Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent: thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.What About the Mustard Seed?
(Luke 17:3-5)
Jesus just finished telling them that they were going to have to forgive seven times a day, as necessary, and the disciples turned and said, "Lord, increase our faith." They had run up against a job that looked like it was bigger than their faith, so they said, "Lord, increase our faith."
In verse six is His reply. He's talking about increasing their faith. Now we know that "faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). That's how faith comes. But somehow that faith has to be exercised also—like a physical muscle.
You can feed it and feed it and feed it and it won't necessarily get stronger. It might get a little bigger, but it won't get any stronger. You not only have to feed it, but you must also exercise it at the same time. Your faith operates the same way.
"And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this mulberry tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you" (v. 6).
He said, "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, the tree will obey you." We know that's a small seed, but what's He saying about it? Let's look at Matthew 13:31. "Another parable put he forth unto them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed…."
We've found the mustard seed again. Let's see what He's saying about it this time. "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field." (author's emphasis)
Now we are beginning to find out that He's not talking about the size of the seed, even though the mustard seed is very small; He's talking about what you do with it.
"…Which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
What He is saying is not how big your faith is, but what you do with it!
What do you do with that seed of faith when a sickness in your body seems to dominate over your faith instead of your faith just chasing it away?
Take the seed of faith that you have and plant it. Even though it seems small to begin with, if you'll plant it, it will grow.
What is the Seed?
First of all, what is the seed?
First Peter 1:23 says, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
So, if we are going to plant a seed, it's got to be an incorruptible one. We want one that's going to grow, right? We don't want a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible seed which is the Word of God.
Now, we're going to use our faith to plant the seed. Even though our faith may look small; it may seem small; it may not have had much time to grow and produce, we're going to use our faith to plant the seed.
Remember: We want to get an incorruptible seed, so we'll get the seed out of the Word of God.
Suppose there is a physical need in your body—there's a sickness that is a chronic thing. It just seems to keep following you around and attacking your body. Take a seed from the Word of God. "He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
That's a powerful one!
The Word is full of seeds—there are over 33,000 promises that pertain to life and godliness in the Bible. They are all seeds. But they won't grow and produce results in your life until you plant them.
When you have a need, find a seed that pertains to that need.
If it is a financial need, Philippians 4:19 says, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (See also, 2 Corinthians 8:9; Psalm 34:4; John 15:7; Mark 11:24; Psalm 23:1)
We have all kinds of powerful seeds. These seeds are all incorruptible. They will grow if we will plant them and let them produce.
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