Mark 11: 22-24
“And answering Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.
For truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said shall occur, he shall have whatever he said.”
“Have faith in God,” Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). All words, whether negative or positive, always produce results (Isaiah 55-11).
“say” We, not our enemy, have the final word.
“to the mountain”; “mountain” means to rise or rear.
First we are told to speak to anything that rises up against us, and then we are told what to say.
“be removed”, comes from the same word that mountain comes from, meaning “to raise the voice.”
“be cast”, means “to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls;” “to neutralize, violate, frustrate, to throw off;” “to cause to happen before expected”.
“sea”
Have you ever wondered why He said cast it into the sea? He could have just as easily said fill up a valley with it.
Mt Everest is the highest mountain on earth, at 29,035 feet. The Marianas Trench is the deepest place in the ocean, at 36,070 feet. If Mt Everest was cut off at its base and set on the ocean floor in the Marianas Trench there would still be over a mile of salt water above it. The sea is made of salt water. He says we are the salt of the earth. In the Greek language the word “sea” and the word “salt” come from the same word meaning “salt.”
Could it be that God wants us to keep a picture in our minds of being greater than any mountain we will ever encounter and will actually be well able to “neutralize” anything that rises up against us, especially those things that rise up from our sub-conscience mind? I think He does (John 12:12-14; Isaiah 54:17), and He even gives us a formula in the rest of the verse to reprogram our minds to accomplish mountain moving miracles.
“and shall not doubt in his heart”, How do we overcome doubt? Get the attitude and authority we have already looked at and continue to speak in that authority. Three times, in something we can read in about ten seconds, He tells us to speak. We spend far too much time talking to Him over and over again about the same mountain when He tells us to talk to the mountain ourselves (death and life are in the power of the tongue, Proverbs 18:21). As we continue to speak these words of faith in the form of praise to Him it produces the faith to overcome any doubt that rears its ugly head until we see the manifestation of the mountain removed.
We don’t have to settle for what life deals us. We all have our share of trouble (mountains; Job 14:1). When trouble comes some say “that’s just not fair.” Others get the attitude that this present state is the best they can expect and start to blame anyone or anything for their plight. Many times we settle for what life deals us instead of taking responsibility for our actions or reactions to troubles when they arise.
We all choose a life of responsibility or a life of blame. When we get the right attitude about who we are and use the authority that we have been given we can speak confidently expecting things to change. Remember, for things to change, our thinking about ourselves has to change.
Oh by the way, there will come a time that the mountains and the hills shall break forth “before you” into singing and the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12), also, “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerrubabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings, Grace!” Grace to it! (Zechariah 4:7). Sounds like our enemies, both inward and outward, will submit to our authority and actually celebrate us.
No mountain too great!
See Prayer Outlines for suggestion for removing mountains.