Is my faith the mountain moving kind of faith?

22 “Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

INSIGHT:  When Jesus taught the disciples to forgive their brother who sins against them seventy times seven times or 77 times, we see the only time in Scripture where they felt the need to say, “Lord, increase our faith.” (Lk 17:5) They knew now that they needed a mountain moving faith.

As rare as it is to find mountain moving faith, so it is to find true saving faith among professing Christians today.  One of Satan’s greatest deceptions has been to convince people they need only intellectually believe in Christ, to be saved by “faith”.  He has deceived them into believing John 3:16 and Rom 10:9 as standalone doctrines on salvation, giving no heed to the countless others given us.  They are blissfully ignorant of the fact that there are many kinds of “faith” in the Bible, all of which are counterfeit and cannot save their possessors.  Regarding one of these false faiths, James asked, “can such a faith save you?”

See it for yourself in the Bible.  There is a world loving faith (2 Tim 4:10), a demonic faith (Jam 2:19), a counterfeit faith (2 Cor 11:3-4) a selfish faith (Acts 8:20), an immature faith (Lk 8:14), a carnal faith (1 Cor 3:1), a disobedient faith (Lk 6:46), a self-righteous faith (Lk 18:11), a hypocritical faith (Tit 1:16), a prosperity faith (1 Tim 6:5), a shrinking back faith (Heb 10:39), a cross less faith (Ph 3:18), a shipwrecked faith (1 Tim 1:19), a works less faith (Jam 2:14), a fruitless faith (Lk 13:7), a vain faith (1 Cor 15:2), etc.  All these faiths may look very much like the true faith, but they are counterfeits, and they cannot move any of the mountains which Jesus speaks of.

When you see all these counterfeit faiths in the Bible, now you can now see why Jesus said so many would be deceived, and so few would be saved, and why Paul pleaded with believers to examine their faith to see if it was the true saving kind (2 Cor 13:5). One of the many marks of a true Christian is “mountain” moving faith.  Today, billions have easily believed on one or more of these false faiths.  But having a saving faith, strong enough to move the “mountains” of SELF, of sin, of idolatry, of doubt, of fear, of worldliness, of deception, of pride, of unforgiveness, of lust, of pursuit of pleasures, or the mountains of human reasoning and dependence on man, to have a faith which can move all of that out of God’s way, is remarkably rare among professing Christians.  Do even 1% of professors in the world have this faith?  Even in His day, Jesus was only ever amazed by two things, someone’s great faith, or their great lack of it. 

Second only to false teaching, our human reasoning is one of the largest mountains blocking our way to a strong saving faith in God.  Every single blessing in my life and heart, and all the major promises I have seen come to pass, are a result of strong faith in God and abandonment of my human reasoning.   Human reasoning doesn’t often give permission to move away from your children, fire your divorce attorney, forgive your worst enemy, say no to a $150k job offer when you really need the money, or to start serving others for free, while trusting God alone for your finances. 

Mountain moving faith starts as mustard seed faith, and true faith, of any size, is a gift from God.  It is God who gives us the ability to believe Him and trust Him, but we have a role to play—faith requires risky action or inaction.  I see no acts of faith in the Bible that didn’t require risk, even if just the risk of losing personal dignity with those around you.  God will exercise true faith and likely put mountain after mountain in your path, so that you will learn to trust His power and stay dependent upon Him.  Faith also requires patience, because God rarely moves the mountains nearly as quickly as we expected.  Living by faith is so tough because of our natural man, and it takes much grace, but we cannot please Him without faith.  Are you among the righteous who are living by faith and seeing your mountains cast into the sea?