In Luke 17 Jesus is teaching and in response to what Jesus had said the disciples asked for their faith to be increased. Luke 17:5-10:
“The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
The conclusion the disciples made after hearing what Jesus was teaching about was, “We don’t have the capacity to do what your saying. We need you to increase our faith because what we have is not sufficient to do all you are saying.”
Paul says in Romans 10:17 “Faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” Faith comes by hearing. They asked for their faith to be increased so Jesus gives them a few examples that would bring about understanding. That understanding creates the ability to believe it is possible to do what Jesus is saying. The byproduct of belief is action.
First thing Jesus says about faith is that you only need a little to do something impossible. The second thing he says is that doing the impossible is normal and expected. Jesus says, “If you have a servant you sent to work in the field, you expect that he would perform his duties and responsibilities (the things you instructed him to do).” In the same way God expect us to do the things he has called us to. It is “expected” that we perform our duties and responsibilities.
Jesus continues and says, “Will you say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?” Meaning that the duties and responsibilities of the servant carry on after the work in the field. The picture would have made perfect sense to the disciples.
In the same way that the servant in this story has the ability to perform his tasks and is expected to do so, so do we have the ability to do the things we have been called to do. We are expected to succeed in what we are called to do because we are created with the ability to do so. It’s not weird to buy a car and then expect it to get you from A to B, that was the whole point of the car. It’s not weird that Jesus would say, “You are the light of the world, You will be my witnesses, You will teach people to obey all I have commanded you, You go and make disciples of all nations and then expect us to succeed in performing our tasks.
In the last few articles we saw how God brought about transformation and abundance with things that seemed insignificant. Hear me on this, I do not subscribe to the idea the God uses us in spite of us and all we have and are is worthless or that we are the insignificant thing God uses. But if I can get you to believe that inside of you is something the size of a mustard seed, then in your pursuit of realizing that potential you will discover the weighty value that is expressed in your God given uniqueness!
One person can make all the difference. Just a little bit is all you need! You better look in the mirror, cause I’m talking about you!