Does Mark 11:23 Work for Unbelievers?

Jesus said that whosoever could speak to a mountain to be removed into the sea and it would happen if the person believes what he says in his heart.  He did not say that it was for “those who believe” as in Mark 16:17-18.  A quick study of the word whosoever shows that it means, well, whosoever – anyone!  That would have to include unbelievers.

Unfortunately, the idea of believing and speaking wrong things works all too well for unbelievers.  They say that they’re going to die of the same thing that killed other family members, and then they do.  You could say that their WORDS are literally killing them – after all, death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  That statement has to be true for unbelievers because there were no New Testament saints around when Proverbs was written!  James talked about how destructive the tongue can be, that it can set the very course of nature on fire and defile the whole body (James 3:2-6).  So you can speak death with your tongue and reap it – but you can also speak life and reap it.

How does this square with the context where Mark 11:22 tells us to have faith in God?  When we speak things according to the Word, we expect God to back our words as we use our God-given authority on the earth.  We aren’t running around doing our own thing, speaking whatever “we” want to have happen without consideration for God.  Jesus did not do that.  He ALWAYS did what pleased the Father; He did not try to please Himself.

As explained elsewhere at length, Jesus was not commanding you to have faith, or even God’s faith or the God-kind of faith.  He couldn’t have meant just to “have faith” because everyone has faith in the general sense of the ability to believe (Romans 12:3).  If an unbeliever did not have faith, he could not be saved, because we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8)!  Instead, Jesus told you where to direct your faith – have faith in God!  Because He commanded you to have faith in God, it must be possible to have faith in something or someone other than God.  Most people have more faith in a doctor when he presents a bad report than they do in God, who can undo that negative report.  They use their faith against themselves, speaking the negative reports that they believe in their hearts.

For example, say that you get a very bad doctor’s report that cancer has spread through your lymph nodes even though you weren’t aware that anything was seriously wrong.  He tells you that you need to plan your funeral and your hospice care preferences.  You can either have faith in the doctor, the doctor’s report, the cancer, or God, who says that He is your Healer who heals all your diseases, including terminal cancer.  The fact is, you’re going to believe something – but it is up to you what you choose to believe.  You can choose to use your faith to trust God, or you can misplace your faith by using it to believe the doctor’s report.  If you believe that you’re going to die sick, you are still using your faith to believe something – you’re just using your faith in the wrong direction.

You see, there is no footnote in Mark 11:23 that you will have whatever you believe and say as long as it’s the will of God.  Your faith is like electricity – you can use it to run a heat pump to warm your house or you can use it to kill yourself.

When we believe something CONTRARY to the Word and speak it out of our mouths, something happens that we aren’t aware of.  (If we knew what would really happen, we’d keep our mouths shut about the matter until we were ready to speak the Word!)  You see, God gave MAN authority on this earth (Psalm 115:16).  God is NOT in control.  (That might rattle your cage if you didn’t know that, but if you’re rattled, see the related article about the objection that God is in control of everything!)  MAN is in control.  That’s why things are in such a mess!  YOU have more authority on the earth than you probably realize.  The problem is, the devil knows all about the authority you have, so his goal is to try to get you to believe and speak the wrong things so that you use your authority against yourself.  What you allow on earth is allowed in heaven and what you forbid on earth is forbidden in heaven.  When you speak contrary to the Word, you authorize the devil and his demons to afflict you.  If you speak that “your cancer” is killing you, he has the right to kill you with it.  You allowed it.  But if you FORBID it to kill you and you believe and speak the Word, heaven will forbid that cancer from killing you.

So it is possible for you to put your faith in the ability of “your cancer” to kill you, but it is also possible to put your faith in God’s faithfulness to uphold His Word that declares you to be healed by Jesus’ stripes (1 Peter 2:24), and deny the devil’s cancer the right to kill you.

So when Jesus said to have faith in God, He didn’t mean that Mark 11:23 would only work if you believe in God.  On the contrary, He warned that Mark 11:23 would work for you no matter what (it works for whosoever), so you need to make sure that your trust is in God and not in anything else.  Your faith is not in your faith’s ability; it’s in God’s ability and His faithfulness to back His Word 100% of the time when He can find someone who dares to believe and speak it!

I think that the primary emphasis in Mark 11:23 is positive – showing the believer the extent of what is possible when you believe.  However, the fact that you “have whatever you say” that you believe in your heart makes it all the more imperative that your faith is in God and His Word and not in disease, bad doctors’ reports or anything else.