teaching church that met in an old resort hotel on the southern border of our town beginning on January 1, 1983.  It was in that church that I sat as like a small bird with an open mouth eagerly awaiting the solid meal that the Pastor was going to share with us during each and every meeting time.  It was in that fellowship that I had the basics of faith instilled in my heart for the rest of my life!

Mark 11:24 says “Therefore I say to you all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.”  (NAS)  The New King James version puts it as “whatever thing you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them…”  The key I learned back then and have had confirmed over the many years since then, is as the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary explains calling this verse “a directory for prevailing prayer in general.”  Faith is always in the present, and Jesus in this verse confirms that by teaching his disciples to believe that they have received what they asked for when they prayed for it, not when you see it!  Robert’s Word Pictures declares that this “is the test of faith, the kind of faith that sees the fulfillment before it happens.”  Jesus in the introduction to this teaching defines it as the God kind of faith.  (Mark 11:22)  Paul also made this declaration when he described God as one “who gives life to the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17 KJV)  He used our heavenly Father’s promise to Abraham that He spoke to him a year before Isaac was born in Genesis 17:5 as an example of this kind of faith.

I have had many opportunities to doubt the Lord’s promise to my wife concerning her 100% complete healing recovery over the last few years, but I have steadfastly refused to take any of them due to the truth and faithfulness of these verses from His Word.  Even though the symptoms may not change, my confession stays the same, because I have decided to be like my Father and “call those things that be not as though they were.”  When I feel myself getting tired or weak, I simple go back to the Word for a refresher and feel His strength and resolve flow right back into my very being!  And it works EVERY TIME!

So yea… I feel like shouting today for the sounds of joyful shouting and salvation are in my house!  Remember that the word “salvation” in this verse, in the Greek translation, originates from the word “sozo” which incorporates all the redemptive processes that are a part of Jesus’ finished work on the cross – and that includes healing, wholeness and peace!  So why not take the time to rejoice and shout with me this weekend!  For faith says that whatever you are believing for was given to you the moment you prayed for it! 

Your answered pray is yours right now!  The Geneva translation notes for the word “receive” in Mark 11:24 says that it is “literally speaking in the present tense, to show the certainty of the thing!”  So I encourage you to be literal and believe that you have received it and don’t let go of it until you see it!  One of Thayer’s Greek Definitions of the action taken to “receive” in that verse is “That which when taken is not let go”  So hold on tight and keep on believing, with a smile on your face, resolve in your heart and the truth of God’s promises as your unmovable, unchangeable foundation!

Have a great weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself as you shout with glee… “What ANSWERED PRAYER am I expecting today?”