ICS Daily Devotions
Speak To The Mountain
Jesus spoke and commanded things. He also taught his disciples to do the same. Hence, as children of God, we ought to do the same by speaking to the mountains in our lives.
Mark 11:12-14 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”
And His disciples heard it.
In this passage, Jesus spoke to the fig tree and later He went on to teach His disciples a lesson.
Mark 11:20-23 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 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.
In the Scriptures here, Jesus teaches an important lesson. He shows us clearly that in order for a mountain to be removed, we need to speak to it. In Mark 11:23, Jesus mentioned three times to speak but only once to have faith. This shows the importance of speaking faith-filled words when we face mountains in our lives.
The fig tree was dried up from the roots. It tells us that when we let our words be inline with God, those things that are not fruits from God will dry up. Jesus said if we want the mountains to be removed, we need to speak directly to the mountains. Interestingly Jesus did not tell us to pray to God about our mountains but speak to it and it will be cast into the sea.
Prayer is important but there are occasions where we need to take up the authority already given to us and speak directly to the obstacle, the challenge, the giant.
In order for our words to have any mountain-moving power, we must believe what we say. We need to place more value in the words that we say and not just say things in order to be friendly or nice. Sometimes we have to start saying things by faith even though our feelings are not inline with it. We may have a hard time believing what God says in His word and our faith may be like a mustard seed. However, that is good enough to begin with. When we start speaking inline with the word, more faith will arise in our hearts.
Maybe you are at a season in your life where life is hard. You may feel like God is not close to you and you feel like a failure. Maybe you feel like giving up and just want to stop fighting for what God has placed on your heart and focus your energy on something else.
If this is the season you are in right now, it is the best time for the power of faith to work through speaking to your mountain and turn your situation around! It is often during challenging seasons that our faith is put to a test where we cannot rely on our own feelings except to put our trust in the Word of God and His promises. We have to allow faith to arise within us.
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The Bible is so clear that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You build up your faith with the word and you start speaking to the mountain. The more you speak, the greater the confidence and authority will be as your faith is building up within you. Instead of having the mountain and the situation mocking you and make you feel small, you start mocking the mountain with greater faith. When you come to that place of faith, the mountain has no choice and has to cast itself into the sea!
Sermon Series: Get a grip on your lip
