SUNDAY, AUGUST 4
Scripture: Isaiah 9:11, Mark 11:11-26, Ecclesiastes 4:12

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “And a threefold cord is not quickly broken…” God has His own three-fold cord. Jesus wove a whip together, most likely, as a weapon to clean house in the temple. God’s living whip is the three-fold cord of the Word, the Spirit and the person who is willing to yield to the Spirit! Jesus yielded – will we? In Mark, Jesus tells us how to release justice from our prayer closet. In Mark 11:11 we find that Jesus went into Jerusalem the night before. He looked around in the temple at all things. Then He went out to Bethany and stayed the night. So Jesus surveyed the condition of the temple and, in prayer, formulated God’s response. On the way back into Jerusalem the next day, He found a helpless fig tree that was leafy green but had no fruit. The fig tree was an exact picture of what was going on in the temple. Jesus cursed the fig tree so that the disciples heard Him. It died from the roots. Then, the next day as they were retracing their steps on the way to the temple, the fig tree was dead. Peter commented, “Rabbi look – the fig tree which you cursed has withered away.” Did we just see Jesus execute mish-pawt and tsed-aw-kaw on a helpless fig tree? We most certainly did. This is a picture of the outworking of Isaiah 9:6,7. This is Jesus when the zeal of God has eaten Him up. And according to Isaiah 9, it is a picture of what you and I had better get ready for because the same zeal is said to be coming on us for this application in the last days. Mark 11:17-21 says, “Then He taught, saying to them, ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it a “den of thieves.”’ And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. When evening had come, He went out of the city. Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.’” In answer to Peter regarding the dead fig tree, Jesus made this statement in verses 22-24, “So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’” The prayer of faith that some of us learned from Kenneth E. Hagin, placed in biblical context, is God’s primary pattern of prophetically declaring justice! Jesus taught that we could speak to a mountain and it would be removed. But the Scripture, in context, determines meaning. And what is the context? The context is Kingly judgment over something looking one way when its roots look entirely different. Mark 11:23,24 is how to execute Holy Spirit justice whenever we encounter defilement. Whether it is in the House of God or the Supreme Court! The prayer of faith speaks to the mountain, commands it to be removed and brings the full measure of God’s Judicial Hand right down on top of it. For anyone who has ever been influenced by the Faith Movement, setting this passage in context is essential! It helps us understand exactly how to pray justice!