St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 19d, Impossible Faith.

Our paragraph topic is: (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 4.  

Christ was teaching the apostles.  They had very little faith.  They practically had no faith because of their unbelief.  Even though they walked with him daily, eat with him, slept with him, breathed the same air with him, they still did not have the faith to carry on without him.  They were children growing up under the protection of their parent.  But the time was coming near when they would have to walk on their own.  The time was coming near when they would have to talk on their own.  The time was at hand when they had to stand on their own and they were only focused on being in his presence now and not on what was coming next.

They needed to believe.  They needed to know.  They needed to have certainty in their lives that they could depend on at all times.  Christ told them that they had little faith.  He told them that their faith was less than that of a mustard seed.  He wanted them to know that they needed to believe more.  He wanted them to have certainty.  He wanted them to be able to stand on their own and know that within was something more than just what they were able to see.  For with true faith comes certainty.  With true faith comes knowledge.  With true faith comes the truth of who they were and with that truth nothing would be impossible for them.  And he told them:
"If you have faith like a mustard seed....   And nothing will be impossible to you." 

Believe and you will achieve.  Such a famous motto, such a famous quote, such a strong foundation to build ones life upon.  Achieve the stars, the moon, achieve success or anything that the heart desires in this world.  For we must be focused.  We must have faith in what we want to achieve.  We must believe that it is possible and that we can achieve it through our efforts and our strengths.  Many a movie star or rock star, or sports star have professed it.  Many an executive has spoken it.  Many a Billionaire have used this as a their belief system and passed it on to others who would achieve the same goals.  Yet is this the meaning of what Christ spoke?  Is this the substance of his words? 

And nothing will be impossible to you, if only you have the faith of a mustard seed.  Humility is a virtue that not many practice.  Our world teaches us that we must be bold, we must be aggressive, we must be daring, unflinching, without fear, to achieve our goals.  There is no place for the humble in this world.  And yet Christ tells us that with faith nothing will be impossible to us.  For through our faith in Christ and through our faith in God our father, all things are possible.  Shall we achieve our goals for our own vanity, to prove that we are the best?  Or through our knowledge and our faith in Christ, believe with the faith of a mustard seed that all things are possible.   Why do we need to prove it?  Why do we need to show it?  Why do we need to demonstrate something that has been given to us through Christ.  If we believe even a tiny bit then we should know who we are in Christ.  And in Christ is the father and through the father nothing is impossible. 

Heavenly Father, we humbly ask that those who read these words may have their eyes opened, their hearing restored and their hearts filled with your spirit that you may grant to them the light of new life.  And it is through the Holy Spirit that they may know the truth of who they are in you.  Grant, Father, that they may know the gifts that you have already bestowed upon them so that they will know that nothing in this world can compare to what you have already given them.  We pray, Father, that for those who read these words, that they may know and see the light within and know the truth of their spiritual life.  Then will they realize the true nature of their being.  Come my brothers and sisters!  God our Father, is a god of love and it is through his love that these words are written.  The door is open.  The path is before you.  Christ loves you and the Holy Spirit awaits you.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in. 

St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 19c, Faith to move Mountains.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 3.

Try as they might the disciples were not successful.  They were unable to remove the demon from the child.  The father begged them.  They tried all they knew.  They remembered that Christ had given them powers to cast out demons as they entered the towns and villages going before him.  But this was different and they did not understand why.  Christ had given them powers to do the work and now that the work was completed they did not have the power.  They could not cast out this demon.  What was different?

Did they not continue to have the power?  Was the power taken away?  Was the power only temporary?  What was happening?  They asked Christ why and he told them of their little faith.  He told them that even though he had given them the power to cast out demons in his name they lacked faith.  Their faith was so empty that it could be compared to that of a mustard seed.  Yet with only a small amount of faith, the size of a mustard seed even, they could move mountains.  He told them:  "You will say to this mountain,
'Remove from here'; and it will remove."

How do you say to a mountain 'Remove from here?'  How do you mentally speak something that mentally you know is impossible?  How do you begin to believe that such a thing is possible?  We dream, we fantasize, we create heroes and monsters in our minds and bring them to life in the movies and in books and magazines and they are capable of doing the impossible.  But all this, we know, is only fantasy, make believe, wishful thinking.  All those dreams and desires and impossible things that we would like to happen in our lives and in the world, are only ideas and thought within our heads.  We do not envision that we will ever have the power to do the things that we dream of.  Yet they are the desires of our hearts, things that we would like to do, powers that we would like to have. 

We have read the stories in the Bible where Moses parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape from the Egyptian armies.  We have read about the Manna from heaven.  We have read about the water that came from the rock.  Do we believe in the stories that we read about in the Bible or are they just fiction?  Our minds have sought to make sense of the miracles that we have read.  Even through scientific evidence, we have attempted to prove these things happened naturally without the intervention of God.  So we fall short of true belief, fall short of true faith, and have not the faith of a mustard seed because of what our physical belief tells us is impossible.

I have not tried to speak to a mountain to have it moved.  I have not tried to do things that would seem unnatural.  But I know that I have faith.  I know that I am loved.  I know that the spirit of Christ lives within me.  And I believe that through Him nothing is impossible.  Will I try to prove it?  Do I have to prove it to know that it is possible?  Do I have to see with my own eyes, to feel with my own body, to smell with my own sense of smell, to know that it is possible?  No!  But that does not stop me from knowing that I have the faith to believe with certainty, with the faith of a mustard seed, that all things are possible with God.  And there is the difference.  We seem to know through our physical being but we lack the certainty to believe within our spiritual being.  For it is through the spirit that we have certainty.  It is through the spirit that we see who we are.  It is through the spirit that we transform ourselves beyond the physical being to who we are in the spirit. 

We are created in the image and likeness of our father.  He gave us life.  He gave us breath.  And he gave us the physical, to experience who we are in him.  It is not through the physical that we are.  It is not through our arms and our legs, and our physical ability that we exist.  It is only through the spiritual being that is within the physical that we are.  Are you dead to the spirit?  Do you not know that you are a spiritual being and not a physical being?  Can you not see the spirit within, to know?  Do you not have the light of Christ within you that you might

see who you are?  Come!  Walk with me on this journey!  Experience the truth of who you are.  Know the true light that is within you and you will see for yourself that you too can have the power to say to mountains to remove from here and it will be done for you.  Christ loves you so much that to experience his love will overwhelm you.  He is our desire.  He is our fulfillment.  He is our love, our protection, our provision.  Open the door and let him in.  Follow the path set before you and see the light within. 

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in. 
 

St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 19b, Mustard Seed Faith.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 2.

The disciples were disturbed.  They did not understand why they could not do what Christ had given them power to do before.  He sent them out to the villages in pairs of two.  He gave them power to cast out demons and to heal the sick, cure the lame, and perform miracles.  But they could not help this father who pleaded with them for help.  They could not cast out this demon.  Why was it that they could not do this?  Christ told them, they had very little faith.  They performed the miracles based upon the power that he gave them but not upon the faith that they had. 

What would they do when he was gone?  What would they say?  What would they think, after the sacrifice was complete and Christ's, mission here on earth, was complete?  Would they have the faith to believe in his works, to believe in his words, to act upon their belief that he is the Messiah?  If they could only have faith.  If they could only believe without seeing, believe without feeling, believe without having his physical presence before them, then they would come to know far beyond what their physical minds could comprehend.  They would know that there is something more than just the physical realm.  So he told them:  "For amen I say to you, if you have faith like a mustard seed."

It is said that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the garden.  Yet it grows larger than any other plant.  What is faith?   Would we define it as having a belief in something?   Would we say that faith is a belief that there is a God, that there is a supreme being, that there is something greater than ourselves?  If we believe that there is a God greater than ourselves then how strongly do we believe it?  Do we believe strong enough to act on that belief?  Do we believe strongly enough to follow the commands that have been given to us, pasted down through the generations?  Can we follow the laws of God and the new covenant given by Christ in this modern day and time?  Or are we so caught up in the world that we can not see the importance of God's commandments? 

Do we believe strong enough to not follow the world in its beliefs as to how we should live?  Do we believe strong enough to know that there is the spirit of God that lives within us?  And do we believe strong enough to see the light of Christ that resides within us, the light that guides us, the light that protects us, the light that loves us, the light that provides for us.  We should have nothing to fear, nothing to doubt, nothing to change our belief in who we are in Christ?  For when we know the truth of who we are in Christ then the seed within grows and becomes like the mustard seed.  The seed of faith becomes the largest plant in the garden and our faith becomes the largest belief that we have.

Faith to me is belief in the desire to become one with Christ.  When I am one with Him I have no fear, I have no doubts, I have no situation or circumstance that will change me from what has been given me by his sacrifice.  There is nothing that can change me from the knowledge that I have life in him and he has life in God the Father.  And in that knowledge I abide.  For the light shines within me and I know it.  The light lives within me and I see it.  The light of Christ fills me and I feel it everyday.  I look around and see his presence, I feel his love, I know his protection and I have the faith of a mustard seed, because it has been given me by and through the light of the Holy Spirit.  Come!  Share in the light that is within you.  Come!  Know the truth of who you are in Christ.  Come!  Celebrate the joy of new life.  Christ awaits you.  Christ Loves you.  And the Holy Spirit will guide you.  Follow the path before you and know the truth of life.

Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.