This week Michelle continues her new series called Faith & Power: Understanding the Power of Who Christ Is In You reading Matthew, Mark, and Luke about Mustard Seed Faith from The Passion Translation.

Show Transcript:

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Introduction

Good Morning! This is Michelle Bentham, host of Blooming Inspired Podcast. We are in the third week of our new series “Faith & Power: Discovering the Power of Who Christ is in You!” Our reading last week came from Colossians 1:15-29 as we talked about how Christ living in us is the hope of glory revealed to us and those around us. Today, our reading will be primarily found in Matthew 13:31-32 with additional readings from Matthew. Mark and Luke as we look at faith the size of a Mustard Seed from The Passion Translation. So, Grab your Bible and get ready to dig into today’s reading as we continue to consider the power of who Christ is in us!

Review

As you do let’s just review a few take-aways from last week’s reading:

When God looks at you as His beloved child, He sees you through the veil of Christ

If Christ lives inside of you, if it is true about Jesus then it is true about you - whether you live from that reality or not.

All of the power that you need to accomplish those ideas, dreams and passions in your life rests with Christ. The only thing you need to understand is His purpose in your passion. And that often comes through executing - taking steps of faith and watching Him work wonders through them.

Jesus has first place in everything. In Christ, you hold first place with Him. Victory is yours in Christ.

Jesus restores everything and every person who comes to Him back to our original design, purpose and back to innocent purity once again.

YOU CAN BE MADE PURE AND WHOLE THROUGH THE POWER OF CHRIST IN YOU.

Living as Christ in us and expressing Him to the world around us. It is a MYSTERY (to us)… Being unveiled day by day, hour by hour as we pursue Him in intimacy and truth.

Taking on Christ’s Sufferings is a powerful reality in the Christian life, to live as Christ is to take on His sufferings.

This is the work of Christ in us through the Holy Spirit: to be in the midst of great struggle and turmoil and experience peace that passes understanding is truly a mark of Christ on our lives.

There is a divine mystery: a secret, a surprise, has been concealed for many centuries but through Christ is now being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Our faith in God is not just something we read about, but instead is a life to be lived, a reality to be experienced daily in our lives.

Last week we closed with the last two verses in this passage: “Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.” This is a key: when we preach Christ as our message, awakening hearts and bringing others into a full understanding of the truth - His power flows through us perfecting us in the only one who saves - Jesus Christ. Transformation in our own lives will draw others to the one who transforms us day by day into His glorious image. Amen?

This Week’s Reading

Let’s Pray, Father God, I ask that you would give each person within the sound of my voice an encounter with You today through the Scriptures. Give our hearts, minds, souls and bodies your truth today as we read and give us understanding by revelation and wisdom from Heaven to seek, act and live from the truth of Your words. I thank you our faith, though as small as a mustard seed, can powerfully move mountains and uproot trees if only we believe. Let our hearts be inspired to believe for more, to live for more and to experience more so your glory may be known upon the earth. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to know! I ask these things in Jesus’ Precious Name, AMEN.

The title for this episode is “Mustard Seed Faith.” It comes from Matthew 17:20 in the the passion translation: “He told them, “It was because of your lack of faith. I promise you, if you have faith inside of you no bigger than the size of a small mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move away from here and go over there,’ and you will see it move! There is nothing you couldn’t do!”

We’re looking for what it means that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains and uproot trees. How does Christ in us plant a seed of Faith that, when activated, releases His Power to do the impossible? So let’s begin with the parable of the Mustard Seed in Matthew 13:

Verse 31-32: He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (This parable is also found in Mark 4:30-34 and Luke 13:18-19.)

First of all, have you ever seen a mustard seed? They are tiny, as tiny as a speck of dust or lint. I read on the Home Guides website that when planted in cool, moist soil they germinate quickly and reach maturity in anywhere from 80-95 days depending on the type of mustard seed. And Jesus compares His Kingdom to a mustard seed.

The website Hunker.com provide even more insight: “Mustard seeds like growing in cool weather. However, if they are grown in hot weather, the leaves will become tough and spicy, which is a treat in certain culinary dishes. Mustard plants like getting lots of sun and water, so plant them in a clear, sunny area and water them during dry periods. A weeded garden bed will minimize the mustard's competition for water with other plants.”

They grow best in cooler environment (above 40 degrees) and if grown in hotter weather become tougher or spicier (they carry more flavor). They need lots of sun (LIGHT) and Water.

So how does this apply to us? When we place our faith in Christ by believing in Him we aren’t just getting salvation - we are getting Him living inside of us. And that seed of faith, picture it the size of a mustard seed, will grow and thrive the more we expose our hearts to the Light of the world (Jesus, the Word of God) and Living Water (The Holy Spirit). As our mustard seed faith grows, it makes a place of shade and rest for others who need a respite from the harsh realities of the world we live in and the enemy’s assaults.

I believe the Mustard Seed parable shows us how the Kingdom of God is supposed to affect our lives and how we then become Kingdom Influencers in the world around us. A bird does not make its nest in a tree because the tree calls it out, but rather because the fullness of limbs and leaves provides the necessary cover and protection that is required for baby birds to be born and nest within the branches.

So it is with us, the more the Kingdom comes alive in us through growth and maturity in both the Word of God and The Holy Spirit’s Power - the more appealing we become to others because we look like Jesus.

Now let’s read from Luke 17:6 & Matthew 17:14-20:

Luke 17:6: Jesus responded, “If you have even the smallest measure of authentic faith, it would be powerful enough to say to this large tree, (in some translations, a Mulberry Tree) ‘My faith will pull you up by the roots and throw you into the sea,’ and it will respond to your faith and obey you.”

Have you ever tried to uproot a large tree? No… Well, let me tell you. We have a large tree that grows in our back yard every year blocking the view of the lake behind our house. My husband cuts down this tree to a stump every year, but with the roots still in the ground, the stump resprouts and grows up again and again. If the trunk grows very large it will require a tractor to pull the stump out by i’s roots.

This is like sin that has taken root in our lives. Whether that sin stems from your own willful choices or learned patterns of behavior that has been handed down from generation to generation in your family - the result is still the same. Until the roots are dealt with - the tree of sin will continually grow back. So what does it take to uproot that sinful tree?

A mustard seed of faith - that’s it. A Mustard Seed sized faith can speak to the roots of sin and life patterns that have been blocking your growth and sucking the life out of you for years and tell it to be removed from your life.

In other words, someone who is new in the faith, whose seed is just about to take root and grow can do powerful things if we just remember that mustard seed of our faith is Jesus Christ.

Our passage in Matthew 17:14-20 is a bit longer than the passage in Luke, but let’s take a look as we close out today’s show:

Verse 14-16: They came to where a large crowd had gathered to wait for Jesus. A man came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, please show your tender mercy toward my son. He has a demon who afflicts him. He has epilepsy, and he suffers horribly from seizures. He often falls into the cooking fire or into the river. I brought him to your followers, but they weren’t able to heal him.”

The situation is that a man has brought his son to the disciples because his son was afflicted by a demon that caused epileptic seizures. He had fallen into the fires and the river before - which meant his life was severely threatened by this affliction. But, Jesus’ followers who had reported back that they had been healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead after he had sent them out could not bring healing to this boy.

Jesus’ response is telling…

Verse 17-18: Jesus replied, “Where is your faith? Can’t you see how wayward and wrong this generation is? How much longer do I stay with you and put up with your doubts? Bring your son to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the boy was instantly healed!

I don’t know about you, but it seems Jesus is concerned that His disciples have no faith and have lost their way with Him. Jesus attributes the inability to cast this demon out by His disciples to doubt.

Did you know you can be saved, and still lack faith and power in your life experiences because of doubt?

Have you ever prayed for something and then doubted whether or not it would happen?

For me that season came when my oldest son was struggling with choices, consequences and we were just trying to hold our family together. The police would call us to pick him up or we would call them to the house for his out of control behavior. I remember the doubts that rose up, Maybe my son is the one child God cannot pull out of the fire. What am I doing wrong? Am I praying the wrong things? I understand what you do when you raise Isaac, but it seems I’m raising Ishmael.

One day on the way home from a funeral for a childhood friend, I felt in my heart God said, You need to prepare your heart to lose your son. An odd peace settled over me, I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew God was preparing me for something I could not yet see. Turns out it would be my worst confessed fear: the death of my oldest child.

A few months later the accident came, it’s been more than 14 years since I got the call to get to the hospital as soon as I could because my son had been in a car accident with his friends. That day as I rode to the hospital I wrestled with my one confessed fear and what I believed about God to be true. As I prayed I said to God, “Lord, if this is what you’ve been preparing me for all these months then you better be everything you’ve promised me you’d be. Your word says you are my strength, well, you better be because right now I’ve got none. Your word says you are my peace, well, you better be because right now I’ve got none.”

And as I prayed I saw the puffy white clouds dotting a perfectly cerulean afternoon sky and I confessed, “If you can hold this world in orbit around the sun, and those clouds up there in the sky then I know you can take care of my son.”

Before that day I had studied the story of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert after Abraham had sent them out of the camp - where Hagar carried her nearly grown son through the desert after he fainted from a lack of nourishment (their food and water had run out) and she laid him under a bush there in the desert to die. She walked about a bow-shot’s distance away and sat down waiting for him to pass as she could not bear to watch him die.

That afternoon as we sat in the waiting room of the hospital my pastor asked me how I was doing. I had a Bible in my lap, turned to that familiar story in the book of Genesis and said, “I just keep thinking about Hagar and Ishmael in the desert. If God took care of Ishmael, He’ll take care of Justin, too.”

God did take care of my son, and eight days later he delivered him safely into the arms of Jesus who carried him home to Heaven’s safe keeping. I would later receive the Scripture from Isaiah that says, “The Lord takes the righteous early to spare them an evil that is yet to come.”

I believe God knew a fate worse than death was coming for my son in those days of his coming into adulthood and in His mercy, God took Justin home to spare him that worse fate - indeed to spare us all.

I’ve come to realize God answered my prayers for mercy for my son, and indeed He gave me peace that passes all understanding. The very things I asked for as I prayed by my son’s body while he lay in a coma those long perilous days in the hospital.

It wasn’t easy to hold onto my faith in those moments of utter despair as my son lay dying and after He passed, but God delivered me from all my fears and He held me close as I walked out the painful reality of our lives in those difficult days.

Verse 28-29: Later the disciples came to him privately and asked, “Why couldn’t we cast out the demon?” He told them, “It was because of your lack of faith. I promise you, if you have faith inside of you no bigger than the size of a small mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move away from here and go over there,’ and you will see it move! There is nothing you couldn’t do!”

As I have read the passage over and over again, and recounted my own experience of not receiving a miracle healing in my son’s life and I realized that though I lost that battle - I still pray vigorously for injury and illness to be healed and I’ve seen much healing. My faith in God is strong, though the enemy did his very best to steal my faith in those early days of walking out my grief.

A mustard seed is all the faith it takes to turn tragedy into triumph and see the impossible become probable - if only we will believe. What mountains in your life do you need to speak to with a mustard seed of faith today?

Closing Remarks

Thank you for tuning in with us. I want to ask you if this podcast has been a blessing to you: would you consider subscribing to it and share it with your friends and family? We’d love to partner with you in sharing messages that encourage and inspire.

If you’d like to be a guest on this show or get more information about hosting your own podcast on the Blooming Inspired Podcast Network - please reach out to [email protected]. I’d love the opportunity to connect with you and figure out how we can share your voice with the world around us.

Join Us Through Facebook Live for Bible Study on Saturday at 10am (CT)! We will be reading Luke 9 this week and digging into the life of Christ Verse-By-Verse considering what we would believe if reading the Scriptures was the primary way we inform our faith! You can learn more and catch up on last week’s study by visiting facebook.com/bloominginspired.

Once again, I’d like to remind you that I will be speaking at a women’s conference (R.E.A.L. Women Conference) at (The Ranch Cowboy Country Church South) in Edna, TX. Registration is available for $40 through January 10th, and will be $45 after the 10th through the day before the conference. Tickets at the door will be $60. This one day conference is February 22 this year and includes a continental style breakfast, full lunch and dinner provided. I’d love to see some familiar faces attending. If you’d like to register please email or DM at the email listed above or through our FB page for details or visit theranchsouth.org for more information!

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