Tag: Faith of a Mustard Seed

² And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ~ Deuteronomy 8:2^ESV

The Israelites struggled with their faith from the moment they left Egypt. We often judge this, but when we look at it for what it is, we can see that it’s no different with us today. When we are in our slavery to sin, we cry out to God, but as soon as He saves us, we grumble, complain, and doubt that He can keep us from temptation and sin. This is how the Israelites were as well. They saw miracle after miracle from God Almighty, yet fear and doubt still took root in their hearts and caused them to have to wander the wilderness for forty years.

But their story didn’t end there. God didn’t give up on them. He still led them and was with them wherever they went. He never left them. And along the way, He continued testing them, I believe, getting them prepared for their restoration. Their failure and lack of faith didn’t stop His plans for them. Those who weren’t willing to be molded missed the promised land, but the next generation that was willing to listen to God didn’t. The plan of God wasn’t tarnished, nor did it fail. It was brought to fruition because His Word never fails.

Today God still calls mankind and has plans for us all, but it’s up to us to trust Him and have faith that He is able to fulfill that which He has spoken to us. He will be with us despite the wilderness, the obstacles, the mountains, and during this, He will be testing us and humbling us on the way, preparing us for the fulfillment and restoration. He’s preparing us for our promised land. So, hang on to His Word. Hold tightly to His promises. Don’t allow fear to hold you back because the LORD is with you wherever you go. You don’t have to be perfect; you just have to have faith in Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have Faith In The Wilderness.

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⁵ If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. ~ James 1:5-8^NLT

Wavering in our faith in God, according to James, makes us as unstable as the waves being thrown by the wind. Why? Because when we don’t trust in God, we’re trusting in something else. It may not seem like it, but we have to have faith or trust in something. Either God or the world. Either life or death. Fear or love. How we live our lives will determine in whom we trust.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Trust In God.

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⁶² The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate ⁶³ and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while He was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ ⁶⁴ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples go and steal Him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” ⁶⁵ Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. ~ Matthew 27:62-66

Jesus was dead in the tomb; it looked like it was over. But if you notice, those who had Jesus crucified believed His words yet refused to submit. Instead, they tried to stop any possibility of Jesus’ resurrection from taking place. There are people like this today. They’ll fight to kill your promises, your dreams, and your hope. They’ll even try to bury them and seal the tomb, but that doesn’t mean it’s over.

Even though the Pharisees were able to get Pilate to place guards outside the tomb of Jesus, two angels were sent to roll away the stone and let Him out. Those trying to stop your call sometimes have more faith in you than you do. If they didn’t believe you could do it, they wouldn’t stop you. Therefore, if they have faith in your promise, why don’t you have faith in your promise?

When you have faith in God, and you put that faith into action, nothing can stop your call. People can fire you, they can drop you as friends or clients, or they can try to blacklist you or drag your name through the mud, but if you have God on your side, your dream will not stay dead. He is a God of resurrection and life. So be encouraged today, have hope. There is nothing impossible for God. If He could raise Jesus from the dead, then He can raise your dreams from the dead as well.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have Faith In The God of Resurrection.

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³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ~ John 8:36^ESV

As Christians, we often declare this statement, ‘Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.’ We put it in our songs, use it when we’re witnessing, we even put it on our t-shirts and on the back of our cars, but do we really believe it? Jesus asked the question, ‘when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?’ (Luke 18:8) When Jesus was in Nazareth, He could do few miracles because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58). The Church today looks just like the World. We have the same divorce rate as the World. We have just as much sin as the World. Whole denominations are splitting over sins that were settled as sin from the days of Moses. So then, how can we say we are free?

Faith is a concept that is ever-fleeting in the Church. We don’t believe in miracles anymore. We don’t believe in the supernatural anymore. We no longer even believe that the Bible is without flaw. Our faith is under attack. Daniel, a man that was not the Temple of God with the very Spirit of God dwelling in him, was so righteous that those who wanted him dead knew they couldn’t bring an accusation of evil about him because no one would believe them. We have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of us, yet every little thing trips us up. We no longer have the character of a Saint. Saying that you’re a Christian no longer has any weight to it. Why? The lack of faith.

We can say we believe as much as we want, but how can we believe in someone we know nothing about? We no longer read our Bibles or spend time with God. We no longer seek Him hold heartedly. We know more about Hollywood or deemed conspiracy theories than we do about our own God. Our focus is no longer on God; therefore, our faith has strayed from Him as well.

Our time on this earth is coming to an end. Jesus’ return is soon at hand. The things that seem important now won’t in eternity. Paul referred to the persecution he faced as light affliction compared to what was in store for him. He had his focus on the eternal, so his faith was strong. If we want to start looking like the Church again, our faith needs to return to God. The only way to do that is to change our focus from earthly things to eternal things.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Refocus.

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¹⁴ For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’ ~ 1 Kings 17:14

As Elijah the Tishbite was walking through the gate of Zarephath, he saw a widow gathering sticks to go back home and cook her last meal; the famine was that severe. In fact, the famine was so severe that she believed that after cooking and eating the handful of flour that she had, she and her son would lie down and die from starvation. There was no hope.

There was absolutely nothing left for her and her son to eat.

All that the widow had left was a hand full of flour, a little oil, and a little water, nothing else. But Elijah said, make something for me first, and this is what will happen. You will have enough to eat for the rest of the famine.

This was a bold request, backed by an even bolder promise. It might not seem like much, but when you consider that Elijah was asking for her to be all in, I mean there would be nothing left to go around if she complied with the request, then you would understand that it was a great leap of faith on the part of the widow.

It was a matter of trust. She had to have faith in both Elijah, the servant of the LORD -the God of Israel- that he was telling the truth, and the LORD God Himself to do as He said He would do.

It was so much faith coupled with so much obedience that Jesus used her as an example of faith. Faith isn’t something that we’re born with. It’s not natural for us. It’s something we have to plant and grow. Spending time in the Word and in prayer is like watering that seed of faith and giving it sunlight. Sometimes planting that seed of faith is going to take giving up what you feel is your last hope so that God can show you that there is no such thing as hopeless with Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Bake The Cake.

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²⁵ Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ~ Matthew 6:25-26

When we read that we shouldn’t be anxious about anything because God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory, we think that means that God will just pour out blessing after blessing on us without us having to do anything, but that’s not how it works. I read a quote once that said, ‘God feeds the birds, but He doesn’t throw the worms into the nest.’ James puts it this way, ‘So also faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead’ (James 2:17).

We often think that all we have to do is have faith, and everything will work out. All we have to do is pray, and God will supply everything we need. All we have to do is believe, and God will save us, but that’s not what God promised us. God promised that if we have faith and speak to the mountain, it will move. We can’t live by faith alone. We have to put that faith into action and do something. You have a dream? Work for it with faith and prayer as your foundation. You have a lost loved one? Show them the love of God as you pray in faith that they will be saved. You have bills to pay? Search for jobs as you pray with faith that you will find a job.

Don’t allow obstacles that the enemy has placed before you to keep you from receiving your answered prayers. It took Daniel 21 days to receive an answered prayer. It took Abraham 25 years to receive his promise. Hold on to your faith, and keep fighting for your answered prayers and promises.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Put Your Faith Into Action.

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⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. ⁶ Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. ~ Proverbs 3:5-6

Sometimes it’s hard to have the faith needed to trust God instead of ourselves. We’ve never gotten to physically walk and talk with Jesus. We see little to no miracles. All we have is the faith that the Bible really is the Word of God. The only way we can strengthen our faith is to read our Bible, so that God can reveal Himself to us through His Word.

So, how can we be sure that God’s understanding is better than ours? Proverbs says that God established the Heavens and the Earth by His wisdom and understanding. How many of us can even understand how big the Heavens are, much less create something out of nothing from our own understanding. This is why the Scripture says that man’s wisdom cannot even compare to the ‘foolishness’ of God.

This is the reason we can’t depend on our own understanding. Our own understanding comes from or is influenced by sources other than God, such as secular education, biased news, anti-Christ sources, etc. We can’t trust our own understanding, nor can we trust the understanding of others. We’re all equally flawed full of the lack of understanding and wisdom, but when we depend on the understanding and wisdom of God, He directs our paths and guides us in all we do.

LORD God, help me to have the faith to trust You above myself. Help me to seek Your understanding instead of my own. Teach me to weed out the lies of the enemy and harvest the Truth of Your Word that I might know who You are and that my faith might grow stronger in You. Guide me in all that I do and lead me into paths of righteousness for Your sake. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹⁰ So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” ¹¹ And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” ¹³ And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.” ~ 1 Kings 17:10-13

Jesus asked the question, ‘When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?’ This is the same kind of faith God was searching for in the widow at Zarephath. The faith that no matter what, you’ll be obedient to God. The faith of Noah when he built the Ark regardless of whether or not he saw even a hint of rain. The faith of Abraham when he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. The faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were willing to die for their faith. Faith is what connects us to God. It’s what saves us. But we struggle with faith today.

We struggle with giving God our everything. It’s difficult to see the goodness of God when He’s asking us to risk or sacrifice something we love in the name of faith and obedience. Sometimes God is asking us to risk our entire reputation and relationships in order to give Him everything. Sometimes it’s our job, or our house, or our security. Sometimes it’s even our own lives, but God doesn’t do this just to see if we’ll do it. He doesn’t do it just for so; God tests our faith that He might know who truly loves Him. He’s making sure that you love Him in the good and in the bad. That you’ll love Him regardless of what circumstance you are currently in. God doesn’t just want to be a meal ticket; He wants a relationship with you. He wants you to trust Him with everything in you. He wants you to love Him for Him, not for what comes with Him. And when we love Him, He, in turn, draws closer to us. He draws closer than any brother or any friend. He never lets us go.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have Faith.

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⁵ And He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went about among the villages teaching. ~ Mark 6:5-6

The Bible encourages us that healing is the Children’s bread and that by His (Jesus’) stripes have been healed. In other words, God wants to heal all of us, yet so many aren’t healed. There’s cancer, disease, pain, suffering, depression, anxiety all throughout the Church. We don’t look any different than the world, yet Jesus paid for our healing. He already paid our debt, so why don’t we see more miracles, especially in the Church?

We have become Nazareth. Jesus’ hometown was where He did the least amount of miracles. It wasn’t because He didn’t have the power to do so, but because they didn’t have the faith to receive it. They saw Jesus as just a carpenter’s son, not as the Son of Almighty God. They couldn’t get past their own perception of Christ. We’re no different. We see Jesus as our Savior, we even believe miracles are possible, but we don’t have the faith that Jesus still works today. He told us that the faith of a mustard seed could move mountains and even do the impossible.

We grew up not seeing the lame walk, the dumb talk, or the blind see. We grew up not seeing signs and wonders, so we don’t see that as a reality. We’ve become stuck like Nazareth. They wanted the Messiah to come. They saw the wisdom in His teaching, but they couldn’t get past how they saw Him. They couldn’t get past their own opinions of what the Messiah should be so that they could see all that He was. That’s where we are today. We believe, but we don’t have the faith. It’s like we’re in court, we have the best defense attorney in the world, but unless we show up and do our part, we might as well not have an attorney at all. That’s what faith is; it’s showing up; Jesus already did the rest.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Show Up.

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