Category: Faith in God

Understanding Bible meaning for faith in God

Move The Mountain With Mustard-Seed-Sized Faith

Yeshua (Jesus) tells His followers that they can move mountains if they have a tiny mustard seed size of faith (Mt 17:20). Whoa, Back up a few verses. There is a reckoning to be faced before faith can be so huge ( in comparison to the common size of faith). In the prior verses, before saying that mountain-moving faith is possible, Yeshua shows us the trail that must be walked for finding the treasury for a faith of this small size, that can work miracles that have never been seen by man.

In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I myself, and will perform even greater works …

Yeshua John 14:12

The following story and comment is from Mt 17:14-20 Mark 9:22-24

Yeshua and some disciples came upon the crowd that was there to see and hear what Jesus and His disciples were doing; some other disciples were arguing with people in the crowd; they had failed at removing a very strong demon from a boy. Normal fears and arguments about healing and faith ensued.

The boy’s father told Yeshua about his son’s malady. The Lord’s responded to the boy’s father and His disciples who could not remove such a demon or heal such a disease. This response bears a humbling recognition of our wee faith and our pre-mustard-seed-sized faith condition. Can we listen to hear and look to see the meaning of Yeshua’s response? It shows us the way to overcome and move beyond the common micro faith of God’s people. Yeshua’s response –

And Jesus answering said, “Faithless and corrupt generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”

Mt 17:17


Yeshua speaks not only to the boy’s father but to His disciples and the rest of His followers, including we who follow Him today.

This is what those who are willing can hear: the flesh is corrupt and faithless. It rebels and opposes rightness in trade for the “good tasting” fruit on the tree of good and evil. Admission and repentance through confession to the Lord concerning our corruption and faithlessness is the trail to release and freedom from corruption, and a key to the treasuries of mustard-seed-sized faith.

The boy’s father heard what Yeshua was getting at. He confessed his smaller-than-small-sized belief in Yeshua and his corrupt unbelief. He confessed his condition and asked the Lord for help with it. He then received the deliverance and healing for his son. Here is the father’s response, and Yeshua’s answer.

“But if you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Then Jesus said to him, “‘If you are able?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.”  the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

MK 9:22-24

Then Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the boy was healedd from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?” He told them, “It was because of your little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.”

MT 17:18-20

How long will Yeshua have to bear with our rebellion, corruption, unbelief, faithlessness, and unwillingness to admit and confess our condition? What do we fear losing by repentance from these things? Is a very small-sized seed of faith in Yahweh not worth the cost?

Paul was on a bit of a different subject, but his quote below was about the same condition of flesh that robs our faith. He shows the trail to healing, which is; admission, confession, and appeal to Yeshua for deliverance.

Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will [rescue me and] set me free from this body of death [this corrupt, mortal existence]?  Thanks be to God [for my deliverance] through Jesus Christ our Lord!

ROM 7:24,25 Amp.

It will cost us things that moths can eat, rust can corrode, thieves can steal and want for more than sustenance. It will cost pride, self-rightness, and other corruption. If we can lay these distractions down to set our affections on things above and go to prayer and service in love for God and our neighbor, we will learn to walk in the love to which faith is given for the good of others.

According to Yeshua, it is possible to remove mountain-size demons, the sickness they sponsor, and literal mountains and trees if they are in the way of doing what the Holy Spirit is directing. Do our sons, daughters, and neighbors need us to bring them to Yeshua with mustard-seed-sized faith? Of course they do; and it is possible; we can have the little mustard-seed-sized faith. What is more, the seed can sprout, grow, and grow beyond the normal bush that grows from a mustard seed, into a tree of refuge. Here is another verse where Yeshua speaks of something like a mustard seed growing highly beyond its normal bush size into a tree.

He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

Yeshua, Luke 13: 18,19

Yeshua compares the Kingdom of Heaven to mustard seed sized faith. In one instance, faith is compared to a mustard seed; in another, the Kingdom of Heaven is compared. The size and growth of both, in the right circumstances, are key. Faith and the Kingdom of Heaven are joined. The unlimited power of the Kingdom of Yahweh God resides in faith. Our neighbor, the world, and so, Yeshua needs for us to have the mustard-seed-sized power of faith working for them.

Our families, and the world, needs for our faith to move mountains and more. Mustard seed faith needs to live within us and become trees of shade and refuge.

It is time.

Please join us who are laying our lives down to be free from every weight and sin that distracts us from finding mustard seed faith and what it can grow into. Our world has whole mountain ranges and forests of evil to be moved. The love of God calls for us to search and find the faith in Him to move them. Some say today’s evil is prophesied and we can’t change it. But the Bible says for us to occupy till Jesus comes. We are like salt, preserving the earth, moving the evil back, and healing the illnesses caused by it as Yeshua did, by the power of mustard seed sized faith.

“There is no greater love than this: that a man would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” 

Yeshua John 15:13

Finding My Faith

The disciples’ faith in Yeshua had returned, and Yeshua wanted them to see how that happens.

And having arisen, He rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.

Lk 8:24,25

, “Where is your faith?” Yeshua (Jesus) asked the disciples. At that moment, He had their complete attention. At that moment, after seeing Yeshua suddenly calm the wind and waves that were about to sink the boat, His disciples’ complete focus was on Him. At that moment, stunned by fear, apathy, exhaustion, and now the impossible happening all around them, their beliefs, that moments before had been in their troubles and their inability to solve them, were in Yeshua. At that moment, with hearts fixed on Yeshua, they could see beyond time and space into what He could and would do for them. At that moment, their faith was in Him and He wanted them to see that complete focus on Him is how that happens.

But they didn’t seize the moment and learn the lesson. They didn’t answer Yeshua’s question, “where is your faith?” but began questioning each other about who Yeshua could be.

The intensity of a storm can take us from the place of “letting the Teacher sleep,” to powerful cries to Him for what little help we think He will give. When we move our focus away from the storm and back to Him, He will give more than what we ask.

During the storm, the disciples were focused on the wind, sea, water filling the boat, inability to keep a float, frantic survival, exhaustion, and death. They knew their troubles and their inability to solve them. Their faith (knowledge, belief, and focus) was in their trouble.

So, where was their faith now after seeing Yeshua (Jesus) calm the life-threatening storm? Suddenly all was calm. Their attention, focus, and faith was now away from the storm and in Him.

Because the disciple’s attention and faith had been on Yeshua before this boat ride, He was with them now, and their attention and faith found its way back to Him. Are you getting the drift?

Say, you’re traveling through life with Yeshua, but this huge storm rages. It seems that Yeshua is asleep and doesn’t care. You know He’s in the boat with you. How about you get up next to Him, touch Him with some intense prayer, asking Him for help. You will need to ask in faith though, that is, you will need to know without a doubt that He isn’t sleeping as we know sleep, but listening for you to have just enough faith in Him to know that He will “wake up, care, and help bail water enough to keep you from perishing”. If you believed in Yeshua before the storm, you can rouse that much faith.

Bailing Water

I may know that Yeshua will help bail water from my sinking boat if I get His attention. Yeah, that may be the limit of my focus and faith. But if I will at least put my little measure of faith and attention on Him, He will do much more than I ask. When we use the little faith we have, even if we think we have to wake Yeshua up, more faith is added to us. Focus and attention on Yeshua is faith at work.

Focus on Yeshua

Always find what you can believe without a doubt that Yeshua will do concerning the need. Seek, ask, and knock on His door. When we use the little faith that we have, more will be added. It is because, in using what faith we have, we see more of Him. Then, since we see more of Him and what He will do, He will do much more than what we asked of Him in the first place, as He did for the disciples over and again.

Got your attention? Answer His question. “Where is your faith?”

Don’t forget the “get up next to Him” part like the disciples in the boat. That’s what it’s all about. That is when faith in God activates. When our focus returns to Yeshua, He takes the little we believe and works to increase it.

The disciples didn’t answer the “where is your faith” question and missed the opportunity to understand Yeshua’s purpose, meaning, and reason for asking it.

Intense focus on Yeshua, though we may think He will only help bail water, “rouses” Yeshua from what we think is oblivious sleep, to gift us with faith from which he will do much more than what we think He will do.

Instead of answering the question, the disciples went backward into fear, awe, and questioning who Yeshua is, missing this great lesson. Later they asked Yeshua to increase their faith (Lk 17:5). With a story, Yeshua taught them about humbly using the little faith they have and that afterward they would be thanked. But they missed the hands-on lesson in the boat about how faith returns.

Do You Have A Moment?

You know, moments of learning faith don’t have to be giant events. Any moment in any storm or otherwise, we can draw near to Yeshua and He will draw near to us to work on our behalf. Seeing the hand of God at work increases faith to those who trust in Him.

Go back to a moment of seeing God at work and answer Yeshua’s question “Where is your faith?” See your focus and attention there, on Yeshua. See how trouble or need moved you to find enough faith to “rouse Him awake,” know He was willing to help, and then see what He was doing.

Remember your moment of focus on Him? Go there and find where your faith is. Let it move you to stay focused on Yeshua and to do the things, small as they may be, that you know by undoubting faith He calls you to do. Don’t be distracted by the distractions of the world, fearful or pleasurable as they may be. Stay focused on YESHUA and move in His will by the faith you found in your moment of focus.

Faith increases with its use. But you have to return to it first. Faith is found by an intense, undistracted focus on Yeshua.

Now, if you are saved, you HAVE had a giant event, not unlike the disciples of Yeshua: the day of your salvation. Your boat in life was sinking. You know the rest of the story. At that time you saw Yeshua calm the wind and waves on your troubled sea of life. You were focused on Him. From then to this day Yeshua’s question remains. “Where is your faith?” Analyze the moment. Nothing else mattered. Nothing could distract. In that moment there was no question as to who Yeshua is or what He is willing to do for you. Your faith was in Yeshua as you gazed at Him, and understood His willing sacrifice. There you found your faith, and there you can find more of it as you see Him awake and at work.

Go there and stop the distracting questions about what is impossible. Stop the fears and the wants for the things of earth from distracting you. Focus on Yeshua and what He is doing as you did back then. Faith is knowing what God will do and entering in with it, you know, like Peter when he walked on the water. Well, until he looked from Yeshua back to the earthly sea and storm. In life, by turning our attention from the wind and waves of the storms and focusing on Yeshua while He works, we can return to faith in Him and work with Him in His power.

“Master! Master! We’re going to die!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves. They stopped, and there was calm.

Stunned, they gazed across the flattened sea. It lay as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Something beyond time was happening.

Breaking the silence of sudden calm, “WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?” Yeshua asked. Instead of answering His question, they looked back to the storm and questioned each other for who could do such things as calm it. They lost their focus on Yeshua and thus the opportunity to know this great lesson for how to have, maintain, and function in Godly faith.

The lesson is not that trouble brings us to faith. It is that focus on Yeshua at work reveals who He is and what He will do. We need not wait for trouble.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made.

Romans 1:20

The Lesson

Time is visible by its process of change. We can look beyond time into the invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature of Yeshua to find our faith in Him. Time and the rest of creation are designed for helping us see beyond it all to the invisible power of God. By the visible, we can look, see and know the invisible things of God. Our faith in God is of God and invisible. We don’t have to have trouble to see faith. We can contemplate the creation to see and understand its creator.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Hebrews 11:3

The moment we focus on Yeshua as the source of the invisible things of God, with all distraction aside, our faith returns to being placed in Him; we can then see who He is and what He is doing.

The clock doesn’t stop when we walk in faith, but by faith, we can then see beyond the clock, and the universe, to the invisible things of God, and function in His power.