Most of us know the frequently quoted passages about faith as a grain of mustard seed. We have heard some teach that faith needs to be grown like a mustard seed that is a small seed but grows into a large plant. They apply teaching to the following passages to show that we must work at growing our faith to obtain this level:
Luk 17:6 ~ And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Mat 17:20 ~ And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
To back this up, they take the following passage to show that we must achieve a level of “all faith” to move a mountain:
1Co 13:2 ~ And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
Recently though, I have learned that this teaching does not seem to hold water and only weakens Scripture making mountain moving faith seem out of everyone’s reach. Really, it is quite the opposite of the meaning of these passages. Could “All Faith” mean faith without doubts, thus “only faith” or perhaps it is referring to “using” all the faith God has put in you?
When we are first Born Again, God removes our dead spirit which we were born with inherited from the fall and we are recreated anew in spirit at which time, God places His Holy Spirit inside our new spirit. We have been restored, made alive, in right standing with God as if we or Adam had never of sinned. We are the same as Adam was before the fall, but with the addition of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us.
What happened to us right before and during being Born Again? We received Faith from God to be able to believe and accept His gift:
Rom 10:14-17 ~ How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
God gives us faith to believe Him before we can even be Born Again:
Eph 2:8-9 ~ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Heb 11:6 ~ 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.
I know some teach the passage “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” means the more your hear the Word of God, the more faith you will have. When the Scripture is used in context, it does not give that meaning, it simply says that God gives us the faith to believe in Him, that we may be saved. There is still a powerful message in keeping the Word in your mind and thus in your heart, but that will be talked about more under “sowing seed” in an upcoming post about “Faith ~ Doubts ~ Confidence”.
Some quantify faith as different levels for different people, but this can cause great errors. In the Word we are told that “for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness”. If our faith varied then at what level of faith would we require to obtain enough righteousness as to be saved? In another passage, we see the details of the “Amour of God” with the “Shield of Faith”. So, some might have a shield that is the size of a bottle cap while others have one the size of the moon? No, we, those who have been Born Again, all have faith to believe God, we all have faith to be saved, we all have the same “Shield of faith” but we may not all use it the same. Oops, there, the cat is out of the bag…
We are all given the same measure of “Faith”, it is all about how much of it we use or perhaps how many doubts remain:
Rom 12:3 ~ 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.
Paul obviously ran into some that were puffed up about their faith and clearly put them into remembrance that they all have been given the same measure of faith. It is all the faith we ever will need, it is mountain moving faith, it is raising the dead and calming the storm faith, it is the same faith used to believe God exists and that we may obtain salvation. How could we have anything less as we have God dwelling within us once we are Born Again! Everything we ever will need for any situation we ever will run into is within us since God is there, how can there be any “more”? It is a matter of removing doubts.
Eph 3:20-21 ~ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by the Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Getting back to the passages above, such as Matthew 17:20, what may have seemed so out of reach by mere believers takes on a new light when we see we all have been given the measure of faith. If Jesus says we only need faith like a grain of mustard seed and mountains can move, then EVERY Born Again believer qualifies as we have ALL been given the “measure of faith”.
One a side note, for ages, some have taught that the references to mountains and trees are not to be taken literally in these passages, that they represent mountains in your life or issues with roots that your have to deal with in your walk. Yes, you can apply these passages in this way, but they are meant to be taken literally to show you as it says in Matthew 17:20 “nothing shall be impossible unto you”. In another mountain moving passage:
Mat 21:21-22 ~ 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. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
If the fig tree which He cursed and is referring to in the one passage, is to be taken literally then so is the mountain and the tree, we do not pick and choose what is or is not to be taken literally.
Another interesting part of the above passage is “If ye have faith and doubt not” and the “shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe” in another mountain moving passage:
Mark 11:22-24 ~ And Jesus answering saith unto them, have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoevery he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Both of these show faith and doubts coexisting. More on this along with passages such as “Oh ye of little faith”, “I have not seen such great faith”, “Groweth in faith”, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief”, etc. in a future post “Faith ~ Doubts ~ Confidence”.
God does not want you to place any limits on Him and is clearly showing through these passages that He is a God of no limits and has given, through the Christ, this power into the reach of every believer. If there is a need to move a mountain and it is God’s will and you are not in sin nor unforgiveness, then the mountains will move. This applies to everything in life, all the power of creation is available when needed if we will only believe.