Laura Ingle 

Key scripture – “And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:20-25).

The Bible speaks of mountains literally and figuratively. A mountain is something that is immovable. It is somebody or something that holds us hostage and when we look at it, it looks like it an impossible situation. A mountain is a problem that you cannot climb over, a situation you cannot get over, finances that you cannot get straight, a struggle that you cannot win, or an illness that you cannot overcome. A mountain is when you are in an insurmountable situation personally, relationally, medically, circumstantially, or professionally. The common theme is, “I can’t get over it. It is too high, too wide, too thick, and to long.”

Do you have a mountain in your life? Could it be that you cannot get that mountain to move because God cannot get you to move?

The story in today’s Key scripture starts out when Jesus was traveling from Bethany and he was hungry. He saw a fig tree that was full of leaves, however, when He saw that there were no figs on the tree, He then prophesied a curse on that tree.

“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.” (Mark 11:12-14). The disciples were listening and heard what Jesus said and “As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” (Mark 11:20-22).

The disciples were shocked at how quickly the curse took effect on the fig tree. It was done in less than twenty four hours. The reason why that is important is because it is not natural for a tree to be healthy and then wither up and die over night. No one would be expecting that nor would you be looking for a change in the condition of the fig tree to take place so quickly.

So why did Jesus do this? Jesus tells them why in verse 22 and He uses this tree to teach one of the most powerful lessons you will ever learn. “And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God’.” (Mark 11:22).

Jesus is trying to teach us that we should trust God to turn things around on a dime. Even if the problems, people, and circumstances in our lives are huge mountains that are full of trees. The disciples saw Jesus do the impossible just by speaking to a tree, and it happened quickly, and it went deep because the tree was destroyed down to the roots. The tree went from healthy and well to withered and dead over night and Jesus tells all of us how and why it happened, “Have Faith in God.”

Please notice, Jesus did not say, “Have faith.” He didn’t say just “Have faith” because that is not enough information. Faith as a word, when it is out there just dangling by itself, is a meaningless concept. When Jesus says, “Have Faith in God” the type of faith that Jesus is referring to is, “having confidence in the integrity of God based on His Word.” It is believing that something is true, and that it has already happened, even though you do not see it, because the object of your faith, God and His Word, is worthy of belief.

When Jesus spoke to the tree and said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” He made a prophetic statement based on the confidence of His own words. Jesus had that confidence because His Word was always in agreement with God’s Word. That is why Jesus tells us,

“Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” (Mark 11:23).

Furthermore, the mountain that Jesus is referring to in the Key Scripture is the Mount of Olives, which was covered with numerous olive trees at that time and it still is today. When He says it will be cast into the sea, He is referring to the Dead Sea which is 4000 feet below the Mount of Olives.

So Jesus is telling us that even though He only spoke to one tree, we can speak to a mountain that is full of trees. Jesus is going from lesser to greater. He is saying if you have faith in God you can speak to the mountain in your life that is full of trees and it will be cast into the sea. You can do something bigger than what Jesus did with one tree. If what Jesus did looked impossible, how much bigger and better will it be when you handle a whole mountain full of trees by having “Faith in God”.

In order to do this, we need to stop having “faith in faith” and instead have “Faith in God.” We need to be saying to the mountain in our life what God is saying to it. If you’re not doing that, then you don’t have Faith in God.” Faith in God means that you are believing what God believes about your problem. If you don’t believe what God believes about the situation then you’re not having faith in God. In order to know what God says about your problem you have to read His Word.

When you have “Faith in God,” you will be able to say to your impossible spiritual situation, “Be removed and cast out of here.”

Jesus also said, “and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass.” This means God is looking at what is going on in your heart. He does not care how many times you repeat, “I believe, I believe, I believe”. He is looking at whether you have confidence in Him in your heart. God knows your thoughts, therefore, when you say to yourself, “I’ve been praying about this mountain for a long long time. It is a huge mountain, it’s got a lot of trees on it, and it has been here for years, not just a few days. This mountain is so big, I don’t think it can ever be moved: my child is still far from God or still addicted to drugs, I’m still stuck in my same situation, my finances haven’t gotten better, my marriage is still the same, my health has not improved, or my boss is still impossible to deal with,” God knows what you are thinking.

So you ask, “How do I get this confidence in God so that this impossible situation can be reversed?”

In John 5:19,30, Jesus tells us how, when He says, whatever I see my father doing that is what I do. “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 5:19, 30).

In His earthly life Jesus was always picking up on the signal of God, His Father. Jesus had faith in His Father, no matter what was happening, because He knew what His Father was doing. That is why Jesus spent so much time in prayer. He would spend hours in prayer and five minutes with people. We spend hours with people and five minutes with God. We can tell you what people are thinking about our problem, but we can’t tell you what God is thinking. That is why we do not have confidence in our heart that God is ready to move the mountain in our life because we don’t know God and we don’t know what He thinks about our problem.

When God gives you confidence about what He wants, then you will have confidence about what you speak. God gives you objective confidence by His word, and He gives you subjective validation by His Spirit. God will not give you a private audience with His Spirit if you do not take seriously the objective revelation of His Word. If you ignore His public record, the Bible, which is His objective Word, then you will never be able to speak to your problems with authority because you don’t know the Word of God.

Jesus also tells us to pray because by doing that we are giving earthly permission for heaven to intervene in our situation. When you pray, you ask, just like Jesus did, for God to intervene with regard to your mountain. In prayer God will also speak to your heart and let you know if that’s what He wants to do now or if He wants to wait. That means you must take the time to sit quietly and listen for God as you meditate on His Word. You need to pray with your Bible open so that God can lift it off the page and put it in your heart. When you do that, you will literally be able to say, “I heard God talk to me about my mountain.” When you hear God talk, then you can talk with authority and move those mountains.

Jesus tells us in verse 25 that there is a condition that is needed for God to be free to move your mountain. In addition to what we discussed above; that you must believe based on what God says in His Word, you must pray and communicate with God, and let Him speak to you at the deepest level, verse 25 tells us that you have to forgive.

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (V. 25),

In order to see God move a mountain you must be on good terms with Him and that means you must forgive people who have hurt you. Refusal to forgive another person blocks God’s ability to forgive you and that means you no longer have any fellowship with God. So if there is no fellowship then God is not hearing your prayers, which in turn means He’s not moving your mountains because you have no faith in Him. Remember, if God cannot get you to move then He is not going to move.

Are you ready for God to move your mountain? Start by asking Him to bring to mind any unforgiveness in your heart? Then forgive that person, do what God says to do to make it right, get alone with Him and get into His Word, pray, then sit quietly while you read His Word and let Him speak to your heart.

Pray this – My Precious Heavenly Father, I will dig deep into Your Word so that I know You and I know Your Heart. Father, I thirst for more of You. My one desire is to know You and to lift Your Name on high. My spirit yearns to look upon Your face. I will get away from the hectic pace of life, and get in a quiet place where I will wait for You and listen for Your voice. I want to know the secrets of Your heart. I seek You with all my heart, help me find You Lord. I do have “Faith in God.” I will be able to say to my problem what You say about it, because of Your Word and the Holy Spirit living in me. Father, I come before You in prayer so that You can speak to my heart. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.