What Mountain Stands In Your Way?

Revisiting - and exercising - Faith

May 28, 2023

Mark 11: 22-24 (NLT)

“Have faith in God,” Jesus said to them.“Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes it will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

I’m reading several really good books right now. One of them is “You Can Have Mountain Moving Faith,” by Johnathan Wallace – which I’m reading for the third time! I could write a substack on each chapter. I highly recommend that you get a print or electronic copy for yourself.

Chapter 4 is about how the Holy Spirit moves in our lives. We can’t earn faith or ‘practice faith’ to get better at it. FAITH is a gift from the Holy Spirit. Faith is staying the course despite what we see, feel, experience, or what we’ve been told. I wrote a substack a few weeks ago about FAITH and TRUST – if you missed it, you can find it here.

Recall that Faith is knowing our prayers have been heard and have already been answered. Trust is what carries us through the waiting time for the physical manifestations.

Faith is an absolute belief that God is constantly working behind the scenes in every area of our lives, even when there is no tangible evidence to support that as fact.

A Christian’s faith is confident assurance in a God who loves us, who knows our thoughts, and who cares about our deepest needs. Faith continues to grow as we study the Bible and learn the attributes of His amazing character. The more we learn about God, the more we can see Him working in our lives and the stronger our faith grows.

Starting in Chapter 5 of Wallace’s book is where the rubber meets the road about FAITH. I’m going to excerpt (and slightly modify) some of Johnathan’s book here – he says it so well:

In today’s verse (Mark 11:22-24), Jesus was talking about the gift of faith. In a modern translation, we read the words “have faith in God,” but the original translation of this passage is “have the faith OF God.”
Having faith IN God and having the faith OF God are two entirely different things. How can we have the faith OF God? ...The passage gives insight into what the faith OF God really is.
It is defined by this phrase, “…has no doubt in his (your) heart.” The gift of faith is having no human doubt whatsoever. If doubt is in your heart, the intention is not exercising the supernatural gift of faith. The faith OF God is not 99.9% faith and 0.1% doubt. The faith OF God is 100%.
It’s all in.
God didn’t doubt when He said, “Let there be light.” God didn’t close His eyes then cross His fingers and toes as He spoke the universe, the earth, the animals, and then humans into existence. He knew everything that proceeded from His mouth would come to pass. This is the same faith Jesus operated from. Jesus was God in the flesh; therefore, He had the faith OF God.
When Jesus spoke, it came to pass with no exceptions...
“Take up your mat and walk.”
“Be healed.”
“Lazarus, come out.”
When Jesus spoke, He knew each miracle would happen. This is the faith OF God

Adversity is God’s most effective tool to develop strong faith. That pattern is evident in Scripture: The story of Job. The story of Gideon. The story Abraham and Isaac, which I wrote about here.

The gift OF faith is when we know our words are as strong as God’s words when we are walking in HIS faith. We know that when we walk in the strong, 100% faith OF God, what we have commanded must happen.

What we bless must be blessed.
What we curse must be cursed.
What we command must happen—no ifs, ands, or buts - when it is in accordance with His will.
Trust is waiting on His timeframe for the manifestation.

Jesus himself said this, and was recorded in John 14:13-14

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in My name, and I will do it.

What is your mountain?

Let’s go to Matthew 17:14-20

Matthew records a story of a man who brought his son to Jesus’ disciples with a severe seizure disorder; the boy often fell into water and into fire. When the disciples couldn’t help his son, he brought the boy to Jesus who cast the demon out and the boy was instantly healed. The disciples later asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

Jesus said to them,

"Because of the littleness of your FAITH. For truly I say to you, if you have FAITH the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

Do you have the faith OF God? Do you have the tiniest amount of 100% faith OF God, as tiny as a mustard seed? What literal mountains need to be moved out of your life?

Exercise your faith OF God, your unwavering knowing that God hears you and that your request is already done. Cast that mountain into the sea.

Today’s Prayer

Dear Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit will give each of us a supernatural revelation of FAITH, real faith. Dear Lord, you TOLD us to move mountains with our faith! Lord, forgive us for not doing what You commanded. We repent of our lack of 100% faith in what You said in Your own words... and for allowing those ugly, little niggly specks of doubt to enter in... and take root and grow.

Lord, forgive us for our sin of doubt, even our 0.1% doubt. We ask the Holy Spirit to flow through us, blessing us with the GIFT of FAITH. We ask You to power up our faith to stand strong against the enemy’s tricks that would pull us from You and away from Your Word. In the name of Jesus, we bind everything the enemy is throwing against us and is using to distract us from completing the tasks You have given us – even commanded us – to do. Thank you. We ask this, or something better, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Dr Tenpenny - Walking With God

Discussion about this post