When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.  “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.  I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”  “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”  Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”  He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

Matthew 17:14 – 20

I must admit, I have pondered this conversation that Jesus had with this troubled father quite a bit.  Having driven out the demon from the lad, Jesus spoke of faith.  The point of the story, as I see it, is faith.  He taught that just a little bit of faith can move mountains!  This father had faith that Jesus could heal his son, a belief that drove him to Jesus.

So, what is Jesus talking about?  What is this faith that can move mountains?  I am convinced that Jesus based his teaching on what God’s will is, not on faith as such.  I can believe with the strongest of belief that God will grant me something that He does not desire for me and I will be left pleading, because God knows that my prayer and desire will ultimately do me harm if granted just like that.  I am convinced that prayers that move mountains are prayers that are put into our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. 

I must remind myself that not long after Jesus spoke these words he was hanging on a cross, dying, so powerless that it looks pathetic.  Put that into what Jesus taught.   Where was his faith as he hung there?

I do believe that the essential thing is to align ourselves with the Spirit of God so that we have an idea of what to pray for.  So, the point is to have faith in God, not in our own desires and wishes.  It takes no spiritual wisdom and insight to pray for something that will please me, but it takes a huge breaking of my selfish spirit to pray what the Spirit of God prompts me to pray, nothing less than that!