I Cry Grace, grace!

The message today brings us first to the Gospel of John 14:12-13 and I am reading from the Amplified translation.  Jesus is speaking with the disciples and says;


I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. And I will do [I Myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son. 


“If anyone steadfastly believes in Me”, the word steadfastly is an adjective that means fixed, unchanging, constant or unswerving; Jesus never said you have to believe in yourself he said believe in Me! 


There is a passage in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus has just come down from the mountain of transfiguration and this how it reads;


Reading Matthew 17: 14-20 KJV:


14 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
 15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
 16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
 17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
 18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
 19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
 20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.


How many times have you looked at this, or was even taught, “You have to have faith and speak to your mountain and it shall be removed, for nothing is impossible.”  Romans 12:3 tells us that God has dealt every man a measure of faith. This tells me faith is not the problem. Now let’s take a minute and look at verse 20 breaking it down starting at the end not the beginning.  It says nothing shall be impossible unto you, when will nothing be impossible to you? Once the mountain has been removed, what is this mountain Jesus is talking about that has to be removed?  The mountain of unbelief! 


I know nobody here has never done this but in the past because of what I was being taught I would speak to my mountains of debt, sickness, bills and everything or anything else you can think of and saying remove hence to yonder place, just to beat myself up thinking that I did not have enough faith.  The whole time not realizing that if I wanted nothing to be impossible for me all I really had to do was speak to the mountain of unbelief!  Sounds good to me, how about you?  The next question that comes to mind then would be what are we supposed to say to this mountain?


Let’s look in the Old Testament book of Zechariah, I will give everybody a minute to find it.  To make it easy start at the end of the Old Testament and turn back about 5 or 6 pages and you will find it.  In reading the Old Testament I am always looking to how it reflects, relates, or points to Jesus and I praise God for the revelation I got when lead to this scripture.  Everybody found it?  Looking at chapter 4 starting with verse 6, I know everyone here can probably recite or has heard the last part but let’s read the whole verse;


Zechariah 4:6 


Then he answered and spake unto me, saying; This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.


To let you know what this is talking about; Zechariah the prophet has been awaked from his sleep and an angel was talking to him telling him what to say to Zerubbabel. The Israelites had been taken captive into Babylon and are slowly being set free returning to Jerusalem. Even though they had tried they were unable to get any headway when it came to rebuilding the temple.  Zerubbabel is the governor of Judah and has been put in charge of overseeing the rebuilding of the temple. Zerubbabel is a compound Hebrew name that when broken down Zerub means to dry-up and babel means confusion so his name actually means to dry up – confusion.  Are you ready to dry up some confusion?  Let’s read on in verse 7:


Zechariah 4:7


Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.  


Did you see what that just said?  What are we supposed to say to the mountain? Grace, grace!  The opposite of might and power is Grace.


Does any of this look familiar?  Looking at this verse the same way we did the earlier verse in Matthew, starting with the end. Let’s read it this way; Crying Grace, grace unto it, bring the headstone that shouts, “It is Finished!” dry up the confusion and make plain the mountain of unbelief!  Or we can look at it this way; because of Jesus we have Grace, as believers we are his temple, the headstone is the law, 2 Corinthians 3:7 the ministration of death written on stones!   Whenever you find unbelief, dry up the confusion shouting the law has been fulfilled, then cry Grace, grace and watch the mountain of unbelief be made plain!  It is not by might nor by power but by the Holy Spirit working for you.  For the believer Grace makes everything effortless.  


I will close with this, Mark's version of the passage in Matthew 17:20 is found in Mark 9:23;


Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
  
Here Jesus tells us once more don’t worry, believe that I believe and all things are possible.  Know that God is concerned with every minor detail in your life.  Jesus said believe in me and you will be able to do all things he had done and more.  While on the cross Jesus took all the unbelief so you can have the opposite and believe.  Jesus came dried up the confusion, fulfilled the law, and cried out Grace, grace unto the world, rebuilding his temple in each one of us. Jesus said; “Believe in Me”!


I thank you Lord for showing us that when we cry Grace, grace pertaining to anything the mountain of unbelief will be removed and nothing shall be impossible!


As always leave here knowing that;


You are Blessed and God Loves You!