The
Faith that Moves Mountains
And a
certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching
him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they
besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went
with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy
that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself
worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say
unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my
servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When
Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said
unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were
sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick. Luk 7:2-10
What faith from a
man that didn't even deem himself worthy to have the Lord set foot in his
house! What glorious, rock-solid belief from a man of the Gentiles who didn't
even imagine he was worthy to be in the very presence of Jesus!
Knowing that his
beloved servant was dying and all hope was lost, he couldn't even bring himself
to go before the Master to ask for this healing. He had to send others to ask
in his stead, because he knew he was unworthy to even behold the face of
Almighty God, come as a man. And yet, such faith from one that wouldn't dare to
even look on the face of Christ! What faith!
This man was a
Gentile, a Roman officer; and yet he had more faith than any of the children of
Israel. How could that be?
He hadn't been
brought up in the synagogue, hearing about the coming Messiah. He hadn't
received the finest religious education that the Pharisees could offer. He had
probably never even heard the word of God spoken, much less preached. And he
still had mountain-moving faith! He had saving faith!
Jesus had come to
minister to the people of Israel, not their Gentile occupiers. Later, when
asked by a Gentile woman to deliver her daughter from a demon, He would refuse
her first request. Jesus was not sent to the Gentiles, and was not at all
afraid to turn down their requests for His aid.
And, behold, a
woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David;
my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth
after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It
is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And
she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their
masters' table. Mat 15:22-27
But still, the Roman officer had the nerve to not only ask
Jesus to heal his servant, but to simply speak the word, knowing it would be
done at His command. Regardless of who the officer was, or the fact that he was
not even Jewish, he had one quality which Jesus responded to. It was the same
quality he responded to when the Canaanite woman with the possessed daughter
asked Him for His help: it was faith. When
Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said
unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Luk 7:9
Then Jesus
answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto
thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very
hour. Mat 15:28
Even though these
people were unclean, Gentile by birth, and unconverted, their faith was
astounding. Even as the children of Israel, with their great knowledge of
scripture, debated the who's and why's of Jesus Christ, the uneducated Gentiles
knew Him for what He was: the Son of God. And their faith in Him caused Him to
move on their behalf and to meet their need.
Jesus, King of the
Jews, became a servant to the Gentiles, just as surely as He was sent to serve
the Jews. Why? How? Saving faith. The same faith in Him that caused Him to
bless Peter, proclaiming him to be a rock.
And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Mat
16:16-19
Any of us that
have accepted the Lord's gift of salvation have experienced saving faith, at
least once. For many of us, it is that faith that rises up when there is
nowhere else to turn. When we finally hit bottom, and have nowhere to look but
up. That is generally when we experience saving faith, or what I call desperate
faith.
When we hit our
lowest point, the Spirit of the Lord will begin to tug at our heart strings,
reminding us that there is someone that can solve the problem at hand.
Regardless of the situation, there is someone powerful enough to turn it
around, and His love is so intense, that He is willing to get involved in our
mess. There is someone that knows our desperation, and is reaching out to us in
our time of greatest need.
You know what I
mean. When the last straw falls and breaks the camel's back, there is someone
to Whom you can turn.
It is at this
point when a light in our spirit begins to shine, and we positively know that
there is a Jesus Christ, and He is standing close by, just waiting for an
invitation to help. It is at that moment when we experience saving faith. When
the Holy Spirit reveals to us that Jesus Christ did indeed die for us, and He
is waiting for us to respond to His offer to help. It is that desperate faith
which causes us to run to the One that we have rejected for so long, believing
that we could handle our lives without Him.
And when we
finally give in to the urge to turn everything over to Him, and to allow Him to
embrace us and comfort us, it is at that point when we finally feel the release
of the pent-up pain and frustration. It's like knowing that your big brother is
right behind you, begging you to let Him have a talk with that bully that keeps
oppressing you, making you fearful and miserable. It's like seeing your big
brother step forward, and watching that bully turn and run for cover.
Relief like that
cannot even be described. It has to be felt to be understood. It cannot be
effectively enunciated. It has to be experienced.
And after that
desperate faith rises up and we turn it over to Him, we feel like a burden as
big as a house has just been lifted off of our shoulders. The peace that comes
from that experience is so real and so wonderful that trying to describe it
just doesn't do it justice. That is saving faith. Desperate faith at work,
bringing about a much needed change and sense of relief from the worry and fear
and oppression we've been struggling against.
Saving faith is
not supposed to be a one-time experience. But for many of us, it is just that.
We get saved, the crisis passes, and the next time we're in a bad situation, we
find that we don't have the faith to believe God for the solution. We've all
been there: in a crisis of faith at the worst possible moment in our lives.
That is exactly when we need that saving faith, but cannot seem to locate it.
We all go through
it. Even the great men and women of the Bible experienced it. Many of them, on
several occasions. Just look at the life of Peter. Or Abraham. Or Mary and
Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. Hey, I've been there.
It is at those
moments, when I don't even have the strength to pray, that I look for that
saving faith and cannot seem to locate it. It seems to have just disappeared.
Gone without a trace. Now I'm really in trouble. Not only am I in a crisis
situation, but because I have temporarily misplaced my faith, I have become my
own god.
Believe me, that
is the last thing I want. I do not want to be my own god. I tried that for a
number of years, and I just went from one crisis to another. Eventually, I even
misplaced my faith in myself.
While misplacing
faith in yourself would seem to be a huge problem, for me it was actually a
blessing. Once I lost faith in myself, I was able to see where my faith really
should have been invested all along. In Jesus. Not in Paul. Paul just messes
things up. Jesus has never messed things up.
So how do we go
about finding that saving, miraculous faith when we need it? We've already
discussed one option. Find yourself in such a low condition, that you have only
one place to look: up. I must admit, this is not my favorite approach. It can be a little hard on
the nerves. And on relationships.
There is another
option. We can go running to Jesus before we hit that low point, and allow His
faith to carry us through. That is what Martha did when her brother died.
Then Martha, as
soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even
now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise
again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the
resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am
the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto
him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which
should come into the world. And when she had so said, she went her way, and
called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for
thee. As soon as she heard that, she
arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but
was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then which were with her in
the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and
went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then
when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet,
saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When
Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her,
he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where
have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not
this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man
should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the
grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God? Joh 11:20-40
Lazarus has died,
and neither of his sisters have the faith to believe that Jesus can and will
raise him from the dead. Instead, they focus on the fact that it is now too
late. God waited too long, and now all hope is gone!
Not having the
faith to believe for their miracle, they do have one redeeming quality. They
run to Jesus. Even though their faith is weak, the faith of Jesus carries them
through it.
Then they took
away the stone from the place where the
dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his
eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast
heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always:
but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe
that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a
loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was
dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound
about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him,
and let him go. Joh 11:41-44
We've all done
this. I call it a "meltdown". I get into a situation that I don't
have the faith to get out of. I begin to struggle with depression, just like
Mary. I just sit there instead of running to the Lord.
Then God sends
someone to get me; to motivate me to go searching for Him. Once I do so, I have
a meltdown. I just lay it all out, and proceed to tell Him that if He had just
acted a little quicker, I wouldn't be in this mess. Sound familiar?
Even though I do
not have the faith to believe for my miracle, His faith carries me through. He
acts on my behalf, believing in my stead, and things change. Suddenly I come to
the realization that even though my situation stinks, Jesus is moving in the
midst of it. Then it dawns on me that if He had acted sooner, I wouldn't have
had the opportunity to see Him at work. I wouldn't have recognized His
miraculous touch in the situation if He hadn't waited until there was no other
hope left. And then I realize that this
has been a situation which the Lord was using for my benefit. He was teaching
me to hold on to my faith regardless of my situation.
Of course, there
are more proactive approaches to building one's faith. There are ways to build
up one's faith before the crisis hits, and so to be prepared for it. Of course,
that makes it much easier, and where's the fun in that?
For those of you
that don't like having that kind of fun, you can always build your faith by
reading the word on a regular basis.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God. Rom 10:17
Of course, time
spent in prayer, especially praying in the Spirit, builds up faith. Especially
so, when we ask for more faith.
And the apostles
said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. Luk 17:5
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost, Jud 1:20
Faith can also be
a gift.
To another faith
by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 1Co 12:9
For I say, through
the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think;
but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of
faith. Rom 12:3
Oh, and by the
way, faith is required by God. It is essential to the Christian
walk.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that
he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. Heb 11:6
And faith helps us
immensely in our walk with God, because of the help it give us.
Therefore we conclude that a man is
justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Rom 3:28
But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name: John 1:12
That ye be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Heb 6:12
Now the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope,
through the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom 15:13
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,
ye shall receive. Mat 21:22
Not for that we
have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye
stand. 2Co 1:24
So by faith we
receive justification in Christ Jesus; we are made by faith into sons of God;
we inherit the promises of God; abound in hope; receive from the Lord; and by
faith we stand.
Oh, and just one
more tiny little point.
And he that
doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth
not of faith: for whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. Rom 14:23
Faith is our
shield against the works of the enemy, so it is the first thing he usually
attacks. Stand firm, and hold on to what the Lord has given you. Build your
faith through prayer and through the word of God. Use it like a muscle,
understanding that it grows larger and stronger with every use. And above all,
never surrender it, because the just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17).
Because faith is a
gift from God, there isn't anyone or anything that can take it from us. It must
be willingly surrendered. Hold fast and stand firm, knowing that in the end,
even the faith of the size of a grain of a mustard seed can move a mountain.
If you have a
mountain to move, speak to it in faith. Then wait expectantly for it to get up
and walk away.
For more articles by this author, please go to www.thelighthousespeaks.blogspot.com
