Faith of a Mustard Seed Archives

September 9, 2020September 1, 2020

Understand Authority

⁵When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ⁶“Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” ⁷And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. ¹¹I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹²while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. ~ Matthew 8:5-13

The Centurion didn’t personally know Jesus. He didn’t sit and have multiple conversations with Jesus. He only knew of His power. He knew of His authority. He understood His authority. Why? Because the Centurion had authority as well, so he knew how it worked. Before even meeting Jesus, he had faith because he understood authority.

Do we understand authority? Or does doubt overcome us, by squashing our faith? We read scriptures about Jesus’ name. We hear stories of the miraculous still being done in today’s world by the authority of His name. But we doubt. We don’t believe that these things are possible, yet we know Him. We allow our religiosity to get in the way and blind us from the relationship. The relationship didn’t suddenly weaken because the apostles died. The relationship didn’t suddenly dry up because the Bible was finally finished. The relationship still has the potential of being strong. Stronger than ever.

God promised in the last days He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. If Jesus was coming soon 2,000 years ago, would it be crazy to believe that these are the last days now? Why would we doubt that greatness can happen in our time? Jesus said we would do what He did and more. So why do we settle for nothing? Why do we settle for no miracles?

The faith of a mustard seed could cause a mountain to jump. Strengthen your faith for the impossible to happen. Strengthen your faith to do what not even Jesus did. It’s not pride, because it’s not by our power. It’s His power. It’s by the Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus. We just have to stop looking at the Bible as a historical document from the past, and start looking at it as a blueprint to the beginning of the future. Just because something wasn’t recorded in the Bible, doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to achieve. You have to build your faith, not your religion.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Understand Authority

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Test Your Faith

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. ¹⁷If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” ~ Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar. That took a whole ‘nother level of faith to stand in front of the fiery furnace, feel the heat resonating off of it, and still refuse to bow to the statue. That’s faith to the death. Do we have that kind of faith today? Do we have the faith to say, “I know you’re capable, but even if you don’t my hope is in you alone”?

Who does your hope lie in? Where do you place your trust? If you don’t get that promotion, are you still going to put your trust in God? If you don’t get that job you want, are you still going to put your trust in God? If you’re held at gunpoint and told to deny that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life, are you still going to trust in God? Times are coming when our faith is going to be tested beyond what we can imagine. We think that because we live in societies that are free, that freedom will always be there. We think that because we live in societies that still hold to the traditions of religion, that religion won’t be changed. We live in little bubbles that never test our faith, so our faith never grows.

Imagine if tomorrow the world completely lost its mind and got rid of all religions except one false one. Imagine if they built a statue and told you to bow to it or lose your life. Would you be able to stand? Would you be like those three young Hebrew boys, or would you give in to fear because your faith wasn’t strong enough? Take the time of freedom to build your faith because no one knows what tomorrow may bring. Jesus said we would see tribulation like never before, is the Church ready for this? Or have we become so lukewarm we no longer hold to what Jesus said, but to what we feel we deserve to happen.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Test Your Faith.

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Have Faith

⁴⁵Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hand.” ~ 1 Samuel 17:45-47

The battle belongs to the LORD. David knew who he served. How? Because he had quiet time. He killed the lion. He killed the bear. He knew who God was, is, and is to come. David didn’t look at the size of the giant or his weapons. He looked at the LORD and saw how glorious, all-powerful, and amazing He is. He had faith.

We look at our giants, and we look at their weapons, but we never look at God. We forget who God is because we don’t take the time to build a strong, steady relationship with Him. We don’t take the time to become friends of God. David was so close to God that when he saw a giant who was raised to fight, he didn’t shudder, he didn’t doubt, he didn’t cower in fear, he stood strong. He stood proud. He stood in the power of Almighty God. Sometimes we allow our heads to get too big for our britches. If David had stood before Goliath and said, “I killed the lion. I killed the bear. And I can kill you.” Who knows how this story would have ended. David didn’t walk in his own strength but in the strength of Almighty God. He knew who God was, and he knew what God could do through him. He had faith.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have Faith.

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Grow Your Faith

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” ~ Hebrews 11:1

We always speak on faith, but do we actually know what faith is? Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for us, but do we truly understand it? Faith is knowing that what you hoped for, what you prayed for, will come to pass. It’s the conviction of things not seen. Even though we have never seen Christ in the flesh, we have a conviction that He was, He is, and He will be. That’s what faith is. Faith is knowing that something is true, without actually having to see it with your own two eyes.

Faith is what draws us closer to God because through faith, we are saved. Through faith, we are redeemed. Through faith, we are healed. Through faith, we seek. Through faith, we draw near. Faith is our connection to God. Faith is believing without seeing. But how can you do that? How can you believe without seeing? You stop doubting and start trusting. You stop saying that the branch can hold you, and you walk out on to the branch confident it can hold you. You stop holding back from serving God wholeheartedly, and you allow yourself to jump in headfirst. Read your Bible, pray, worship, and hear the Word of The LORD. That’s how you build a relationship with God, which is the only way you can grow your faith.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Grow Your Faith.

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Act

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” ~ Romans 8:28

A lot of the time, we take this to mean that everything will work out for the better. No matter what happens, it’ll work itself out. We don’t have to stress, Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be, will be. But that’s not exactly what Paul is saying in this letter to the Romans. He is saying that things will work out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, but you have to still work. We can’t just assume that things will fix themselves. We have to do some sort of work, some sort of action. We read this and forget that James tells in James 2:17, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Faith is moving forward and acting as if it has happened, and working towards it becoming a reality. You can’t just expect God to just fix everything on His own, He’s not a solo act. He follows your lead and helps you along the way. He doesn’t have the takeover spirit. If you want to see something happen, pray, have faith, and then put it into action. Don’t just wait around. You don’t have to stress, but you can’t just walk around waiting for something good to just fall in your lap either. You have to keep working towards that good.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Act.

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Decide

¹ On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, ²and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

⁵And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. ⁷They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” ⁹For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” ¹¹And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. ~ Luke 5:1-11

Simon had come in from fishing was washing his nets. He hadn’t caught any fish, and a stranger steps into his boat and starts preaching. When He’s done preaching, He tells Simon to go out and lower his nets into the deep. Imagine you were out fishing all night, never caught anything, then this man gets into your boat starts preaching, then tells you to go fishing again. Would you listen to Him? Would you do what He tells you to do?

Before Jesus was even established as Savior or Christ, Simon knew there was something different about Him. So, Simon did as Jesus asked Him. It may not have made sense to him, but because Jesus asked him, he did it and received a greater reward than he could have ever imagined.

How often does God tell us to do something, and we respond with ‘we’ve already done that, and it didn’t work.’ We forget that without God, things may not work, but as soon as God steps into the picture, the miraculous happens. We can have confidence that God will not let us down. We can have confidence that God will not fail us. We can have confidence that God will not lead us astray.

Faith is believing and doing the miraculous. It’s by faith that miracles happen. It’s by faith that strongholds are broken. It’s by faith that the impossible is possible. It’s by faith that we are saved. Before Simon knew that Jesus was even the Messiah, he had faith that Jesus was more than just some nut preaching on his boat. Two thousand years later, we have the stories, the scriptures, the documentation, but do we have the faith? I guess it’s up to each of us to decide.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Decide.

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Abraham’s Faith

“¹After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ²He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’ ³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.” ~ Genesis 22:1-3

The first thing I noticed was that it didn’t seem like Abraham told Sarah anything about this. He didn’t tell anyone. He heard from God and just automatically stepped out on the branch in faith. He didn’t tell all these people so that they could talk him out of doing what God told him to do. He just did it, no questions, no second-guessing, he just stepped out in faith and did as he was told.

How many of us hear from God, know it’s what we need to do, but talk too much? We talk to others and ask their opinions, and soon their opinions seem better than God’s, so we let them talk us right out of it. We take advice from everyone else, except God. The one who created Heaven and Earth. The one who created each and every one of us. The one who wants what’s best for us. The one who knows what’s best for us. Yet we still listen to man, over God.

We don’t fulfill what He wants from us, which doesn’t hurt Him. It hurts us. How many Christians refuse to sacrifice their jobs so that God can give us a better, more stable one? How many Christians refuse to give up their time so that God can give us more efficient time? Imagine how strong the church would be if we all just did as God tells us instead of talking amongst ourselves bringing doubt. We would be unstoppable. We would be exactly where God wanted us. We would be exactly who God planned us to be.

Peace. Love. Go forth and Have Faith.

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Despite It All

“²¹Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: ²²Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. ²³They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’” ~ Lamentations 3:21-24

Let me set the scene for you. Jeremiah watched as Jerusalem was ransacked, the Temple was destroyed, Israelites were taken into slavery, people were getting sick from poisonous water, and the people of Israel turned to other gods instead of God Almighty. While all of this is happening, Jeremiah doesn’t lose faith in God. He doesn’t blame God; instead, he finds his hope in God.

When Babylon took his people as slaves, he didn’t curse God. When God allowed them to drink poisonous water because of their sin, he didn’t blame God. Jeremiah knew who his God was. He had a relationship with his God. He cried out in pain, depression, and mourning, but he didn’t stay in those emotions. He refused to allow them to control him. After he cried out, he would then call to mind the hope that is in our God. His never-ending love, His compassion that renews each and every morning, and His undying faithfulness.

During this pandemic, we need to remember whom we have faith in. We need to return to the Rock that is higher than us. Our comforter. Our God. Our Good Shepherd. Our Loving Father. When stress, depression, fear, discouragement, pain, grief try to overtake us, call to mind who your God is. Place your faith in Him, and you will not be broken.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Call To Mind.

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Ask For Help

“O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.” ~ Psalms 86:5 NLT

In this time of trouble let us remember that God is love. In other words, God’s love is never-ending, never-failing, eternal, and full of grace and forgiveness. So, let not your hearts grow weary or be anxious or fearful, instead let us call on our LORD God who is faithful in answering our cries. Hold to HOPE in this time of distress. Have faith that God will deliver us. Rely on the peace that Jesus has given us already.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask For Help.

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Where Do You Place Your Tust?

“We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His Holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.” ~ Psalms 33:20‭-‬22 NLT

When trouble comes, where do you turn first? When you are in distress, who do you go to? When you are afraid, who do you call on? You can tell who you trust and put your faith in, by the answers you give. God is the only one who can save us, so why do we do everything else before we call upon His name? Is it because we have a lack of faith?

God doesn’t change. He is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Spend time with Him and you will learn who He is and what He can/will do for His children. Take courage in Him. Find hope in Him. Put your faith and trust in Him. Feel love from Him. Rejoice because of Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Place Your Trust In Him.

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Category: Faith of a Mustard Seed

Understand Authority

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