MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH II
Mountain Moving Faith II
Matthew 21:18-22 (NIV) – Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. The he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself in to the sea’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant when he spoke these words? Could it be that we as Christians could “move mountains”? According to the Bible, believers can be confident that their prayers will be answered. And Jesus many times lets us know that it was faith and belief that is the key to answered prayer. There is a scripture that helps us with having MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH: In John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” Our prayers are more than wishes, hopes or feeble aspirations- but ONLY if we pray with believing, faith filled hearts, we have mountain moving prayers. Jesus, of course, was not in the excavation business. He had little interest in relocating piles of rocks in the ocean’s depths. He was using the term mountain figuratively. Whatever mountain stands in your path, whatever obstacle blocks your way, whatever difficulty immobilizes you, the prayer of faith can remove it. Now that sounds good, but how can we learn to pray with a faith-filled heart? How can we develop the confidence that removes roadblocks? How do we build our confidence in God?
The truth of our confidence is built in God…not by how much we learn about our circumstances but by how much we learn about God. Many times in our lives we just need to get back into the Word and dwell upon the great miracles that God performed and just believe. To make it plain for you, we just need to remember how God brought us through the most difficult times in our lives. We need to remember how God made ways out of no ways. We need to remember how God brought us through last week when all hell was breaking lose in our life. We need to remember how God blessed us with the money to pay that bill and pay day was 30 days away! Belief is more than an emotion or a feeling but believing is an action. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
I don’t know what your mountain, your road block, your obstacle is or what immobilizes you but Jesus said that if we “have faith, and doubt not…you shall say unto this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea:” and “it shall be done”. So, for a moment, stand on God’s word and put this principle in your life…MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH only comes as we “walk” with Him.
This is illustrated well in an Old Testament story found in Joshua 3 The Israelites are camped on the bank of the Jordan River. Forty years earlier, they miraculously escaped from Egypt. For a generation, they have been wandering in a rugged wilderness, all their needs miraculously met by God. Now they are in sight of the Promised Land, Canaan, but they have an enormous problem (obstacle): a river is directly in their path, there’s no convenient way around it. To make matters worse, it is flood season, and any usual low places are impassable. The waters are deep and turbulent and menacing. God could easily make the river subside right before their eyes, as he did at the Red Sea. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gives Joshua some strange orders that he passes on to the camp. First, camp officers order the people to keep an eye on the ark of the covenant. If you keep your focus on Christ, you will never fall. If you keep your mind on Christ, he will never let you down. As soon as they see the priests carrying it, they are to fall in behind them. Second, Joshua tells the people to expect amazing things to happen. Third, Joshua commands the priests to pick up the ark and go stand in the river.
This will take a bit of courage! Yes, the Lord said he would provide a dry path through the river, but the priests have never seen this happen before (they hadn’t even been born when the Red Sea was parted). Having spent their entire adult lives in the wilderness, the priests were not swimmers. In fact, that is probably the first river they had seen up close. Although the Jordan is not the Amazon or the Mississippi, it doesn’t look particularly friendly during flood season. And, with a few hundred thousand anxious Israelites at their heels, it will be hard to change their minds and turn around if the river keeps flowing. So we can you see their obstacles? They had two choices: stay away or step in. In spite of the problems, the priests had faith enough to obey.
And, in Joshua 3:15-17, we see that God didn’t give the priests absolute proof or even overwhelming evidence that the waters would part. He did nothing until they put their feet in the water, taking the first step of commitment and obedience. Only then did he stop the flow of the river. In the same way, MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH will be given to us as we step out and follow the Lord’s direction.
Mountains don’t move until we…by faith…step out in obedience and trust in Christ. HAVE MERCY JESUS!
How do we have faith-filled hearts? By shifting our focus from the size of the mountain to the sufficiency of the mountain mover…JESUS CHRIST! Once our focus is shifted, we must step forward in obedience. We see it as young David fought the giant, his focus was not on the 9-foot-tall giant. On the contrary, the Bible says he ran toward the giant. We need to see our obstacles as what they are, hindrances that need to be removed. Let me repeat that…We need to SEE our obstacles as what they are…hindrances that need to be removed. God is not like man, He doesn’t lie. We must stand on His word and trust in His promises, knowing that we can speak to the mountains in our lives and they SHALL BE MOVED! We will believe God’s word and know that we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer! For God always answers prayer: Yet…
If the request is wrong, God says, “No”.
If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow”.
If you are wrong, God says, “Grow”.
But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, “Go!”
Starting today, Starting right now, we will have MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH!