You hear people talking about living a life of faith. That’s okay – you and I can talk about it too, until of course the going gets tough. Then, we start wondering, ‘Can I do this?’ And the answer is simple – actually, yes you can.

The most vulnerable moment of my life is one that I recall as though it were yesterday. It was when I, with thirty or so other young men, pulled up in a bus at the Royal Military College Duntroon in Canberra (Australia’s Capital). It was the 17^th of January 1977 at about three o’clock in the afternoon.

Over seven thousand candidates had applied for entry into the four-year degree course to train as an officer in the Australian Army. One hundred and forty eight were accepted. Four years later, sixty-two of us graduated.

But this day we arrived at a place that we had all dreamed of. It was an exciting day. The beginning of a new life. But when the bus pulled in by the parade ground and the white HQ building with the red roof, a severe looking man in a uniform boarded the bus. The three stripes on his arm told us that he was a Sergeant. He wore a red sash and carried an oversized pace stick under his arm. I was later to discover that he was one of the six drill sergeants.

He cast his eyes around the fresh faces of the seventeen and eighteen year olds on the bus in a superior sort of way, clearly looking at us with contempt. And this is what he said to us. Word for word – I shall never forget it: ‘My name is Sergeant Slaney. And you’re going to learn to hate me.’ And you know something? He was right!

It was at that point that it struck home. Not only was I starting something new and exciting, but I had voluntarily laid down many of my freedoms in order to follow my dream of becoming a commissioned Officer in the Australian Army. From the day I “marched in” I was subject to a tough code of discipline.

And as I lay in my bed that night I, like I suspect many of my other colleagues, quietly wept at the realisation that this was a scary place. What ensued over the next four years was an incredibly difficult time. Tough discipline. Physical training that left us bruised, bleeding and exhausted. Incredibly long hours. Carefully applied psychological pressures. All a deliberate process to sort the wheat from the chaff.

The first hint that we had that this process was of any benefit at all, was when during the university holiday breaks, we each travelled home to our parents and caught up with our old school friends. We would come back to Duntroon after the break and marvel at the immaturity of our old school mates. It turned out that we were growing up. Fast.

Looking back on it, I can see what it was all about. They sawed us all off at the knees. Put us all in the same uniforms. Made us all the same. And then, they developed us into the young leaders they wanted us to be.

As the months and years went by, something strange happened. We developed an esprit de corps. A quiet sense of confidence that we could do anything. It was something that set us apart from other people our age. A strength of character. A quiet resolve to get the job done. A knowledge that one day, we may have to put ourselves in harm’s way for our country.

And whether it was rappelling out of helicopters, or going for a run dragging a five tonne truck on the end of a thick rope, or going hungry on survival training, or practicing eight hours a day on a scorching parade ground for a special parade, whatever it was, we just knew that we could make it through.

It became an unshakeable confidence. One born not out of arrogance or self-importance, but out of a knowledge of self that had been forged in the furnace of one of the toughest training regimes on the planet.

Each of the sixty-two young men that graduated as young Officers on that hot Tuesday in December 1980 walked out of that place with that same knowledge. That come what may, they would make it through. I wouldn’t wish those four years on my worst enemy. And yet, I wouldn’t swap them for the world.

It’s time to start talking about faith. Real faith. Living out the sort of faith that moves mountains. But as we look back at stories of Abraham, and the lepers and other stories that we’ve looked at over these last few weeks on the program, it would be so easy at this point to pull over and say, ‘You know something, I look Abraham’s life, I look at what those lepers went through, I look at what I’m going through in my life. It’s just too hard. I don’t want to go on’.

And yet, life is life The journey is the journey. We all travel over mountain tops and all go through swamps. We all revel in the cool fresh water of a stream. And then we wander hungry through the parching wilderness. These experiences are universal. Male or female. Young or old. Black or white. Rich or poor. We all travel through those places. Isn’t it crazy. We think sometimes it’s just us. Let me tell you. Get a revelation today. It is everyone!

And our choice is either to travel through them either with faith or with a sense of hopelessness. Our choice is to wallow in self-pity or to use the journey we’ve been given to live a life worth living. It’s a choice.

Of the one hundred and forty-eight young men that arrived at Duntroon in January 1977, fully eighty-six walked away during the four-year course. That’s over half. Not only did they miss out on the prize at the end, but they missed out on the development of a character that would have carried them through a life time.

So many people begin walking with Jesus and one day, they realise that it’s hard going. One day it becomes intensely uncomfortable, uncertain, uninviting, un-everything. And they decide to give up. It’s something that Jesus talked about:

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13,14)

But just like military training, there’s a point to it all. Suffering isn’t pointless. There is a clear purpose that God has for taking us through the difficult places of life:

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, (writes Paul) knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)

Can you believe it. The Apostle Paul here isn’t writing about grumbling or complaining or weeping because of suffering. He’s writing about boasting in our sufferings. Boasting! Because he knows that there’s a point.

Suffering produces endurance. Any athlete will tell us that. They train tirelessly. Their bodies scream at them to stop. They keep going. And before long they can run the marathon.

Endurance produces character. As we discovered as young men in a military college, the longer this went on, the more it brought out the best in our characters. That long four years produced young leaders. And it is an amazing thing – that character begins to hope in the quiet confidence of knowing that we can make it through the gloom and doom. Hopelessness is replaced by a certain hope in a certain future.

Now we were hoping in ourselves back then and in a military system and in all sorts of other things. But what Paul is writing about here is that when we hope in God it will never be misplaced. And just to seal the deal, we’ll know that we know that we know that we know, because the Holy Spirit – God Himself, has been poured into our hearts.

Jesus came my friend to set you free. And when He has set you free you are free indeed. (John 8:36). The heart that grumbles at the hand that it’s been dealt in life isn’t free at all. It is diseased. It is a heart that yearns constantly for better circumstances, not seeing that the sickness lies within.

The heart that embraces the journey, with all it’s suffering, with all it’s character development, and yet with the knowledge that there is a purpose to it all, this is the heart that’s been set free.

I remember hearing a really godly man once talk about having godly self-confidence. And I thought to myself – what a contradiction. How can you be godly on the one hand, and self-confident on the other? That’s worth thinking about.

I recall learning in a class at Bible College about having a Godly self-confidence. As the lecture began, I remember thinking, ‘How can that be? Isn’t ‘Godly self confidence’ an oxymoron?’ Isn’t it a complete contradiction in terms?

Doesn’t God expect us to lay down our lives and be humble? Doesn’t God call us to put our trust in Him and not in ourselves?

Yes, He calls us to all those things. But there is an inescapable fact that so many people miss. It is this. We are made in His image:

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26,27)

Not only are we created in his image – which is what gives us the dignity and worth that sets us apart from the rest of His creation – but we are made to have dominion, and mastery over the rest of creation.

Let that sink in for a moment. We are created in God’s image. We aren’t worms. We’re not one of those creepy, crawly things. Not a cow or a horse or a dog. But a man or a woman who reflects the very nature of God Himself.

That means that you and I matter to Him in a way that my pet cat does not. You and I matter to Him so much that He would send His Son to die for us. And when we place our faith in Christ, something special happens. We aren’t just people who live life being tossed around by the fortunes and misfortunes of life anymore.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. And in that love, as we place our lives in his hands, as we lay them down voluntarily, becoming vulnerable to His will, it is in that place that we are meant to discover that we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. Not just conquerors. More than conquerors!

A point that Jesus Himself made to His frightened disciples in those last few hours leading up to His crucifixion:

I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world! (John 16:33)

It is the sweetest of oxymorons, this becoming a vulnerable conqueror. Because we no longer conquer the things that we once would have conquered, we conquer the things God would have us conquer. We no longer conquer in our own strength, we conquer in His.

What does all that mean in practical, day-to-day terms? As we journey together with Jesus through our lives, we discover three things:

1. A new way of living – open and vulnerable to His will
2. A faithful and trustworthy God – as in our vulnerability He deals with us through His unfathomable love, and
3. A new self – a person who can not only survive the trials of life, but overcome them and grow through them. And what that develops in us is a quiet, Godly self-confidence.

Now I have often heard this one Scripture verse quoted out of context:

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

The way that this is often used is as the basis for supporting the notion that I can do anything I set my mind to, because God will make me strong. Any adversity that comes my way, I will cast it aside, I will crash through it, I will overcome, I will succeed, because I am meant to be a conqueror, and I am made strong in Christ and there you have it. I can do anything and overcome anything.

Hmm. Sounds okay. Fits with our favoured template of success after all. But let me ask you this. What if, as in the case of Job, God sets adversity in our path out of His sovereign will? What if the suffering that we’re going through is part of the deliberate plan of God for our lives?

Surely God doesn’t do that?! No? Then read just the first Chapter of the book of Job and tell me who it was that gave the devil permission to pursue that faithful man of God.

Now, if we use this Scripture as a proof text for, ‘I can use my faith to remove any pain, obstacle, discomfort, failure or threat from my path’ then we have completely missed the point of what Paul is saying. To get the point, we need to read the whole passage:

I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:10-13)

Paul writes these words as he’s rotting in a Roman dungeon on death row. He has been through so much in his life. Riots, death threats, plots, ridicule, misunderstanding, rejection, turmoil, pain, discomfort, floggings … as I read his letters in the New Testament and the account of his journey in the book of Acts, I shudder to think that one man could be called to go through so much suffering.

And here on death row he tells the simple story of how it is that he can get through it all. He’s learned how to cope with little and with much. With being well fed and with going hungry. Of having plenty of everything and of being in need.

Good and bad. Up and down. He’s learned to cope with it – how? ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’. In other words, his, ‘I can do all things’ isn’t about removing the source of pain and suffering, it’s about travelling through it and coming out the other side.

I so relate to this. It’s what happened to us when I was a young Army officer cadet at the Royal Military College Duntroon. As we went through one test after another, we discovered we could get through them. It’s okay, we could go without much food for five or six days. We could go on a three-day route march over hill and dale through storms and wind and cold.

What Paul’s talking about here is Godly self-confidence. I can do all things, I can get through all things and come out the other side just fine through him who strengthens me. This is experience talking. He has the sort of faith to know that he can make it through whatever it is that happens along his journey because he has the Spirit of God in him and that makes all the difference.

Do you see the marked difference between the two interpretations of this verse? On the one hand, we can quote it out of context and use it as a shonky biblical justification for clinging to the world’s template of success. Or we can use it powerfully to know that no matter what we’re going through, God is in this place to strengthen me and I can learn not just to deal with it, to cope with it, but to rejoice in it.

I can cooperate with God’s plan for my life and rejoice because I have a quiet confidence that I am made by Him for this journey and He is in control and He is here to give me all the strength that I need. And when I’ve passed through this trial I’ll know Him better and me better and have a greater faith and be ready for what lies around the next corner and over the next rise – whether that be ‘plenty’ or whether it be ‘need’.

It seems that over and over again, the world teaches us to be self–reliant. Life’s about succeeding and success is about who we are and what we do and in this day and age, surely we can be and do whatever we want. Oh really?

I was sitting down with a group of businessmen recently for a breakfast that we’d organised and I was about to share a message called, The Battle Belongs to the Lord with this group. It was interesting to listen to the discussion around the table as people drank their coffee and munched on a muffin.

Being men in business, the discussion was around the economic climate and it’s impact on their businesses. And as we chatted, it became pretty clear to me how self-reliant this group of men had been programmed to be.

They are after all, businessmen. They have businesses to run. They’re meant to succeed. And when the economy turns sour, it’s almost as though they are the failures because their businesses are struggling. In fact, during the economic crisis, I sat with a wise, older man and he was sharing with me how much of his time was being taken up counselling other men in the financial sector who were contemplating suicide because they were facing ruin.

Whatever we do, whoever we are, it seems that society is programming us to be self-reliant. We have to rely on our wits and our abilities to succeed and if we don’t we’re failures. Never mind that some adversity that we could never have controlled swept in like a storm off the ocean. No – we’re meant to succeed. But here’s the thing – if we’re so self-reliant, what happens when the storm is so ferocious, we can’t deal with it? What happens when the mountain is so big, we can’t budge it? Then what? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s scary. Really scary.

The hardest thing I think in overcoming fear in life is actually getting to that point where we have a high level of confidence in God. Who God is. What He’s done. His might and His power and His sovereignty. It all sound great in theory. But what about in practice? What about when the rubber hits the road? Then what?

I used to think that it was up to me. And I guess in part it is, but not completely. That’s just as well, because you and I, we’re human. We can’t just conjure up confidence. We can’t take this theory about who God is and let the theory wipe away the fear.

Because fear is real. No I need something more than that. I need something more than promises on paper. And fortunately that’s exactly what God had planned too. He didn’t want to leave it all up to us. He wants us to actually experience His peace – not our strength, but a peace and strength that come from God. Let’s pick up the rest of what He had to say, beginning again at verse 28 of Isaiah Chapter 40:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. (Isaiah 40:28)

Great, there’s the theory again but watch now for what comes next.

God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31)

Do you get the point? Where do the power and the strength come from? Do you or I conjure them up. No! They come from God. And we need that, because even youths will faint and be weary and the young and the strong will fall exhausted. BUT – and here’s the BUT – the glorious, wondrous, powerful BUT:

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

He gives those things to us when we wait expectantly on Him. And that’s literally what that word “wait” means. Not waiting grumbling and complaining. Not waiting with our hearts and our eyes downcast. Not trembling paralysed with fear. No, it means waiting expectantly. Waiting on God with the expectation that He is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He is going to do.

Looking up at Him and just expecting strength and assurance and comfort from Him. Right there in the middle of our fear. With our emotions on a rollercoaster ride, with our enemies around us, with disaster looming – but with an expectation somewhere deep inside that God is going to act.

And that what will happen is exactly what He has planned.

Do you know what we’re doing when we’re doing that sort of waiting? We’re having faith that moves mountains! We’re living it right then and there. Who knows – will God give us victory over our enemies or not. Don’t know. More Christians martyred in the twentieth century than in the two thousand years before that combined.

We all die sometime. Is He going to heal this cancer or let it take its course? Is He going to give me victory over my enemies, or does He have a different plan? Sometimes, we just don’t know? But this one thing I do know, that …

… those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

God is saying to us through His Word today – indeed He is commanding us – DO NOT BE AFRAID.

And you know why it is that I am not afraid of death? Because I have eternal life through Jesus Christ. Sometimes He gives me victory over circumstances on this earth. Sometimes, He lets me suffer. But come what may – if I am diagnosed with terminal cancer tomorrow – I am going to put my confidence in the God who has given me a life eternal with Him.

Just before He was crucified and when His disciples were trembling in fear, this is what Jesus said to them:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

So far as we know each one of those disciples (other than Judas) went on to do a mighty work for God … and then, then they died for their faith. They were martyred. So often we’re focussed on the here and now, we’re focused on winning this little battle and getting our comfort, getting our way and getting it all happening just the way we want it. But that’s not God’s view. God has an eternal view, an eternal plan and that’s why I put my confidence in Jesus Christ who paid the price in full for my sin on that cross.

God gives us His peace and His strength when we wait expectantly on Him. And that waiting expectantly is the living out of the faith that moves mountains. Doesn’t matter how big, bad or ugly the enemy is; doesn’t matter how fearful we are; doesn’t matter how immovable the mountain is God will take away our fear when we wait expectantly on Him.

That’s the sort of faith that moves mountains. Let me share with you what I shared with those businessmen over breakfast. God means for us not to be afraid. He means for us to rest in Him in the middle of the storm. He means for us to expect Him to show up when we’re afraid. When we’re faced with a mountain so massive, we can’t even begin to contemplate moving it.

I love how the writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament puts it. He says – look, this Jesus He gets what we’re going through because He Himself walked our dusty road. He himself has been tested in every respect the way we’re being tested. Then He says, because of that, therefore we should approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.

God means for us to rely on His help. Maybe, maybe that’s what faith is. Maybe that’s what it is to have the sort of faith that moves mountains. What do you think?

The whole positive thinking, positive attitude thing – well it’s been around for a while. You go through a tough patch and people tell you to adopt a positive attitude. Hmm. What do you think? I tell you one thing though, negative thoughts – they can rob us of life.

I am so excited today, truly I am. As I sit here in the studio – I have this sense that there’s so much to share today. In fact, what’s bursting out of my heart is that I want to share with you just a handful of the most powerful things that I have ever learned about having the sort of faith that moves mountains.

We spoke the other day about the world’s template of success. The notion that if we would just have positive thoughts, we can have positive outcomes in every aspect of our lives. We can do anything and achieve anything, if only we’ll get a positive mindset.

It’s a seductive idea. It’s one that we would love to pull up next to.

In fact, so popular is this notion that a whole school of positive thinking has grown up over recent years. But it doesn’t matter how positively we think, there are going to be things that we can’t overcome. It doesn’t matter how positively I think about life, one day, one way or another, this mortal body will give up its spirit.

And so, many a Christian will reject this notion of thinking positively, because it has been so intrinsically linked to the world’s template of success.

Yet, God’s Word is very clear, that what we do with our mind actually matters. That instead of being locked into the patterns of thinking that pervade the world and just don’t work, instead of allowing ourselves to be squeezed into the world’s mould, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

What we do with our mind really matters.

That’s what today and tomorrow on the program are all about. Now – let me say this. You may have heard me talk about these things before – and if you have, you have a couple of choices. You can say to yourself – I don’t need this, I’ve heard it before. Or you can just take it in again and let it sink even deeper into your heart.

And today, today I want to share with you that our thoughts can destroy us. The flip side of that, is if we learn how to think fresh new ideas, ideas that come from God Himself, that in turn can set us free.

Now, I am a naturally positive person. I just am. Probably my training at the Australian Army Office Academy – the Royal Military College Duntroon helped. But the way that I’m wired inside means that I see the glass as being half full and not half empty. And I guess it’s a great help too that much of my work involves me in studying and preaching God’s Word. I’m constantly listening to Him and hearing from Him. It’s one of the reasons I so love doing what I do.

Every now and then though, I get to feeling a little down or lost. Normally when I’m tired and I have a lot going on in my life. But that’s generally only a now and then sort of thing.

One day, I decided to take notice of my thoughts – a stock-take if you will, of the way in which I used my mind. I was absolutely shocked at the number of negative thoughts that I allow to occupy my mind. I mean really shocked. Because I’d always seen myself as Mr Positive. In fact those who know me well, would tell you that as well.

Here’s how it happens. We race around doing all the things we do in life. Getting the kids off to school. Getting ready for work. The long commute. The pressures at work. Go, go, go. And this intrudes on our schedule. Or there are delays. Or this person says something that annoys us, hurts us or alienates us.

And that’s before the guy in the car in front of us changes lanes without using his indicator. And so we honk the horn and we think bad thoughts.

‘How could that guy do that?! ‘Oh no, I’m running late.’ ‘Oh I forgot to put an apple in Johnnie’s school bag.’ ‘That idiot – how can he come up with that.’ ‘She has absolutely no idea what she’s doing.’ ‘Who do they think they are’?

Let me ask you something. Do any of these sound even vaguely familiar to you? And they’re just the tip of the iceberg aren’t they. I’m sure if we thought about it we could add a whole bunch more.

The salesman sitting there staring at the phone afraid to pick it up and make an appointment. ‘They’re never going to buy from me.’ The wife who looks at her busy husband and thinks to herself, ‘He’s never, ever going to understand me.’

In fact, it doesn’t matter who we are, where we live, what walk of life we’re in – these negative thoughts creep in and then we begin to verbalise them. We start speaking them out to ourselves and to other and before you know it we’re wandering around through life with a stinking attitude that is going to rob us of the blessings that God has planned for today and for tomorrow and for the next day.

That’s exactly what Jesus taught:

Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile. (Matthew 15:17-20)

These thoughts and these words – the negativity – begin to shape our reality. They shape how we see the world. And that shaping in turn defines the attitude with which we live our lives. And our attitudes are like the lenses that we see the world through.

That’s why some people are just mean-spirited and nasty and glum and negative. The pathetic character Gollum in the Lord of the Rings if you’ve read the books or seen the movies is a caricature of such a person. Gollum clung onto the one ring that ruled them for so long that in the end, it destroyed him.

And we’re prone to do exactly the same thing. We want to hang on to the bad things even though we know they’re bad and let them destroy us. The problem with all of this is that these negative thoughts are insidious. They creep up on us and cloud our vision.

A few years ago, I was fiddling with my glasses over lunch at a friend’s house and they snapped in two. I was so annoyed – this was going to cost me some serious money. So I visited the optometrist to have my vision tested for a new pair. And one of the test that they routinely conduct is to check the eye pressure to test for glaucoma.

Now this was a routine test and I was diagnosed with that very disease. It’s insidious because there are no discernible symptoms. The pressure inside the eyeball remains high and slowly damages the optic nerve at the back of the eye. Over a few years, it can send a person blind. By the time they notice that there’s something wrong, they’ve lost much of their sight and the damage cannot be reversed. Fortunately, mine was diagnosed very early and with routine treatment, my eyesight will be fine for many years to come.

This is exactly what happens to us when we allow negative thoughts to rule our lives. Our view of the world becomes clouded and distorted and we don’t even know it. Have a listen again to Jesus on this:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22,23)

If our vision is clear then the light can get in. But if it’s clouded with all theses negative perceptions and behaviour, we end up in darkness. It robs us of the light. But it’s the very last bit of what Jesus says here that is the most damning: If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

In other words if what’s going on in you is darkness, but you think that it is still light – boy are you in some serious trouble. This strikes right at the heart of this issue. We go on through life thinking that somehow we’re right, it’s everyone else that has a problem. The negative thoughts cloud our vision and our darkness is as light to us. In other words, we’re kidding ourselves. And so we live our lives in darkness never realising there is such a better way of living. Isn’t that scary?

As we come up towards the last of 20 messages in series called Having Faith that Moves Mountains – the question for each of us is this – will it work in my life? Is this faith that moves mountains thing safe for me to try at home. Well, is it?

Yesterday on the program, we were talking about the fact that our thoughts can destroy us. Truly they can. We get all caught up in negative “gloom and doom” type thinking and before you know it, that’s what we’re living out. We close off the possibility that God’s in this place. We close off the reality that He loves us. He close of the reality that He can and will step in, in ways that we can’t even dream of.

In fact my experience is that so often he steps in ways that if some Scriptwriter in Hollywood wrote it up as a movie script, they’d laugh him out of town because it’s so impossible, ridiculous, improbable – things just don’t happen like that … that’s unless of course, we have God showing up in our lives.

And we looked at what Jesus said as to how we can be blinded by looking through faithless eyes instead of eyes of faith. He said:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22,23)

Today we’re going to look at a solution to this. Because this faith thing isn’t some theory lesson. It’s about God’s grace really making a difference in our lives. Especially in those dark spots.

If our vision is clear then the light can get in. But if not, we end up in darkness. It robs us of the light. But it’s the very last bit of what Jesus says here that is the most damning:

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

In other words if what’s going on in you is darkness, but you think that it is still light – boy are you in some serious trouble. This strikes right at the heart of this issue. We go on through life thinking that somehow we’re right, and everyone is wrong. It’s everybody else that’s got the problem, not me. The negative thoughts cloud our vision and our darkness is as light to us. In other words, we’re kidding ourselves. We think we’re fine when in fact what’s going on inside us is darkness.

And so we live our lives in darkness never realising there is such a better way of living. Isn’t that frightening? What a waste of a life.

The solution however is simple. So simple, I’m embarrassed to tell you that it wasn’t entirely obvious to me. I sort of knew, but not in a way that made me aware of my negative thoughts and empowered me to do something about them.

Here it is. Hold on to your hat. Here it comes. Every time we have a negative thought, we consciously and deliberately replace it with a positive one. And the best positive thoughts of all are what God says about us in the Bible. Let me give you just three examples:

Negative Thought Number 1: I can’t possibly put up with my husband for another minute! That could be replaced with:

Positive Thought Number 1: Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands so that, even if some of them do not obey the word they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
(1 Peter 3:1,2).

Solution Number 1: Do you see what just happened here? The negative thought will drive a behaviour of isolation. The negative thought will chill relations further. The negative thought is the pathway to divorce. Now replace it with the positive thought – right from God’s Word. It offers a solution. God’s solution. Hen-pecking doesn’t work, but a woman has the power to change her man’s heart and his behaviour by who she is. When this woman chooses to believe that thought over her negative one, she is in effect putting her faith in God’s Word. She hopes in God’s Word. She quietly, expectantly waits for God to renew her strength. The negative thought would end in destruction. The positive thought opens up the way to the solution. Which one is better do you think?

Negative Thought Number 2:       How could that guy possibly do that? That could be replaced with:

Positive Thought Number 2: Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Solution Number 2: The negative thought will never lead to a solution to the problem. The positive thought – the word of God, Jesus own word – calls this man to see and think clearly. What have I done to contribute to this situation? Maybe that other guy has something else going on in his life that’s causing him to behave this way. Now, what can I do to help?

Negative Thought Number 3: I can’t make this phone call. I’m not made for selling. These people are never going to buy anything from me. I’m sick of being rejected. This could be replaced with:

Positive Thought Number 3: Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back. (Luke 6:38) Well, I’m a giver. That verse is for me.

Solution Number 3: Fear immobilises. God blesses. And when this salesperson believes that God is in the blessing business, it changes his or her behaviour. It gives them the quiet confidence to believe that God has already gone ahead, that God has seen their secret giving and the rest belongs to Him.

Do you see what’s going on here? This is about putting faith to work. This is where the rubber hits the road. The moment a negative thought comes to attack our confidence, we replace it with a positive one. And not just something we dreamed up. The Word of God. The Truth. Because when we know the truth, when we put it to work in our lives, it sets us free – it works.

It’s time to wake up to this. Faith is this – faith is choosing to believe God’s Word over and above our circumstances. Irrespective of how daunting, fearful and overwhelming those circumstances may appear. It is a deliberate choice to believe.

And then when we believe, it is about doing God’s Word. Letting it replace the negative thought and then acting on it. Because there’s one thing for certain. If we retain the negative thought we will act on it. The wife will isolate her husband. The man will beat up on the other guy at work (idiot that he is!). The salesperson will remain immobilised in their fear and not make any sales.

We act on our negative thoughts! Isn’t that a wakeup call?! Faith has two parts. Believing and doing. Sometimes, that “doing” standing still and letting God do His part. That’s still doing! And unless we act on the faith, it never moves mountains. In fact, faith without works is dead!

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?

If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead … But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apartfrom your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. (James 2:14f)

Faith is something we live out. Faith is something we activate. We go and we do it and we live in faith and you know what happens? It moves mountains.