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Jerusalem. Then you start to have inside you that inner conviction that no one can take
away from you. And with this belief, mountains can be moved (so the Lord says).
I have told you before that this mountain signifies our sins; they are large and heavy and
they tend to stay where they are, donÁ-?t they? But if we have faith, we can say to the
mountain of our sins Á-°moveÁ-? and it will move Á-? we will change.
It takes a great amount of faith to do this. So what does the Lord do? He immediately
links faith with prayer and fasting.
He tells us that:
Á-°If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and
nothing shall be impossible unto you.
21
Howbeit this kind goeth not out
but by prayer and fasting.Á-?
(Matthew 17:20-21)
He was referring not only to the demon in the boys, but also any of the things that make
up our mountain. They donÁ-?t Á-°come outÁ-? except by prayer and fasting. They donÁ-?t come
out except by effort. They donÁ-?t come out except by applying the truth of the Gospel to
our daily life.
I told you that there are two kinds of belief. Each can be though of as opposite to one of
the kinds of unbelief.
There is belief in God manifested by following the commandments and struggling to be
good.
If any one thinks that being a Christian is easy then they have not begun to be a Christian
yet. There are things in you that donÁ-?t want to live in a Christian way. If you do not
recognize these things, they lay in hiding, and direct you like a puppet on a string. But
when you recognize those things in yourself Á-? your lack of humility, your arrogance, the
fact that you take offense easily, that you have thoughts you should not have, that you are
lazy and a time waster, too ambitious, and so many other things that are contrary to the
Gospel- then you will understand that it is not so easy to be a Christian.
The first step of course is to recognize that they are there, but then it takes great effort to
eradicate them. The Lord says that Á-°this kindÁ-? does not come out except by prayer and
fasting
(Matthew 17:21, paraphrased)
This does not mean that you can fast three days and then
everything is better; He is talking about a lifetime of prayer and fasting.
Fasting is not just abstaining from food. Fasting is abstaining from our appetites.
If you have an appetite for praise, fast from it. .