Jesus Christ, M. D. by David Alsobrook

Author:David Alsobrook
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Healing
ISBN: 9780892281466
Publisher: Impact Christian Books
Published: 1999-12-26T22:00:00+00:00

6. Faith Can Be Increased

And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’” and it would obey you.

Luke 17:5,6

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.

Matthew 17:19,20

The mustard seed, Jesus noted, was “smaller than all other seeds” but when full grown “is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree” large enough for birds to nest in its branches (Matthew 13:32). So it is with our faith: “your faith grows exceedingly... ” (2 Thessalonians 1:3 NKJV).

What begins quite small can become very large. Like a seed which grows into a tree, faith is living, vital, and, if properly nourished on the Word and Spirit, grows very large—large enough to move mountains, or, more preferably for our lives, mountainous problems. Paul acknowledged, however, that he did possess enough faith, what he termed “all faith” so that he could “remove mountains.” (The literal Greek of 1 Corinthians 13:2 reveals that Paul was not speaking hypothetically.) I believe we should take the words of Jesus about mountain moving faith literally, especially in view of His cursing of the fig tree, as an illustration about the power of faith. His followers, Jesus stressed, could demonstrate this same faith themselves:

Now in the morning when He returned to the city, He became hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen.

And everything you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”

Matthew 21:18-22

We reveal the littleness of our own faith when we read the words of our Master about mountain moving faith and immediately say within our hearts, “This cannot mean literal mountains.” Why can’t it? Jesus had just cursed a literal fig tree which withered “at once.” Amazed by what they had witnessed the disciples asked Him how it happened and Jesus, as He often did, seized upon a literal occurrence to serve as an object lesson upon which He built a foundational truth, which, in this example, concerns the type of faith we are to exercise in our prayer lives.

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