This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, How to Remove Mountains.
People have mountains.
Mountains of heartache, mountains of debt, mountains of despair, mountains of satanic opposition. And they say, “O God, what am I going to do with this mountain I am facing?”
Jesus said,
…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 17:20b).
That sounds pretty big. Why do we feel unable to simply believe, to say amen to what God has said?
Jesus and His disciples were on a mountaintop that shone with the glory of the transfiguration—a picture of the future glory that God’s people anticipate. (Read Matthew 17:1-9.)
But they had to come down from that mountain to a place of misery. In that valley there was satanic power—a boy who was demon-possessed. In that valley, there was sickness and sorrow and despair, a father with a crushed heart, who had come up against a mountain of difficulty with his son. And he said to Jesus, “So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him” (Matthew 17:16).
Then Jesus came and He spoke to the demon. There was no struggle, no groaning, no battle. Satan released his grip on this boy, and he was healed.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, 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. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:19-21).
How do we move mountains? With faith.
When our Lord said, “faith as a mustard seed,” He was not putting a premium upon small faith. Our Lord loved great faith. But He was saying that the least amount of faith is greater than the greatest amount of difficulty. He was comparing a mustard seed to a mountain—a David and Goliath experience in the Holy Spirit.
You cannot manufacture a seed. Why? Because a seed needs life. In the same way, faith is supernatural. Faith is not “positive thinking,” or naming it and claiming it. Faith is trusting God—because only God “names it.” Only God can make a seed of faith.
Furthermore, a seed is not a museum piece—it is meant to be planted.
Your heavenly Father will give you faith, but He will not believe for you. Breathing is a gift of God, too, but you can smother it if you want to. God gives you faith, but you must believe. You must plant the seed of faith. Out of that seed of faith will bloom the fruits of God’s grace and glory.
You say, “Well, Pastor, I just don’t have that kind of faith.” Well, I think most of us don’t. We ought to have. We could have. We should have. By God’s grace we will have.
Jesus told His disciples about the demon, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Why do we have such little faith? Simply because we are not serious about this matter. God does business with those who mean business.
This father believed for his demon-possessed son. The same story in the gospel of Mark tells us:
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (March 9:23-24).
He did not have big faith. But our Lord took his little faith and used it. It is not great faith in God that you need, but faith in a great God.
One of the greatest invitations to prayer ever given was made when the prophet Jeremiah was in prison for preaching the truth. God reached into his prison cell with both a command and an invitation.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying, “Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name): ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know’” (Jeremiah 33:1-3).
God takes the initiative: “Call unto Me.”
Have you ever had an important person give you his number and say, “Call me”? God did just that with Jeremiah—and He does so with us.
There is not one of us who cannot contact Heaven. Never say in a situation, “There’s nothing I can do.” You can pray.
Every failure in our lives is a prayer failure. There is no sin which proper prayer would not have avoided, and there is no need that prayer cannot meet.
Your spiritual life will never rise above your prayer life.
We must learn how to pray—and then we must pray. All the articles on prayer in the world are worthless if you do not pray.
God can do anything He wishes. There is no prayer too hard for God to answer, no problem too big to solve, no person too lost to save, no promise too difficult to keep. Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God.
Matthew 17:1-22; Mark 9:23-24; Jeremiah 33:1-3
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16).
“For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? (1 Peter 3:12-13).
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality (Romans 12:10-13).
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
