Matthew 21:18-22 (NKJV)
18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”
if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,‘ it will be done.
22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Fruit Based Life
Fig Tree – Works Based (Religious Duty) and Not Faith Based (Devotion to God) – Produce no Fruit
- Fig Tree Type of Temple & System of Religion -All leaves but no Fruit
- Fig tree was like Temple Jesus Just cleansed
- Looked Good on the Outside but bore no fruit
- In the Same way He cursed the Fig Tree He cursed the Temple
- Fig Tree Like some Christians – All leaves & no Fruit
- Look Good on the Outside but no fruit , form of goldiness but no power
- If you live & operate your life based on trying to please God with religious ritual and works you there will bear no fruit on your tree
- If you practice dead Religious works long enough you will become lie the Pharisees
- Only Faith in God can bring life and fruit for a believer
- We are to do religious Works but works inspired by faith and not to please or impress men or to appear righteous
Litmus Test for my Efforts- I look for 3 things in what I am doing
- Is it inspired by Faith in God and Obedience
- Does it Produce Life
- Does it Ultimately Glorify God
If you have faith and doubt not,
- You will not only remove dead, lifeless things but you will move mountains. Ex ( Sometimes you have to tear down, root up before you can Build.- plowing up fields, tearing down sheds)
- Faith in God, not faith in your faith, not faith in the preacher, not faith your talents and abilities
*Doubt =Diakrinomai – hesitate waiver differ. If your heart does not differ what your mouth is saying, you’ll have what you ask.
Great Creative Power is released when Heart (Mind) and Mouth get into Connection over God’s Truths & Word
Creative Power Released – Coming into agreement with Truth
David brought down Goliath, Spoke it and then did it.
1 Samuel 17:45-47 (NKJV)
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47 Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’S, and He will give you into our hands.”
The Report of Joshua & Caleb – Hearts of Faith Spoke a good report – to take the Land
Numbers 13:27-30 (NKJV)
27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
Destructive Power Released – Coming Into Agreement with a lie
The Devil Knows how to use this principle against you.
Great Destructive Power is released when the Enemy Fills Our Mind with Lies and we begin to agree with the lies by speaking the lies with our mouth
If Satan can get to you to begin opening you mouth to speak the lies that He feeds you it brings you into agreement with that lie.
If you begin to confess doubt then you come into agreement with Satan and disagreement with God and His Word
What you see with your eyes and hear with your ears is not final . God specializes in in getting us to do what is not possible, unpopular and illogical.
The Report of Ten Spies- Hearts of Doubt Fear and Unbelief – Go back to Egypt we are defeated before we try
Numbers 13:32-33 (NKJV)
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
The Ten Spies and Joshua and Caleb both Saw the Same thing but gave different reports because their heart were different. One faith , One Doubt
Life of Faith is More difficult to live and few will live it ( Many are called)
A Crowd will follow people influenced by Fear, Doubt and Unbelief before it will Follow a man with Faith
- Jesus on trial. Crowd chose Barabas
- So when God calls you to walk in faith don’t expect everyone to get excited!
The Results of Spoken Lies – Fear Rebellion, and 40 years of wilderness wandering
Numbers 14:1-3 (NKJV)
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
Matthew 23:13 (NKJV)
13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
*People operating with this type of spirit will not step into the promises and blessing of God and with their report, doctrines, will keep others out as well
John Wesley *Give me a few good men full of faith than a house full of hard hearted unbelieving death speaking religious pharisees
3 Keys To Having a Life of Faith with Heat Mouth Agreement
- Protect Your Heart – Stay away from these heart-mouth destroyers. They may be operating out of bitterness or deception or religious pride and error.
*If you mouth the lies of the enemy long enough it will become your reality.
Matthew 12:34 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh
- Renew Your Mind Daily – Put the right stuff into your heart (mind) Put God’s Word into your heart
Ephesians 4:17-24 (NKJV) Renew your mind with God’s Word
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Fighting The ROARING LION WITH LIES
1 Peter 5:8-9 (NKJV) –
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Advesary=antidikos= prosecuting attourney. He will get you to believe a lie and then turn it around and condemn you
- Protect Your Faith
WATER DRENCHED SHIELD ROMAN SOLDIERS
Ephesians 6:16 (NKJV) – 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
- FIERRY ARROWS LAUNCHED BY ENEMY WITH HOLLOW SHAFTS AND BURST INTO FLAMES ON IMPACT
- ROMAN SOLDIERS WOULD SOAKS THEIR SHIELDS IN WATER BEFORE BATTLE
*WE NEED TO SOAK OUR SHIELDS (Minds) IN THE WATER ( WORD OF GOD)
Prayer That Moves Mountains
He promises that prayer gives us the ability to do.
- Power Prayer is not taking the easy way out ; but looking to heaven to receive power to take the hard way.
- Accepting Prayer is the ability to accept your difficulty and in accepting it, to transform
In Gethsemane he prayed that the cup might pass from him and he be delivered from the Cross But in that prayer he found the ability to accept the situation; and, in being accepted, the situation was transformed, and the agony of the Cross led straight to the glory of the Resurrection.
- Enduring Prayer brings the ability to endure.
not give us exemption from the task; but it does make us able to bear the unbearable, to face the unfaceable, to pass the breaking point and not to break.