MATTHEW 17:20-21
Jesus had been talking to His disciples about their lack of faith in their ability to cure a young boy. He rebuked the father because of his lack of faith and now He was rebuking His disciples. When He spoke of the grain of mustard seed, he was talking about the smallest seed known and how it produced a large tree. He was saying that even a tiny faith is sufficient for small miracles such as this one.
It doesn’t take a spiritual giant to have faith enough to move mountains. This kind of faith is available to everyone. Jesus had to do this task Himself only because of the lack of faith of the people involved. The disciples could have accomplished the task if their faith had been sufficient. Our faith should be strong enough to accomplish whatever task lies before us. Yet, we must admit there are times when our faith is weak and we need help.
When you feel that your faith is weak and you need help, ask for it. Ask God to strengthen your faith and don’t forget that He can use other Christians to accomplish this task. Even if it’s someone whose faith isn’t any stronger than yours, when you pray with someone else, something special happens because the power of prayer is multiplied when God’s people pray together. It’s perfectly ok to ask others to pray with you, especially when your faith needs to be stronger. My faith is strengthened when I pray with others and I am blessed by their prayers.
If twelve people pray individually for someone, that’s twelve prayers. Sounds great, doesn’t it. But what if these same twelve people gather together and pray for this person. You can now multiply these prayers so that you now have twelve times twelve or one hundred and fourty four prayers. Each person in the group prays in his or her heart as someone else prays strengtheing every prayer. That’s the power of multiplication in prayer. As each prayer is verbalized, eleven other persons are praying this prayer in their hearts and may even affirm the prayer verbally as the person continues to pray. Prayers prayed in small group gatherings such as this or in larger groups such as an assembly or worship service may or may not have this powerful effect depending on whether the persons listening are praying in their hearts or merely listening.
Ordinary faith is enough to defeat Satan’s ordinary attacks. We need to exercise this kind of faith 24/7. But when Satan mounts an extraordinary attack on us, we may need back up. This may come in the form of extraordinary prayer and faith on our parts, it may mean fasting, or it may mean we may need to gather a small group of prayer warriors together and “gang up” on Satan. It may mean that we need to call on the entire church to pray for us. When you gather together with others to pray, you might even let them lay hands on you and call on the power of God to be unleashed.
Rather than letting the extraordinary power of Satan discourage and defeat you, call on the extraordinary power of God to defeat Satan and if you can’t do it alone, you have many brothers and sisters in Christ who will be willing to help you. It’s fulfilling and actually fun praying with others. Don’t just sit by idly and watch your spiritual life erode. Call on the promises of God to engage and overpower Satan. Times of challenge can be opportunities to reinforce our faith and make it stronger than ever. Tough times call for tough faith. The more of Satan’s power he unleashes, the more of God’s power you can requisition to defeat Satan. God’s power is absolutely unlimited with resources we cannot imagine.
Father how I thank you for your awesome power and how you permit me to access that miraculous power in my prayer life. Forgive me for the times when I fail to pray because I don’t really believe you will answer a certain prayer. Help me to learn how to pray with such confidence that there is no miracle too large. Give me the faith of the grain of mustard seed that will grow to maturity as it ought. Make me a prayer warrior with unwaveing faith who strongly believes in the power of prayer in the face of any obstacle. Banish the influence of Satan in my prayer life because he causes me to doubt how powerful prayer really is. Thank you for Chrisitan brothers and sisters who will pray with me.
