How is it that ye have no faith?Mark 4:38-40, “And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”

Have you ever wondered what the Lord wanted the disciples to do? I have. Did He want them to speak to the storm like He did? Did He expect them to stand on the bow of that boat and say, “Peace, be still? The Lord Jesus Christ is on this vessel and has commissioned us to go to the other side!” Is that what Jesus expected them to do? I think He did.

Faith – true faith – requires a word from God directly to us. It is imperative that we hear from God, personally, the word, the commission, or the orders to go or to do or to speak. Not just some vague Scripture reference to an action or unction of centuries past, but a fresh word from God. This personal word was present in the command, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” When the snag in life comes, (in this case a storm) the authority and commission of those who are called should come to the fore. Remember Jesus’ words to his disciples,

“And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:18-19)

The problem was that these men were fishers. They were well acquainted with the destructive power of the sea. They had known of lives being claimed out there on that water. They would have to change their minds and habits about very familiar things – a task very difficult indeed. The ingredient missing here was faith. “How is it that ye have no faith?”

The Lord wants and even commands us to have faith saying in Mark 11:22b, “Have faith in God.” This is rendered in Greek, “Have the faith of God.” Unswerving, confident, and assured faith that what God promised He is able to perform. This is why Jesus could, without flinching, place the two adjectives, faithless and perverse in the description of His disciples. In Matthew 17:17 the Lord chided the disciples for not having faith enough to cast out the demon in a boy who was brought to them, “Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?”

How Important Is Faith?

We should place as much importance on faith as the Lord did. Our concern for ourselves and doubting God can put us in the category of perverse. Look who is included in the list of the damned in Revelation 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” What a list on which to have an attribute of your personality included!

When Jesus tells His disciples the reason they could not cast the devil out He used the phrase, “because of your unbelief.” He did not say they didn’t have enough faith or that their faith was not large enough, He said that it was not there. “How is it that ye have NO faith?” The disciples must have wondered in themselves, “Do we need a greater faith?” But Jesus told them, “I say to you that if your faith were the size of the smallest seed it would have been enough. The problem was that faith wasn’t there at all.

Jesus’ words and actions said clearly, “You doubted my word. I gave you power and authority over unclean spirits and you doubted it.” This tenacious demon played the same role as the contrary wind and sea was to the prior mission. They had opportunity to learn this earlier. Had they learned the lesson from the Sea of Galilee they would have spoken to this demon and cast it out. Alas, they had no faith in this situation either. They did not speak to the wind in faith and they likely did not speak to this demon either. They had the command, the word, they knew what action to take, but they did not have the faith.[1]

Do we disappoint God when we doubt and fear? I believe, for the most part, we do. Especially when it comes to everyday provisions. We hear Jesus say, “…for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things”[2] we can hear a sadness in His voice that we do not comprehend this in reality.

However, many times, in order to keep from disappointing God, we err in the other direction – presumption. We presume God’s favor or blessing when, though we have no word from God, we capriciously take from the Bible someone else’s' promise or prior record of God’s provision and arbitrarily claim it for ourselves. Claiming that we are practicing faith, we mock the God we allege to glorify for our provision.

How is it that we have no faith? I submit it is because we have not heard from God. We have not sought commission by Him to live, work, or play, nor have we heard His voice in any matters of our life. How can we have faith, or live by faith if we have never heard the Word of God in any area of our lives? We are not living by faith... we are living by hope. Hope is good, but it is not faith. We hope God is in control. We hope He will bless us in next week’s business. We hope He will expand our borders and make our way prosperous, but we have no real word from God upon which we may lay claim and no promise upon which we may rest our full assurance of faith.

We know what to do, but we have not been told to do it. We know the job to be done, but we have not been commanded. When we are working under our own power and the storm looms overhead and we hear the thunder roll and the see the seas swell, our faith is exposed as only hope because we have no commission to call upon.

Faith Comes By Hearing

All we need to hear from our God is to go and do this or that and we would be strong in our faith. We would know our commission. No one in a right frame of mind wonders whether God is ABLE. We wonder if He is willing. We wonder if He is willing because we do not know His will! We must hear a word from God. We must hear the Word of God. Here is one of the most misunderstood principles in Christendom today. It is misunderstood mainly because the most misunderstood Scripture is so often used to teach in this situation.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

If you mistakenly define “the Word of God” as “the Scriptures,” you have rendered the power of this truth impotent. You will not receive faith from reading, nor will faith come by study, faith comes by HEARING. It is when you receive your commission to “go to the other side of the lake” that you have the faith to say, “Peace, be still.” But you have to HEAR it. We cannot presume it, we may not read the promise made to someone else two centuries ago, but you must hear for yourself.

Many of us are living our lives having never consulted God about the direction that they are to go. You may assume He wants you to do this or that, you may presume He will bless your efforts if you do the best you can, but if you want to claim to live by faith, you must hear from Him about your direction and purpose in life.

If you want to have faith you must hear that voice that authorizes you to overcome any obstacle. If you want to have faith – true faith – you must HEAR the Word of God. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We cannot group the whole Church into this category of faithlessness nor blame them for not exercising faith.

There are some who have heard the Word of God, who know the direction and purpose for their lives. They have been commissioned and told where to go and how to get there.

Like the disciples were told to go to the other side, some have received their orders. It is to those who know their instructions that Jesus addresses His question. “I gave you orders, I empowered you to overcome all obstacles, how is that ye have no faith?”

[1] Excerpt from the audio book “On Faith” by this author.

[2] Matthew 6:32