With Faith, You Can Move Mountains

One of my favorite quotes by Jesus is found in Matthew 17, versus 17 through 20.

The story is about a man who brought his son to Jesus to be cured of an evil spirit. The man had told Jesus that the disciples were unable to cure him.

Here is the King James version;

Matthew 17.17 – Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.

Matthew 17.18 – And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

Matthew 17.19 – Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

Matthew 17.20 – And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Pretty powerful words! Or should I say empowering words!

Jesus is telling us that nothing, no nothing, is impossible provided you have faith! Wow!

Now I will tell you that I have been a Christian for almost my whole life. I am over fifty years old and I have yet to be able to move a mountain.

That does not mean for a moment that I don't believe that anything is impossible if we have the smallest of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ!

My problem is me, not Jesus.

I believe with all my heart, soul and mind that God is God. Jesus is the Son of God. And the Holy Spirit is within me. Not one single doubt about that! No, not one!

So then why can't I speak to that mountain and it moves?

Now keep in mind that the mountain could be anything. The mountain might be cancer in a loved one. Or you just lost your job. Or they are about to repossess your home. You name it. It is a mountain that seems unmovable.

In business we have mountains also that seem unmovable, such as continually declining sales.

Faith is continuing to put one foot in front of the other moving in a forward direction, no matter what reality is telling you.

My faith is not in whether there is a God that loves me. My problem is that I limit God to my reality.

Now before we go any further, I want to make it clear that I am not saying for one minute that by having faith we can turn God into some kind of Gennie. We must be talking about God's Will, not our will.

God's Will can be found in scripture. I believe God thinks past this world into eternity. He wants to draw you near to Him. So that job loss, or cancer, or situation you are in may be to do just that. Draw you near!

So let's get back to faith and moving mountains.

Even the disciples that followed Jesus around had problems with being faithless. Why couldn't they have the faith of a mustard seed? They couldn't remove the evil spirit from the boy. They walked side by side with Jesus here on earth and they had problems with faith.

This really raises the bar for me.

As I get older I boil it down to what I mentioned earlier, God's Will.

I think the answer to our moving mountains problem is found in Matthew 17.17, where Jesus tells us “O faithless and perverse generation”.

If someone, including myself, was able to move mountains they would probably hit all the talk shows and take credit for it themselves. The next thing they would start doing is profiting from it and before you know it they would have a best selling book on the market. Our pride would be so big we wouldn't be able to fit through most door ways. My point is that we are a perverse generation, as Jesus stated, starting with the first human being.

We have a sin nature that holds us back. If only we could have the faith of a mustard seed, desire the Will of God, and keep our wants and desire out of it, we could move mountains.

God isn't holding us back! We are!

Thank you and May God Bless You!