Published by admin on 24 May 2013 at 12:26 pm
FAITH, HOPE, AND MUSTARD
When praying about what to write today, the Holy Spirit told me, FAITH, HOPE, AND MUSTARD. Now THAT’S a new one! Ok, 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. So, what does that have to do with mustard? Not much, unless you’re having a hot dog with your faith and hope. Mustard really makes a hot dog. But LOVE, which is charity, really makes your faith and hope work.
We can talk faith all we want, and we need to realize without faith we cannot please God. And hope is an integral part of faith, becoming substance for those who believe. In fact, it is written in Hebrews 11:1, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, do we need mustard with our faith and hope then? There’s an old joke that goes, “Why is that Frisbee getting bigger? Then it hit me”. Well, now I know why the LORD mentioned mustard to me; He was referring to a mustard seed. What did Jesus have to say about the mustard seed?
Luk 13:18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
Luk 13:19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
Luk_17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you., ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
I don’t think anyone’s faith starts off like a full-grown mustard tree. Our faith often starts small, but it shouldn’t STAY small. Just like any other seed that is planted, the seed knows what to do. All we have to do is give it soil, light, and water, and it will bring forth what it was created to be. In fact, once the seed brings forth, it also with it brings forth MORE seeds, which can be planted for even MORE increase. And that’s what mustard seed faith will do for you. Once you have believed for something, however small, and you see it become substance, it builds your faith to believe for bigger and better things. What I’m saying is this: you can’t believe God for a house and car with tent and bicycle faith. But once you have received that bicycle and tent, then go on to believe God for bigger and better things. Eventually you will find you have no limits to what you can believe God for, once you’ve found the promise in His Word. It’s also said you can’t receive a million dollars from God with fifty cent faith. There’s a lot of truth in that, even though it isn’t in the Bible.
I’ve known people who are trying to believe God for healing from terminal cancer, when they don’t even realistically have faith to get rid of a hangnail. It’s not that God doesn’t want them healed, it’s just that they haven’t put enough effort into developing their faith. I’ve known people who quote healing scriptures daily, yet they’re still not seeing the victory. What’s going on? The mustard seed I was talking about earlier must SURELY be getting well watered in their life. Perhaps they need to sink their “faith teeth” into lesser issues first and see the victory over them FIRST, so they learn to know they can trust their faith, for their faith is in a fail-proof God. Learning to run before you crawl is pretty difficult, and even nature tells us that doesn’t work well. Here’s something to consider, straight from the Lord Jesus:
Luk_19:17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. Here I see something that looks important: the lord entrusted his servant with something small, that was within his abilities to oversee, and the servant proved faithful to do his best with what he had. He proved himself trustworthy to be promoted to bigger and better things. Going from overseeing ten talents of money to overseeing ten cities is a HUGE promotion, wouldn’t you say? But the lord was wise in testing his servant in small matters first. It turned out this servant earned his lord’s trust many times over and the lord was well pleased with his attitude. Often, WE want to start in charge over cities, not having been proven faithful yet over even a sink full of dirty dishes. What does that mean? Be faithful to get faith victory over that hangnail first, then you’ll have faith to tackle that cancer. Otherwise, you’ll spend your life speaking to the mountain, and your faith will get smaller instead of bigger. Remember, even a mountain can be moved a teaspoon full at a time if you want it moved badly enough. Persistence pays off, you can count on that!
Here’s an example from my own life this past winter; it snows here in Missouri, and my driveway is 110 feet long, and if I want to get out after it snows, I must shovel my driveway. But that isn’t enough. The county road grader won’t come down the steep hill of my road, so if I want out, I also have to shovel a 50 foot cul-de-sac and over 500 more feet of road to get to the top of the hill, that is if I REALLY want to get out. How do I do it? One shovel full at a time, and I keep getting victory over that one shovel full at a time until it’s all done. I don’t look at the whole job, else I would get discouraged and overwhelmed and stay home. I just concentrate on getting that one shovel full of snow out of the way at a time. But I’m persistent and won’t quit until I have the WHOLE victory! You have to learn to be faithful over the LITTLE stuff first, and THEN stretch your faith forth, until it’s gone from mustard SEED faith to mustard TREE faith.
Whatever challenge you are facing right now, approach it like you would a big steak, take it just one bite at a time, and don’t try to swallow the whole steak in one bite, or you will choke. If you need thousands of dollars to pay your bills, believe God for five dollars. When that becomes substance, believe Him for five more. Once you have developed unstoppable faith to do that, believe for ten dollars, and keep stretching your faith. If you have sickness pounding your door down, and you have several things all going on at the same time, believe God for victory over just one of them before you go trying to kick a whole freight train off the tracks. Start with the caboose, kicking off one car at a time as you work your way forward to the engine. Don’t waste your time trying to kick the whole train off the tracks in one kick if you don’t have enough faith to even kick the conductor off the caboose. Start where you are with your faith and BUILD IT. Sooner or later you’ll be ready to move the mountains out of your life, but first learn to speak to the ant hill and make it go, don’t destroy your faith by trying to do too much too soon. Be faithful over little things first. Remember, it’s faith, hope and mustard.
Marty on 24 May 2013 at 6:13 pm #
That is great, except what about when you had cancer and had to believe God for it or die? It would have been better if you had practiced or learned faith earlier, but you had to believe God where you were at and he came through.
Darryl on 24 May 2013 at 6:16 pm #
I think that is why some people die believing. They started out when they were already diagnosed. One of my pastors used to say, develop your faith like a muscle. Trying to lift 50 pounds of weight with 5 pounds of muscle… having said that, all things are possible to him that believe.