Living His Word

Mark 11:22-24 ERV: Jesus answered, "Have faith in God. The truth is, you can say to this mountain, 'Go, mountain, fall into the sea.' And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, then God will do it for you. So I tell you to ask for what you want in prayer. And if you believe that you have received those things, then they will be yours."

Jesus is obviously using metaphors in this passage. So far as we know, in the nearly 2000 years since He spoke these words no Christian has ever spoken to an actual mountain and caused it to fall into the sea. The “mountain” in question is a metaphor for any obstacle in life, large or small, that prevents you from fulfilling your God ordained purpose in life and “fall into the sea” is a metaphor for the removal of these obstacles, no matter what form this may take or how long it may take.

In this passage Jesus is providing His followers with a fourth option beyond the usual three options available to those with obstacles in their path. The first option is to go around the mountain. Mountains, however, come in chains and this option can lead you far afield of your purpose in life. The second option is to go over the mountain. Mountains, however, are high and snowy and this option can lead to your death or serious injury, thus ending or delaying your purpose in life. The third option, perhaps the worst of all, is to come to a standstill before the mountain. In this option the mountain has stopped all progress toward the fulfillment of your purpose in life.

The fourth option that Jesus offers is to have faith in God and to speak to the mountain. Instead of relying on the fleshly zeal of options one and two or the dead end of option three, the fourth option brings God into the equation. Having true faith in God, without doubting, almost automatically leads to the kind of speech that removes mountains. The removal may not always be like the dramatic and immediate removal in the metaphor, but the job still gets done.

The fourth option is really the only option available to the Christ-follower. Jesus doesn’ t merely suggest that we have faith in God; He commandsM that we have faith in God. For the Christian, it's the God ordained way to deal with obstacles. Indeed, even if the mountain doesn't seem to budge, it is still the God ordained way to deal with them.

If you are experiencing obstacles in life today, then start to do what you're going to have to do sooner or later anyway in order to remove them: have faith in God and speak to the mountains!