The Kind of Faith You Need to Move A Mountain.

It is crucial to have a full view of God’s supreme authority and power, to have the faith to move a mountain. 

Belief in ultimate human sovereignty will cause feelings of hopelessness and result in failed prayers. The Bible tells us that...
 

1. God is all-powerful: He does anything He wishes, guided by the built-in boundaries of His own nature and plan. Psalm 115:3.
   1. God cannot sin.  God’s will is limited and directed by His own moral perfection.  
   2. God knows all things, so He never guesses and He can't make mistakes.
   3. God cannot do the logically impossible, like make a square circle. This is because God Himself is the basis of truth, and the upholder of nature's laws.
   4. God is following His own eternal plan (Eph. 1:11). This means that God is never caught by surprise, and He never improvises.

 

1. God has an eternal plan. Eph. 1:11.  What does His plan include? How does it work itself out?
   

• God's plan involves His own actions, of course.
  
• God also works through human actions, and even demonic actions. There were times in the Old Testament where God permitted Satan to act in certain ways, but limited Satan in other ways (Job 1-2).
  
• God can also achieve His goals through people’s sins. In Gen. 50:20, Joseph said God had a hidden agenda behind letting Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery. Even the worst sin, Christ's crucifixion, was carried out by God’s plan.  Acts 4:27-28.

 

1. God can influence and affect human choices.  It is not true that God is helpless before human sovereignty, but this is an area where I think American Christians' faith has been taught to be weak. The human will is not impervious to God's power.  

 

1. God, as punishment for sin, hardened the hearts of Pharaoh, the Egyptian army, and the Amorite kings Og and Sihon. Ex. 4:21, 7:3, Jos. 2:10, 11:20, Dt. 2:30.  Their crazy stubbornness drove them to destruction. Heart-hardening in the Bible was always a punishment for sin.
2. God gave Daniel favor in the eyes of the chief official. Dan. 1:9. Somehow God influenced the chief official to view Daniel favorably. It doesn't especially matter how God did it. Maybe God used natural factors, maybe He used supernatural factors, or maybe a combination of both. Nevertheless, the fact remains that God is the one who caused the official to favor Daniel.
3. Solomon says that the Lord can direct the heart of a king very easily (Prov. 21:1). Solomon doesn't limit this truth to humble, God-fearing kings. He means all kings, which we see Old Testament examples of this in Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 
4. God can heal a person of demonic influences from his mind, which restores the person's normal thinking. Luke 8:35. By removing devilish influences, God enables a mind to function.  
5. God punishes knowledgeable rejection of the Gospel. For example, a certain group of Jews rejected Jesus’ miraculous testimony to Himself (John 12:37-38). As punishment, God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they could not believe (John 12:39-40). However, that implies they could before, otherwise nothing about their state would differ.

Do you have a full vision of God's supreme power, so that your faith can move mountains?