As I sat down to do last weeks study on Faith, I knew that I would not be able to even come close to touching on all that the Bible teaches on Faith. The Bible teaches us about Faith in some very simplistic forms up to the very complicated and hard to obtain. The reason I say hard to obtain is because of the one verse that last weeks teaching focused around and that is Matthew 17: 17 - 20...

Matthew 17: 17- 20...O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He (Jesus)replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Again, the reason I say hard is…How many of you or people you know actually possess this type of Faith? I think most of us can honestly say zero. I think that this type of Faith is one of the mysteries of the gospel that Paul talks about that most of us do not pursue or aspire to. Now just because I am teaching this study, do not look to me for this mysterious answer because the last time I checked, I was moving a few little ant hills around but nothing more. But…Here is where I feel the answer lies…

1 Corinthians 2: 6 & 7...Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: KJV

1 Corinthians 2: 6 & 7... We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. NIV

Paul talks about this secret wisdom or hidden wisdom…You know, we think we know the Bible and the heart of God, when in reality we don’t have a clue about God’s big picture and what he truly wants to do in our lives. The power that he wants to give us, the blessings he wants to bestow upon us. I believe that the key to Mountain Moving Faith lies somewhere in that hidden wisdom that Paul was talking about. The treasures that are waiting for those with the courage to step out and seek them I think will be enormous. It is so sad that most of us will continue to wallow in weak faith and suffer for our lack of desiring those treasures. We will be content with moving tiny ant hills instead of Mountains because it is the easy way. Like I said last week, if we start enacting our Faith we risk waking up that old Devil and he will really start paying attention to us and some suffering might come with it. If you will, kind of compare our unwillingness to move out in Faith with a migraine headache. We all know that when we get these migraines the best thing to do is lay down right. When we lay down and the pain eases up and we don’t want to breathe let alone move. So we are content to lay there doing nothing because the suffering has stopped if we do nothing. After laying there a while the pain starts coming back some and yet we are afraid to turn to the right or the left fearing our suffering would get worse if we dare move. Now maybe that’s not the greatest analogy ever known to mankind but it works for me. I see our stale and ineffective Christians lives in much the same way. We have felt the suffering of the things the Devil has brought against us in the past and we remember that pain well. When the Lord asks us to step out in Faith, we remember the pain we felt the last time we moved out in faith. We know that when we do, that old Devil is going to come gunning for us, and so the best thing to do is just to lie still and do nothing. If we do nothing, The Devil will leave us alone because we are not a threat to him. We don’t turn to the right, we don’t turn to the left…we just do nothing!! Plain and simple,

1.) We are afraid to move out in faith because we
don’t want to suffer, we are comfortable where we
are in that pain free zone.
2.) We don’t trust God to see us through those sufferings.
3.) We either don’t know or we don’t believe God’s
promises to see us through such times.

Either way you look at it, we are weak minded in Christ and we will never accomplish anything of importance in God’s kingdom with that kind of weak faith.

Well, now that I have thrashed you all about the neck and head with what we are doing wrong, let me give you some encouragement with the promises of God. It is never to late to step out, step up and do what is right. I know I have somewhat drifted away from the original intent of this study so please bear with me as I try to drift us back into that Mountain Moving Faith. Let me go back to Matthew again…

Matthew 17: 17- 20...O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He (Jesus)replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Note at the end of this scripture Jesus tells us that if we have the kind of Faith he is talking about that “Nothing will be impossible for you”. Like I said earlier, I think we all can agree that none of us possess the type of Faith Jesus is speaking of…Here are a few reasons I believe we don’t…

James 1: 2 - 8...Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

First of all James tells us that when you go through these trials and sufferings that it builds your faith and then your faith helps develop perseverance (for the next time), and that perseverance makes you a mature Christian. Then he tells us that if any of us lack wisdom, that we should ask our generous God and it will be given to us. BUT!!! When we ask, we must ask believing and not doubt, because if we doubt, James says, “that man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord”. A double minded man is unstable in all he does. See, I don’t think James was just talking about Wisdom alone here, he was giving us an example of all prayer requests and the reason most are not answered. It’s because we don’t believe, or we doubt, we are double minded. Here is another reason for unanswered prayer…

James 4: 1 - 3...What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Ah Ha!! “we do not receive because we ask with the wrong motives, that we may spend what we get on our own pleasures”. Is any of this adding up yet as to why we are not moving mountains.

1.) We don’t believe…
2.) We Doubt…
3.) We’re double minded…
4.) Our motives are wrong…

Here are some promises of God to us, that I want you to read very carefully…

John 14: 12 - 14...I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 15: 7 & 8...If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

1 John 5: 14 & 15...This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Did anybody notice that in these three verses that God is not giving us a carte blanche here on answered prayer, but gives us conditions for that answered prayer…like…”If you remain in me and my words remain in you“.. then ask… or…”so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” does what you’re asking for do that?…or…”according to his will”…are you praying in accordance to God’s will? You see a lot of people don’t read the fine print, all they see is ASK, AND I WILL GIVE IT!!! Then they get mad at God because they’ve been praying to win the lottery for ten years and God still hasn’t kept his word. You see, God cares more about your spiritual needs more than he does anything else. He wants to bless us monetarily as well, but he never promised to provide our wants, only our needs…

Philippians 4: 19...And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Below are two more verses for your own reading regarding answered prayer…

Matthew 7: 7 - 11...Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Matthew 21: 21 & 22...Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

So lets wrap this up…We know that there is an attainable faith that Jesus calls a Mountain Moving faith. I believe the secret to the Mountain Moving mystery can be found and begins with the verses I provided the last two weeks. We know that there are certain keys to us receiving what we ask for of God. Here they are…

1.) We have to Believe, Not doubting...
2.) Our motives must be pure before God...
3.) When we ask, we need to saturate our
lives with his word and ask according to his will and
bring God glory with our requests?

If we can begin doing these things I believe we will begin to see those mountains in our lives disappear. Those obstacles that are blocking our way to happiness and a closer relationship with God. Again, most of our unanswered prayer is self inflicted and not God’s fault at all. So if it is all self inflicted, only we can turn that around, God is just waiting for us to wake up to that fact. When we do, I believe we will see the power of God in our lives that we could only dream of before. We need to take our hearts and minds away from seeking earthly treasures and start seeking the Heavenly treasures that God has promised us. Marty Ward chimed in on last weeks lesson discussion with an observation that I agree with whole heartedly. This new prosperity gospel that is being preached today so much that tells people that God wants us all to be rich, is a lie straight from hell and is the biggest false doctrine being taught today. It has everybody focused on money and not on God. As Marty stated, they should be teaching a “Faith Based” gospel. And that then brings us back to the reason for unanswered prayer…”we are praying with the wrong motives”! We need to get back to basics, Back to God, and we will see those miracles happening in our lives that we have been longing for…..

If you came to this study today and don’t know Jesus Christ as your savior and you want to, pray with me wherever you are. Pray with a sincere heart and God will reach down from heaven, forgive your sins and give you new life….Lets pray…

Father God, I come to you in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place on the cross. I know I am not worthy, but I ask you today to forgive me of my sins and give me a new heart. I make Jesus the Lord of my life from this day and forward. Teach me the love this study is speaking of so I can love others. Thank you for forgiving me, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray…Amen

If you prayed that simple prayer with a sincere heart, your eternal destiny has been decided. God tells us that he takes that sin and casts it as far as the east is to the west. So forget the past and press on in your new walk with Christ. If you need help, or need a Bible, please contact me through the group. Here are a few Bible verses to show you the pure simplicity of God’s plan of salvation…Tim

John 3: 16 - 18...16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Romans 10: 9 & 10...9. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Ok group, now it’s our turn…Lets go to God in prayer…

Heavenly Father, forgive us for our lack of faith and for praying to you with selfish motives. Teach us faith, teach us Godly faith, teach us Mountain Moving faith today in the precious and Holy name of your Son Jesus Christ…Amen

Please go to our group page and leave your comments and thoughts. Click the discussion tab, find this lesson or any topic for that matter, then post your thoughts. I’d like to encourage each of you to get more involved in the group discussions…
Thank You
Tim Barrett