Faith of a Mustard Seed

“And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, 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; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matthew‬ ‭17:20‬

So this scripture threw me because after underlining it, I realized that the next verse in the ESV version of the Bible is verse 22. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I kept looking for where verse 20 ended and 21 started in the words I underlined. When I wasn’t able to find it, I checked several other versions and some had 21 and others don’t. I learned that early manuscripts don’t contain verse 21. Just wanted to share that fact, which has nothing to do with what I took from the passage above.

The disciples had come to Jesus asking why they could not heal the boy possessed by a demon. The father had brought the boy to them as the demon would throw him into the fire. They could not cast it out. Jesus was able to cast out the demon easily. In His answer to them, He spoke of the faith the size of a grain of mustard seed.

I imagine the impossible things that God could do if I allow Him to grow my faith. That means trusting Him with big asks. Trusting Him with requests of mountains moving, miraculous healings, or monumental asks.

God can’t grow something I won’t plant. If I don’t ask, I am not planting my mustard seed.

He won’t grow what I put in other soil. I naturally want to try to control things. I look for resources that can meet a need in the natural when God wants me to put my trust in Him. I put my trust in the natural hoping for supernatural growth. I can not obtain things of God through natural means. All plants don’t grow in every soil type, faith doesn’t either.

I have to plant my faith in Him. I have heard more than one preacher talk about how we misplace our faith. We put our faith in our faith instead of God. I know personally, when my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, it was about the time of the faith movement. When my father died, my faith failed. I thought if my faith was where it needed to be he would not have died. My faith was in my faith, not God. It took me a long time to come back from that and to understand God’s ways are higher than mine.

I have to let God growth my faith. God takes us from faith to faith. If I don’t give Him my faith, He can’t take it to the next level. Faith is grown as we put our hope in what we can not see, and let God make it happen. In my experience it never looks like I thought it would, but my faith grows nonetheless.

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.””
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1:17‬ ‭‬‬

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:1‬ ‭‬‬

As I was writing this out I thought of a vision I had back in a prayer meeting in Bentonville. I had to go back and review what was spoken about it as it was April 2, 2017. I just remember that it had to do with the seeds. Seed Blower was the words that I heard. I learned it’s a machine that separates light seeds from the heavier seats as the seeds produce better crops. God wants fruit that remains from His children.

I have read commentaries about the mustard seed being small and yet growing into a large tree. I also read that mustard can been seen as a weed because it spreads rapidly. There are mustard trees and mustard bushes. I also read that mustard seeds apparently can grow with little water and can easily spread. Mustard plants are also very nutritious.

God will always take the little that we give Him and grow it if we allow Him, multiplication is His style (30, 60, 100 fold). Our faith should be contagious and spreading to others. We will not all look alike, just as mustard grows in trees and plants, and a lot of different variants God’s children are just as diverse. When our faith is strong, even if it is small, it can survive even difficult places like the wilderness we’re not getting refreshing streams of water. Our faith is not just for our benefit, it nourishes those around us when we share what God has done in our lives.

Prayer – Lord show me about faith it moves mountains. Faith it starts a small as a mustard seed. I want your faith.