Category: Faith of a Mustard Seed

¹¹ Then I said to Him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” ¹² And a second time I answered and said to Him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” ~ Zechariah 4:11-12

God showed Zechariah a vision but didn’t explain it to him until he inquired it of God. Sometimes God shows us a little piece of the puzzle to get our attention so that we’ll seek Him for more. The answer doesn’t always come right away or even after the first time we ask. Sometimes, it takes asking more than one time. Why? There are multiple answers to this question. Sometimes, it’s like Daniel, and something is keeping your answer from getting to you, but other times it’s to help us grow our faith.

If God answered every single question the very first time we asked, then how could our faith ever grow enough to withstand any kind of storm? Sometimes, God remains silent for a short time to help grow our faith. A seed can’t grow without a little bit of rain sometimes. Paul said that trying times produce endurance. These small tests help prepare us for bigger tests to come. If we don’t have the faith to keep asking after the first, second, or even fifth time, how will we be able to ask and have faith in a time of trouble?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask Until You Get An Answer.

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⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ that in every way you were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge— ⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ 1 Corinthians 1:4–9

Though the Corinthians were young in the faith, still on spiritual milk, they didn’t lack any spiritual gift but were enriched in Christ Jesus in all speech and all knowledge. They were guiltless because of the grace that they received through faith in the finished work of our LORD Jesus Christ.

They were walking in power and working miracles, not because of anything else, but the grace of Jesus Christ that was at work in them. In other words, it was their faith that was reaching out and taking hold of the kingdom of God and His righteousness and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

So, even though the Corinthians were carnal and mere babes in Christ, even though they were on spiritual milk and not solid food, they lacked no spiritual gift, which suggests to me that spiritual gifts are not activated with maturity but with faith. You might be a one-hour-old Christian, but by faith, you can heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. You can do all these things through Christ, or a better way of putting it, through faith in Christ, who strengthens you and leads you into all truths.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Walk In The Faith.

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For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. ~ Jeremiah 30:12-18

When you go through a season of tribulation and hardships, the Devil will whisper in your ear that God doesn’t care. He’ll tell you that God’s forgotten about you or that God can’t be real because if He was, this wouldn’t have happened. But if we return to God and remain faithful, the LORD will redeem us. We were once separated from God, but now because of the redeeming blood of Jesus, we are called Children of God.

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. Don’t look at the circumstance or situation you’re in. Focus on God. Focus on the promises of God. Focus on the love of God. Focus on God. Don’t let anything distract you or separate you from Him. Cling to the LORD, and the LORD will cling to you.

LORD God, please give me the faith to endure any and every season that comes my way. Give me the faith in the good and the bad. Strengthen my faith, LORD God. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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⁴ So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was ⁵ and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ You know that I have served your father with all my strength, ⁷ yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. ⁹ Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. ¹⁰ In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. ¹¹ Then the Angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ ¹² And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’” ~ Genesis 31:4-13

Jacob was an honorable man. He lived his life according to the will of God, and for this, the LORD loved him. Because Jacob put his trust in the LORD, the LORD was always with him no matter where he went or what happened to him. Jacob could have been angry and disgruntled at Laban and allowed the Spirit of Rejection and the Spirit of Resentment to come upon him, but he didn’t. Jacob fully and wholly put his life in the hands of Almighty God. Jacob’s faith kept him from falling into the temptation of the enemy because Jacob understood no matter what Laban or any other man did to him, his life was in the hands of the LORD, and the blessing of the LORD was upon him. Jacob had faith in his blessing.

We’ve all been given blessings. They’re the promises of God written for us in Scripture, but often times we miss out on them for lack of faith. We put our faith in our own abilities or in situations or other people. The only person that can keep your blessing from you is you. Don’t believe the lie that if God has something for you, you’ll receive it no matter what. You have to do something. You have to have faith. You have to continue working regardless of what the enemy tries to take from you. Laban cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times. If Jacob had given up or gotten upset instead of putting his faith in the LORD, Laban would’ve successfully cheated him, but Jacob stood on his faith in the LORD.

Is there something or someone that keeps cheating you or changing your wages? Does it feel like you’re losing your blessing or your promise, no matter how hard you try? Put your faith in the LORD. Don’t look with your natural eye. Don’t look at the situation you are in. Look at the promise you have been given from God. Keep your focus on His word, and the LORD will bring you through. Keep going. Don’t give up. The LORD will neither leave you nor forsake you.

LORD God, teach me to keep the faith. Help me to focus on your call, blessing, and promise for my life instead of the situation or stumbling block that is in front of me. Help me to not see the times I have been cheated or done wrong. Help me to see what’s on the other side of the obstacle. Please give me the faith to overcome everything the enemy throws at me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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⁸ Ishbosheth the son of Hachmon was the leader of the Three Warriors. In one battle, he killed eight hundred men with his spear. ~ 2 Samuel 23:8^CEV

Ishbosheth killed eight hundred men in the same battle or in the same fight. Imagine with me this man, Ishbosheth, the son of Hachmon, was in a battle for his life against eight hundred battled-trained warriors. This was a very real event. A very real fight. The rest of the Israelite army had fled, but Ishobeth stayed and fought; he was fighting the whole Philistine army.

I believe the reason he only killed eight hundred men, all at the same time and in the same battle, was that when the other Philistines saw the death toll, they realized the odds were no longer stacked in their favor, and they ran away.

Most people would look at that situation and call it hopeless. They would look at it with their physical eyes. They would say, you better not try that; you’re bound to lose. Or, oh boy, you’re in a hopeless situation. Nothing can help you, and no one can save you now. Well, you fought a good fight, but now it’s all over. Why don’t you just give up now? You can’t win that one. The majority of people in Ishobeth’s situation would be discouraged and believe what the discouraging words others have told them, and in doing so, they would have missed making a great name for themselves. But that was not Ishobeth’s testimony.

He was like, the harder they come, the harder they fall. Why? Because he understood that it wasn’t he alone who was out there wielding that spear. He understood that greater was He that was in him than he that was with the 800. Ishobeth knew the LORD God whom he served. His faith was shaken. He was a man of faith and action. This now begs the question, are you?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be A Person of Faith and Action.

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

As Christians, we are under a new and perfect covenant that is based on the premise of faith. According to Hebrews 11:1, faith is defined as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. In other words, faith is believing regardless of whether you see it or not. Faith put into action can be seen as believing that what you prayed for will come to pass. This is the only thing that we can do to be saved. There’s nothing else that any of us can do that can save our souls; according to Ephesians 2:8, we are saved by faith alone. So, if faith is the root of our salvation, then would it not stand to reason that our faith is what the Devil is targeting most?

That’s the first thing the Devil did in the Garden of Eden. He simply cast a little doubt in Eve’s faith, and everything literally went to Hell after that. The Devil doesn’t work harder; he works smarter. He doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. If it worked back then, then it’ll work today, and it still does. The first thing the Devil does is attack our faith. Whether it’s simply hitting us with a questioning dart or it’s taking things away from us that we cherish so that we begin to doubt God’s love for us. But we can’t give up and throw in the towel. When all things look hopeless and bleak, we have to have faith. When things seem right to man, but we know deep inside of us they are not right to God, we have to have faith. Why? Because that’s literally the definition of faith. We must believe even when our natural eyes can’t see what we’re hoping for and have faith it will come to pass.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Keep The Faith.

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³³ And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” ³⁴ And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. ³⁵ And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. ~ 1 Kings 18:33-35

Elijah had the people pour 12 jars of water over the offering and the wood until even filled up the trench around the altar that could hold mover than 14 liters of seeds. Elijah didn’t just ask the LORD to burn up his offering; he set forth a test that he knew only the LORD could ever answer. Because not only was the offering burned up, but the trench with all of its water, the wood, and the 12 stones that the wood was placed on. Elijah had no doubt that this task would be easy for God.

Today, God Himself dwells in us. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us. The Spirit of God hasn’t dwindled. The Spirit of God hasn’t stopped working. He’s waiting for a vessel like Elijah, that was a man no different than us, except in his prayer life and his faith. In fact, Elijah was at a disadvantage that we don’t have today. In those days, the Spirit of God wasn’t poured out on all flesh. The Son of God didn’t dwell in and through them. The only reason we no longer see miracles like this is because our faith depends on our prayer life which depends on our love for God.

Elijah prayed and believed because he knew the God whom he served and he loved Him. Today, the Church chooses the world over God 9 out of 10 times. We’d rather do anything than pray. We’d rather do anything than worship. We’d rather do anything than read our Bible. If we want to see the glory of God through His great signs and wonders, then we have to seek Him with all of our hearts. Our faith has to be unshakable if we want our prayers answered. We have to want more than a lukewarm relationship with God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Desire More.

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²³ And when He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. ²⁴ And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep. ²⁵ And they went and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” ²⁶ And He said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷ And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?” ~ Matthew 8:23-27

Jesus and His disciples were in the ship, crossing over to the other side. These men weren’t men who had never been in a boat before. These men weren’t men who weren’t used to rough waves and weather. These were seasoned seamen that were with Jesus. They were crossing the lake when a tempest, or a huge storm, arose and threatened to sink the boat with them in it. I presume the disciples were rowing and bailing out the water from the boat to no avail.

So, they went to the back of the ship and woke Jesus up, asking for help. When He helps them by calming the storm, they marvel. They could hardly believe what they had just seen. Maybe it took them by surprise because they were not expecting that. Maybe they were expecting Jesus to grab a bucket or pan and start bailing out water. Or grab an oar and start rowing. Whatever they were expecting, it certainly didn’t seem to be that. That didn’t expect Jesus to stand up and speak to the storm and the storm obey Him. They weren’t ready.

Some of us are where these disciples were so long ago. We’re seasoned in our position, and then, out of nowhere, a storm hits, and we panic. Imagine how much more God will do for us if we cry out for help expecting the impossible. Think about it. The disciples were saved in such a miraculous way that they were shocked, meaning this wasn’t how they were expecting to be saved. So then, how much more will God do the impossible if we pray and expect the impossible?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Expect The Impossible.

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⁵ When He had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, appealing to Him, ⁶ “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” ⁷ And He said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ But 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.” ~ Matthew 8:5-8

Look at the faith the centurion had. And he wasn’t even a Jew. He wasn’t even a follower of Jesus. Yet he put his hope completely in Jesus. His servant was sick. He heard all about Jesus and His mighty acts of healing. So, he himself went to see Jesus. He didn’t send someone else. Many Christians won’t pray for themselves, and others won’t even pray at all. They would rather someone else to labor in prayer on their behalf.

Now, I want to be clear. I’m not in no way discounting asking for prayer. Please, pray for me. If you can do anything, please remember me in your prayers that the LORD will open up doors and opportunities for us. That the LORD will always lead us in all things. But that doesn’t release me from the necessary task of praying myself. Jesus prayed for Himself. Paul prayed for himself. Both changed the entire world.

We have to be like them if we want to see a change in our lives. We have to be like the centurion who didn’t rely on someone else to do what he knew he ought to do if we want our loved ones healed or saved. We have to take it upon ourselves, just as that centurion did, if we want to see miracles, changes, and answered prayers in our lives. He wanted his servant healed, and he believed, and he knew Jesus could do it, so he himself went to ask.

• Your children aren’t serving the LORD?
  • Ask Jesus
• Are your children in unhealthy relationships?
  • Take it to the LORD in prayer
• Someone you love or know is sick?
  • Pray the prayer of faith
• Are you called to do something? And you sure it is the LORD and not the enemy distracting you?
  • Ask for confirmation from the LORD.
    • Remember, not every opportunity is of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have The Faith of The Centurion.

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