Christian Living
“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
Mark 11:23 (NKJV).
The apostle Peter in one of his epistles admonishes the believers that as new born babes, they should desire the pure milk of God’s word that is able to make them grow (1 Peter 2:2). I believe it wasn’t his intention that throughout our Christian experience we should remain on that level. As if to complement the apostle Peter, the writer to the Hebrews advised the believers to get away from the sincere milk of God’s word and begin to chew meat (see Hebrews 5:13, 14). By implication, it is an admonition for us to stop being baby Christians and move unto maturity. Let’s graduate from the letter of God’s word and get down with the spirit of God’s word. “For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:6, KJV). The question is how do we move unto maturity?
One way is by memorizing Scripture. That’s good but not enough. Because when we only memorize Scripture, we may be in danger of operating at the letter level. And when we add that up, the sum total comes up to a dead religion. Hence to go beyond just memorizing Scripture, we must add the dimension of meditating on the Word. Doing this – memorizing and meditating on Scriptures – would move us unto maturity.
Hence all verses of Scripture become profitable to us only as we add to our cramming, meditation. During meditation, we toss the Word of God back and forth until we find meaning and hear what “thus saith the Lord” is concerning a matter. It’s like having a delicious meal in our mouth. We chew at it over and over again refusing to swallow rather savoring the rich taste titillating our taste buds.
As believers in Christ Jesus there is supposed to be a marked difference in our lives compared to that of the people of the world. Our lifestyles, in spite of the persecutions, should be attractive to the unbelievers. This opens a door of opportunity for us to minister to the lost.
However, what we often do when obstacles, unpleasant circumstances or perilous situations confront us is we spend the whole time speaking about the problem(s). The word of the Lord to you and me this day is to stop speaking about the mountain and start speaking to the mountain.
When the young David got to the battle field (see 1 Samuel 17), everyone was speaking about the “mountain”. “And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that has come up?” (1 Samuel 17:25a). Note that for forty days the giant, Goliath, terrorized the entire camp of Israel. They kept talking about him yet all they were saying didn’t give the giant the slightest headache. Have you been speaking about your mountain lately? They kept speaking about what will be done to the man who’s got enough guts to confront Goliath. Even the prospect of being the king’s son-in-law was not enough to spur the men into action. However, in verse 45, we saw David do what I pray God gives us the faith to do – he spoke directly to the mountain! And the mountain came down.
Mourning, grumbling, murmuring, complaining or sorrowing about our problems (mountains) doesn’t take them away. Just as crying about hunger will never take away the hunger. All of these make us shrink and see ourselves as grasshoppers (Numbers 13:33). In other words, the more we magnify our problems, the more incapacitated to deal with such problems we become. The problem may be financial, marital, in our businesses or career. What God desire is for us to use His word (during our meditations) to confront our daily challenges so we could live the victorious lives He’s always wanted for us (3 John 2). Until we get to the point whereby we begin to face the mountain of despair, the mountain of financial indebtedness, the mountain of sicknesses and diseases, the mountain of sin, the mountain of disillusionment, the mountain of failure, the mountain of mediocrity, the mountain of poverty, the mountain of habits that are hindering us from making progress, we’ll not walk in the total victory that Christ has won for us at Calvary. Let’s begin to look our mountain in the face and say “who art thou o mountain before Zerubabbel, thou shalt be made a plain. Not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit saith the Lord!”
Isaac was married to Rebecca. The marriage was no accident. It was divinely orchestrated and ordered by God. It was sealed with heaven’s approval. Yet for twenty years after getting married; there was no fruit of the womb. She was barren and God did nothing about it. Not until Isaac confronted the situation and interceded for his wife. He addressed and challenged the mountain of barrenness and it gave way. The same goes for Hannah. Year in, year out she goes to Shiloh and nothing happened. Peninah would mock and ridicule her until she’d refuse to eat. That continued until she faced her mountain and spoke the word. The result? The prophet Samuel. Crying doesn’t solve problems. In fact Dr Mike Murdock rightly observed that “need never qualifies you for a miracle. Faith qualifies you for a miracle.” It is faith that makes you speak boldly to your mountain. If you’ll just reach out by faith and speak to your mountain, I guarantee you your mountain would be moved!
Throughout the life and ministry of Jesus, He was always speaking to obstacles that stood on His way. In one instance, Jesus finishes an open air crusade, dismisses the people after the benediction and joins His disciples on the ship. He was so fatigued from ministering to the people that He quietly took a pillow to one end of the ship and was soon fast asleep. But before long, a storm arose. The storm got so bad it was threatening to capsize the ship. Jesus being very tired was still soundly asleep amid the storm. The disciples, certain that death has caught up with them, in one last frantic move woke Jesus up. “Carest thou not that we perish?” was the question they put across to Him. This is how the bible continued the story: “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39). He spoke directly to the “mountain” and there was a great calm. Have you not realized that now is the time to say to your troubled, turbulent marriage “peace, be still”? What are the other areas in your life that you want to experience “a great calm”?
Dear brethren, I wrote this to challenge you to begin to speak to whatever mountain that is confronting you right now. Remember, it was Jesus Himself that said, “….whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’….will have whatever he says.” Let’s not make the words of Jesus of none effect in our lives. As we ponder on these words, let’s reach out by faith and begin to speak to our mountains and stop speaking about our mountains. Our lives would so blessed if we would but form the habit of reaching out by faith and speaking to our mountain.
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