What does it mean to believe that you have received it (Mark 11:24)?

After Jesus cleanses the temple, declaring it to be a “house of prayer” (Mark 11:17), He briefly teaches on the relationship between faith and prayer: “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:23–24).

Jesus explains that faith in God can move mountains, but doubt can hinder our prayers (Mark 11:22–23). Next, He tells His disciples that they can pray for anything, “and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours” (Mark 11:24, NLT). The verb believe here means “to put one’s trust in something.” It is the opposite of doubt or mistrust. Jesus is emphasizing the importance of placing our constant trust in God and relying on Him for the response to our requests. We must learn to entrust our prayers to a heavenly Father who “knows exactly what [we] need even before [we] ask him!” (Matthew 6:8, NLT).

To believe that you have received it is to have confidence in the fulfillment of a prayer before it actually happens. We can only do this when we depend wholly on God, the one who has the power to hear and answer prayer.

It is important to understand that when Jesus said, “Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,” He was not giving us a blank check to have whatever we want. Since this was not Christ’s only teaching on prayer, we must weigh it against everything God’s Word reveals on the subject. For instance, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done (see Matthew 6:10). The apostle John urges us to conform our desires and requests to the will of God: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).

Prayer is more than an emergency response in times of crisis. It should reflect our abiding connection with the Father, as we remain in His love and obey His commands (see John 15:7–14). Genuine prayer involves our continual communion with God and our worship of Him.

To believe that you have received it is the prayer posture of a soul surrendered to God’s will (Matthew 26:42; Romans 12:2), His Word (1 John 3:22), and His Spirit (Romans 8:26–27). It is through our fellowship with the Lord in prayer that our faith develops. Andrew Murray writes, “It is in prayer that we hold up our desire to the light of God’s Holy Will, that our motives are tested, and proof given whether we ask indeed in the name of Jesus, and only for the glory of God. It is in prayer that we wait for the leading of the Spirit to show us whether we are asking the right thing and in the right spirit. It is in prayer that we become conscious of our want of faith, that we are led on to say to the Father that we do believe, and that we prove the reality of our faith by the confidence with which we persevere” (With Christ in the School of Prayer; Thoughts on Our Training for the Ministry of Intercession, The Rodgers Company, n.d., p. 87–88).

To believe that you have received it involves a confident expectation that God hears and responds to our prayers even before we see any physical evidence of an answer. It is a call to trust in God’s promises (see Matthew 7:7; John 14:13–14; 15:16) and His character (Isaiah 26:3–4; Psalm 9:10). Rather than relying on visible proof, we rest in God’s faithfulness. We know we can count on Him to do what is best for us (see Romans 8:28). Believing our requests are in God’s hands brings peace and dispels anxiety. As we shift from a mindset of doubt and uncertainty to faith and gratitude, we thank God for the answers even before they manifest (Philippians 4:6–7).