God-given dreams can be achieved, and mountains can be moved, if we have mustard seed faith. God has a life purpose for every believer to “move mountains” for the glory of God. Enemies of faith like worry, fear, doubt, and panic get into our paths, trying to sabotage our success of having mustard seed faith and thus, having our dreams come true. Whatever takes residence in our minds, sufficient mustard seed faith or the enemies of faith, influence our progress in achieving our goals. For the sake of freedom, we must habitually exorcise the demons of worry, fear, doubt, and panic from our minds, before it is too late!
Before God created mankind, God envisioned a God-given dream for every believer who would ever live on this planet. He predetermined each person’s spiritual gifts, passions, ability, personality type, and experiences they would have, with a unique life purpose in mind for them to achieve. He knew every life struggle every Christian would endure, and developed a perfect deliverance plan God would use in each person’s life, to help them to escape the trial unscathed. He also planned how he would use each trial to strengthen and mature the faith of each Christian, and how He could use each life experience of man to glorify Himself. In essence, God planned the lives of every Christian, giving them a purpose to help restore the lost freedoms of mankind, disrupted by sin. This includes helping man avoid hell by being a witness.
God had a mission for the twelve disciples to bear spiritual fruit, and gave them the power to achieve that dream. The disciples were empowered by Jesus to do miraculous things, including casting out demons. An example, where the disciples unsuccessfully tried to exorcise a demon, took place in Matthew 17:14-20:
“When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ‘Lord, have mercy on my son,’ he said. ‘He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.’ ‘You unbelieving and perverse generation,’ Jesus replied, ‘how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.’ Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’ He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” (Matthew 17:14-20)
The disciples were unable to drive out the demon from the boy, because they didn’t rely totally upon Jesus’ power and thus, lacked sufficient faith. Jesus casted out the demon and healed the child, and was critical of the disciples’ lack of faith. After the disciples asked in private while they were unable to cast out the demon, Jesus stated, “Because you have so little faith. Truly, I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” In our lives today, like the disciples, we also have struggles of having sufficient faith, as we daily strive to fulfill our God-given purpose and to live victoriously in spite of life challenges. However, if we only had mustard seed faith, we could “move mountains” as nothing would be impossible.
I Can Do All Things Through Christ Which Strengthened Me (Philippians 4:13)
Can we actually move a rock mountain if we have mustard seed faith? We don’t hear stories of Christians doing this. Is it impossible for this to happen? Was Christ exaggerating the power of God at work?
God is omnipotent. He can do all things. He created the heavens and earth, including mountains. If He can put a mountain in position by a single command, He definitely has the ability to move if He desires. “With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)
Every Christian has the Spirit giving them the potentiality to do all things. Two things that could defeat Christians when trying to use it – to do things like actually moving a rock mountain – is a lack of faith and God’s will. Insufficient faith sabotages our ability to fully utilize God’s power. Secondly, if it isn’t God will, or if God doesn’t want us to do something, He definitely won’t give us the empowerment to do it. We should remember all this when we think of big dreams to do great things for God.
In retrospect to a Christian being capable of moving a mountain, hardly any Christian would have sufficient faith to believe He could move it with God’s power helping, and also, I don’t think it is God’s will for people to move rock mountains out of place. As I once read, “Are we to think that God would really let us redesign the planet by moving mountains, changing the shape of the oceans, creating new islands and modifying the universe?”
Nothing God desires for us to do through His power is impossible for us to do, if we only rely upon, and have sufficient faith, in His empowerment. If it is His will for us to do something, He will definitely empower us. We need to daily trust in His omnipotent power.
Casting Out Demons of Worry, Fear, Doubt, and Panic
God has a dream for you to do great things only for His glory. Ask Him in faith and He will empower you to achieve it. Reaching God-given dreams require trust and reliance in the power of the object of our faith: Christ. With mustard seed faith, we can move mountains; nothing is impossible.
To achieve dreams and live the victorious Christian life, we must constantly be “moving mountains”, or “casting our personal demons”.
The four enemies of faith are worry, fear, doubt, and panic. We all have experienced them as they attempt to destroy our faith and freedoms. They are mountains to move, demons to exorcise, so we can again trust God. Enemies of faith disconnect us from our strength source: God’s power in us to do all things. The disciples failed to cast out the boy’s demons because of a lack of faith; often we become incapable of utilizing God’s power to achieve our purpose because worry, fear, doubt, and panic weakens our faith.
Conquering these personal giants through the power of Christ can happen when our faith is firmly rooted in Christ. Whatever takes residence in our minds, controls our future. Peter walked on water when his eyes were on Jesus, but began to sink when worry, fear, doubt, and panic took over. David defeated Goliath because his faith firmly trusted in God’s empowerment to defeat his giant. If David allowed enemies of faith take residence in his mind, his faith in God would have weakened, and David’s purpose of freeing Israelites from Philistines and being king of Israel would never have taken place.
In Samuel 17:45-47, “David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.’” Undoubtedly, David would not have said and believed this in his heart, if he allowed the enemies of faith consume his mind.
Rely upon the power of God to defeat your personal giants, including enemies of faith, so your faith will have the freedom to mature and grow. God uses life struggles to mold us into warriors for Christ, but to become a warrior like David, your faith must realize your battles is the Lord’s and not your own. The disciples were unable to exorcise the boy’s demons because they relied upon their own abilities, and we would also fail in trying to cast out our demons of enemies of faith, if we aren’t first empowered by God to do so.
Mustard Seed Faith: The Kind of Faith That Can Move Mountains
Mustard seed faith is needed to move the mountains of the enemies of faith. “Nothing would be impossible” if you have that kind of faith, according to Matthew 17:19-20.
Mustard seed faith is dependency upon the power of God, not on self. Relying upon personal willpower and abilities and trying to think positively will not work. Only when we are connected to the Vine (John 15), through daily abiding in Christ, can we find the strength from Christ to do all things.
Moving mountains is not accomplished by simply mustering up enough faith. It is done by trusting God, the object of our faith. Do you trust in God’s perfect will, His unfailing love and omnipotence, His unwavering promises?
We are to have faith even as small as a mustard seed. A mustard seed is the “least of all seeds”, “only 1 to 2 millimeters, or about 1/64th of an inch!” Even if we have faith that small, we can move mountains; nothing would be impossible. We don’t need great faith to do great things, only small faith in a great God who does all the work.
Mustard seed faith grows. It’s not content to stay small. This faith “buries itself in the soil of God’s Word, takes root, and grows and grows and grows, until it becomes much, much larger than its original size.”
A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds, but can grow into trees that are over 20 feet high and 20 feet wide. What makes mustard seed faith special is that, not because it starts off as very tiny, but because of the believer’s diligence, small mustard seed faith can potentially grow into a very large faith.
The larger our mustard seed faith, the greater the chance our God-given purpose will someday be fully met, assuming we also have a surrendering heart. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which grows and grows: as more and more Christians plant the fields, and more and more sinners become believers.
Our goal should be to continually grow deeper in our faith. We do that, by growing in relationship with the Father, by hearing the word of God, trusting in God’s promises, asking God to give us more faith in prayer, and continually striving to pass God’s tests of faiths that He gives us – to strengthen our faith and perseverance.
Mustard seed faith is also resilient. A mustard seed, planted in the ground, is capable of gradually moving rocks or other obstacles out of its ways, by continually expanding its growth causing the seed to constantly exert with outward and upward pressure. As the mustard seed transforms into a plant, it draws nourishment from its sources. Thus, the plant continually grows and strengthen itself and it pushes more obstacles out of its path. Mustard seeds persistently never give up. Only death can derail its growth and fruit production.
We must daily strive to have a resilient mustard seed faith in order to properly react to life challenges. So, God can use us for His glory, our resilient faith must push aside mountains like worry, fear, doubt, and panic out of our paths, as we daily strive to achieve our purpose. For the sake of freedom, our resilient faith must persevere and never give up!
Conclusion
Today countless people are headed to hell; adversity tyrannizes many others. The world desperately needs freedom; many mountains need to be moved.
God has purposed you to move mountains. Cast out your demons of worry, fear, doubt, and panic with mustard seed faith, before it’s too late.
Nothing is impossible if we only have mustard seed faith. So small a seed, but so potentially powerful, because of our omnipotent God. If we habitually surrender, trust, and rely upon Him, all of our God-given dreams could someday come true.
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