SPIRITUAL WARFARE PRINCIPLE #1: The INTEGRITY of a MUSTARD SEED . . . Do WE Have it ?

The CRUCIAL issue is NOT the amount but rather the  INTEGRITY of our faith. 

That is . . . are we SOLD OUT to The LORD JESUS CHRIST , through and through ?

And JESUS rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to JESUS apart, and said, 

Why could not we cast him out? 

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. 

Howbeit this kind goeth not out 
but by prayer and fasting. 

Matthew 17: 18-21

How MUCH faith does a grain of mustard seed have ? This is the usual question that pops into our minds. 

The CRITICAL issue is, however, NOT the amount but rather the QUALITY of faith, the INTEGRITY of our faith. 

The INTEGRITY of our FAITH is the crucial issue for a Christian called to pray for the deliverance for anyone . . . including himself.

So, let us examine carefully this tiny grain of mustard seed.

The tiniest of seeds, even those as tiny as dust, have only ONE goal. The tiniest seed is 100% given over to dying to its little seed-life and giving nourishment to the tiny, hair-like plant asleep within its shell. 

That is what the SEED is created to do 100% of the time. It is created to do nothing else. It falls to the ground and dies and brings forth a little plant to grow which yields many, many seeds. 

There is NO OTHER ACTIVITY within the seed, other than that. No matter where it falls, that is the ONLY activity a seed will ever be able to do. 

A seed does exactly what it was created to do: produce a growing, living plant.

We humans, though, have a choice of activity, a choice that lies constantly before us. Daily. Hourly. Minute by precious minute.

We can choose to have integrity, be fully integrated to do our FATHER’S Will, Our FATHER Who art in Heaven. We can choose this 100% of the time.  That is what The LORD JESUS did.

That is WHY HE+ could move mountains and command trees to be plucked up [ See Luke 17:6 ] , if HE+ wished.

The only way FOR US to have that 100% faith of a grain of mustard seed is to choose our FATHER’S WILL . . . 100% of the time. 

In order to choose His+ Will, we must  PICK UP OUR CROSS AND DIE DAILY TO OUR SELF. Our un-crucified flesh and natural-minded Self will block His+ Will.  So, they must be Crucified with CHRIST. 

This is what the LORD JESUS CHRIST did for our sakes.

TO HAVE DIVINE POWER IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE, we must operate in our FATHER’S WILL 100% of the time.  We must stay in ONENESS with The LORD . . . in every aspect of our lives .

We must not be diverted by the things and activities of this world. We must not be diluted with "good" temporal goals and values. In addition, we must not be diverted by "running after people."

REMEMBER: Faith is not a mental quest. It is not simply assenting to  the historical account recorded in the Gospel about The LORD JESUS CHRIST.

No, rather, FAITH is when we BRING ALL AREAS OF OUR LIFE into AGREEMENT with The Holy WORD+ of GOD. 

When we bring our life into alignment with His+ Un-adulterated WORD, then we have FAITH.  The more we do this, the closer we come to “faith as a grain of mustard seed.”

If our Christian walk is mingled :

• with unbelief, afraid that The LORD JESUS will not do what HE+ said HE+ would do

• with fear to take His+ Word at FACE VALUE 

• with unsubmission of our human, earthly VALUES to His+ Word,

• with a rejection of His+ Word in ANY area of our life,

THEN WE DILUTE  OUR FAITH.

Do we ever wonder why our infirm loved ones prayed for are so seldom healed ? 

Most often our answer is that it was 

“not the LORD’S will.”

But, is it The LORD'S WILL not  to heal ? Is that  His+ character?

That can hardly be the case, according to Scriptural accounts. There is no incident recorded of anyone asking for healing in which HE+ refused to heal him, her, or their loved one !  It is His+ nature to heal, to undo the works of satan !

• Or rather, might our PROBLEM BE that we who carry the Name of JESUS with us, are OUT OF LINE with The WILL of The LORD JESUS CHRIST ? 

• Might the problem be that we are SO involved in earth-centered, people-oriented activities that we are OUT OF LINE with the WILL of The LORD JESUS ?  

• Might it be that we are projecting a "different" JESUS by all our "good" activities, our interesting "fellowships" that we STAY OUT of TOUCH with the WILL of our LORD JESUS CHRIST ?

•  MIGHT IT BE that our IDENTITY of CHRIST is at such odds with Scriptures from our ---ism laden doctrines  . . .  that we ourselves are OUT OF LINE with the WILL of The LORD JESUS  if we  adhere to the those doctrines , instead of the CHRIST of the Bible ?
  

HE+ did not SAVE US in order to give us a "comfortable" life on earth, but rather, 

to SAVE MEN'S SOULS from hell. 

Yes, we DO and SHOULD pray for healings of all sorts and the lifting of distresses. But WHEN THESE distresses and illnesses are lifted, do we exhort the healed ones to CHANGE and serve The HEALER+  totally, 100% ? 

Or rather, are we and they content to return to life as they have lived it BEFORE their healing ? 

The LORD wills 

 not to cross our human Will 

nor will HE+ force 

any person to obey HIM+.  

• His+ WILL is that we should choose His+ Way, choose to follow His+ Words, choose to be fishers of men instead of temporal goal-seekers. 

• His+ WILL is that we toss away our own thoughts and choose to REPLACE THEM with The WORD+ of GOD, which alone is TRUTH.

[ Yes, there is coming a TIME when EVERY person will obey HIM+ . . .  but that will come with His+ Second coming. ]  

His+ WILL is for us to have faith like a mustard seed: 100% of our Will YIELDED over to HIM+. 

Any part of our life retaining  temporal values --- even good ones --- will dilute our faith. The temporal values we RETAIN will cause us to move towards OBTAINING the TEMPORAL,  not the Eternal. 

 The more credence given to temporal values and temporal activities,  the less SPIRITUAL power will flow through our faith to others.

The flow is “clogged”, like a mud-packed pipe, allowing only a bare trickle to flow through it. 

The reason we embrace so many temporal values and activities is because SOMEWHERE inside of us we regard them as important, as having truth, or as being something that makes us HAPPY , in some way. 

These are generally LIES developed from childhood goals and desires and alas, oftentimes our religious training.

When we come to CHRIST JESUS, are we prepared to leave

• our fishing nets ? 

•  our tax tables ? 

•  our comfortable nests ?

•  our inheritance ?

•  our families ?

•  our friends ?

•  And yes, our OWN lives too ?

WE CANNOT EXPECT SPIRITUAL POWER to be granted to us if we continue living in the same temporal way with the same temporal values doing the same temporal activities we did BEFORE COMING TO CHRIST.

Yes, we may be more honest, more cleaned up, and more benevolent . . . yet we are still weighing, thinking, and talking about our temporal plans, perhaps sugar-coating them as . . . “all for CHRIST, of course !”

Unless our faith is as a grain of mustard seed --- 100% devoted to CHRIST JESUS our LORD, as our Creator and Life-giver --- our faith will be diluted, weak, and eventually relegated to a mental-mind belief with no power to save or deliver.  

In this weakened state of spirituality, our spiritual “flow” is so clogged with “mud” that it cannot bring forth a Spiritual deliverance for someone attacked or taken over by wicked spirits.

The wicked spirits KNOW the power of the HOLY SPIRIT when it comes after them. 

“JESUS I know and PAUL I know;

 but who are YOU ?” 

is what we will hear . . .

if they deign to answer powerless us at all.

Thus, the FIRST STEP in engaging the enemy in SPIRITUAL WARFARE  is to RID, REPENT, and RENOUNCE our own involvement in the temporal pursuits of this world and not to EXCUSE THEM.

Then it is that we will be pleasing unto The LORD.  Then it is that our faith will be UN-DILUTED and reinforced by the HOLY SPIRIT. 

Then when we pray to bind unclean spirits or for healing, we will see results that will astound everybody . . . including ourselves.

Anyone involved in the Ministry of Deliverance must take heed to themselves FIRST and develop Faith WITH THE INTEGRITY of a "grain of Mustard Seed."