Can I move a Mountain……..Really?

I’ve been really having a good time reading through the gospels for the past few weeks. I think for the first time in my life I’m not just reading through the gospels to gain understanding only. But I’m also, paying close attention to the things that Christ said.

Jesus is certainly the central character of the Christian faith so then it only makes sense to pay close attention not only to what he did, but what Jesus said is equally as important. Jesus I think had a wonderful sense of humor and I’m beginning to see a pattern in how he dealt with the many different groups of people. It seems to me at least, that when he spoke to his disciples he would answer their questions with clarity and preciseness. It almost seems as if he handled the disciples with kit gloves. Meaning he handled them with a lot of care and to some extent a softness. I think it might have been because Jesus was training them to continue his work of advancing the Kingdom once he went to heaven to be with his Father. But and that’s a big BUT, notice the pun there J. Whenever, Jesus saw that the disciples lacked faith he would correct them sharply to say the least. There was an occasion that the disciples were afraid that they where gonna die. Because they were caught in bad storm notice Jesus response Matt8:26 “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the storm.” You might remember the time Peter was walking on water, because Peter wanted to go and hang out with Jesus on the water. He starts to sink and Jesus said to him Matt16:31”Jesus stretched forth [his] hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” And then there was that time Jesus told the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the disciples thought he meant that they were gonna run out of food. And Jesus says Matt16:8 “ O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?”

Ok, clearly Jesus saw that having faith was critical for all believers to possess especially his disciples. In fact the scriptures teach us that without faith it is not possible to please God. So let me give you a biblical definition of faith. Remember we always use the bible to define it self. So check out Hebrews11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

So, with this definition in mind let me try and give you some biblical revelation. My “Faith” is not the agent that brings about the change. It’s critical that you absorb that truth. God and God alone is the one that brings about the change that I desire. My faith simply is the agent that God uses as reason to take or not to take action. Taking action is solely up to God. Overtime my Faith in God grows based on the evidence that I see and experiences as God works in my Life. I hope you got that.

So, Jesus is having some teaching time with his disciples and the disciples asked him a question. How does my Faith Grow? Notice what Jesus says. It’s really cool given every thing that I have just given you Luke17:6“And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” So does Jesus really mean that his disciples could move a tree with a spoken word and cast it into the sea? Remember the question from the disciples was “how does my faith grow?” Jesus response was really telling. Because Jesus never really answers the question directly, but what Jesus does say has nothing to do with growing your faith. After all Jesus uses a mustard seed and compares it to the only amount of faith needed to be able to move and plant a TREE into the sea. So then to think that I need more faith to Change something is really quite silly. What we really need is more of God. So then let me ask you a question “Can YOU move a mountain……Really.”