THE POWER OF OUR THOUGHTS
PART 2
This morning we began looking at how powerful our thoughts can be and how they can make a difference on how we we behave and what we can accomplish in this life. Tonight, I want to continue this principle of how powerful our thoughts can be.
Jesus told His disciples:
Matthew 17:20 … for assuredly, I say to you, if you have
faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to
there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Great things can be accomplished for the Lord when we put our faith and trust in the Lord. Tonight we will be looking at a few examples that show us what faith in the Lord can do, which will show us just how much we can accomplish if we have faith as a mustard seed.
Our first example comes from 1 Samuel when Saul was the
first king of
We are going to pick up on our story in 1 Samuel 14.
1 Samuel 14:1 Now it
happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore
his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on
the other side." But he did not tell his father. 2 And Saul was sitting in the
outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron.
The people who were with him were about six hundred men.
We are not told why
Jonathan decided to sneak off without telling his father but apparently he felt
like his father would not have let him go if had know his son's plans. The
Philistines he was going after had set themselves up in a strategic position. They
could not be attacked with ease because they were located up high and a person
would have to climb up to get to them, which is exactly what Jonathan and his
armor bearer are going to do. If you will look on the map you will see that all
of these events were happening within this circle.
1 Samuel 14: 6
Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, "Come, let us go
over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work
for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by
few." 7 So his armorbearer
said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you,
according to your heart."
In Heb. 11 there is a
list of men and women who accomplished great things because of their faith in
God. Well, from our text, we can see that Jonathan has this same kind of faith
in God. Now he wasn’t sure if God would help him, but he knew in his heart that
if God was on his side, he could defeat this mighty army of the Philistines and
his armor bearer was right there with him.
This is a classic example
of the kind of faith that Jesus said could move mountains. Jonathan’s faith in
the Lord and His ability to level the playing field despite the odds was all
that he needed to push himself forward even though others may have said it is impossible
to do.
This is the same kind of
faith we need to have. We should face all our battles and struggles of our life
trusting in God knowing that He will bring about the best results for us. As
Paul said in:
Romans 8:28 And we
know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who
are the called according to His purpose.
It is not always easy to
push forward especially when we do not know for sure how God is going to help us,
but like Jonathan, we must put our faith in God and realize that He will make
things work out for the best.
Having this kind of faith
will not only help us deal with the struggles in this life, it will help keep
us moving closer to God and not being afraid to fight the good fight of faith. When
we have committed our thoughts to trusting in God, we will not be afraid to
tell others about Jesus or warning others about the consequences of turning
their backs on God.
Having this kind of faith
will motivate you to be like the many Christians who refused to deny their
Christianity even when they say their family being eaten by lions or when they
were being burned at the stake. If more Christians, would have the faith as a
mustard seed think about how much could be accomplished for the Lord’s kingdom
today.
1 Samuel 14:8 Then
Jonathan said, "Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we
will show ourselves to them. 9
"If they say thus to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand
still in our place and not go up to them.
10 "But if they say thus, 'Come up to us,' then we will
go up. For the LORD has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a
sign to us."
During this time, we see
that the Lord would show His people signs, and He also spoke to them through
His prophets and through visions and dreams. Of course, He does not do this
anymore because we have His completed Word. Jonathan would know if God was
going to be with Him to defeat these mighty men or if he should stay where he
was based on their response.
1 Samuel 14:11 So both
of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the
Philistines said, "Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where
they have hidden." 12
Then the men of the garrison called to Jonathan and his armorbearer, and said,
"Come up to us, and we will show you something." Jonathan said to his
armorbearer, "Come up after me, for the LORD has delivered them into the
hand of
Sure enough, when the
Philistines see these two men, they ask them to come to them. Can you imagine how
scary it would be to be the shoes of Jonathan and his armor bearer? Imagine standing
at the bottom of a steep cliff and you only have one other person with you and
to top it all off you only have one sword. Think about how small and
insignificant you would feel as you tilted your head back and gazed up the
steep cliff looking at your enemies high above you telling you to come up and
see something.
In the back of your mind
you would be thinking if I climb up, all they have to do is start throwing
things at me and it could easily kill me or you would also have to consider the
fact that your arms and legs would be like jelly by the time you scaled the
side of the cliff leaving you very little energy to fight your enemy.
When we really think about
what Jonathan and his armorbearer were about to do, we can really appreciate
the amount of faith they had in God. Their faith paid off because between the 2
of them they kill 20 of these Philistines. But now we are going to see how God
is going to help them even more.
1 Samuel 14:15 And
there was trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The
garrison and the raiders also trembled; and the earth quaked, so that it was a
very great trembling. 16 Now
the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and there was the multitude,
melting away; and they went here and there.
17 Then Saul said to the people who were with him,
"Now call the roll and see who has gone from us." And when they had
called the roll, surprisingly, Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there. 18 And Saul said to Ahijah,
"Bring the ark of God here" (for at that time the ark of God was with
the children of
As I think about what
takes place here, I can’t help but think about what Paul wrote:
Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us?
The Philistines army was a
like a mountain and because Jonathan’s faith was as a mustard seed, that
mountain was moving. God caused an earthquake that continued to shake the camp
of the Philistines and scared them and confused them so much that they started
killing themselves and when Saul and the other children of
This is what faith as a mustard seed can accomplish and shows the power that our thougts can have. You and I can have this same kind of faith, but it takes a great commitment and trust in the Lord. If you and I could learn to have at least half the faith that Jonathan did, we could accomplish a great deal for the Lord.
As I said, it is not always easy to remain focused on God because the world and it problems have a way of distracting us as illustrated by Peter’s faith that we read about in:
Matthew 14:25 Now in
the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And
they cried out for fear. 27
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I;
do not be afraid." 28
And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come
to You on the water." 29
So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he
walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30
But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and
beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" 31 And immediately Jesus stretched
out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little
faith, why did you doubt?" 32
And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 Then those who were in the boat
came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God."
Peter was the kind of man
that was always gung-ho at first, but he struggled sometimes at remaining
faithful as he should. Peter’s example shows what can happen if we allow
ourselves to get distracted by the things that are around us. At first, Peter
had faith as a mustard seed; otherwise, he would have never stepped out on the
water in the first place, but it did not take long for his faith waiver once he
noticed the winds and how it pushing things around, he began to sink, but
thankfully for him, Jesus was there to lift him up and bring him to safety.
In a similar way, when we
find our faith wavering and we begin to sink because of the distractions around
us, we need to cry out to God in prayer, knowing that He will be there like
Jesus was for Peter and will help us to safety so we can regain our
faithfulness once again.
Of course this was not
the only time Peter began to sink because of His faith. We know that he denied
Jesus 3 times after Jesus was arrested, and he also was found to be a hypocrite
when he started treating the Gentiles different than Jews before Paul corrected
him. If someone like Peter can struggle with his faith, we must understand that
we will struggle with our faith from time to time, but the important thing to
remember is that God is always there to help us back up when reach out to Him
and ask for help. As the apostles said to the Lord:
Luke 17:5 "Increase our faith."
There are many other
examples I could share with you from the Bible which shows how powerful our
thoughts can be when we have faith as a mustard seed, but one of my favorites
is one of the most well-known stories in the O.T. Of course, I am talking about
David and Goliath. The reason the particular event stands out for me is not
because of its popularity, it is because of the courage that David showed
because of his faith in God. Let take a look at the text.
1 Samuel 17:1 Now
the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered
together at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh
and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. 2
And Saul and the men of
Saul nor his men had the faith they should have had. They were scared and Goliath was a mountain they could not move.
1 Samuel 17:17 Then
Jesse said to his son David, "Take now for your brothers an ephah of this
dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the
camp. 18 "And carry
these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your
brothers fare, and bring back news of them." 19 Now Saul and they and all
the men of
David was just a young man, but unlike all of
1 Samuel 17:28 Now
Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was
aroused against David, and he said, "Why did you come down here? And with
whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the
insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle." 29 And David said, "What have
I done now? Is there not a cause?"
30 Then he turned from him toward another and said the same
thing; and these people answered him as the first ones did. 31 Now when the words which
David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for
him. 32 Then David said to
Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and
fight with this Philistine." 33
And Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to
fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his
youth."
Sometimes those closest
to you will try to deter you from having faith as a mustard seed, and others
may think you are not capable of performing your task because they think you're
too young, too old, or too weak, but we cannot let others deter our faith. We
need to have the confidence of David who was willing to go fight this might Philistine
though no one was willing to. Even when Saul, his king, lacked confidence in
David, we see David’s response:
1 Samuel 17:34 But
David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and
when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35 I went out after it and struck
it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me,
I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 "Your servant has killed
both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
seeing he has defied the armies of the living God." 37 Moreover David said, "The
LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear,
He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to
David, "Go, and the LORD be with you!"
David had complete trust
in God. He knew without a doubt that God would allow him to defeat this mighty
man. We can have the same confidence in God if we put our trust His ability to
help us the giants in our lives. No matter how big that mountain may be faith
as a mustard seed will make it move.
1 Samuel 17:38 So Saul clothed David with his
armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat
of mail. 39 David fastened
his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And
David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them."
So David took them off. 40
Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones
from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, and
his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. So the Philistine came, and began drawing
near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42 And when the Philistine looked
about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy
and good-looking. 43 So the
Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with
sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to
David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and
the beasts of the field!" 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
David’s faith in God gave him the courage to face Goliath and win, and we can be victorious in our life when we have we have that same faith as a mustard seed. Not only will our faith in God benefit us, it will benefit those around us and encourage them to keep the faith. After David defeated this giant we read:
1 Samuel 17:52 Now the
men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far
as the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the
Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, even as far as
I hope these lessons today have shown you just how powerful our thoughts can be. As Christians, we should do our best to have faith as a mustard seed so we can accomplish great things for the Lord and boost our confidence our salvation. I hope something I have said today will make you stop saying I can’t and start saying I can with the Lord’s help.