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I hope that you are enjoying reading about faith as much as I am. It is such a cornerstone of who we are as Christians, and to be able to place the pieces together to understand faith and how to use faith is like a cold glass of lemonade on a hot July day! The refreshing we receive from our God is truly amazing.

As Christians, we’ve all heard the story about having a mustard seed of faith, and the following relates the meaning of this parable very clearly for us. The body of this post comes from the website: Strongfaith.org and is copied in its original format from that site.

For additional reading on faith, click here.

Be sure to add your notes from this article to your personal journal, this is information you’ll want to refer back to again and again.

 

A Mustard Seed and The Kingdom of God

The mustard seed is a very small seed. Look at the picture at the top of the page to remind yourself how small a mustard seed really is. Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed [Matthew 13:31-32].

Jesus used the mustard seed to illustrate the principles of the Kingdom of God for several reasons. A seed carries within itself the DNA or the blueprint of the parent plant. An acorn produces an oak tree not a hickory tree. A mustard seed is going to produce a mustard plant. The Word of God will produce the Kingdom of God within you [Luke 17:21].

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head
[Mark 4:24].

The Mustard plant grows to a remarkable size in comparison to the original mustard seed. Jesus referred to the principles of the Kingdom of God as a living thing that grows within us to produce remarkable things
[Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-20].

Jesus says, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” [Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6]. Jesus promises “it will move” [Matthew 17:20]; “it will be done” [Matthew 21:21]; it “shall come to pass” [Mark 11:23]; and it will “obey you” [Luke 17:6].

Jesus talks about the quantity of faith that it takes to do the impossible. It is not the quantity of your faith but the quality of faith (confidence) you have in God and God’s Word. Jesus compares mustard seeds to mountains. Jesus says that it only takes a mustard seed amount of faith (confidence) in the principles of the Kingdom of God to remove huge barriers such as mountains. Jesus said if you have a mustard seed amount of faith in the Word of God, nothing would be impossible to you.

    • Jesus says that it is the believer’s responsibility to speak to the mountain. Because I believe Jesus, I can say to a mountain (barrier) move here to there. Nothing is impossible to me because I am a believer and not a doubter [Matthew 17:20, Mark 9:23, Mark 5:36].

“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might (αν has no English equivalent word) say unto this sycamine tree, Be plucked up by the root, and be planted in the sea; and it should obey you” [Luke 17:5-6].

    • I don’t need to increase my faith to do God’s will. I just need a pure faith [no mixture of doubt and unbelief], the size of a mustard seed [Mark 11:23, Matthew 17:20]. It is not the quantity of faith you have but the quality of faith (confidence) you have in God and God’s Word
    • If I have a mustard seed amount of faith; I will say to the sycamine [mulberry] tree be plucked up by the root and be planted in the sea [somewhere that I am not]; and it will obey me.

Do You Need to do the Impossible?

“Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief (apistia); for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, moved here to there; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. However this kind (of unbelief) goes not out but by prayer and fasting” [Matthew 17:19-21].

  1. Jesus said that it only required a pure faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed to remove a mountain. You just need a pure faith the size of a mustard seed to do the impossible.
  2. It is not usually your faith, or your unbelief, but your doubt that causes a faith failure [Luke 17:5-6, Mark 11:23, Matthew 21:21, Matthew 17:20].
  3. If you believe Jesus, you can say to a mountain (problem) move here to there. Nothing will be impossible to you, because your are a believer and not a doubter [Matthew 17:20, Mark 9:23, Mark 5:36].
  4. Faith and unbelief both come by what you are hearing or giving your attention to. You must choose to have faith come in your heart by hearing the Word of God [Romans 10:17, Mark 4:24].
  5. Only unbelief will stop you from doing the supernatural. You must deal with any area of unbelief by increasing your time with God in prayer. You must also fast or decrease your dependency on your flesh, worldly input, and sensory input. This kind of unbelief only comes out of your heart by prayer and fasting [Matthew 17:19-21, Mark 9:29].
  6. You must recognize that even Jesus was limited by an environment of unbelief [ Mark 6:6, Matthew 13:58, Mark 9:24, Mark 8:32].
  7. You must surround yourself with believers when you need to do the impossible [Luke 8:51]. You must deal with your unbelief [Mark 5:36, Luke 8:50]. You must remove the scoffers and the unbelievers as Jesus did [Mark 5:38-40, Matthew 9:24-25]. You must establish an environment of faith by removing the interior and exterior unbelief.
  8. The woman of Canaan did not let offense stop her in obtaining her goal. Her goal was getting help for her daughter. She didn’t let the comments of Jesus or even his disciples impede her progress [Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30].

The devil uses offense to trip up the believer in their spiritual progress. The offense (Skandalizo) becomes a stumbling block to the believer. That is what “offense” does to us, it stops us. Offense is a stumbling block in our spiritual walk.

The woman of Canaan refuse to be distracted by “offense”. Satan uses many types of offense to distract us from Jesus, to take our eyes of Jesus. Remember Peter could walk on the water till he looked at his circumstances. Offense is just looking at some bad circumstance. If you want to do the impossible you must stay focused on Jesus and the Word of God [Psalms 119:165, Matthew 11:6, Luke 7:23].

If you establish an environment of faith, you will say what You want to come to pass [Mark 5:39, Mark 5:41, Luke 8:54]. You will have what you say.

Source: http://stronginfaith.org/article.php?page=33

 

 

Wow! It’s not the amount of faith but the environment of faith that we need to grow in our lives. Just a tiny amount of faith will do amazing things.

Once again, we see the directional signs pointing us back to the Word of God. Reading the Word sets the stage and creates that environment of faith that we need in our lives to be able to utilize the faith of God. But prayer and fasting are what we need to really open that stage up and see what God whats us to see! They give us the mind of Christ, removing the doubt and making the environment of faith active in us.

Review the eight steps above and get to know them. Remember that what you hear and what you give your attention to is the environment that you are creating in your life. If you want more faith, create the environment for it in your life.

 

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