Say To This Mountain
Real Life Examples
Say To This Mountain
Real Life Examples
Real Life Examples (this page)
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“Michele’s coming to clean the house on Friday,” Patti said a month ago.
I felt a little quiver of unease in my belly, but I didn’t say anything.
When Michele comes to clean for us once a month (Patti and I both work two jobs) she and Patti have a great time chatting away, while I wonder how women can talk and work at the same time, but somehow they do it, successfully!
A month earlier, Patti had had to attend a meeting elsewhere on cleaning day, and so I found out for myself how easy it was to get into a conversation with Michele while she kept working away.
“What are you up to at the moment,” she asked.
“I’ve got a month off work to work on my website.”
“What’s your website about?”
“It’s about the equality of men and women, about God’s design for men and women to be equal. For instance, when God created Adam and Eve they were given equal authority over all of Creation, but they were not given authority over each other.”
“Ooh,” she said, as understanding started to flow in.
“I go two or three times a year to East Africa and teach conferences in churches there. It’s a subject sorely needed, because women are treated poorly, in many places made to do heavy manual labour like planting crops by hand, while the men watch the cattle. Or sometimes the wife will be running a business while the men play pool, or just talk to the other men.”
“It’s a message that’s badly needed here as well, if you read or listen to the news at the way women are often treated in the West. Part of the problem is that many churches, many denominations here teach that women are meant to serve men, and that men are meant to rule over them.”
“I know what you mean, because I was in a pentecostal church until 2016 that taught just that. I knew it was wrong. I don’t go anywhere now,” she added.
“When we teach this,” I went on, “God shows up and people get healed of all sorts of sickness and pain, just like in the days of Jesus. We never pray for the sick, because Jesus never prayed for the sick. Instead, He would often give a command to an evil spirit or tell the person to do something that they could not do, and they would be set free. That’s called authority, starting something good or stopping something bad just by using words in a normal voice."
Every now and then she would stop briefly to take in what I was saying, so I knew I could go on.
“Even when Adam and Eve made their big mistake, God did not take away their authority, they just lost sight of how to use it. Jesus taught about how to use it, but very few people do it properly. Do you remember when He was teaching by the Sea of Galilee, which is surrounded by mountains, and He said to His disciples,
“‘If you have the smallest amount of faith, you will speak to a problem and tell it what to do, and it will be done for you?’”
“Actually, He said, ‘If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will speak to this mountain and tell it to be picked up and thrown in the sea, and it will be done for you.’
“Yes, I’ve heard that.”
“The problem is that most people do it the wrong way. They pray it, when they are meant to say it. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in churches and someone up front says, ‘And Lord, we say, move this mountain.’ That’s not what Jesus said to do! And some do it week after week…”
“Yes,” and Michele paused briefly to respond, “I’ve seen that, too.”
It was time to change direction and so I started to ask Michelle about her family. I had seen something, an idea had come into my head. It was risky: if it failed I would feel stupid and could look stupid, but I had done variations of this by myself many times before without fail. Why not follow up words with actions?
“Is This an Amazing Miracle?”
(Michele has come to clean our house; she likes to chat as she works, and we had talked about some personal issues like growing up, and siblings, before I had a chance to tell her about The Equality of Men and Women, and what we call ‘Ministry Like Jesus.’ An idea had formed in my mind about putting some of my words into action, but first, I wanted to know more about her and her family, her husband and children. She didn’t mind at all.)
“We were high school sweethearts,” she offered, in response to how she had met John (names are changed). “We got married soon after we left. And we have two teenage boys.”
And she told some stories that showed he was a caring, loving husband.
”What about around the house, does he just leave his clothes on the floor for you to pick up?”
”Ooh, no, they’re all good about that,” she replied with obvious pleasure.
“But he does have one annoying habit,” and she paused again for a moment. “He leaves the toilet seat up. Actually, they all do. I’ve tried everything to get them to change, but nothing has worked. They just laugh.”
I’m not sure why men are like that, but when I first heard about this problem decades ago I decided that I would be different. It’s easy to change. It’s just thoughtless and disrespectful to any women or girls who are around the house.
”We can change that,” I said with a certain amount of bravado. “One of the reasons that Jesus taught about authority was because God expects all of us to use it. Church has become a spectator sport, with a team doing the work on the stage and a pastor doing all the ministry up front.
“It wasn’t always like that, it’s not the way it was meant to be. That’s why Jesus sent out the twelve, first, and then the seventy, to show that anyone could do what He did. And they did. We can, too.”
Something was happening in Michele. While she had cut off her church connection, she still was excited to hear what God intended for us to experience.
”Would you like God to get involved in this?”
She briefly paused in her work to say, “Yes, sure. How would we do that?”
“There’s one more thing that Jesus taught, that people don’t really follow.”
I quickly Googled the verse (Matthew 18:19) because I wanted to get it right.
‘Again I tell you, if two of you may agree on Earth concerning anything, whatever they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in Heaven.’
”Here’s where a lot of people go wrong as well,” I told her. “They will organise a prayer chain, or call the whole church to prayer, when that isn’t what Jesus said to do. He didn’t even mention prayer, but he clearly said ‘two’. Two that agree.
“You are one, I am two. Do you agree with me that John should put the seat down after using the toilet?”
“Is This an Amazing Miracle?”
(Michele came to clean our house, as she does regularly, and was showing keen interest in what I was doing. Everything I do and talk about is meant to be practical and easily applied by anyone to their situation, so when she mentioned that her family of males would not lower the seat after using the toilet, a very thoughtless and common problem in many parts of the world, I had an idea.)
I had explained to Michele how Jesus said that if two people agreed about anything on Earth, His Father in Heaven would take care of it.
“Do you agree with me that John should put the seat down after using the toilet?”
She stopped cleaning in order to give her “Yes.” She paused her work while I continued.
“We are going to combine these three tools Jesus gave us: agreement, speaking to the problem instead of just about it, and using our authority then to do it. There is a fourth tool also involved, called 'The Keys of the Kingdom', where we hear from God what has been permitted or forbidden from Heaven before we do anything on Earth.
‘At Creation, God gave Adam and Eve, and us, authority over everything on the Earth. At His ascension, Jesus extended that authority to us into the spiritual realm as well when He said, ‘All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me; Go, therefore…’ He wasn’t just talking to leaders, He was talking to everyone gathered there, including ordinary believers like you and me.
”Since 2018 during any healing or ministry situation, I no longer use my authority to remove sickness, pain or affliction. Instead, everyone, including little children, just gives the command themselves, ‘Pain, Go,’ or ‘Sickness, Go’ or whatever it is, and the problems they have go, on the spot. There’s no need to shout or cry out, there’s no need to call in a pastor or elders, anyone can do this. It’s amazing!”
Michele agreed that it sounded amazing, and also agreed to agree with what I was going to say to ‘the mountain’. We faced the direction of her house and I spoke to her husband as if he was standing in front of us.
”John, when you finish using the toilet, just put the seat down again afterwards. Always. That’s just a thoughtful thing to do to bless your wife.” And then I quickly added, “And boys, you do the same, too.”
“That’s it, that will do it. Whatever you do, don’t say anything to them now about the toilet seat. It has to be their idea.”
She agreed again, and shortly later as she was leaving she said, “This has been the most wonderful, exciting morning. You’ve shown me things about God that have renewed my faith in Him.”
“Is This An Amazing Miracle?”
“Michele’s coming to clean the house on Friday,” Patti said a month later.
Again I felt a little quiver of unease in my belly, but I didn’t say anything.
Michele’s faith in God had been given a lift a month ago (that was how she described our chat while she worked around me) as I described some real-life issues that God had fixed for people around the world.
Then, to demonstrate in the now season (Romans 3:26 AMP) that God still cared about the smallest details in our lives, I quizzed Michele and found a problem at home that caused her continual frustration: the menfolk in her household would not lower the seat (not the lid but the seat) after using the toilet.
It should not be a major problem for males to restore a toilet seat to the down position, especially if there is a woman around. It’s a reasonable courtesy to extend to your wife, mother, sister, whoever, who doesn’t use the toilet with the seat up. Somehow, though, in much of the western world, it’s a continual and, for some reason, a stubbornly enforced discourtesy from males towards females.
We used four Biblical tools which are under-used, misunderstood, and which are frequently not used according to instructions:
Authority - see Genesis 1:26,28.
Say to this mountain - See Matthew 17:20, Mark 11:23, Luke 17:6.
The Keys of The Kingdom - See Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:18
If two of you agree - See Matthew 18:19
After we agreed on the action that should now take place in her all-male household (that the guys would lower the seat after using the toilet) we faced the direction of their house and I spoke some simple words of command to the men of the house.
"John, put the seat down when you finish using the toilet." And almost as an afterthought I added, "And boys, you do the same, too."
That’s it, that was all.
We did not pray, we did not ask God to do it. We didn't fold our hands, close our eyes, or bow our heads. We did just what Jesus said to do.
A month later she was back as scheduled.
I decided to let her start making conversation, if she was going to, and she did.
That made it easier for me, at the right moment, to ask, still with some trepidation, “What happened with the toilet seat?”
Just as nonchalantly as if she knew it would happen and so it was nothing out of the ordinary, she said, “Oh, they’re putting it down now.”
Eyes wide, mouth open but smiling, too, I asked, “How long did it take??”
Cool as anything, “Two weeks. My youngest, he’s a momma’s boy, he started it and the others just followed.”
”And did you say anything to them to get it started?”
”No, he just did it and the others followed.”
And no, no one needs to ask me to agree with them. For anything.
Anyone can do it and get a neighbour, a husband or wife, a friend, a parent or child, a sibling to agree with them. Jesus wasn’t exclusive about this in any way.
In fact, in John’s Gospel Jesus is recorded as saying, “I can do nothing of Myself…it is the Father in Me who does the works.” And then again, a bit later, “My Father has not stopped working from the beginning.”
It works in exactly the same way with us, too.
By the time she was packing up to leave I had plucked up the courage to try again.
"You've seen how God loves you and will do anything for you - is there anything else that you would like your family to do?"
“Is This An Amazing Miracle?”
Michele was packing all of her cleaning tools and taking them to the car by the time I had plucked up the courage to ask her if there was something else she would like God to trigger her family to do.
You know, even after doing things like this by myself for years, and seeing them come to pass, when one involves someone else whom you will see again the tempting thought still might flash through your head, “What if it doesn’t work?”
She stopped for just a moment before saying, “They never replace the toilet roll when it runs out, they just sit it on top. I’ve tried to get them to do it, but they won’t.”
I grinned as I thought about it and then spoke out loud, “That’s not hard for God to do, either.. Are you ready to agree with me that they do it?”
“Sure.”
That’s half the problem solved, but I always like to demonstrate how easy it is, using everyday, non-religious words, to actually speak to a situation and bring change to pass. Most people, of the few that actually try it, pray it when instead, they are meant to say it. That’s the scary part, that’s where faith seems to fail a lot of people.
Or they make it a big deal by using flowery language which is meant to impress someone, somewhere, but once again, that’s not how Jesus said to do it. There is no need to say, “I decree and declare” as many do, because we don’t speak like that in real life. We decree or declare something (essentially the same thing in this case) by saying what that thing or person should do, by speaking to them as if they were right there, in our presence.
The centurion whose servant was paralysed at home really nailed it. I’m puzzled why people don’t understand and follow the simplicity of what he said.
Jesus offered to come to his house and restore the servant, but the centurion declined out of humility and said instead, “Only say the word and he will be healed.”
“For I also am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to another, Do this, and he does it.” (Matthew 8:5-13)
Jesus marvelled at what He had just heard, because it was simple, straight-forward, and accurate. And just like the Master Himself.
Michele and I faced the general direction of her house and I said:
“John, and boys, replace the toilet roll in the holder when the paper runs out. Don’t just sit the new one on top.”
I had to wait another month to find out, again with no suggestion from her, that the guys had just started to do what had been bugging her for years. They were now replacing the old toilet roll with the new!
On top of that she showed me a photo of what her husband had written with a Sharpie under the lid of the toilet in the guest bathroom:
“Put the seat down when you finish!”
This time as we spoke I suggested that it was time for her to introduce the idea of agreeing with John, or getting him to agree with her, on other things that were involved in their family life, It's such a simple, harmless, inoffensive but very effective tool that Jesus gave us. It's not religious, because it doesn't involve prayer, but it's so powerful and can lead people to trust the Godhead and see Them in a new light.
"After all," as I reminded her, "God loves you both and will do anything for you."
below:
Some years ago (mainly in the late 2000 teens) I decided to test out one particular spirit component in deliverance and healing.
People, mostly on the other side of the world, would contact me via Facebook Messenger, seeking healing or a change in circumstances of some sort. Knowing that whatever the exact circumstances, if something was wrong there was always one or perhaps many malevolent, evil spirits involved, I tackled these problems on that basis and we always won, whether the problem was very physical, such as pain or sickness, or something circumstantial, like unemployment. (We always looked firstly at non-spiritual reasons for whatever the problem was.)
Because this was handled completely by text any such interaction took quite some time, generally 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, because I have to ask questions before we begin and as we proceed, and also keep asking the other person that special question, "What's happening," or "What's happening on your hands or in any other part of your body?"
On my instructions via text the
person would hold out their hands
before God, palms up and
open to receive.
They would normally feel some pleasant manifestation in their hands within a few seconds, which I would describe as 'the presence of God' or 'God's handshake'. Then, if there was something more sinister involved in the spirit realm the person might feel coldness, or shaking, or trembling, or 'flipping and flapping' (muscle spasms), sweating, nausea, headache, or the pain would move to another area in the body. (These symptoms, called manifestaions, will happen to people from anywhere. They are a part of deliverance ministry which enables the person ministering to identify the presence of a spirit that is oppressing the person.)
Depending on the type and location of the manifestation Holy Spirit would give me a name, like Fear for example, and when I texted "Fear, Go'" the manifestation associated would cease. There were usually a number of different manifestations and they would each require individual attention before the person was free.
Sometimes we would have to properly deal with a situation that the person had been involved in, either as perpetrator or as victim, before a spirit or spirits would leave.
Prompted by natural curiosity
or Holy Spirit I used two
internet-capable devices at
once on several occasions to
test out my theory,
which was a growing conviction that the result was not coming because the person (and the malevolent spirit involved) on the other end read the command, but that the command was acted upon as soon as I wrote it on the device, even before or without sending it.
On one device I would continue the conversation; on the other, which showed the conversation as well, I would text a command to a particular, named spirit associated with a manifestation that the person was experiencing, but not send the command. As always, I would keep asking, "What's happening," so that I knew whether I had to keep working on a particular area.
I did this on at least two occasions, with two different people. Each time I did this the person would say, "and the shaking (or coldness, or muscle spasms or whatever was connected to the command that had not been sent) has stopped also." For additional verification I would ask when it had stopped, and their reply would always match the time within the flow of conversation that I had written the unsent command.
As far as I am concerned that also shows conclusively that the manifestations are not controllable by the subject because they cannot stop them by themselves, that the manifestations are not psychological in nature (not 'in the mind'), and not removable by my influence on the subject themselves or something that I say or text to them.
It all happens 'in an instant' in the spirit. Our authority (a command) is backed up and enforced by God's angels. They move and act outside of time, according to place.
Real Life Examples (this page)