Kenneth Copeland - The Force of Mountain-Moving Faith
Mark 11, if you please. We're going to be talking about mountain-moving faith. Praise God. All right, 11:11, "Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the evening was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. On the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it," He spoke to the tree, "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem: Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught".
Now, the mission was not the cleansing of the temple. I want you to get that. The mission was not the cleansing of the temple. The mission was to preach and teach the Word. That's what you do to get rid of unbelief. You teach the Word and, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". This is very, very vital information. Because you and I have the same faith, we have the same spirit, amen, it'll work just exactly the same way in here this morning that it worked anywhere in Jesus' ministry on the earth. Hallelujah. Missed a good place to say, "Amen," right there. Amen. Glory. All right. But He had to clean that temple. Amen. He had to clean that place out for the Word to be preached in power. Amen.
Now, "He taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but you've made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and the chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. When evening was come, he went out of the city". So He went back to Bethany. "And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots".
Now, the thing that is special to see right here, faith was working the moment He released it. The Word was working. Faith was working the moment He released it. But it didn't affect the leaves first. Huh? Spiritual things always go to the root always. Let me say this to you and think about this. Before you and I were born again, just like all other people, we were outside-in people. Particularly if you're like Gloria and I, we needed everything, you know? And somebody else had it all. We didn't have anything.
And so this causes people to want to go out there and get it if they have to take it away from something. But once you get born again, we become inside-out people instead of outside-in people, because the kingdom of God now is on the inside of you. And that's where everything you need is, is in the kingdom, and it's the invisible power of faith that'll draw it out of the kingdom and manifest it in your hand. Amen? All right. Yeah, thank You, Lord. Say this with me, "In the name of Jesus I am God-inside minded, not just God-in-heaven minded. God is in me now". Hallelujah. Become God-inside minded. Get to the place when you're praying you're not seeing God way off over there somewhere. No, no, no, no, He's right here. He's right here. Whoa. Mm. "No ye not your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost"? He said, "I'll walk in them. I'll be their God. They'll be my people". Hallelujah. Oh, my goodness, you could preach on that a while. I may do it.
Now then, "In the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away. And Jesus answering", now, notice what Jesus's response to that was, "have faith in God". Now, your King James reference will say, "Have the faith of God". Other translations say, "Have the God kind of faith". Well, which is correct? All of them. Amen. Have faith in God. "Well, Brother Copeland, I sure would like to". He didn't say, "Like to". He said, "Have it". "Well, I sure do want it". He didn't say, "want it". He said, "have it". Amen. If you made Jesus the Lord of your life, you have it. It's in you right now. It was born in you when you got born-again. That's the force that caused the new birth to take place. Amen.
Now then, a little bit further here, "For verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart". Not doubt where? In his heart. "Shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe" now, notice this "shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith," not whatsoever he believeth, but whatsoever he saith.
You can believe. You can say, "Whoa, you know, I believe that. I just believe that. I believe Jesus is Lord. I believe He's the healer. I believe that. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. I do. I believe that". And never say it and it'll never come to pass. Because, with the heart, the inner man, God is a Spirit and you and I are spirit beings. And being spirit beings, we have the same capacity to do spiritual things that God has. We're created in His likeness, see? We have spiritual capacity about us.
Now, I don't want to get ahead of myself here. Thank You, Lord. "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them". "Well, now, Brother Copeland, you know, faith stuff doesn't work for me". Now, for one thing, it just did because you've been having what you say, and you said it don't work.
See, this is spiritual law. It works in the positive. It works in the negative. Amen. So if people would just think a minute and just think for just a moment, you would never say that it doesn't work because you just really called Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God, a liar because He says it does. And He said, "Whosoever shall say". That's what He said. Those are spiritual laws, and you get in contact with those laws, they work. They'll work if you... I mean, if you've been born-again five seconds, if you've been born-again five years, 50 years, you may be just probably the lousiest example of a Christian there is. But if you get a hold of that spiritual law, it'll work for you because it's not based on your conduct, it's based on Jesus' conduct. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord.
So let me back up here a little bit, amen, and make sure I'm on track. Now, this faith, "When you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses". Now, that's the process from Verse 22 to Verse 25. That's the classic teaching on faith by Jesus. Amen. That is the way the faith of God works. Now, when you try to... I don't know. I've done it. My goodness, I just ball it up and roll it, but it is so simple you have to have help to misunderstand it. You understand? Amen. That's just very, very simple. "Yeah, but Brother Copeland", Don't start whining around. Just look at what the Man said and say what the Man said and do what the Man said, and the Man will do what He said. Amen.
I'll tell you. I've been guilty of that and I'm having to work on it this morning. The integrity of the written Word of God, just like it is. Can you say, "Amen"? Now then, mountain-moving faith, what is faith? Hebrews 11, please, "Now faith is the substance", the cross reference says, "the ground," or "confidence". One translation said, "It is the title deed of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen," things that are visible, "were not made of things that do appear".
So now, what is mountain-moving faith? Mountain-moving faith is a spiritual force. It is spiritual substance of things hoped for. Now then, thank You, Lord. Who then has this mountain-moving faith? Let's go back over there to Mark 11. Let's look at that 23rd verse again. I want just a mental snapshot of it. Mark 11:23, "For verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith". Who has this mountain-moving faith? Romans 12, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service".
Now, if you haven't done that, you need to do that before dark tonight. And look at that very carefully. "Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, I beseech you, present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God". He just called your body holy. Now, your body is a holy thing in the eyes of God. I mean, Jesus bled and died for the healing of the thing. Amen. Let's continue to read here. "And be not conformed to this world: but you be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man," or every person, "that is among you".
Well, we already found out who "you" is, all in Rome called to be saints, called to be born-again. Don't let the word "saint" throw you. That doesn't mean you have to have so many miracles and all that. No, no. The word translated "saint" actually means to sanctify or to separate unto. So when you got born again, what happened? We were delivered from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. See what happened in that action there? That was when you were separate unto. Amen. And the King James translation called you a saint. So accept it. Amen.
Thank You, Lord. Because He's not talking about the way you really look. He's talking about the way He sees you. And if you'll look at yourself through that blood, brother, I'm telling you, you'd like this a whole bunch better than you did before. Now, notice this. Notice it. This is part of that. "Every man among you, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man among you". Now, if you come from Rome, that's fine. If you come from Fort Worth, Dallas, if you come from Lima, Peru, Maracaibo, Venezuela. I don't care where you're from. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, glory to God, then He's dealt unto you the measure of faith!