Figures of speech,
you say? Jesus didn’t really mean those things would happen, you explain?
Then God has
news for you: It’s just that kind of thinking that has kept amazing things
from happening.
The
problem with immovable mountains isn’t the lack of power available, it’s
looking in the wrong places. We depend so much on our own abilities—our intelligence,
our money, our church—that we have no need to call down the extraordinary
power of God.
That
dependency on self is also why we have no choice but to deny that Jesus meant
what He said in those passages that tell what unblemished faith will accomplish.
We don’t tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea because we know that
those things just can’t happen (Matthew 17:20). If we need a mountain moved,
we form a committee, plan for years, raise the money, buy the earth moving equipment,
and then struggle to move one small protrusion before the brethren get tired,
bored, or just plain lose interest. Move a mountain? We can’t even level
a hill before we give up and change projects. Because our experiences belie the
statements of Jesus, we have no choice but to relegate them to the world of the
metaphor. Surely He couldn’t have meant it for real! Those things do not
happen!
And,
by our own faithlessness, we ensure the truth of our beliefs. Those things don’t
happen.
But the
fact that they don’t happen isn’t because Jesus didn’t promise
them. He did. Oh, how He did. And their lack of occurrence doesn’t in any
way validate our faulty theology. Just the opposite. It proves the very thing
that Jesus taught. When faith exists in a pure form it takes very little to turn
the world we know upside down. When it exists not at all or in very flawed form,
mountains sit stagnate and trees grow unbothered (Matthew 21:21).
Why
do those things require faith? Isn’t God able to do what He wishes whether
we have faith or not? After all, how many humans with great faith did He need
to speak everything into creation?
No,
our faith doesn’t give God power. Neither is our faith a power unto itself.
Faith isn’t the generator in the dam making the power; it’s the transmission
line through which the power gets to where it needs to go. The smaller the line,
the less the power. The larger the line, the greater the power. Quite simply God
won’t bring His power into the lives and dreams of those who won’t believe
what He does when He does it. He won’t work His miracles to have us thank
our lucky stars or praise the universal false god called "coincidence."
Just as Jesus wouldn’t work miracles in His home town because of their lack
of faith, He won’t work wonders for us when our faith lacks just like theirs.
Want to see the
impossible? Then forget about hitching your wagon to a star, dragging yourself
up by your own bootstraps, or sucking it up to make it through the game. Forget
about you and what you can do because as long as you lean on yourself you’ll
never command mountains or trees or demons to do your bidding. But when you immerse
yourself into and completely trust in His power, you will see things the world
is convinced cannot happen.
Ready
to use the unused power?
Surrender
in faith.
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The True Heaven
by
Joe Beam and Lee Wilson
The True Heaven is the highly anticipated expanded follow-up to The Real Heaven! It is an exciting and fast-paced book that deals with many topics of what Heaven will be like. This fascinating book uses the Bible to answer tough questions about Heaven and the next life.
Click
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Seeing the Unseen:
Preparing for Spiritual War
In
this national bestseller, Joe Beam reveals Satan's powerful weaponry-his lies,
deceptions, and manipulations and unmasks his strategy to destroy your life and
those you care for. This is not a book of wild sensationalism; rather, it is a
dedicated study of God's Word and what it tells us about Spiritual Warfare. Click
here to preview and purchase |
