Faith That Will Move Mountains

Genesis 22:1-8

1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you,

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

What is faith?

Philip Yancey defines faith as: “Believing in advance in something that will only seem logical when seen in reverse.”

Faith is: simply believing, not just in God’s ability, but also in His willingness to help us.

• Earth movers
• Machinery made to move mountains
• Used to be limited by natural obstacles
• Whether mountains or valley’s can be turned into level plains

It is a struggle to have a Faith in the new millennium. The enemy will fight our:

• Flesh
• Inconvenience
• Sacrifice

Things will not always be “just a walk in the park” when it comes to accomplishing what God wants us to do!

We must have an equalizer!

Matthew 9:27-31

27 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.

28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

30 And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.

31 But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

• Expressed a need
• Persistent following
• Asked if they believed He could do it
• YES
• According to your FAITH
• Eyes opened

Faith becomes our equalizer!

Dramatic and significant is the story of the Pilgrims:

On December 21, 1620, the voyaging Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Bay, with Captain Christopher Jones at her helm.

It had been a grueling voyage, taking the one-hundred-twenty-ton-capacity ship sixty-six days to make the perilous crossing. There had been disease, anxiety, and childbirth among the 102 courageous passengers.

Furthermore, they arrived on the black New England shore during a hard winter, which ultimately claimed half of their number. However, when spring came and the captain of the Mayflower offered free passage to anyone desiring to return, not a single person accepted.

The fidelity of the forty-one men, who while still aboard the Mayflower had signed the famous Compact beginning with the words, “In ye name of God Amen,” was taking on visible meaning, these chivalrous souls had dedicated themselves to the total causes of freedom.

They had come to a wilderness to carve out a better way of life. Faith prompted the voyage; faith sustained the Pilgrims and their religious convictions, constrained them to raise their voices in praise.

Their hardship, sacrifice, devotion, concept of government, and vigorous religion all remind us of those who sought a country.

FAITH WILL MOVE THE MOUNTAINS!!

Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Unbelief puts our circumstance between God, and us, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Through our faith all things become possible to us!

On October 18, 1879, a young inventor by the name of Thomas A. Edison sat in his laboratory:

He was weary from 13 months of repeated failure in his search for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current.

To add to his problems, the men who had backed him financially were now refusing to put up any additional funds. Having tried every known metal in his experiment, Edison was admittedly baffled.

Casually picking up a bit of lampblack, he mixed it with tar and rolled it into a thin thread. Suddenly the thought struck him, why not try a carbonized cotton fiber?

For 5 hours he worked on the first filament, but it broke before he could remove the mold. Two entire spools of thread were used in similar fruitless efforts.

At last a perfect strand emerged, only to be ruined when he tried to place it inside a glass tube. Still Edison refused to admit defeat.

He continued to work without sleep for two more days and nights. Eventually he managed to insert one of the crude carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb.

“When we turned on the current,” he said, “the sight we had so long desired to see finally met our eyes!”

His persistence in the face of the most discouraging odds gave the world one of its greatest inventions — the electric light!

2 Kings 4:16-26

16 And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.

17 And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.

18 And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.

19 And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.

20 And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.

21 And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.

22 And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

23 And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.

24 Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.

25 So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:

26 Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.

• Promise-child grew
• Certain day
• Promise died
• ”It shall be well”
• Search for the man of God
• ”It is well”

FAITH WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS!!

God does not respond to need, but only to faith!  He will meet your need, but only according to your faith.

Abraham had no idea of how God was going to take care of the problem; he just knew that He would! THAT’S FAITH!!!!

We must all learn to use faith.

Mark 16:16-18

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Never were the signs, or gifts intended for just a few to use, but rather for every believer to utilize.

We have faith; we just need to use it.

These things must become natural to us, and their use in practice in our church on a continual basis.

The working of the Spirit:

• Natural
• Continual
• Needful
• Through everyone
• For everyone

Matthew Henry says:

“Spiritual gifts were extraordinary powers, bestowed upon ordinary people, to convince unbelievers, and to spread the gospel to the lost.”

 

Not only do we need faith that will move mountains, but also we need to practice faith, and move the mountains.