When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” – Matthew 17:14-20
Last week, we shared on the 5 aspects of activating Kingdom DNA from our experience in serving companies such as Tony Wear. These aspects are:
- Operating in the “faith of the mustard seed”;
- “Washing” the people, company, and their processes through God’s word;
- Prophetic messages speaking into the destinies of individuals and organizations;
- Exercising our market place competencies in the Spirit’s power, thus providing clear benefits to the company’s business operations;
- Overcoming doubt and pride, key elements that separated God from Adam and Eve, and have inhibited our Kingdom DNA.
This week, we will expound on the first aspect, “Operating in the ‘faith of the mustard seed’”.
Many market place situations today are like the boy that seeks healing for seizure. People and companies seek for their needs to be met – looking for a testimony of the Spirit’s power through us. But often times, we, like the disciples, can have our faith overwhelmed in a spiritually parched work place where Christ’s lordship is not recognized nor honored. For this reason, a most important first step in transforming our market place is to begin by operating in the “faith of the mustard seed” – to see the potential of God’s Kingdom DNA in our work place environment.
When Jesus admonished His disciples to “have faith as small as a mustard seed”, He reveals to us two powerful principles of potential. The first principle is that faith can bring about an incredible magnitude of transformation. Jesus “quantifies” this magnitude by making a mind-boggling comparison: the “fruit of transformation” to the “initial investment of faith” is like “moving a mountain” to a “mustard seed”. The potential of faith for “return on investment” is so big that it will stretch us beyond our limitation and imagination.
Jesus then reveals a second principle on how to recognize this potential. We will recognize it when we can see beyond the mustard seed’s outward appearance and into its genetic code. In Mark 4:30-32, Jesus points out that a mustard seed, although the smallest of seeds, can grow into the largest of all garden plants. In other words, we cannot recognize the mustard seed’s potential based on its size and physical appearance. But when we understand the seed’s DNA and the mechanisms that cause the seed to grow, we will see, embedded in the seed, a tree larger and more productive than the seed by billion or trillion folds.
Operating in the “faith of the mustard seed” is to understand Kingdom DNA and see its “Kingdom tree”. It will open our eyes to the potential that God has coded into our market place by recognizing its Kingdom DNA. God intends for us, as market place pastors, to release that potential by activating the Kingdom DNA in our sphere of influence – manifesting His awesome testimony (Luke 11:20). We can operate in such expectations when we see beyond the face value of the seed – perhaps your current market place situation that seeks “healing” – and into the potential of the Kingdom DNA, the genetics that allow us to be transformed to an increasing likeness of Christ.
During our intercession conference call today, I will share more on how we applied the aspect of “faith in the mustard seed” at Tony Wear – helping its design team to see the “tree” of their “mustard seed” through their Kingdom DNA. Please join us.
Market Place Meditation and Prayer
We encourage you or your market place fellowship to meditate on the following and pray over them.
- What is the greatest “healing” that my market place environment is seeking after today?
- What is the “mustard seed” that contains the Kingdom DNA of my market place environment?
- What is the “tree” in the “mustard seed” – the potential of God that I will base my faith upon?
