Moving Mountains
Many years ago we took a family ski trip to Deer Valley, Utah. It was amazing. When we landed in Utah and started driving to the mountains, you could see them for miles. They seemed to be so close, but they were not. It's just because they were so large. You could see the snow on the top of the peaks, and it was hard to imagine that we would be skiing on that very mountain top. The closer we got to the mountains, the more the impact of their size was breathtaking. It would be hard to imagine that I could move that mountain!!!
In life we may have mountains that seem really big. The closer we get to our circumstances, the more they seem to take our breath away through doubt, fear, and anxiety. From a distance we could see them but hope that we could travel around them. The mountains that we face could be finances, a loveless marriage, health, jobs, unsaved loved ones, or the mountains that we face could be waking up and not wanting to live, depression, and hopelessness. Some mountains seem to just erupt out of nowhere. You are living life and suddenly in crisis--that unexpected turn of life's events that seem to be an unmovable mountain with no way around it.
We all have mountains. What do we do with those mountains?
In Mark 11:22-26 Jesus answers that question, and these are red words from verse 22, "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea', and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
WOW, I can do that?! I love this passage. First, He says to have faith in God. That sounds really easy, but when you are facing a mountain, sometimes it's hard to have faith. I found out that the next part of that verse "if anyone says to this mountain" had everything to do with my faith. When facing the mountains, we say things about that mountain. We say things like, "oh my life will never change", or "they will never change", or "I am so depressed I just don't know what I am going to do....." We talk about the mountain; we text about the mountain; we think about the mountain; we may take a molehill and make a massive mountain by the way we talk!
What I say about the mountain will determine the landscape of my circumstances.
In my own life, I had a massive mountain. Mine was the "marriage mountain." On November 12, 2012, God threw that mountain into the sea!!!! It took me a long time to even recognize that I had mountains that needed to be thrown into the sea. I thought everyone had these kind of mountains and that landscape looked normal. This is one of the very first passages that God took me to in my prayer time, in 2011. I was tired of going around that mountain over and over again, so I started talking to that mountain. Through prayer, believing, fasting, prayer, believing, fasting, and repeating that process over and over, God's Word became alive to me. I did believe for a miracle. I did believe that mountain would be cast into the sea.
Then I read verse 25, and there it was: the word "and." And what? Surely there's nothing else for me to do? I am doing all of the believing, having faith, talking to the mountain, in Jesus name. I am praying, fasting, speaking the Word of God, I believe I have received it. And there it was, the word of God that changed everything for that mountain moving power!
Verse 25 AND when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, FORGIVE him, so that your Father in heaven will FORGIVE you and your sins.
Forgiveness is the power to move the mountains!
When I was facing my marriage mountain, when that mountain was still very real, visible and massive in size, I chose to forgive. I had to FORGIVE Tim! I felt God speak to my heart repeatedly "be quick to repent and be quick to forgive." Speaking the Word of God is powerful and He says for us to do that to move those mountains, but I knew that I had to obey the word of God, all of it, even when it said to forgive. I made a choice to forgive, I knew that mountain wouldn't budge one inch if I didn't forgive Tim. Through prayer, fasting, spending time with Jesus, the Holy Spirit imparted forgiveness, a divine forgiveness. The kind of forgiveness that goes past the words and into the soul and spirit. It was a forgiveness that wasn't even spoken, but I said it in actions. I showed love, forgiveness, and I was speaking what God said about Tim. I spoke over Tim, (in conversation) he was a righteous man, that he was a godly man, that I was proud of him. Forgiveness is powerful!!
If God can take that massive marriage mountain and throw in into the sea, He can do it for you. Whatever mountain you are facing, forgiveness is the power to move that mountain. My prayer for each of us as we face mountains, be quick to repent and be quick to forgive! When a mountain moves from the landscape of your life, He gets all the glory! Jesus answered, "Have faith in God!" He is forgiveness. If you have mountains, ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and then ask Jesus to help you forgive those that need to be forgiven.