Mountain-Moving Faith Series

Mountains come in all shapes and sizes. A mountain is something that blocks your path and stops your progress; it blocks your view of God. Is there a challenge you’re facing right now that looks like huge mountain? You may be staring up at a financial mountain—it seems as if you’ll never get out of debt. You may be facing a relational mountain—your marriage is on the rocks, or you are so lonely you think you’ll never find the right one. Or you just can’t seem to get along with some family member—it seems like an insurmountable mountain. Others of you are facing a physical mountain—there is sickness that you can’t seem to whip. Or maybe you’ve been trying to lose weight for years and it seems as if you’ll never get in shape.

Let me give you some practical mountain-moving tips:

(1) Speak to the mountain, not about it

Jesus said we could say to the mountain, “Jump in the sea!” I wonder how many of you have ever spoken to your mountain and told it to go jump in the lake? Oh, we talk about our problems ad nauseam. We even pray about them, and prayer is important. But Jesus didn’t say talk about it or pray about it, He said to SPEAK to it.

Now you might feel a little foolish speaking to a real mountain, much less an invisible mountain. But Jesus often spoke to things some would think are foolish. He spoke to demons and commanded them. He spoke to the wind and the waves. He spoke to a fig tree. You may be thinking, “Well, yes, but He’s God.” But remember, Jesus told the disciples that the same thing He did to the tree, they could do to a mountain.

In fact, the more you talk ABOUT your mountain, the bigger it gets. It grows and grows until sometimes you really do turn a molehill into a mountain. And if you don’t speak to your mountain it will speak to you—it will taunt you, “Look at me! You can’t get past me! You’ll never be healthy! You’ll never get out of debt. You’ll never kick that habit!” So try speaking directly to the mountain; you don’t have to yell. Just say with faith, “Mountain, there’s not enough room for both of us in this life, so you gotta go!”

(2) Focus on God’s power, not the size of the mountain

The Bible is full of stories of people who faced mountains. Sometimes mountains are disguised as difficult people. When David was a teenager, he brought food to his brothers who were soldiers on the front lines against the Philistines. There was a mountain of a man who challenged the Israelites. His name was Goliath. He insulted and taunted the God of Israel and the armies of Israel. Nobody spoke to him—they were all too afraid. But everybody spoke about him. And the more they talked about the size of the giant, the more impossible he seemed to beat.

But little David spoke to the giant. As David approached the giant, Goliath started talking to him. He joked, “Why did you send this runt to me? Am I a dog that you think you can chase with a stick? I’m going to tear this scrawny kid to pieces and feed his flesh to the birds.” Pretty scary, huh? Mountains try to scare you away. But David spoke TO the giant. He said, “You come against me with a sword and spear, but I’ve got something better, big guy! I have a NAME! And this hill isn’t big enough for both of us. I come against you in the NAME of the Lord God of Israel. And this day the Lord will hand you over to me and I’ll knock you down and then I’ll cut off your ugly head from your fat body. And I’m doing this so everyone will KNOW that there is a God in Israel and the battle is the Lord’s! ... Now, Mountain, outta’ my way!” And you know the rest of the story.