Faith Like a Mustard Seed
We always wander why kids can believe in Jesus/God so easily or why the Bible says faith is like a mustard seed.
Jesus says it requires the smallest amount of faith to move a mountain but is it any wonder that children have the greatest amounts of imagination and faith?
I believe that’s why we recently saw our Pastor - Justin Lohrman’s family experience a miracle of healing in their family. His niece has such faith - Such sold out, experiential belief, without question, nothing lacking faith, there was No Doubt who her God is and what He can do. Even in Matthew 11:25-26, we see: At that time Jesus said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure.
Matthew 11:27-30 “All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him. "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
It is so easy, when we are children, to experience God. Our imaginations can picture Him so clearly. As a child, we can perfectly know without question that He is real when you say to believe, we don't question. We don’t ask “what if” or pause to apply reason or wonder what is plausible… we don’t wait to see IF Peter can walk on water, we just know as truth that he did and know that miracles are still possible today.
As a child, we see His miracles as truth.
We see miraculous health recovery as truth
We see Lazarus awaking as truth
We see Moses parting the see as truth
We see Mary healed of demos as a fact
We see 5000 fed from 2 loaf and 5 fish as a reality
So, why do adults have such a hard time accepting miracles as facts? Why must we come so low, to a point of desperation, that only then we will accept that God might be real and a miracle is possible? Why must our faith demand a blessing? This must be why our Lord and Messiah follows up his statement in Matthew 11 like this: Matthew 11:27-30“All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal Him. "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Our pastor says Faith means confident trust.
A child, without having ever been desperate for anything, can have confident trust in a God that they may nor may not have had an experience with yet. Ie: children automatically trust people can be healed, they don’t question anything. Children accept what you tell them as fact in most cases. But adults, who most have had experiences with their Lord and have a reason to believe He is capable of miracles, question if He even can, they go into every experience with God with a negative lens and expect to come up short every time.
Adults also don’t understand the concept nor accept the word that Jesus has given us each the authority to drive out demons as He did, and heal each other, just as He did. 1 Corinthians 12:6-11 says “And there are different activities, but the same God is active in everyone and everything. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial: to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of languages, to another, interpretation of languages. But one and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each one as He wills.
I know God has enabled us to heal ourselves, and each other… I have experienced it. I have been seeking healing for months from panic attacks and the anxiety on fleek that happened after I got covid. I even had to go on leave and ask to be laid off from a high performing, very high stress job because I just couldn’t handle that level of stress and my lack of performance any longer. But there were no amount of drugs that they kept trying to push on me nor amount of $$ to pay doctors that could heal me. and yes, i did try several, many led me to have hearing loss and not breath well (and i now have asthma and use inhalers as needed). I still have some cysts on my hands and inflammation that rears its ugly head from time to time.
But! Let me tell you about what the medical doctors were not able to do... my mental health is better than it’s been in years. And the only thing I can attribute to that is the hand of God on me. Debilitating anxiety that was so strong and gripping my body so tight i couldn’t breathe when I was working or doing anything that I had to perform for - or people had to depend on my actions, where i had to speak or do actual work. I would forget words, forget how to do all my tasks, etc.. I literally forgot how to tie my shoes, how to tie my child’s clothing, I had no dexterity… I had to relearn how to cook. I was afraid of using knives. The hand of healing from my church family in the name of Jesus. It was my full submission to Jesus. Truly me finally submitting and believing that I could be healed, believing that I was not defective. It is believing that touching the hem of His garment will heal me… It's seeking His face. My entire body was swollen, all my joints hurt, I was having a hard time to stand, walk, sit still in one place. My back hurt so bad all the time, inflammation was overtaking my entire body - it was part of why my central nervous system was on fire. It took me praising His name even in the pain and the darkest of the dark, even when things in my thoughts said ‘He has forsaken you and left you for dead.’ ‘He is not real, how could a God be real and do this to you and leave you like this?’ ‘There is no Jesus, Jesus wouldn’t ever love someone like you.’ The list could go on… and did go on, for months… I still knew in the back of my head… my God is with me, and I literally prayed sometimes minute by minute - ‘Lord, please don’t let go of me’. In real speak… I refused to believe any of the lies that were put in my head. I refused to believe the lies that my employers and that the insurance companies would say to me. I refused to believe the lies that diagnosis would say to me. I DID NOT CLAIM THESE!!!! I had to find my mustard seed, y’all. Quickly. And, yes… I got angry - not just about everything happening to me, but what they said about me.
I was not defective, I was not worth being thrown to the wayside. God is not done with me, so why are you? That’s what I was getting upset. over.
John 15:16-17John writes “You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. This is what I command you: love one another.”
What I came to understand over the last few weeks… is God has to move you out of what you are outgrowing into a place where he can root you in the place where he needs you. sometimes that looks a little different that you might expect especially when he needs to grow you and refine you - sometimes while drinking from a firehose in the meantime. In all this time, I have also been having to pray for supernatural healing of my mind, my body, my soul, my spirit… but why would God call me to this if He didn’t intend to prepare me for this? The fruit is here, friends!
I have to share this with you because I love each of you and cannot keep my path to healing secret just for me. If you are reading this, know I love you, and not just me, but so does Jesus. I don’t say that to be a cliche, but for some reason, you need this information. Maybe it’s not for you, maybe it’s to share with someone. You are not worthless. You are not forsaken. You are not forgotten. You are valuable. You are wanted! You are everything to someone, He didn’t make you on accident, nor to be given to the wolves. You are loved! You are not alone.
Friend, I encourage you to find your mustard seed… whether or not you need a miracle, And if you don't need one, I am so grateful!!! But, just see what your God can do with your faith when you believe, I mean, sold out-no doubt-fully submitted Faith-believe whole-hearted in HIM! If you need a miracle, oh Friend!!!! If you need a miracle, I encourage you to find a spirit filled church where you can have hands laid on you and borrow someone’s faith to help you through your challenge. Learn how to use the authority Jesus gives each one of us to claim healing in your life and use your spiritual gifts. If it is His will, I know you will overcome this day… I know you will see His work in your life. Let Him move a mountain for you.