In the word in Matthew 25:14-30 we see the parable of the talents, we all know this story. The master gives his stewards talents, ( A unit of money worth about twenty years' wages for a laborer), he expected them to invest this money and multiply it for him so that upon his return he would have earned much interest and be better off than when he had left on his journey. Upon his return he discovers that 2 of the servants did well and one servant had actually buried the talent in the ground! How in this world did he expect that talent to gain any multiplication or interest when it was not even being used? The talent was not even accessible because he had hid (buried) it in the earth.
Likewise the Lord has given each of us the measure of the faith the word tells us and He expects us to grow and increase our faith, we should be growing from faith to faith and from glory to glory. Jesus asked before he left this earth, when I return will I find faith on the earth?,Luke 18:8 He didn't say will I find riches and wealth and prosperity and beauty? He said "Will I find faith?" Why? Because He has given us faith to not only help us along the way on this earth journey but, to change any atmosphere that we enter. Our faith should be so strong and so bold that we should be raising the dead on a daily basis. He said as He is so are we in this world, so why are we not seeing the same miracle and even greater things like He said? Because, we have buried our faith in the ground!
We had just enough faith to believe for Salvation, to get that fire insurance, you know we don't want to go to Hell, so we had enough faith to say Jesus I believe you are who you say you are and I believe that you have the power to cleanse me from all my sins, we accept Him as Savior and then we take our faith, put it in a nice little wrapper and we bury it, I guess thinking that when He returns to find faith on the earth, it will be buried right where we left it and we can dig it back up and present it as a gift to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! As ridiculous as this may sound, isn't this how we act sometimes? It seems our faith is not expanding at all. We aren't believing Him for the greater things, we are not saying to that mountain be removed and be cast into the sea!
He greatly desires for our faith to be expanded, just like that little bitty mustard seed, if planted and tended mustard spreads like wild fire, it is self sowing and every single part of that plant is useful. Let's expand our faith. Let's believe Him for the greater things. Mark 16:17 describes what a believer looks like, they will cast out devils,speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it will not hurt them, they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover." so in other words a believer (person with true faith in God) will be able to cast out devils, speak in tongues, and if they pick up a snake(not as a snake handler) that is foolishness, but like when the Apostle Paul accidentally got one when he was gathering sticks, it stung him and did not harm him,and if someone tries to poison them it will not harm them. So, according to this description of a "Believer" wow, how many of us fit the bill? As we trust and believe Him and act upon what He says, our faith will grow and grow and grow. We will find ourselves believing for things that before we would never have had the faith to believe for. Faith is a seed and it grows as it is cultivated in our lives. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
The more we hear and hear and hear and act up the word and stand believing in what the word says, our faith continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It's when we speak negatively about our situations and when we aren't standing on the promises of God in faith that our faith becomes stagnant and stunted in it's growth patterns. Everything in the kingdom of God is based upon faith. By faith God spoke the world into existence and by faith we will see the mountains in our life cast into the sea.
