April 27, 2017 WWJWMTD by Steve the son of John

Faith to Move Mountains

You want more faith? Faith to move mountains—to change the circumstances and remove the hindrances that impede God’s perfect will in your life? Sure you do and so did the Disciples of Christ. “Increase our faith (vs. 5),” this is the request Jesus’s disciples asked from Him (Luke 17:3-10). Jesus’ disciples could not do what Jesus was asking them to do, so they asked him for help to accomplish His request—‘give us more faith’.

The Disciples of Christ wanted to do everything Jesus was asking of them, but they fell short. They knew, as we do, that to have faith requires action on our part. As the Book of James 2:18b states, “ I will show you my faith by my works.” It is interesting to note that the faith the disciples wanted was to be able to forgive (Luke 7:3-5). What, it takes faith to forgive, yes it does. Faith is not believing or trusting more, but faith is doing the will of God.

True faith, as James puts it, is your response to the will of God. If you respond to and choose to do the will of God, God calls you a person of faith (Hebrews chapter 11). However, there is a positioning of oneself in order to exercise (respond to) the will of God. This is why Jesus told a story about a servant so His disciples would understand their role in positioning oneself to do the will of God—to have faith. Consider the story of the faithful servant (in Luke chapter 17 verses 5-10):

5 And the apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this Sycamore tree, be plucked up by the root, and be planted in the sea; and it should obey you. 7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say to him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? 8 And will not rather say to him, Make ready with which I may eat, and prepare & get ready to serve me; and once I have eaten and drunken; and afterward you shall eat and drink? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things, which are commanded or requested of you to do, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”

Understand the words of Christ/Increasing one’s faith:

§ Vs. 6: “faith as a grain of mustard seed”— step one—you either have faith or you do not. One either responds to God requests or one chooses not to respond to God.

§ Vs. 7: “having a servant plowing or feeding cattle”—step two—are you wanting to do something for God? Does God consider you a servant and sees you trying to serve Him; are you doing something for Him?

§ Vs. 8: “make ready…serve me”—step three—we must realize the challenge and duty that we have only one job as a Christian, which is to serve God and Him alone all the time! Do you respond to the call (request) of God, whatever that may be? And, are you getting your life in order to serve Him?

§ Vs. 9: “Does He thank that servant…I do not think so”—step three—do not look for God to thank you; there is no ‘pat you on the back’. We are not honored, all honor belongs to God alone. One must be humble and meek in order for faith to operate.

§ Vs. 10 “Say, we are unprofitable servants”—step four—we have a duty to serve God, and whatever our faith creates/does it is because of God; not because of us. We must not want faith or display faith in order to be somebody but we must remain a ‘no-body’. To serve God is a duty, not an honor. Verse 10 implies that faith grows, that is, the more one responds to and does the requests of God while in the state of humility then God gives more demanding assignments/requests for your to do—God will give you mountains to move.

I can truthfully say that if you follow the teaching of Christ regarding the ‘unprofitable servant’ you will be a person of faith—you will have faith that moves mountains.

WWJWMTD

What would Jesus want me to do?

Dr. Steven J. Wentland www.wwjwmtd.com

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