Faith Walk / William Carroll
We will be talking about the word of God and how he moved in my life as I stood on his word. His signs and wonders that I have seen during the last forty years praying for my needs and the needs of others. I hope to encourage a new generation of believers to pray the word of God and to believe that He will move on their behalf. God answers prayers!
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Ep 65 Unbelief: The Barrier Between You and Your Miracle
Have you ever wondered why some prayers seem to go unanswered? Why spiritual breakthrough sometimes feels just out of reach? This episode dives deep into Matthew 17, where Jesus reveals the surprising reason His own disciples couldn't heal a demon-possessed boy.
The story begins with a desperate father bringing his suffering son to Jesus' disciples for healing. Despite their position of spiritual authority, they failed completely. When questioned why, Jesus' answer cuts straight to the heart: "Because of your unbelief." This powerful moment reveals that position without faith produces no power.
What follows is a beautiful exploration of how faith works in our lives. Jesus explains that faith as tiny as a mustard seed can move mountains - not because of the quantity of our faith, but because of where that faith is placed. We all receive a measure of faith, but many believers never nurture that seed beyond their initial salvation experience. Like a muscle that atrophies without exercise, our faith remains underdeveloped when we don't put it into action.
The most transformative insight comes when we understand that salvation is merely the starting line, not the finish line. Our faith journey isn't primarily for our benefit - it's meant to impact others around us. We grow our faith by stepping out despite uncertainty, by praying for others even when we doubt our effectiveness, by standing on God's promises when circumstances seem impossible. Each act of faith, however small, contributes to the growth of that mustard seed within us.
Are you ready to move beyond spiritual stagnation? To exercise your faith muscle in new ways? Listen now and discover how even the smallest faith, properly nurtured, can unlock spiritual power you never thought possible. Share your own faith journey with us and start seeing mountains move in your life today.
Well, good morning, welcome to Faith Walk. This morning we're going to be in chapter 17 of Matthew. We're staying in the book of Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, and we're going to start in 17. I hope you are enjoying this. If you're enjoying this, hit the like, hit the share, hit the subscribe. And whether you're listening to on Buzzsprout, you're listening to Spotify, spot Spotify, iheart, alexa, apple, wherever you get your podcast. Also, I have a video version on YouTube.
Speaker 1:It's hard to keep up, though, with as many of these as I'm doing. I'm trying to keep them short. Do you like them short? You like them 10 minutes? You like them 15? You like them 20? Let me know. On any of those places you can find my email address. Drop me a line, let me know. Encourage me or tell me, stop doing it. Either one, but I'm going to do what the Lord says to do. So anyway.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 17. Matthew, chapter 17. 17,. Matthew, chapter 17. And it says, starting in verse 14, and we're going to go down to 21.
Speaker 1:So in verse 14 it says and when they were come to, the multitude, there came unto him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and sore, vexed, for oftentimes he falls into the fire and often to the water. And I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him. And Jesus said O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer? You Bring him to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came his disciples to Jesus, when they were aside from the crowd, and said why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said unto him Because of your unbelief, your unbelief. And Jesus said unto him Because of your unbelief, your unbelief, for verily, I say unto you, if you have faith, as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to the mountain Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall be removed, and nothing shall be impossible for you, howbeit this kind goeth not out by prayer and fasting. So the disciples, you know this man had brought his son to the disciples, you know, and he said hey look. He said, here's my child. You know, he's a lunatic, he's possessed, he throws himself in the fire, he tries to harm himself. He's just, I need help, I need Jesus, man, you know. And so the disciples, because they had no faith.
Speaker 1:You remember we talked about the woman with the crumb saying Lord, you know, I know I'm not a child of God, I know I'm not a child of Israel, but even the crumbs, even the puppies eats from the table. A child of Israel. But even the crumbs, even the puppies eats from the table. There's plenty of crumbs, enough crumb for me to get exactly what I need when they're eating bread. See, a crumb to God is just like a loaf of bread. In other words, you can get what you need from God in a crumb.
Speaker 1:And he called her a faithful woman. You, your faith has made you hope. And he marveled at her faith. And look, he's rebuking them because of no faith. No faith, he says oh, faithless and first generation.
Speaker 1:This is in verse 17. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer? You bring him to me. He rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour.
Speaker 1:Why couldn't we do this? Why couldn't we do this? They said You're unbelief, you don't believe. You have no belief that God can do what he says he can do. You have no belief that I can do what I say I can do. You have no belief that I can do what I say I can do. You have no belief that I am the Messiah and that there is healing through the word of God, through me, through the spirit of God, if you believe in him and believe that he can do it. Well, anyway, he said, if you have the faith of a grain, of a mustard seed you know, a mustard seed is so tiny, I mean it's if you've ever seen one, it's wow, it is small and you can take that seed and you can plant it and it comes into one of the biggest trees that there is that has all kinds of wildlife and everything.
Speaker 1:And Jesus is saying all you need is a little faith. All you need is a little faith. You know, the Word of God says that we're all given a measure of faith. Well, how big is that measure? I believe the measure is a seed, a mustard seed. Every one of us has a measure of faith, but so many of us never plant that faith, that faith in the ground, in the Word of God. We never water it with the washing of the water of the Word. We never feed it with the washing of the water of word. We never feed it with the fertilizer which is of God. We never do anything but we say oh well, I'm saved, I accepted the Lord, I'm saved, I don't need anything else.
Speaker 1:The thing is, you know, your salvation, your whole walk with God is not for you, it's for those around you, it's to reach others around you. Yes, it's for you to be saved, that you might spend eternity in heaven, but that's not the end of it, that's the beginning of it. You got to grow your faith, is what he's saying. You grow your faith by doing. You grow your faith by praying.
Speaker 1:If somebody says, hey, you know I have cancer, and you go okay, let me pray for you. Well, you pray for them. Right there you say well, you know, I don't believe I can heal cancer. Well, you can't. Only God can. But you start your faith by reaching out and praying and believing the unbelievable. You've got to believe the unbelievable, childlike faith. That's what God wants for us. You just believe and you do what God says to do. You know he says reach out your hand and pray for the sick and they shall be healed. You know, a hearing is not a miracle. A cancer takes a miracle. Most of the time, A miracle is something that happens right now. Only God can do. But God can do it, and God can do it through you If you're bold enough to just step out. You know, don't quit being afraid of looking like a fool. You know, paul said, you know the foolish things of God is here to confound the wise of the world, because the wisdom of God is greater than the wisdom of the world. Right, and you know, we need that faith.
Speaker 1:I started out with a small grain of faith. You know that was planted in my heart and I started walking in that faith and I started exercising. See, you got to exercise that faith. It's like a muscle you have to exercise it to make it grow. Well, how do I exercise it? You exercise it by believing in God, in things that you have no control over. You know, I mean whatever it is. There's so many things out there that you have. Maybe you're looking for a new job and you have to believe God that you have a job that will meet your financial needs. And you start believing it and you start.
Speaker 1:You know, go to the Scripture and find the Scripture where it says that God will prosper. You Go to Exodus or Deuteronomy 28 and Exodus 28, and find out the promises of God and just begin to say you know, he says He'll bless our going and our coming, he'll bless us in the field, you know, and our flocks won't, will not have birth before their time. In other words, if you've got cows, if you've got goats, you know it says that God will bless those things. You know, we have to learn to walk in the blessing of God. We have to learn to exercise our faith and let this small faith that we have grow by exercising it out to those around us. One way to exercise it is to tell how you were saved, to tell what you was and who you were and what you were before you were saved, and describe that experience with people. When you came to know the Lord, when you came to Him, when he called you See, he left the 99, it says, and he found you, that one sheep that was lost, and he brought you back into the herd. He brought you back into the fold, into the flock.
Speaker 1:You know Jesus? If you don't know Jesus, call upon him today. Call upon him today. You know you need that small faith, but you have to have Lord Jesus in your heart, to have that measure of faith in your heart that you might grow it. And you grow it by believing in him, by reading his word, by standing on his word in difficult situations and not trusting to your own understanding. See, because his ways are higher than our ways. His understanding is greater than our understanding.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we see things and we think things, but we got to get our mind in line with him. We've got to pray and see what God would have us do in situations instead of just acting on our own. And you know, for men, a lot of times that's hard. Men say you know, I can do it by myself, I don't need nobody. But we do. We need somebody. We need the Lord Jesus first, and then we need other brothers to help us, to lead us, to guide us. Call out upon him today if you don't know him. Until the next study. This is William signing off.
