Ever wondered what would have already been accomplished on this earth if only a handful of people had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed?
Think about it. Mountains jumping into the sea? Demons fleeing ? Mulberry trees being uprooted and planted again, untouched by human hands, just because one person told it to? (See Matthew 17 and Luke 17)
Figures of speech, you say? Jesus didn’t really mean those things would literally happen , you explain?
Then God has news for you: It’s just that kind of thinking that has kept amazing things from happening .
The problem with immovable mountains isn’t the lack of power available, it’s looking in the wrong places. We depend so much on our own resources —our intelligence, our finances , our church—that we seemingly have no need to call down the extraordinary power of God.
Our dependency on self is also why we have no choice but to deny that Jesus meant what He said in those verses that tell what pure faith can accomplish. We don’t tell a mountain to throw itself into the ocean because we “know” that those events just can’t happen (Matthew 17:20). If we need a mountain moved, we form a committee, plan for years, raise the money, buy the earth moving equipment, and then strain to move a single protrusion before the brethren get tired, bored, or just plain lose interest. Move a mountain? We can’t even level a hill before we surrender and change projects. Because our experiences belie the statements of Jesus, we have no choice but to dismiss them to the world of the metaphor. Surely He couldn’t have meant it for real! Those things just don’t happen!
And, by our own faithlessness, we ensure the truth of our beliefs. Those things don’t happen.
But the fact that they don’t happen isn’t because Jesus didn’t promise them. He did. Oh, how He did. And their lack of occurrence doesn’t in any way validate our faulty theology. Just the opposite. It proves the very thing that Jesus said . When faith exists in a pure form it takes only a little to turn the world we know upside down. When it exists not at all or in only a very flawed form, mountains sit still and trees grow unbothered (Matthew 21:21).
Why do those things demand faith? Isn’t God able to do what He wishes whether we have faith or not ? After all, how many humans with great faith did He need in order to speak everything into creation ?
No, our faith doesn’t give power to God . Neither is our faith a power unto itself. Faith isn’t the generator in the dam making the power; it’s the transmission line through which the power gets to where it needs to go. The smaller the line, the less the power. The larger the line, the greater the power. Quite simply, God won’t bring His power into the lives and dreams of those who don’t believe what He does when He does it. He won’t work His miracles to have us thank our lucky stars or praise the universal false god of “coincidence.” Just as Jesus wouldn’t work miracles in His home town because of their lack of faith, He won’t work wonders for us when our faith lacks just like theirs.
Want to see the impossible? Then forget about wishing on a star, dragging yourself up by your own bootstraps, or sucking it up to make it through the day . Forget about you and what you can do because as long as you lean on yourself you’ll never tell mountains or trees or demons to do your bidding. But when you immerse yourself into and completely have faith in His power, you will see things the world thinks cannot happen.
Ready to use the unused power?
Surrender in faith.
Written by Joe Beam. Joe is President of LovePath International, a marriage ministry that provides marriage help for troubled marriages. He is a best-selling Christian author and sought-after speaker. Books he’s authored include Your LovePath, Seeing the Unseen and The True Heaven.
on 
on 
on 
on 