God wants His word to work. We need to find this kind of faith that 'speaks' and things happen.
MUSTARD SEED-GOD SPEAKS
Some years ago, I found that Wey mouth's translation says, 'if you had faith that grows as a grain of Mustard seed'. When I read that, the spirit caused me to understand Jesus' teaching in a new way. It was a way I had never heard anyone explain faith before. Jesus was not telling us that all we need is a tiny bit of faith, as a tiny mustard seed and then we can move trees and mountains. Rather, the Lord was teaching us that faith, that grows as a grain of mustard seed can heal the sick, cast out demons and see signs following it [Mark 16:17-20]. I should read
a) Paul recognized that it took ALL or TOTAL or FULL-GROWN faith to move mountains. You don't move mountains with seed faith;
b) you move mountains with ALL FAITH. It takes a fully developed faith to relocate a mountain! Paul recognized this and Jesus taught it [Matthew 17]. During this time, there came to the other nine apostles waiting below, a certain man who had a son who was lunatic. This caused him to fall into fire and into water. These nine apostles tried exorcism, but with no success. The man came to Jesus upon His descent from the mountain and said 'I brought him [my son] to the disciples and they could not cure him [Matthew 17:16]. (I should read Matt: 17-20)
c) Faith starts with God giving to everyone of us the measure of seed-faith. The word 'measure' comes from the Greek word 'Metron', meaning 'a limited portion'. This seed [limited portion of measure] is God's gift to every believer. There is no Christian who can say 'I don't have faith' because the scripture says that God deals to every man the measure or seed of faith. Further support for this is found in [Ephesians 2:8-9]
ii. In [1Cor 13:2] Paul comments on faith that moves mountains; '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 move mountains'. But have no love, I gain nothing.
There are two kinds of faith,
-Gift of faith and
-Developed faith, we need to distinguish between them
d) Gift of faith - is the 'gift of faith' mentioned in [1Cor 12:9] This is the sovereign impartation of a gift of faith from God to you. e) Developed faith - is the developed faith in you. In developed faith, if you start with '5% faith, it grows to '75%' faith, then you can deal with any situation that you encounter up to 75% faith. On the other hand, if your faith has not progressively grown, but you have only known a sudden gift or 'impartation' of faith on some singular occasion, your faith development might still be at the '5% level.
2) We must now discover how faith can grow in the life of the believer. We go [or grow From 'faith to faith' and 'glory to glory'. A scriptural percept to remember is this; you will know the glory of God in your life only in proportion to the development of faith in your life. Developed faith will bring an increase of God's glory resting on your life and ministry.]
a) The principle of growing faith can be illustrated in a story of King Tut's tomb. Abbreviation for King Tutank, Hamon was a famous Egyptian Pharaoh, buried about 1357 BC in an extremely elaborate Pyramid - grave. His tomb was discovered completely intact in 1922 by an English archeologist. Inside, among its treasures was found Honey, Wheat and Corn.
b) The natural law of growth teaches us spiritual things. A grain of wheat in the wrong environment will never grow. However, given the right conditions, it will not only grow - but through the replanting of each successive harvest, it will eventually produce thousands of bushels of wheat. This same tremendous potential is locked up in the seed of faith which God has dealt to every man (GIVEN). What we do with it determines whether it grows or stays a seed.
In order to grow, the seed must have nourishment [fertile soil], water and sunshine. Metaphorically, the seed of faith in order to grow, must be nurtured in the soil of God's word [not the letter but by the spirit of revelation - Eph 1:17].A must read
1. We speak of God's word as being the soil in which the seed of faith grows, we're not referring only or solely to the Holy Bible. [Romans 10:17] says 'faith cometh by hearing the word of God [Greek - Rhema]
ii. First of all, we must understand what it means to hear [Romans 10:17]. Paul is not talking about the passive act of listening to a sermon preached from the Bible. He is not suggesting we go to church five times a week in order for faith to grow. Faith comes, grows and is demonstrated and expressed by hearing and then acting upon what you've heard. In Greek, it literally means 'Faith comes by hearing and obeying [acting upon] the word of God' [James 1:22]. A must read
a. Often we're that way when God speaks to us. We go right on with whatever we're doing and do not take action as a result of what God has said to us. And then we wonder why we don't have a growth in faith. Faith has not been released and cannot grow until it has been acted upon. Each time you hear and act, you take another step of faith.
b. You don't cast out a legion of devils until you've cast out one. That is to say, you don't reach out to do something beyond your faith development, trying to go from seed-faith to full-grown faith in one big leap. It doesn't go that way. Faith grows by a series of progressive steps [Gal 2:1].Here Paul is talking about 14 years later.
c. A word of CAUTION here: never try to act on God's word to somebody else. You cannot imitate another man's faith. Some have tried to imitate great healing ministries, with hapless and often tragic results. Others have tied to follow someone else's step of faith and have tripped and fallen flat. ii. Another of the basic essentials for the growth of faith is love [Gal 5:6].
d. In [John 14:21], A must read Jesus deals with the relationship of love to obedience [John 14:23-24]. A must read We hear His word to us, and because we love Him, we act on what we have heard. If we don't obey, we don't love, and then faith does not work. Without the exercise of faith, there is no growth of faith. Faith therefore grows by obedience, which flows out of our love for Jesus, in response to hearing the word of the Lord.
3) When the scripture says 'Faith comes by hearing the word of God' it refers to the subjective experience by which God speaks to us.
An actual verse in the Bible or Whether it be as He spoke to the prophets of old,
HE DOES SPEAK.
The prophets either heard
- audibly,
- inwardly by
- dream, by
- vision, by
- angelic visitation or
- through the mouth of one communicated with. This communication is what the Bible calls 'the word of God'
a) i. There is the enscriptured [written] word of God.
i. The living word of the Lord. We need to know the distinction between them in order to further understand what is meant by hearing the word of the Lord.
ii. God still speaks today by the Holy Spirit
