Mustard seeds are the small round seeds of various mustard plants.
In Luke 17:5-10, the apostles asked the Lord to increase their faith. Jesus told them that if they just had faith like a mustard seed, they could tell a mulberry tree to be uprooted and replanted in the sea, and it would have to obey. That would be a pretty awesome accomplishment. So, what is the real question?
What was the Lord trying to teach them here about faith? He certainly wanted them to do those things He had been doing. In fact, He told them to go into all of the world and do them and said they would do even greater things through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit (John 14:12).
We should all want to do great things/works for His kingdom, as we serve Christ during the remaining days we have left on earth, so why do some Christians succeed and others struggle or not try at all? It takes faith to do those things. The Kingdom of God is a supernatural realm with lots of challenges and can be intimidating.
Therefore, is the crucial thing in serving Christ and doing great works for His kingdom how much faith we have or the object of our faith? There is a big difference.
Amount of our faith
VS
Object of our faith
William Carey said, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God”. If we are going to do great things for God, we need to know that Christ told His disciples that “quantity of faith” is not the secret. In fact, He said a mustard seed’s worth is enough to do great things for the glory of God.
Therefore, the secret has to be the object of our faith? What is our faith in? What does our faith depend on? What is our faith based on, etc…? One of the most fascinating illustrations of exercising faith is in Numbers 21:6, where the Israelites had once again pushed God to the limit with their unbelief, disobedience, and rebellion…so that He sent a judgement upon them (similar to the judgements God put upon Egypt).
God sent poisonous snakes into the camp of the Israelites to bite the people. People began to die and people began to freak out. When Moses saw what was happening, he cried out to God for mercy and deliverance.
How did God respond? He told Moses to make an image/symbol of a snake out of bronze and lift it high up on a pole, where everyone in the camp could see it (Numbers 21:8-9). Then He told Moses to tell the people that if they were bitten to just look up at the bronze snake on the pole and they would be healed (saved).
This simple instruction, requiring them to obey His command by faith, probably seemed so silly, that a lot of people ignored it. There they were moaning and groaning in pain, but are told to just look at something (especially a symbol of a snake representing the very thing that was killing them) and they would be healed and saved? What foolishness!
So, some looked and some did not look. So, some lived by faith and some died for their unbelief (refusal to obey and simply look and trust). Those who made the snake on the pole the object of their faith (their hope, trust, and their confidence were saved). BUT - It was not how much faith they had that would save them (they did not have to look hard or long).
The key was simply what they transferred their faith to. They could not look to themselves. They could not look to others. They could not call a doctor. They had no snake antivenom. They had to look at the snake on the pole and that is all they had to – just look and be saved.
This is why these two verses in the New Testament are so revealing about how a person gets saved from sin.
{The looking is believing or the believing is done through the looking.}
Footnote: An author is an originator, a creator, or a writer of something. Jesus started our work of salvation in His mother’s womb. He finished our salvation as He died on the cross after living a perfect life. He said, “It is finished”.
To experience salvation, you cannot look at yourself or your works (anything you have done in life). You cannot look at others. You cannot look at anything, but Jesus Christ and the holy sacrifice He made of Himself on the cross for you.
This seems silly (foolish) to a lot of people and they just ignore it and they won’t make Christ the object of their faith. They will die in their unbelief (refusal to obey and look and trust in Christ and what He did for them).
If you have done this and placed all of your confidence in Jesus Christ for your salvation and eternal life, then how do you use faith to live for God and let Him accomplish the supernatural things in you and through you (for the Kingdom’s sake) between today and the day you die?
The object of your faith (the person of Jesus Christ) is still the crucial piece in doing what God leads you to do. Remember in Matthew 14 when Peter got permission to get out of the fishing boat and walk over to Jesus on the water (Sea of Galilee)?
As long as Peter simply kept looking at Jesus, he supernaturally kept walking on top of the water, but the moment he looked down at himself or the rough waves…he began to sink. There was no power in himself or in the water to keep him walking on top. All of the power was in Christ, but Peter stopped looking at Christ. So our faith (our trust and confidence in Christ) is like an infinite pool (resource) of supernatural power for us to draw upon as needed to do God’s will. It is always there!
If I asked you what your favorite refreshing beverage was after working for hours out in the blistering sun on a hot day in the summer, what would you say…Water, Southern Ice Tea, Lemonade, Diet Coke or Pepsi, Chocolate Milk or what? In Colorado, some men would say an ice cold Coors Beer, but we won’t go there.
Now, let us visualize that you have access to a one million gallon tank of your favorite refreshing beverage…more than you could drink in a hundred lifetimes. BUT…your access to this tank is a simple straw that allows you to pull up a sip or sips anytime. The straw stretches as far as it needs to. You can go anywhere you need to and have access to your refreshment anytime, anywhere…through your straw. And you can keep sipping as long as you need to. The straw does not have to be wide. What matters is what the straw is connected to. What is the object the straw is connected to?
Two different men in the 1800’s accomplished great (supernatural) works for God with just their faith in Christ and what He could do through them, if they trusted Him and made themselves available.
One was Hudson Taylor from England who felt called to take the gospel to the inner-parts of China where it had never been before (untold millions of people to reach). The other was George Muller who born in Germany, but moved to England, where he felt called to take care of orphans by private prayer and faith alone, without ever asking a single person for money or food or any of the needs the orphans might have.
These two men became close friends through their commitment to live by faith and not make their needs known to anyone, but God.
Hudson Taylor
(1832-1905)
George Muller
(1805-1898)
When each started their ministries as young men, they had nothing, but their vision and faith in their connection to Jesus Christ (the object of their faith). They did not have great faith, but they believed they had a great God who could do anything. By the end of their lives, God had accomplished their visions infinitely more than they could have ever envisioned or imagined.
Hudson Taylor had over 1,000 missionaries working with him in China (and living by faith), through his China Inland Mission, which earned the distinction of being the largest Protestant mission agency in the world. Their Christian influence is still all over China and Asia today. Historian Ruth Tucker said this about his life:
No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.
(Tucker, Ruth(1983). From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids,MI: Zondervan.ISBN Book Sources
By the end of his long life at 96, George Muller was taking care of over 2,000 orphans in Bristol, England every day. They were housed, fed, clothed, educated, and trained for wage earning trades solely through the answers to his private prayers that were based on his faith in Christ (the object of his faith).
Even though over the years, God had sent George over 7 million dollars in answer to his secret prayers for the needs of the orphans, he only had personal cash and others assets worth $850.00 when he died. He had also supported missionary works all over the world. He had also read completely through the entire Bible 200 times and during 100 of those times, he was on his knees…praying as he read and meditated.
Let me leave you with two precious promises from Christ for the great works He is calling you to.
Mark 9:23: All things are possible to him that believes.
(The one who believes in Him and who He is and what He can do.)
Mark 11:22: Have faith in God.
(While Hudson Taylor was translating the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Chinese, he discovered that the fuller meaning of Mark 11:22 was, “Have faith in God’s faithfulness”. In other words, don’t have faith in your faith or depend on your faith, but simply rely on God’s faithfulness to do what He calls you to do.)
Your straw (your faith) is connected to Christ, so just keep on sipping all you need to.
Yours in Christ,
Gene
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