The Succinct Command of Faith

David W Palmer

(Matthew 21:19 NKJV) And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.

Jesus used very few words to apply his faith to the fig tree: “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” That’s all the words he needed to achieve an amazing release of spiritual power, which brought them to pass. But when you think about it, that’s the way it has always been with God. For example:

“Let there be light!” (Gen. 1:3)

“Peace, be still!” (Mark 4:39)

“Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity!” (Luke 13:12)

“Keep quiet, and come out!” (Mark 1:25)

“Go!” (Mat. 8:32)

“Come!” (Mat. 14:29)

“Stretch out your hand!” (Mat. 12:13)

(Acts 3:6 ESV) But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

This passage is a clear example of how we, like Jesus, can operate faith through simple, authoritative commands that are succinct, concise, and pithy. We note that Peter began his command with, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth …” Today, we need to explore exactly what this means in this context, and how we too can make these sharp, precise commands of faith that release great power with pin-point accuracy.

First, why do we need accuracy? Or to put it another way, “Why do we need to be completely specific?” When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he used the phrase, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43 KJV). As this was spoken at a burial site, perhaps the outcome would have been vastly different if he simply said a general, “Come forth!”

An example of why we need to be specific as well as concise occurred in my life when we were very new Christians. We had received teaching about the authority of the name of Jesus, and about giving clear commands of faith. Perhaps our understanding of it all was in its infancy, but we were willing to try it:

My friend, John, and I were visiting a factory late one night in Abbotsford, Melbourne, where John had some space to work on his electronics. The factory owner had a Doberman watchdog; it was effective, but had a crooked leg from an earlier accident. Wanting to release our faith, and hoping to see this imperfect dog’s leg healed; we sneaked up on it, and yelled, “Be healed in the name of Jesus!” It jumped in fright and ran off; we went home.

John and I didn’t return to that factory for several months. When we did, the owner was sitting at his desk utterly bewildered. When we asked him what the problem was, he pointed to the back door. We went out to see what had happened to his fierce watchdog, only to find that it was not a Dober-man as originally thought; she was now a Dober-mum. Lady was now the proud, doting mother of a large litter of pups. The complication, of course, was that the factory owner had bought her to be a watchdog and paid the Vet to have her de-sexed. Sadly her leg was still crooked, but a more important part of her identity was healed.

From what we fondly recall as “The Doberman Debacle,” we learned that when we release faith commands in Jesus’s name, we must be specific. We should have said, “leg, be healed,” if that was what we wanted, not the general, “be healed!”

So, how should this work? First, we recognize that Jesus is the true faith expert. We need his expertise in formulating effective and perfect faith commands. What’s more, he is our Lord! When we lay down our lives, and take up our cross to follow him; and when we—as royal sons and daughters of the Most High King—willingly offer to serve Father’s dream because we love him, we allow Jesus to take control. (After all, the word “Lord” means boss, controller, and supreme in authority.) The apostle Paul, who received the revelation that we are royal children, put it this way:

(Galatians 2:20 APE) “I have been crucified with The Messiah, and from then on I myself have not been living, but The Messiah is living in me, and this that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of The Son of God, he who has loved us and has given himself for us.”

Paul was fully surrendered to Jesus as Lord; it was as if Jesus himself was living through Paul. In other words, he did Jesus’s will, carried out Jesus’s volitions, and spoke Jesus’s words. Paul knew that he was a son with royal privileges, but he chose to serve God’s kingdom dream by allowing Jesus to have full access to his life. Even Jesus said to his Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.” (See also: Phil. 2:5–11).

Seeing that Jesus is the expert on faith; and seeing he is now seated in heaven at God’s right hand—operating as King, Head of the church etc.; and seeing he has access to perfect love, all knowledge, and all wisdom, he is the only one equipped to decide what needs to be said in faith commands. He alone can formulate the perfect command in obedience to which the Holy Spirit can release his infinite creative power, without running the risk of collateral damage or unintended outcomes.

Therefore, when we put all of this together, the wisest option for us is to listen for the still small voice showing us what to speak in his name. And truly, it is only in his name if he endorses or initiates it.

To illustrate this, I think of a family with a lot of children. The mother is inside the house making a meal for everyone. When it is almost ready, she commissions one of her young daughters to go out and tell the other children to come into the house and prepare for the meal. When the young girl says to her older siblings, “Come inside and wash your hands,” they respond, “Who says so?” When she says, “Mum says so!” then they obey. In other words, they don’t respond because they respect their little sister’s authority; they respond because she spoke in her mother’s name. That is, she simply conveyed a message from her mother. Their obedience to the authority in what she said was because she simply repeated what her mother told her to say.

This is how we should think when it comes to making faith commands in Jesus’s name. We need to stay in the word, reading, listening, meditating, praying, and confessing it until we hear the “rhema”—a specific word from the Holy Spirit for our situation.

Jesus has illustrated this perfectly for us: We read that he gave Peter the command, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4 KJV2000). But, first we see that he had been teaching the word all day from that boat. After being in the environment of the living word for hours, the “rhema” or quickened word came to him. As Jesus only did what he heard and saw with his Father, he heard this word for Peter from heaven. He then spoke it in his Father’s name. Peter obeyed [most of it], and a miracle ensued.

So, when Peter said to the cripple in Acts 3:6, “Rise up and walk,” he did what Jesus did: he first heard it from heaven in the spirit, and then announced it in Jesus’s name.

Peter operated in a similar manner when he said:

“Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:3 NLT)

“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up, and roll up your sleeping mat!” And he was healed instantly (Acts 9:34 NLT)

But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. (Acts 9:40 ESV)

In the last example, we see that Peter first knelt down and prayed. He made contact with headquarters, received his orders, and then was able to announce in heaven’s authority: “Tabitha arise!”

In the case of Ananias and Sapphira, Peter clearly said that they had lied to the Holy Spirit. How did he know this unless the Holy Spirit—who was residing inside him—told him? This episode was an exemplary outworking of Jesus’s commission when he said:

(John 20:22–23 ISV) … he breathed on them and told them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. {23} If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain people’s sins, they are retained.”

Peter and the other disciples could only know whose sins were forgiven and whose were not, because they had received the Holy Spirit; they had a close personal relationship with the third member of the Godhead living inside them. He told them whose sins were forgiven or retained. For some more examples of this in operation, see:

Peter and John convicting Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:18–21)

Paul declaring over Elymas, “You are full of deceit and trickery … you will be blind …” (Acts 13:8–11)

Today, I encourage you to do as Jesus, Peter, and Paul did. They knew what succinct faith commands to make because they heard them from heaven. Jesus spoke them in his Father’s name; the apostles spoke them in Jesus’s name (whether they actually said the phrase, “in Jesus’s name,” or not.)

You can speak to mountains, demons, storms, sicknesses, lack, obstacles, and gospel opponents with sharp, succinct commands of faith by hearing them in your spirit from the Holy Spirit. If you do it this way, you will truly be speaking in Jesus’s name; and you too will see amazing results. But remember, the commands usually come in the environment where God’s word is alive through teaching, preaching, praise, confession, meditation, and/or prayer, etc.