HOW TO SPEAK TO A MOUNTAIN!

The children of Israel wandered in the desert for years following their miraculous delivery from Egypt. Deuteronomy 1:32 says that in spite of all God did for them, Israel lived in unbelief—and their wandering continued.

“We skirted Mount Seir for many days” (Deuteronomy 2:1). Several things are helpful to know about this statement. First, the word “skirted” means they circled around outside the area of Mount Seir. Second, they had to go through the Mount Seir area to get to their destiny, the Promised Land. Third, the term “many days” is an awkward way of saying that this period lasted thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years—and they didn’t possess what God had promised them because of unbelief!

“And the Lord spoke to me [Moses], saying: ‘You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward” (2:2-3).

Israel was avoiding possessing their “promised land” because fear and unbelief kept them from going through a dangerous area. Mount Seir was the region where the descendants of Esau lived. Esau and Jacob were brothers and the bitterness between them was well known. Jacob was afraid of Esau because he (Jacob) had taken his birthright and through trickery and deceit had stolen the blessing that rightfully belonged to Esau.

The descendants of Jacob were afraid of what the family of Esau (also known as the Edomites) might do to them if they entered their territory. Finally God said, “That’s enough waffling and unbelief. Turn north—and do it now!”

The use of the word mountain in Scripture often refers to opposition or an obstacle blocking our pathway (see Zechariah 4:7 and Matthew 17:20). In the wilderness wandering of the Jews, it was the obstacle of the mountain and its people (Esau’s family) they were avoiding.

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus responds to a question from His disciples about why they could not cast the devil out of a young boy by answering, “Because of your unbelief . . . I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus was not talking about physical mountains but about obstacles, opposition, impossibilities that stand in the way of our possessing the future God has for us. We all have mountains that are standing between us and the possessing of the promises God has quickened to our heart.

I had a huge mountain in my life that for years I refused to deal with. In the mid-90s I began having pain in my right hip that progressively grew worse. Whenever I was asked if I was okay, my response was always, “I’m fine, no problem.” But I wasn’t fine and the problem was getting worse. The pain spread to my left hip so I asked my family doctor to take a look. He examined me, looked at my x-rays and then laughed, and said, “It’s called arthritis and it happens to a lot of us.” He gave me a prescription for Celebrex and I never brought it up to him again. However, the pain and discomfort kept getting worse and through it all I tried to never complain. If someone asked why I was so hobbled, my response was always kind of flippant: “Hey, no big deal. I’m fine.” I thought I was being a good and faithful soldier.

Finally, in the summer of 2006, my wife and my friend Bill Prather convinced me that I needed to see an orthopedic specialist, which I reluctantly agreed to do. The doctor really did a number on me! After viewing my new x-rays, he looked at me and said, “I don’t know how you even walk, as both hips are bone-on-bone. Unless you have something done, within months you will be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. You are in denial!” I felt like he yelled the final words at me; he didn’t, but I was stunned and angry!

When we got home I went into my office, sat down, and looked up to heaven. “So, this is what I get? I give You my life and . . .?” I caught myself in mid-sentence as I realized I really was in denial and the full impact of it burst upon me. What happened next is what we in Texas call “a come-to-Jesus meeting.” I sat in my office and cried and repented as I asked God to forgive me.

Denial is to know what is true and yet confess a falsehood. Denial is a form of unbelief and I was very guilty of it. It is not faith to say that a problem that exists does not. No, that’s not faith—it’s a lie! Faith is when you say, “I have a problem but I believe God for a full and complete victory.”

After I got my bad attitude straightened out, the Lord helped me understand that I had a destiny on the other side of the problem. And I spoke the Word to the mountain, “If you have faith . . . you will say to this mountain, Move . . . and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

Where there had been no solution, the Lord sovereignly began to open doors and He brought in a harvest of miracles that resulted in surgery—completely paid for! On December 3, 2006, ten days after surgery, I arrived home in Dallas, walked off the plane free of any pain—and it has never come back.

The person who lives in denial brings upon himself a double jeopardy. First is the unbelief, and that births its own fruit. Second, you cannot speak to the mountain as Jesus taught us because you have said, “There is no mountain!”

I circled around in front of my problem in denial far too long. Finally, the Lord said, “That’s enough of that. Turn north—and do it now!”

So how do we speak to a mountain? We speak in the name of Jesus and on the authority of His Word and command it to get out of our way. We speak to the obstacle and say, “My future, my destiny, what God has promised me, lies on the other side of you. You can either get out of my way or I will climb over you—or tunnel through you—but no matter what, I’m going forward to my promised land.”

Face your mountain and speak to it in the name of Jesus!