Mark·Faith·23 of 34
Believe that ye receive
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:23–24 · King James Version
Faith is not hoping harder. It is the heart already standing in the thing prayed, without a rival belief.
An inner reading
The mountain is any appearance that claims to be immovable: an illness, a resentment, a verdict the mind has called final. Speaking to it is not magic phrasing. It is the withdrawal of consent from the appearance, and the placing of consent in God. Doubt “in his heart” is the rival belief held underneath the religious sentence. Two beliefs cancel the creative word.
“Believe that ye receive” puts fulfillment in the present of consciousness, before the senses report it. This is the metaphysical order: mind agrees first; the embodied picture follows the agreement. It is not a license to dominate other people with one’s wants. Desire, in the prayer of Christ, is desire reconciled to the Father’s life. The heart that does not doubt is the heart no longer divided against the good it has named.