CAN A MOUNTAIN BE MOVED BY FAITH?
A story is told of a man who heard Jesus saying a mountain can be moved by faith, and then goes on to stand before a mountain and orders it to move. When nothing happens, he goes on to debunk Jesus. The question arises as to whether such a feat would indeed be possible in the light of the improbable statement that Jesus made.
Seeing a fig tree by the road, he (Jesus) went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered—— Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. (Matthew 21:19-21)
Jesus taught that for improbable feats like these to happen, faith is required. What exactly does that mean? Most people liken this statement to accept faith as the intensity of belief. Christians, especially those having a charismatic leaning are often the worst offenders in this regard. They go on to claim riches, prosperity, health and everything else they want in the name of Jesus and whip emotions up in themselves and in others to believe with great fervor and intensity so that those things would come to pass. When at times, they are successful, they attribute it to their faith and are equally quick to condemn those who are less fortunate in their outcomes as not having adequate faith and so being less worthy. That is a flawed viewpoint of faith.
Faith is not the intensity of belief. It begins with accepting the existence of an unseen spiritual reality that dominates the visible physical reality. Faith acknowledges that the perfect God who rules this spiritual reality demands from man a total submission to his will, as he navigates life through this world. In Hebrews 11:3, we read,
‘By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.’
Once that is understood, it has to be put into practice in one’s day-to-day life. The author of Hebrews goes on to describe the fathers of faith from ancient times who did precisely that by doing things like, ‘pleasing God’ (Enoch), ‘condemning the world, living in holy fear’ (Moses), ‘practicing unquestioned obedience’ (Abraham), and ‘rejecting honor, embracing suffering’ (Moses). Very few people are able to live life as such in today’s world. And most Christians certainly don’t, and so end up with a flawed thinking that when they earnestly desire the things offered by the world, they are having faith, when in fact they are perhaps doing just the opposite.
A life of faith is not one where a disciple is constantly looking to do miraculous things. On the contrary, it is one of painful obedience and rejection of the worldly value systems of this world as one faithfully completes each day what God demands of him. And as he progresses in this life, he begins to see the will of God and the purposes of God come to pass in his life and through him in the lives of others. So when he encounters a mountain, most times God would ask him to go plant a tree on that mountain rather than uproot it and that’s what he should do. Not very dramatic and certainly wont get him any attention from those around! And as you witness such a person selflessly serving, it becomes very evident that in contrast, those who preach ‘intensity of belief’ as faith, are in fact wedded more to the world than to God.
So can a mountain be moved by faith? It certainly can, if that is the will of God for man at a particular point in his life’s journey. Perhaps every disciple can attest to the occurrence of the miraculous as he looks back at his life. And as man steadfastly lives life in humble obedience to God, being connected to God’s wavelength, he can speak the miraculous into existence as directed by God. Strangely for a disciple, when the miraculous does happen by true faith, the miraculous does not appear to be miracle. A miracle by faith is as natural as an act of painful obedience. Moving the mountain is no different than planting a tree on that same mountain.
