Move Your Mountain / Slay Your Giant

               “If ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,’ it shall be done.” (Matthew 21:21b)

               What did Jesus mean by this statement? We all have mountains, or giants, which stand in our way as we try to further our walk with the Lord.

Let’s face it: we all come with baggage when we enter the kingdom. While some of us may experience a total, complete deliverance at the time of salvation, I don’t mind telling you that was NOT the case with me. I brought my bad habits, my addictions, my attitude problems, and a host of other issues with me. Some of them the Lord has delivered me from, while I’m still working on some others, and still praying about some others. I find that is the case with most Believers.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s okay to come with issues. After all, we are all human, trying to “walk out our own Salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). How long is it okay to hold on to those issues, however?

Take me, for example. I have been walking with the Lord for a while, now. While I have come a long way, and I can definitely see evidence of God working in my life, I still have my issues. Some of them I brought along with me at conversion, but others I have developed along the way.

One of the issues that I seem to struggle with the most is smoking (hissss!) This also seems to be the one issue that fellow Christians love to take note of. I will be honest, here: I know God doesn’t want me to smoke. He only wants what is best for me, and smoking is not good for my health. No secret, there.

But honestly, I have other issues that I deal with that are a lot higher priority to me. There are some things about my attitude, for instance, which do not reflect Christ. To me, that is much more important than smoking. I have also been in a period of trials and testing for quite some time, now as the Lord prepares me for whatever He has in mind for me. Believe me, that is a much higher priority than the smokes, even though it is something that others really cannot see.

There are things that I have been in prayer about for months which have seen no apparent change. Many of those things are very high priority to me. It seems like I pray and pray about those issues, but nothing ever happens. Nothing very positive, anyway.

Then I look around at others, and I begin to wonder what some of them know that I do not. While on one of these trips wondering, the Lord revealed something to me about a certain situation. It certainly helped me, and I thought I would share it so that maybe some of you that are still struggling with your human nature could take an opportunity to learn from my mistakes.

You see, I had been faithfully praying about a certain situation over a length of time, and I really didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. In fact, it seemed the more I prayed, the worse it became. Ever been there? The Word teaches importunity (asking until you receive), so I took that to heart when it came to this issue.

Anyway, I had been praying for months, when the Lord began to speak to me through His Word. He took me to 1 Samuel chapter 17. In this chapter, David faces off with Goliath. We all know the story, right? I thought I knew it until He began to speak to me about it.

In the text, the armies of Israel and Philistia have squared off for a good old fashioned slug-fest, when this mammoth of a man steps forward and issues a challenge to the nation of Israel. When David arrives on the scene, he has been running his very large mouth for forty days and not even one of the Israelites has had the courage to step forward and shut him up.

Once David decides that he has heard enough, the trials start. First, he is rebuked by his brother. Doesn’t that always seem to be the way of things? You finally decide that you are going to listen to that small voice inside of you, and what happens? Your loved ones step forward and tell you off! Always seems to happen to me that way, too.

You decide to step out for the Lord and the first thing you get is well-meaning people telling you not to. God wouldn’t ask that from you. That doesn’t sound like God to me. You are stepping out in the flesh. Remember that time…?

Next, David is summoned to King Saul’s tent, and is promptly told he cannot do as the Lord is telling him to do. It’s not possible, he’s informed. Why is it that whenever God tells someone to step out, that the authority figures in that person’s life try to dissuade them? You know what I mean. Your pastor will give you that funny look and just shake his head. The people you seek for counsel will tell you that you’re nuts. We’ve all been there.

I look at it like this. The religious authorities in Jesus’ day crucified the Messiah. What would Abraham’s Pastor have said if he’d been told that God had said to sacrifice Isaac? I wonder what the people in Noah’s life thought of him?

And then the worst thing of all: David’s giant laughs in his face. Ouch! Even his opponent didn’t respect him!  I think a lot of us would have given up at that point. Many of us do.

David knew a secret that many of us haven’t learned, yet. He understood how to follow the voice of the Lord. He understood when to stop telling God about the giant, and start telling the giant about God.

Goliath was huge. He was larger, stronger and faster than any human being on the field. He thought that because of his great size that he could defy God. Do you have any problems like that? Do they seem to defy the will of God in your life? Do you cry out for relief and hear only silence?

Maybe the Lord is trying to tell you to stop telling Him about your giant, and to begin telling your giant about Him. Tell your giant what God has done for you in the past. Tell it that it cannot defy a child of God; that it must remove itself from your path. Tell it that your God has already defeated it, and that you are walking onward and upward. Tell it that you serve a God Whose name is above every other name. Remind it that it has already been cast down. Stop listening to it, and begin talking to it!

If David had listened to the giant, he would have been defeated before the battle had even started. He didn’t listen to the giant or the other nay-sayers in his life, because he understood the nature of his God. The nature of the giant doesn’t matter. It lies to you, and that is all you need to know about it. Speak the Word of Truth to your giant. Slay it in it’s tracks!!!