Q: What did Jesus mean in Matthew 17:20 when He said if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain?

A: When I was a new Christian, I took that Scripture in a literal sense. I imagined myself not only taking on the giants like David, but moving any large obstacle out of my way when it came to my Christian walk. In my mind, nothing would prove too great for me as a believer. However, what I later discovered was that my Christian walk was based on faith that simply allowed and trusted God to be God. Due to His character, we can trust that God does all things well and according to His will, and the more I rested in who He is, the more I witnessed Him moving the obstacles out of the way. Such Scriptures as 2 Chronicles 16:9 confirm that it is God who moves the mountains to show Himself mighty on behalf of His people who have a pure heart towards Him. When God moves, what it proves is that those of faith become nothing more than bystanders who always greatly benefited from it. Keep in mind that in Matthew 17, this section of scripture was in relationship to prayer and casting out a demon. Effective prayer only occurs as long as it is in line with God’s will, way, and plan (1 John 5:14).

To understand the intent of Jesus’ word we have to go back to what he said in Matthew 18:2-6. True faith begins with a child-like trust towards God. Children who trust their parents, never question, debate or argue about what they are told. They accept matters as being true, believe matters as being trustworthy, and rest in whatever has been promised will be so because that is what their parents have told them, and they have never lied to them (Romans 3:3).

The problem with Christians who have a faulty understanding of faith is that they never came to a place of real knowledge of who God is, the understanding of how God works according to His Word and will, and a real trust in His character that He never lies and He says what He means and means what He says (Hebrews 11:6).

When people have a misconstrued concept of faith, they imagined what great things they can do for God and ask Him to bless them and when it fails, they blame God and become bitter towards Him. There are also those who trust in what God can do, but when He fails to perform according to their thinking, they begin to doubt everything when it comes to anything associated with God and His Word. Our faith is not in what God can do for us but in who He is. There are those that try to arm-wrestle God to do it their way by quoting Scriptures and promises, but this type of maneuver constitutes putting God to a foolish test. Such a test is a source of unbelief, and in time will prove to backfire (Matthew 4:7).

The Bible is clear about who does what when it comes to the impossible. Matthew 19:26 states, “But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”