A group of German intercessors walked through Lenin’s tomb and felt led by the Holy Spirit to speak the words of Jesus from this account while inside.
In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once (Matthew 21:18-19).
Shortly after these intercessors spoke Jesus’ words in Lenin’s tomb, the Berlin Wall fell. When the Holy Spirit makes a passage of Scripture alive in our hearts, we do well to act on His direction. Whether it’s Jesus and a fig tree or the power of communism, both must obey the word of the Lord.
Moving Mountains
Jesus used the cursing of the fig tree as an opportunity to teach His followers in every age a valuable lesson.
When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:20-22).
During World War II, four boys were attending a school for missionary children on an island in the Pacific Ocean. They read this passage and began to pray that the mountain obscuring their view of the ocean would be removed.
One of their teachers explained to them that Jesus wasn’t talking about literal mountains being moved, but the boys continued to pray and believe that God would give them a view of the ocean. A few weeks later, the Army Corps of Engineers removed the mountain to provide the Air Force with a landing strip on the island.
Just as Jesus used the miracle of the fig tree to instruct His disciples, He used the moved mountain to teach four boys, who all later became highly effective missionaries.
When the Mountain Doesn’t Move
One of my favorite seminary professors once asked a chapel audience, “What do you do when you pray for the mountain to move and it doesn’t go anywhere?” He answered his own question, saying, “You dig, because when you dig, you will find gold.”
Our professor, Dr. Schwartz, didn’t tell us the whole story behind his sermon. I later learned that he and his wife had a disabled daughter. I expect they prayed for the mountain of her disability to be moved. When it didn’t move, they dug and found gold. Dr. Schwartz never told us what the gold was in their situation, but I’m sure he and his wife found it just the same.
Going to School
All of us have the opportunity to attend Jesus’ school. There are times when the Holy Spirit will direct us to pray in a certain fashion. At other times, we will be drawn to trust our lives to a specific Bible passage. Sometimes, we will be called upon to dig deeper into our relationship with the Lord when our mountain-moving prayers don’t seem to work.
The best gift we can give ourselves is to enroll in Jesus’ school. He will teach us through what we read in the Bible, the direction of the Holy Spirit, and the various circumstances we encounter in life.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Matthew 21:18-22 on YouTube today.
Real Voices 