David P. Sanzo
Mountain Movers
Jesus said that our words will carry power, if we speak in His name:
Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, “Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea;” and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:22-24).
As we walk through life, we will encounter some mountains in our path. When the mountains appear in our way, we can make one of four basic responses. The first is that we can deny its existence. This, obviously, is pure foolishness, and will not get us very far. Others will recognize the existence of the mountain, but back off in fear. They will then complain about the mountain being in their way. At least they are being realistic. Even so, this response is still unprofitable.
The “positive mental attitude” people encourage us to be mountain climbers. They try to teach us not to be intimidated by the mountains in front of us. They encourage us to climb them. If that does not work, they exhort us to tunnel through it. This is progress: it helps you to get to the other side, for the mountain does not stop you.
But God has called us to go beyond even that He has called us to be mountain movers. If we climb it, it may take us 40 days to get to the other side. Granted, this is better than letting the mountain freeze you in your place, so that you never reach the other side. But if we move it, it will only take us a small while to get to the other side.
The authority of a king is found in his word. The king does not doubt whether his commands will be carried out. He is confident that they will be obeyed. He fully expects his word to be carried out completely, to his satisfaction.
Likewise, we are to operate this way in the kingdom of God. We are called to reign as kings. We are called to be the sons of God. We should not doubt the Word in our hearts: we should have full confidence in seeing it come to pass. Our hope, when we are operating in the faith of Cod, will not disappoint us, nor make us ashamed.
Hope [when it is hope in God] maketh not ashamed (Romans 5:5).
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed (Romans 9:33; 10:11).
Confidence in Your Expectation
Jesus told us to “have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). The Greek phrase is eckete pistin theoo, which means to have the faith of God, or to have God’s faith. From what does the faith of God come? What is the faith of God?
God is accustomed to telling the truth. He does not lie. The truth is that He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Everything He says about life, morality, wisdom, righteousness, salvation, or any other issue is also true.
So everything that God says about the past is true. Likewise, whatever He says about the present about any situation is true. Therefore, whatever He says about the future must be true as well.
Even if, on the surface, it seems not to be true, it will show itself to be so. He expects it to become true. He can address things (problems, situations, diseases) that are not the way He would like them to be, and arrange them according to His satisfaction. He can call things, which are not, into being. Thus He can turn water into wine (John 2:1-11).
In a sense, the faith, or the expectancy that God has, is that whatever lie speaks will come to pass, even if it may not be so before He speaks it.
God cannot lie; His words will not be proven false. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was no light yet in our world for “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). He expected His immediately to be made true which, of course, they were. So it is with all the words of God.
Jesus did not lie. Therefore, when He said, “Thy son liveth” (John 4:50), it could not be otherwise. The nobleman returned home to find that his son was no longer dead, or even dying, but healthy, and very much alive.
Jesus told the Syro-Phoenician woman to go home, for “the devil is gone out of thy daughter” (Mark 7:29). Up until that point, the daughter was still possessed. But once Jesus made that statement, the devil had to leave to line up with what Jesus had pronounced. He only spoke truth. So everything He said, He expected immediately to be made true.
The faith of God can often speak in the past tense because He expects everything to line up with His Word. When we exercise the faith of God, we can even tell a mountain to make its way to the sea, and it must obey. The faith of God expects all of His commands to be carried out immediately.
However, we put a hindrance to the operation of faith in our lives when we are not acquainted with telling the truth. We must learn to speak truth. A clear sound, free of confusion, will please any honest listener. But we may have to “develop an ear” for truth, or “fine-tune” the one we have, to receive it.
We must learn to line up with absolute truth. How can we make sure that what we say lines up with absolute truth? If we speak the Word of God, we speak absolute truth. The Word of God is infallible and inerrant. It is all truth. In speaking it, we open ourselves to receiving the faith of God.
Remember, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith will come when we gain “hearing.” We gain “hearing” by exposure to the Word of God (more on this in Chapter 13).
Adapt yourself to telling the truth. Then you can expect what you say to happen. That, coupled with the Word of God, is the faith of God.
Speak to the Mountain
Now, if we think that we can simply hear the Word of God without obeying it, and still exercise the faith of God, we will be unpleasantly surprised. For we put up obstacles to the faith of God when we do not line up to truth ourselves. We must be obedient to the Word. The apostle wrote,
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves (James 1:22).
Jesus said that if we had the faith of God, we could simply tell the mountain to be removed and be cast into the sea, and it would happen. But often this is not what we do.
Sometimes we look at the mountain in front of us and we wish it would move away. We pray that it be cast into the sea. We cry because it is in our path. We beg the mountain to move. We complain because it hinders us. We may even ask God to move it. But the mountain does not have an obligation to move until we speak to it.
If we truly believe, we will speak. The psalmist said, “I believed, therefore have I spoken” (Psalm 116:10). Concerning moving the mountain, Jesus referred to our speech three times in one verse:
Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, “Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea;” and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith (Mark 11:23).
The reason the mountain may still be in our way is not because His Word is void of power. Maybe it is because we are void of speech. Perhaps we have never addressed the mountain itself, an action requiring outstanding faith.
We have prayed that God would talk to it. We have told everyone else about it. But we have not spoken to it. If you want the mountain to move, speak to the mountain.
I was in a service on the East coast, where I preached the power of speaking a word in faith. Afterwards, during the altar service, a woman near 50 years of age came forward, asking me to pray for her deaf ear: she had not been able to hear at all in that ear for quite a few years.
As I laid my hand on her ear, I felt the confidence of the Holy Ghost. I rebuked the deafness and commanded it to leave. When I spoke, I knew that she had been healed. I had complete confidence that she had received her hearing. Upon asking her, and testing the ear, we confirmed that she had indeed been healed. When you speak with the faith of God, you fully expect everything to line up accordingly.
But for faith in action to be classified as the faith of God, it must line up with the will of God. We could use all the faith in the world, but if it does not line up with the Word of God and the will of God for our lives, it is not the faith of God.
In being given the privilege, recently, of participating in the great revival in Ethiopia, I noticed how Brother Billy Cole spoke words of faith of healing, deliverance, and the outpouring for the Holy Ghost. These triggered the release of the power of God to do great things. As a result, blind eyes opened. Deaf ears became unstopped. The lame walked. The dumb talk. Crooked limbs were made straight. Devils were cast out. And many thousands received the gift of the holy
Ghost.
Rightly ordered, spoken words of faith line up with the Word of God. They are spoken according to the will of God. And they are released in the timing of God.
Faith Produces Obedience
Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham…obeyed.” If you truly have faith, you will obey the instructions from God.
Operating in faith is not like exercising simple mental calisthenics. If we truly do believe, then we will obey. Romans 16:26 refers to “the obedience of faith.” True faith encompasses obedience.
Remember also the prophet Isaiah who, in prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, asked the question, “Who hath believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1). Allow the Scripture to speak to you. The rest of Isaiah 53 makes references to Jesus’ suffering. It would appear that He was not believed because His obedience included denying Himself, and picking up His cross something we do not always want to do willingly. Even Jesus’ humanity struggled with it, but submitted perfectly:
O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will…0 My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done (Matthew 26:39,42, NKJV).
He is the head; we are the body (Ephesians 1:22-23). What should our response in faith be? The apostle Paul makes it a bit clearer when He says in Romans 10:16,
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Believing the good news about Jesus Christ is equated with obeying it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not to be merely believed mentally: it is to be obeyed as well.
We know that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:37; Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). He also said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). Furthermore, He said, “He that loveth me not my sayings” (John 14:24). Surely, by their fruits you will know them. The Christian paradox is that true freedom is given to all I how %vim obey.
In Luke 6:43-45, we find Jesus teaching about how we speak from the abundance of our heart. (Similar testimony is given in Matthew 2.) Then Ile said in verse 46, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not t lie things which I say?”
Yet when you call Him “Lord,” and do not obey His commands, you make yourself a hypocrite. Your words lie when you do this. Your spirit is not affirming that which is true. This causes angels and demons not to take your words seriously. Spiritually, you lose your credibility.
The believer does not just think that the Word is right; he obeys it. Kenneth Haney has stated, “A believer is more than one who would merely agree to the Word being true. A believer is always one who acts upon the Word of God.”‘ Jesus said,
My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it (Luke 8:21).
I was in a service in the Midwest where I knew a lady wanted to be healed of lameness in her feet. I also wanted to see her permanently made whole. During the series of meetings, I preached again about the power of a word, especially when it is sent by the Holy Ghost. At the conclusion of the service, I spoke a word of faith for the lame to walk. That lady obeyed the word of faith and began to walk. That night, she was able to walk properly, to the glory of God.
If you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must do the will of God (Matthew 7:21). Just speaking the right words will not gain you entrance. There are no magical words in the kingdom of God, only right spirits. The right spirit will produce the right words, which will be followed by actions that produce results.
The above article “The Faith of God” is written by David P. Sanzo. This article was excerpted from the tenth chapter in Sanzo’s book The Key to the Kingdom Beginning Your Reign in the Spirit.
The material is copyrighted and should not be repainted under any other name or author. However, this material may freely be used for personal study or purposes.
