14And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. [simple_tooltip content=’13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.
15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.
17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.
19 When evening had come, He went out of the city.
20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.
23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’](Mark 11:13-24)[/simple_tooltip]
Jesus was hungry and saw a fig tree that already had leaves, which led Him to believe it had figs. But that wasn’t the case. There were no figs. In response, Jesus cursed the fig tree with His words, saying, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.”
Jesus talked to the fig tree. This verse says, “Jesus answered and said unto it.” That means the fig tree had been talking to Him. Some people think this is weird, but things talk to us all the time. Your checkbook tells you that you don’t have enough money to make it. Your body tells you that you’re sick. Situations speak negative things to us without saying a word. Most of us pick up on these negative comments and speak them right out of our mouths, thereby giving them power over our lives.
Jesus did the right thing. He used His words to silence the hypocrisy of this fig tree. It professed fruit by having leaves, but it didn’t possess it. It had spoken something to Him that it couldn’t deliver. Jesus said that it would never yield fruit to anyone ever again—and it didn’t! It immediately died at its roots, and its death was visible the next day. [simple_tooltip content=’Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.’](Mark 11:20)[/simple_tooltip]
Jesus’ disciples were overwhelmed with this miracle and questioned Him about it. He said that this was the power of words. Anyone who speaks in faith, without doubting in their heart, will have whatsoever they say. This works in the positive or negative.
Whenever a negative circumstance starts speaking to you today, talk back to it in faith, and watch the situation change.
