Mountain Moving Prayer

Dr. Larry Thorson
June 3, 2007

Matthew 21:18-22

18 Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.

20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked.

21 Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Mountain moving prayer, that’s what I’m talking about. Ten thousand tons of dirt and rock moving from one spot right into the sea. Now that’s some serious praying.

There’s an old story of a small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies who built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built. In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard. Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith." They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week. At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen".

"We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too."

The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called "come in", a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered. "Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge shopping mall. We need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly." The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with "mountain moving faith" on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week. When Jesus spoke these words about moving mountains he wasn’t in the excavation business but he was trying to make a point. He picked the biggest, heaviest, most difficult thing he could think of, moving mountains to illustrate the potential of prayer. Mountains are whatever obstacles block your way. Everybody’s mountain is different and it changes from situation to situation. The steepest mountain I have ever run is a little incline leaving the Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet after I had run 21 miles in last January’s marathon and still had four miles to go. When I look back on it now all rested I can’t believe it’s the same incline. It’s not very steep at all. Everybody has their mountains, their challenges to overcome. Whatever those mountains are Jesus is saying mountain moving prayer can move them. The key is learning how to pray with a faith filled heart. Bill Hybels in his wonderful book on prayer Too Busy Not to Pray says there are two simple principles for praying with faith. The first is don’t focus on the mountain. You don’t need to focus on it, it’s so big you can’t miss it. Focus instead on God’s faithfulness. But that’s easier said than done, especially when you’re in pain. When I was running the marathon I was out there for five and a half hours. The number one question when you’re running such a slow marathon is what are you going to focus on for five and a half hours? The blister? The side ache? The headache? How hot the sun is? The uneven gravel? How far you still have to go? You pick because you’re going to focus on something.

Bill Hybels tells of going to southern India when he was just starting out in ministry and meeting a dynamic Indian Christian named Yesu. Yesu had started over a hundred churches in India along with a medical clinic and dozens of other services for the poor of India. He was a busy guy. Every year in February Yesu would rent a huge park, build a stage, hang some lights on barbed wire and hold evangelistic meetings for a week.

One night Yesu went to Bill and said “I sense God is calling you to preach on Friday night”. Now the crowds estimated to be in excess of 20,000, mostly Hindus who didn’t know English. He looked at the unruly crowd and couldn’t imagine speaking to that crowd. The language difference alone would be daunting enough even if this was a supportive crowd. He was afraid to speak.

I could relate to Bill’s fear. One time in seminary I went to visit the largest predominately black congregation in Richmond, Virginia. I got there early and a woman came over to introduce herself and find out who I was. I explained that I was a seminary student. I probably shouldn’t have said that because the next thing she did was take my hand and say “the pastor wants to meet you”. The next thing I knew I was inside an inner room with the senior pastor and his staff preparing to go to worship. I was introduced, I stayed to pray with them and got ready to go back to my seat in the sanctuary only the pastor wouldn’t hear of it. He said to follow him. As we went through these double doors he started dancing as did the rest of his staff and we were dancing down the center aisle to the pulpit behind which he had me seated. Before I could get over that shock the pastor on statewide radio said “And now Rev. Larry Thorson, from Union Theological Seminary is going to dedicate our offerings to the Lord.” What? I didn’t understand what he said and there wasn’t time to figure it out! That was the last time I was on radio.

Principal number one: don’t focus on the mountain. As Bill Hybels was waiting to speak, Sherry a vocalist who had traveled with his team started to sing in preparation for his message. She sang “Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with thee; Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not; As thou has been thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed thy hand hath provided-Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

As she sang that it suddenly dawned on Bill where the focus of his attention had been all day. He was focusing on himself, his language barrier, his cultural confusion, his inexperience, his weakness, his fear of failing, his terror of a crowd that size. He was looking squarely at his mountain and all he could see was his mountain and his inability to move it.

Great is thy faithfulness. You might be going through a really bad patch right now when God doesn’t seem very faithful to you. It’s hard to pray with faith when you hardly think it’s going to do any good. That’s when you have to apply the second principle of mountain moving prayer, move ahead by faith even though you don’t feel like it.

There’s a story in Joshua 3 where the Israelites are camped on the bank of the Jordan River. Forty years earlier, they miraculously escaped from Egypt. For a generation, they had been wandering in a rugged wilderness, all the needs miraculously met by God. Now they are in sight of the Promise Land, Canaan, but they have an enormous problem: a river is right in their path, and there’s no convenient way around it. To make matters worse, it’s flood season and any usual fording places are impassable. The waters are deep and turbulent and menacing.

God could easily make the river subside right before their eyes. He could throw a wide bridge across it. But he doesn’t. Instead, he gives Joshua some strange orders that he passes on to the camp.

First, camp officers order the people to keep an eye on the ark of the covenant. As soon as they see the priests carrying it, they are to fall in behind them.

Second, Joshua tells the people to expect amazing things to happen.

Third, Joshua commands the priests to pick up the ark and go stand in the river.

Yes, the Lord said he would provide a dry path through the river, but the priests have never seen this happen before. Having spent their entire adult lives in the wilderness, the priests are not swimmers. In fact, this is probably the first river they have ever seen close up. With a few hundred thousand anxious Israelites at their heels, it will be hard to change their minds and turn around if the river keeps on flowing.

In spite of the problems, the priests had faith enough to obey, and this is what happened: “As soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing…the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground” (Josh 3:15-17).

God didn’t give the priests absolute proof or even overwhelming evidence that the waters would part. He did nothing until they put their feet in the water, taking the first step of commitment and obedience. Only then did he stop the flow of the river. In the same way, mountain-moving faith will be given to us only as we step out and follow the Lord’s direction.

How do you pray a prayer so filled with faith that it can move a mountain? By shifting the focus from the size of your mountain to the sufficiency of the mountain mover, and by stepping forward in obedience. As you walk with God, your faith will grow, your confidence will increase and your prayer will have power.

Probably every human being alive is standing in the shadow of at least one mountain that just will not move: a destructive habit, a character flaw, an impossible marriage or work situation, a financial problem, a physical disability. What is your immovable mountain? Have you stood in its shadow for so long that you’ve grown accustomed to the darkness? Do you end your prayers by thinking, what’s the use?

I challenge you to shift the focus of your prayer. Don’t spend a lot of time describing your mountain to the Lord. He knows what it is. Instead, focus your attention on the mountain mover-his glory, power and faithfulness. Then start walking in faith, following his leading, and watch that mountain step aside.