28 Days To Trust And Obey - Day 4

[Mark 11:22-24 (NKJV) 
22  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. 
23  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 
24  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. 

I was seated at my desk early this morning seeking the Lord in prayer and was captured by Jesus’ words in Mark 11:23-24. I felt Him tugging and stretching my heart to believe Him for greater things. Soon tears began to trickle down my cheeks as I cried out to the Lord for miracle after miracle, mostly related to expanding His kingdom. I begged and pleaded with God to intervene in the affairs of life and ministry all around me and in missions work.

Soon my heart felt aflame with Jesus’ words that if I would not doubt but believe I could have the things for which I had been asking Him. Impossible things. Unattainable things. Impractical things. Unfeasible things. That’s when it really hit me right between the eyes, that if I really devote myself to a life of believing prayer I will also be devoting my life to promoting the glory of God. That revelation only served to intensify the flame burning in my heart and my desire to see the Lord do the impossible. I prayed as fervently as I ever have at any time in my life for anything.

One by one I brought both ministry and personal mountains before Him and asked that each one be removed out of the way so that His glory could be promoted further. I want to be one who lives on the cutting edge of faith and who lives daily to promote God’s glory through answered prayer. I know full well what I am yearning for - I am asking for God to continually push my life and ministry toward risk, attempting the impossible, facing challenge after challenge, inviting open criticism for presuming upon God, and enduring ridicule mixed with skepticism when the miracles are delayed. I have experienced all of this before on numerous occasions, but when God comes through and I get the privilege of testifying about His faithfulness it is worth it! Praise God, it is worth the delays, the hours spent in solitude with the Father, and all the skepticism just to watch God come through and bring greater heaps of grandeur on Himself. I live to see that happen!

I love to hear the gasps in the crowd when a miracle is detailed. I love to watch the stunned faces as people hear about how the Lord turned the impossible into something possible. I am deeply moved when I see faith growing slowly in the hearts of those who were once filled with fear and doubt as they hear what their God has done for someone else. This encourages them to hope again for God’s help in their situation. I live for that. I live for God to be glorified over and over again through miraculous, astounding, extraordinary, and phenomenal acts that defy logic and explanation.

I cannot tell you how many times I felt alone in this pursuit, but I can tell you that I have found solace and comfort by reading the biographies of Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, John Hyde, Rees Howells, David Brainerd, and E.M. Bounds. They forged the trails of faith and blazed a path to demonstrate that miracles were not just intended for the days of Jesus, the Apostles and the book of Acts. It has been a lonely pilgrimage ,but I have sought to bring others along with me. God longs to work in our day as well and I for one intend to live so that His name, His power, His mighty acts, and His glory will be promoted in this generation and in the generations to come.

What mountains are you facing right now? What impossible thing is intimidating you into cowardly unbelief? What stands in the way between you and the dream God planted in your heart? What looms so large over you that it causes you to hesitate and withdraw to safety and comfort? I plead with you to stop retreating and look your mountain square in the eye. In faith I exhort you to tell your mountain to get out of your way in the name of our valiant and strong Lord. Gather those who will believe with you and pray to promote the glory of the Lord.

How long will we live in the shadow lands of complacency and comfort when the fragrance of the miraculous is floating on the breeze? Where are the pastors who will charge ahead on their knees and watch the Lord shove open doors that have been closed too long? Where are the intercessors who will give themselves no rest and the Lord no rest as they plead for the salvation of souls without ceasing? Where are the churches that will bend their ears to Heaven and follow the Lord’s promptings by faith into grandiose kingdom expansion projects, regardless of the risk or the cost? Who will shirk fear and personal security and run toward the risk of promoting the glory of God in your corner of this world?

Do we really believe? I asked myself that same question over and over again in my prayer time this morning. I looked at two very large mountains that I have been facing for a long time, one of which I have been battling for over eight years. 

I have been laboring in prayer over the other mountain for going on three and half years now. It is time for me to dismiss unbelief and doubt and watch the glory of God shine brilliantly through His miracles again. Are God’s resources limited? Does He not provide for His own? Is God glorified by  going into debt?  Would others be encouraged to believe God in their situations?  As the answers to those questions rise in my heart they crowd out any remaining doubt and fear, and I am able to boldly lift my request to my mighty God.

The reason so many live in doubt and unbelief, while making excuse after excuse is simply, because we live in a day of miracle famine. I hate the day of miracle famine! God does not get glory in those days. When will we read God’s word like we believe it to be true, stand on His precious promises without wavering, and longingly gaze into the Heavens at the throne of grace to obtain miraculous help and miraculous mercy in our times of need? Unbelief is a plague in most of our churches; may it not be so in our church. May we live, pray, serve, labor, worship, and give sacrificially to promote the glory of God. May our example be a catalyst all over this region and this world to promote, advance, exalt, honor, and move the glory of God forward in one heart at a time.

Jesus said that all things we ask and pray while believing would be granted to us. I know they will only be granted to us if they are in His will for us, but I am convinced we have been living like paupers rather than children of the King of Kings. No longer for this slave of Christ - I asked God this morning that He would allow me to live to promote His glory until my last breath. Even as I write this I am moved to tears for people everywhere to be captivated by the greatness and the power of God to save the lost, to heal the sick, to reclaim the backslidden, to revive the church, to expand His kingdom in nations around the globe, to give birth to miracle provision for those in need, to explode churches with unprecedented growth, to bless the confused with wisdom, and to work Himself to promote His own glory.

But it is neither our praying nor our faith that is the focus, it is the greatness of God that matters. He is mighty to save. He is glorious and greater than we know. Oh how I plead that you would join me in living the rest of your days from this one to your last to believe and attempt impossible feats in prayer. When they are answered they will promote the glory of God like a tidal wave on unbelieving pastors, churches, and ordinary people like you and me.  I wish I could cut my heart open and let you feel what I feel as I write this, but alas I am left to trust the Sovereign Lord to take the ramblings of this preacher and sear them into your hearts and minds so deeply you cannot shake them no matter how hard you try.

Great Father, King of all Kings, my Great I Am, I come to you with fearless faith today. I ask You to forgive me for hiding behind the sin of unbelief for far too long. Today my heart is aflame with faith in You. What is impossible to You? Nothing. I lift up all those who will read these words and beg of You to capture their hearts and wills and stir them to greater faith and larger exploits than they have ever believed You for before.  I beg of You to remove doubts and help their unbelief. I ask You to enlarge all our faith to believe You when You say that nothing is impossible with You. I ask You to char the fragrance of the miraculous into our nostrils until we are nauseated with the stench of unbelief and miracle famine but intoxicated with Your power to do anything. I ask You to give us courage to run to the cutting edge and leap into believing prayer defying the skeptics, experts, and the odds of failure. Lord of the Universe, I plead with You to leave a lifetime of miracles in the wake of our lives and let not only this generation but each generation to follow take this same adventurous journey of living to promote Your glory. We will leave the results of such living up to You. I ask You to annihilate selfish ambition and self-glorification. May You consume us from head to toe until no other passion is left but to live to promote Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.