Volume 1 June 2000 Issue 5
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 whatsoever he saith.
Over the years, most of us have heard this verse preached or taught. Some, maybe I should say most of us came away saying, “yea that sounds nice, and I would surely like it to be just that way, but for me it will not work.” Why do we come away with the feeling that it may work for others, but not for me? Some have now come to a place in their doctrinal and theological positions that FAITH it self is a mountain and that the so-called “Faith Movement” is a false doctrine. It is with these feelings and others that I want to share with you what I believe God is saying. I must tell you that He has been saying it all along, we have just missed it. Some have misconstrued and falsely taught and/or interpreted the teaching of faith.
How many of you (along with me) will raise your hand and say that at times in your walk with God and even in the natural, have been intensely frustrated? I am raising both hands. When dealing with obstacles in our way or even obstacles within us, those feelings of frustration become heated and the situation is no longer enjoyable.
Paul uses sporting events many times in his epistles and letters to explain the Christian walk. So, let us use it here. Growing up I really enjoyed sports, sports of all kinds. I would picture my self competing in a particular sport and excelling at it. I did show desire and ability in a couple of sports. However, it was much more desire than ability. At least that is what I was led to feel about myself after participating in it. After hearing it repeated several times that I was to small, to short or not fast enough I almost gave up all hopes of excelling in that sporting event. However, I had a father that always said you can if you put your best into it. I even went on to play that particular sport in college for a while. I had to go beyond the obstacles.
So, what were the obstacles? The obstacles in the way were those that were bigger, taller and faster than I, and the obstacles within, were those feelings about myself of which others had convinced me. The feeling that I really was to small, to short and not fast enough was all within me. When you store enough negative feelings and data about a situation you no longer desire to participate in it any more because you are tired of feeling like a frustrated loser.
FRUSTRATIONS
Can we all agree that Satan and his cohorts take great delight in setting us up in situations that bring us frustrations? It is their goal to bring us to a place that quitting is our normal life style. They want to get us to a point that we no longer try to get past mountains and obstacles. When they can do that, they know that our future is thwarted and our destiny will never be achieved.
Facing the obstacles in our way and within us is the only way that we can gain height in our spiritual growth. Unless we are willing to face the obstacles that try to sabotage our sense of faith in getting to our destiny; we have no future. What happens is that we get to a place that we have feelings of “why even try” or “there is no future in this, what’s the use?”
Have you ever heard the phrase “hope deferred makes the heart sick”? What that is saying is that the longer the periods of frustration and feeling that we are glued to the starting blocks; the view of our destiny grows weaker and weaker.
A PEOPLE-HELPER
We can look around and see this kind of mentality everywhere. We can see some people excelling and others not being successful in achieving or advancing toward their destiny. Some may have even come to a point in their thinking and belief that it is their destiny to fail. They simply have grown weak and weary. In other words, they feel defeated, limited, weak, and they find themselves grieving.
A people-helper is what is needed. Someone who can help those to overcome the obstacles that block their ability to both see and step into the future that is promised. We know that the scriptures tell us that “help comes from the Lord”; however, even David knew that as he looked at the obstacles facing him, he needed something to help him get to the next level. Where is this help needed coming from? If it does not come from somewhere inside us, we will not have the necessary resource to engage the challenge and face those obstacles that confront us. We will not be able to rise above them.
POWER TAPPING
A people-helper is someone that will help others see the power that is available to work in incredible ways within us. We hear Paul telling of the ability of God inside him that was mighty and that energized him. Have we not all at times felt the surge of spiritual adrenaline that God gave that helped us rise above and go beyond obstacles that stared at us, daring us to approach. We also know those times when we could not access that power only to experience frustration and to have our hope deferred.
It is in those times that we need to revisit Mark 11:23. The phrase, “doubt in our hearts” is the obstacle within that gets in the way of our future. Obstacles confront us and intimidate us and it is what those forces of intimidation and confrontation cause to rise within us that we need to face and pay attention to. When faced with an obstacle if I do not have the sense that I am equal to the challenge, I will speak to the mountain out of my frustration. When doing that I hide my true feelings because I am not convinced that I can as Mark 11:23 says, “have whatever I say.” Inside of me I keep rehearsing all those memories of losing and people telling me that I can’t have it or some other false word that has been sewn into my life. It is because of those words of doubt we weaken our words and lose our access to the ability, the dunamis of God that is within us.
SPIRIT OF DENIAL
Because of those seeds of doubt that have been sewn in us, Satan will use the spirit of denial to frustrate us. This spirit denies our right to believe we can have the desires of our heart. It mutes us from even saying what we really want because it helps us believe that we cannot have it anyway so why ask. It will keep us from dreaming big.
We see in the life of Abraham that he dreamed big because of the big dream God put inside him. Joshua was the same when he was faced with the walls of Jericho. Gideon took a few men and overcame an army that looked bigger on the outside than did his army. Why, because Gideon’s army was bigger on the inside. David could stand before a giant at even an early age because of what was within. David believed that help would come, and it did. The power of God met him when he chose to rise up to meet the giant.
What God is telling us is that we need to deny our feelings of doubt. Instead of putting faith in something negative, put faith on and in what God has placed inside of us, His Spirit. How do we recover the will to win and not fear the obstacles blocking our destiny’s path? We recover power and ability by telling ourselves the truth and not being afraid of the feelings, we are feeling.
Do not avoid or deny the doubt. Face the doubt inside of you head on and do not let it rob you of the power to face the mountain outside of you. It is when we wrestle with feeling of denial we doubt our uniqueness and the enemy of our soul comes to add insult to injury with false accusations and questions about our competence. That is why he is called the accuser of the brethren.
MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS
I was reading an article on people who climb mountains. The one writing the article asked one of the climbers about ready to ascend a particular dangerous mountain, “why do you do this dangerous thing.” Without hesitation, the climber answered, “I saw it and it inspired me.” He went on to say, “and when I become inspired, I must go forth and climb. God put mountains here to inspire us to go to the top.” When I read that something clicked inside of me.
When we are faced with mountains, we all have feelings. Those feelings inspire us one way or the other. What causes the directions of those feelings is what has been sewn in our hearts over the years. Words (seeds) create feelings, and the feelings that those words create become a seedbed for either doubt or power to overcome.
We tend to reflect the kinds of things we have been told about ourselves all our lives. Most of the messages we have heard are negative. Is it any wonder that we wrestle with doubt? Most of us need to hear the words “you can make it.” We need to hear “you’ve got what it takes.” We are so afraid of giving people a swelled head that we think by denying them they will stay humble and dependent on God. Instead, we need to realize that building each other up is the key to growth, development and true humility. By doing so, we would change the way we treat others and ourselves.
JESUS LEFT A LEGACY
Why does doubt exist? It exists because we have been shut down at some level in our journey. Having something deep down in our heart shut down makes it is hard to distinguish between what we desire and what God desires for us. We begin to doubt our desires and assume God does not want us to have them. We learn to deny our desires and that spontaneous faith and begin to live in doubt. We walk away from the mountain feeling defeated. We hide from people so they do not see us crying. We view crying as a sign of weakness, because we live in a society that walks around with masks. We bear the shame of not living up to someone’s idea of who we are which results with us burying the pain and alienating ourselves from who we truly are.
With those words in Mark 11:23, Jesus left is a new legacy. It is this that the key of faith is already within our grasp. You have the right, the ability, the skill and the power to unlock the storehouse of God’s energizing power, access the resource necessary to face each mountain and not separate yourself from the challenge.
Do not doubt yourself. What you need to doubt is the lies you have been told about yourself. Doubt those who have made those false statements. In other words, doubt the doubts. Accept who you are in God, get up, and face the mountain with nothing except naked faith in the words of the One who said that the mountain would obey you.