Friday, January 28, 2011

FAITH FOR A NEW BEGINNING (Matt.17:19–20) Part 4 - MUSTARD SEED FAITH

The importance of Faith cannot be over emphasized in the life of a Christian. We have learnt that without faith, we can do nothing! Heb.11:6; 2Cor.5:7; Rom. 14:23. Faith has been given different definitions depending on the person defining it, his audience and purpose of the definition. Today, we shall be discussing the mustard seed faith, as mentioned by Jesus in Matt. 17:19-20. The mustard seed is very tiny. Jesus likened the size of faith you need to move a mountain to the tiny mustard seed. It is like a seed of vegetable. This implies that
• You only need a tiny faith to move mountains.
• Nobody can say he/she does not have faith
• People see impossibility instead of possibility
• People tend to believe the lies of the devil

1. THE POWER OF MUSTARD SEED FAITH
Mustard seed faith is little but achieves much (Matt.13:31-32). It is mountain moving faith (Matt.17:14-20). Nothing is impossible to the one that has mustard seed faith (Matt. 17:20). Mk. 4:31; Luk.13:19; 17:6.
2. EVERY BELIEVER HAS MUSTARD SEED FAITH
Every Christian has the capacity to perform miracles! And, the quickest way to find out whether or not we are in the faith - is to see if we are showing the results that the Word of God promises us when we are in faith. If we are not seeing the results (proper fruits) - then it must only be one of two reasons: either we are not acting in accordance with what scriptures say or what we believe is incorrect.
The biggest misconception that most Christians have is that either they do not have any faith - or that they do not have enough faith to get the results that they need. Consequently they are always asking God to give them more faith - or they are engaged in some kind of activity that they believe will increase their faith (prayer, fasting, etc). Both of these ideas are wrong!
The Word of God teaches that faith is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal:5:22) and that upon accepting the Lord Jesus Christ - each one of us is given the measure of faith. (Rom:12:3). Notice that we are not given 'a' measure of faith - but rather 'the' measure of faith.
3. YOU NEED TO EXERCISE YOUR MUSTARD SEED FAITH TO GROW IT
The disciples were also of the opinion that they needed more faith if they were going to do the miracles and complete the task that Jesus had instructed them to do. Yet, when they asked the Lord to increase their faith (Luk:17:5) the Lord neither increased it for them - nor did he tell them how to increase it themselves. Instead - He told them how to use the faith that was present (Matt:17:20). As with Christians today - the problem with the disciples was not that they didn't have enough faith, but rather that they didn't know how to use the faith they had. They believed wrong! Test what you believe with the Word of God, try it and see if it works.
If it doesn't - then we need to change what we think and believe and make sure that any changes that we do make come into agreement with the Word of God.
(2Cor:10:5)

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