Chapter 1 “Moving Your Mountains”

More than anything in the world, next to being more intimate with the Lord, I have this overwhelming desire to be debt free. It’s that word free that has taken hold of me and won’t let go. It’s primarily due to the realization that overtakes me (at least once each day) that reminds me of what our sweet Husband, did for you and me. I’ve even awakened to a new revelation that our Darling didn’t die just so that you and I could get into heaven when we die, but He died His death on the cross so that you and I could be set free—free from each and every single burden in your life and mine.

If that weren’t enough, He broke every one of the chains of death in order that He could be with us now, right now, as our Heavenly Husband. Then included in this act of His love, His perfect love is what does the miraculous—heals our deepest wounds and sets us free from all shame and pain.

Finally finding that abundant life, then living this life the following year, has brought me closer and closer to really seeing the magnitude of the blessings that God has bestowed on each of us when He sent His only Son to die in our place: that perfect Lamb who was slain. Then allowing Him to be our Bridegroom, forgetting the warfare and focusing on just being “in love” with Him.

Hopefully you’re also at the place that you’re not like many Christians who are just for when He calls us all to meet Him in the sky, but that each and every single day: each morning when you wake up, every night you go to bed, you are wrapped warmly in His sweet arms of love, and every single moment in between.  If not, I would encourage you to stop and read the books that come prior to this, Finding the Abundant Life, Living the Abundant Life, and The Poverty Mentality. Each of these books are courses offered free to members of Restoration Fellowship.

However, I have come to realize that most of believers, and I mean probably 99% of Christians, do not live at the level of blessings that is ours by right. My guess is that most believers simple don’t know about them, because if they did, we’d each begin to tap into these blessings, just as each of us have begun to do!

Who would have ever dreamt that you could face divorce pain-free? Certainly, not me! And I am not talking about the women who are initiating the divorce or women who are spitting mad with a vengeance if divorce is filed against them. Because whether they are honest or not, even these two groups of angry divorced women often live and do their best to suppress the pain, regrets and guilt—hidden behind their anger. Yet, by learning to tap into all that the Lord had for me, based on His promises, I went through my divorce totally pain-free and worry-free. (If you or someone you know who is facing divorce, be sure to take advantage of the testimony I share in Facing Divorce Again that is also a free course on LoveAtLast.com).

Then, there are those who have gone through supernatural childbirth—pain-free!! Who would have ever thought that was possible? Certainly, not me! And though I am past childbearing years (and am no longer married) I cannot tap into this promise myself, but my children will. I am seeing to this by speaking it, and believing it; thereby increasing the faith of my daughters, which have already led to their beliefs changing. I often hear my daughters telling people that they will have pain-free and complication-free births—they’re adamant about it and we have only read halfway through Supernatural Childbirth as I mentioned I was doing in my last book, Poverty Mentality.

It was while reading this book to my children that I realized many things; one, that I often have done the right thing to move mountains in my life when I didn’t even know I was doing it. The same, I’m sure, is true in your life. Are there things that you have believed God for, without wavering, and they happened just as you believed they would—you just didn’t know you were moving one of your mountains?!

That’s because our beliefs are far above, and much stronger, than our hopes. “Hoping” for something certainly has to precede believing God for something, but the difference is like thinking or saying aloud “Wow, that would be nice” as you “hope” for something to happen, versus thinking or saying aloud “Praise God! It’s about to happen!” Let me give you just one example of how this is different that Erin shared with me.

Erin said that when she found out that her brother, who lives in Japan and whose wife is a Buddhist, was going to allow her niece to come to stay with their family for a month, she told everyone “Praise God, my niece is coming over to get saved!!” Erin said, “Even though I had never spoken to my niece about the Lord or salvation, or anything else spiritual, I had no doubt that it was going to happen—no doubt whatsoever. What shocked me was when I shared this with most Christians, they made it a point to correct me by saying “Oh, that’s nice, of course we all hope she’ll get saved [emphasizing the word hope], but we don’t know that for sure” to which Erin replied, “Yes, we do! You’ll see; she’ll be saved before she goes back home!”

Erin went onto say, “It wasn’t that I had asked God specifically for her salvation either: like asking Him, “Please, Lord, bring Monica over here so we can share the Good News with her” though praying and believing specifically can be a good thing. It is just that I could feel it; I could sense it; very much due to the suddenly of her coming over to stay with us. In some ways, though I can’t explain it, most of the women in our ministry know what I am talking about. For years, since she was a baby, our family had been praying for my brother and his family to be saved. If I spoke to him about my faith, a wall would go up a mile high. Even worse, my brother is brilliant and knows the Bible; he just doesn’t believe it (yet). So, he loves to debate, but I refuse to. Years ago, I knew He was telling me to let go of this burden and to simply live my life as an epistle. My life finally got his attention.

Though I know my brother was terrified of my “converting” his daughter, God overruled and suddenly my niece was coming for a visit—alone. While visiting, she was curious when she woke up and walked by during our family’s morning prayer meeting (she had never heard about prayer), and she was immediately intrigued that we were “talking to God.” Before she went home, as I believed would happen–my niece was indeed radically saved, then asked to be baptized, and during her baptism, she shared her testimony to our entire church in her broken English.

Due to her beliefs, Erin’s mountain moved. (If you’d like to read the full testimony, be sure to find this free course on LoveAtLast.com, “Salvation Stories.”)

What happened to Erin’s niece, Monica, was due entirely to Erin’s immovable faith. It proves what our Husband told us when He was in the midst of His ministry on earth, “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen’” (Matthew 21:21).

This is not the only time Jesus said suggested this crazy notion. Another time He answered His disciples when they asked why they were unable to cast out the demons from the lunatic:

“And He said to them, ‘Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

Having Faith Like a Child

Most of us know that another thing Jesus told us during His ministry is that we would need faith like a child, which simply means that we don’t think of the impossibilities or all that could go wrong; but instead, like a child, we look to our Hero knowing that He is more than able to do the impossible. Is your Husband your Hero?

Funny, it was about a month ago that I told my daughters while we were driving that I was going to write this book, and told them the title “Moving Mountains.” Instantly they knew what my book was going to be about. Then, to my surprise, they each said that when they first heard the verse about moving a mountain, they’d tried it! How cute is that? They both said that they were so surprised when the mountain they spoke to (a tall hill near our home) didn’t move, and wondered why, in their faith like a child.

Not that they asked me intentionally, but I wanted to help them with their “whys,” so in my head and heart, I spoke to their Father, my Husband, for how to answer them. Immediately I knew how to help them in a gentle, loving manner. I explained that we can compare the power we hold as believers like the power that’s in a car. Unless we are mature enough to drive, our heavenly Father knows not to give us the keys. Then I went on to explain that when Jesus spoke of moving mountains, He used it figuratively, and that they, without knowing they were doing it, were already learning to move the mountains in their lives and had probably moved many without even knowing it.

Throughout our lives, you and I (and our children) will face mountains; many impossible situations and frightening circumstance will loom over us. That’s when we must choose to: turn back, park ourselves at the base of the mountain, climb the mountain, go around mountain, or instead believe—when we sense He is saying to—command that the mountain move. “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him” (Mark 11: 23).

What motivates me to no longer doubt that a mountain will move is when I know what God says about something. If He tells me in His Word something is possible, I believe it—one reason is because He also says that He, God, cannot lie. Probably the most well-known mountain that God moved that changed the way I thought, is when I read about Erin’s marriage being restored. She spoke to her mountain, she immediately after Erin said she’d read in her Bible that “nothing is impossible with God” two years earlier—it was the day that RMI unofficially began, which is what has ministered to all of us and what also later helped launch my ministry and so many others too!

Once Erin told me, “Honestly, Michele, when I was first facing abandonment, at first, I honestly didn’t know what to do, but I know what I wanted to happen. It was what I hoped for. Then, after reading a tiny book by Dr. Ed Wheat, How to Save Your Marriage Alone, I began to believe it could happen. It took two years of moving several smaller mountains (as a single mother of four small children) that brought me to the place for that huge mountain of separation and divorce to be cast into the sea.”

God knows that without seeing the smaller mountains move, we will have trouble believing that we have the power needed to move the really big mountains! That’s why, when hoping to move a huge mountain, like my “Mt. Everest” that is looming over me right now, a mountain of unbelievable debt, the Lord brings me before one smaller mountain after another—teaching me what I am able to do when I believe, and no longer doubt.

Just last night I had a credit card company call to encourage me to transfer my credit card debt to their card with lower interest. When he told me the amount, saying I can transfer an entire balance, I laughed. I told him it didn’t even come close to what I needed. That little bit would not do anything! It was like someone offering me a larger shovel to dig my way through my “Mt. Everest”—ha! No sir, I need a miracle, not another method. Thanks.

Learning how to move smaller mountains finally hit me just after the Lord led me to do my income taxes this year—myself. Insane! I shared about this in my last book, Poverty Mentality, but let me tell you a briefly why this was crazy. First, I am absolutely horrible with numbers; secondly, I have a bad habit of adding or omitting zeros (not a good thing when working with the government and IRS): third, (as I mentioned in PM) my ex-husband always did our taxes (well, actually he gathered the information for our taxes, which always took him the first three months of the new year—then he would turn everything over to a professional CPA, who was an “expert” with non-profit organizations, who, very often, filed for an extension because our taxes were so difficult). Have I proved my point of the magnitude of moving this mountain?

No matter how many times I told my Husband these facts, however, He kept telling me that I would do them this year—simply ignoring my excuses, and then reminded me of when I filed the paperwork to get a 501(c) 3 non-profit status. When I did this crazy, ludicrous, preposterous, even comical feat, the representative from the IRS phoned me basically saying the same thing, it was: crazy, ludicrous, preposterous. She actually said she’d called to find out what attorney I used, and when she heard that I was attempting this impossibility, explaining to me, me, this simpleton, that most attorneys are not skilled enough to file this very complicated and in-depth request, she then went on to tell me just what the percentage was for organizations who don’t qualify for a nonprofit status each year. It was something like 95%.

It’s was, however, in that exact moment in time, when the facts are so real that if you look closely—your mountain will begin to teeter just waiting to see how we, who claim to be believers, will respond. Will we agree with the impossibility? Will we take time to stop to make sure it is God’s will? Or will we, instead, speak the words that will move that mountain—casting it into the sea?

That day, when the IRS representative called, I spoke the words that moved that mountain, saying, “Yes, I know it is impossible but I’d like to get a tax-exempt status” and that’s when the “impossible” happened—the representative from the IRS personally walked me through each step over the next several days, and eventually pushed the request through and the nonprofit status was granted.

Though I know that (at the time) it was important that we gain this non-profit status for the sake of my new ministry, and for my family, now looking back, I how this was just one part of God’s bigger plan. He wanted me to feed you this truth “feed my sheep” so in teaching you, you will be able to help others how to move the mountain in the life of the believer, to attract the attention of nonbelievers—brides who need a Husband to live their life abundantly!!

If there is one thing that will get the attention of the lost, the desperate, it is when His brides all over the world begin to have the faith to move mountains.

The question is: Will you be one of them?

Just don’t panic—remember, He starts us out with the little mountains first!