We read
from the gospel of Mark 11:20-26 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I
tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’
and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen,
it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in
prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when
you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that
your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Also
we read in James 1:2-8 about Faith and Doubt: “Count it all joy, my
brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing
of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full
effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in anything. If any
of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without
reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,
for the one who doubts, is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by
the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from
the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
We
also read in Hebrews 11:1 that, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen."
William
Sloane Coffin put it this way “Faith isn’t believing without proof, it is
trusting without reservation.”
As we
begin this lent period, I am reminded we are called to LIVVE OUT FAITH IN GOD.
The
following are some of the things I am learning from the above passages:
I must deal with mountains that obstruct me from achieving what God has
ordained for you to achieve. The starting point should be to ask the question;
what have I been ordained to achieve and what are the mountains on my way? Is
the mountain Hate, Racism, Slavery to anything, Poverty, Addiction, or
Crumbling Marriage. I need to tell the mountain “move in the name of Jesus”. It
will move as Jesus promises in Mark 11:22 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask
for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” I can
testify how many times Jesus has removed the mountains in my way in the
last one year
I need to remove the doubt because it is the root cause of disobedience. When
one removes doubt and allow faith to come in it opens the door of the
possible. I can testify that when doubts were removed last year, we
prayed for the healing of my wife’s macular degeneration of her eyes, and she
got healed completely to the surprise of doctors.
Know that no answer usually aligns you to God’s will.
Forgive everybody who wrongs you. A person who cannot forgive another
person inevitably has never experienced forgiveness of his/her sins. I can
testify to the fact that when I am harboring a grudge against another person,
my mood is always bad and I cannot think objectively.
If I pray in God’s will, I will always get an answer to what you pray for in
God’s time (1 John 5:14). In most cases, my failure has been to know God’s time.
I am learning to Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH). In other words, I
need to pray with expectancy. I have learnt not tell God how big my storm is; I
am now telling the storm how big my God is. When I forget this strategy, I
wallow if fear.
My
Motto during this lent period is-“Begin to operate as if it is done”
Be
blessed brethren during this lent period!
Rev Dr
Aba Mpesha
