Jesus said to the apostles, "If you had faith as a seed, you would say to the sycamine (Black Mulberry) tree...." Evidently, they were walking down a path, and the tree was right in the middle of the path. This tree was an obstacle in their way.

Jesus said, "Fellows, if you had faith as a seed, you could say to this inanimate object, this tree, 'Be plucked up by the roots, be planted in the sea,' and it (the tree) would obey you."

Another paraphrase of His words would be, "It would obey your faith-filled words, if you had faith as a seed."

Jesus tells two great faith secrets here: Faith is as a seed, or it works as a seed; and, you plant it by speaking it.

Someone may say, "You're not going to catch me speaking to trees and mountains and talking to things."

You probably won't see those things removed either.

Tell It Where To Go
Jesus is not talking about uprooting trees anyway, no more than He is talking about blowing Mount Everest into the sea when He said, "...whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed..." (Mark 11:23).

He's talking about problem areas in your life; about situations that you face and circumstances you don't know how to handle.

Jesus tells you to say to that situation, "Be plucked up, be planted in the sea; depart, be gone." Tell it what to do and where to go.

Dominion With Words
This is the way Adam was to have dominion in the beginning. God told Adam to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, over everything that creeps on the earth.

Now that's good news in itself, just knowing that you have dominion over creeps.

How was Adam going to subdue the elephant? He would have to do it with his faith. There was not much he could do about it physically.

Adam had to do it with his faith and the power of words. He had to operate in dominion by his faith. He had to operate the way God operated. He was in His likeness.

The Tongue Deceives the Heart
"If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain" (James 1:26 KJV).

James said, "If any man seems to be religious, what he believes will be in vain if he doesn't watch what he speaks." There are many that seem to be religious, but they don't bridle their tongues. They speak all sorts of things that destroy their faith and deceive their heart.

When they start out in their Christian life, they may have great faith. But if they believe and speak everything they hear on television, they will have faith in the devil to steal what they have.

They will have faith in depression, instead of prosperity. What they believed in the beginning will disappear because faith cometh by hearing.

Fear also comes the same way.

If you pray one thing and say another, your saying will nullify your praying.

Someone made the statement that those who say they can and those who say they can't are both right regarding any situation.

We have to realize something: we have to go by God's rules. God has some rules and regulations concerning His laws (the power of the tongue is one of these laws). And when we operate in spiritual law, we must operate with God's rules.

Source: Faith and Confession by Charles Capps.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers