Speaking to Mountains, Trees and Diseases
You can speak to a mountain and command it to be removed. You can speak to a tree and command it to be removed. You can speak to a disease in your body and command it to be removed.
Jesus said explicitly in Mark 11:23-24, Matthew 17:20 and Matthew 21:18-22 that you can speak to a mountain in faith and it will be cast into the sea. Of course, there is little practical value in speaking to a literal mountain. These days, some lawyer would probably file a class-action lawsuit against you on behalf of the owners of coastal property and boats that were destroyed when the mountain crashed into the sea. Jesus was showing what power faith-filled words have – power that literally could throw an entire mountain into the sea. There is no point in trying to water down what Jesus said. It’s nothing in comparison to what God did, anyway. He spoke and all the mountains and everything else came into existence in the first place. When you have heaven backing your words, everything is possible.
However, at this writing I’ve had one practical application of this. There was a “mountain” of clouds named Bonnie that was headed to make a direct hit on the Caribbean island where I was doing a series of healing services. It was still a tropical storm at that time, though it became a major hurricane later. I was quite upset by the forecast and the warnings from the U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami that everyone should stay home and hunker down because widespread damage was predicted. How could God have moved me to do those services on those particular dates on that particular island, only to have the last services wiped out by a storm? I told God that He had to do something about it. He told me, “No, YOU have to do something about it.” I thought, “Yes, I’m a faith preacher, I’m supposed to know that.” So I spoke to Bonnie and commanded it to go out to sea and miss that island as well as the next one up in the chain. I still have a tracking chart somewhere showing a strange sudden right-angle change of course as Bonnie was heading my way, then another right-angle change where it proceeded in the original direction after missing the island I was on and the other one that I named. Bonnie lied over the ocean and never came ashore. Thus, I had commanded a “mountain” (of clouds) to be cast into the sea, or at least in this case, to be cast out to sea. The “fun” part was that I told everyone in the next service that the storm was NOT going to hit and the meetings were NOT going to be canceled (they weren’t), BEFORE there was any evidence that the storm had changed course and the Hurricane Center could change its forecast! When you have the spirit of faith, you believe and therefore you speak (2 Corinthians 4:13). Anyone could make up something after the fact, but it was interesting publicly contradicting what forecasters in Miami were predicting before there was any known course change.
I knew I was “on assignment” on that island for that particular time, so that storm had to go. However, I have never told any major storm to go elsewhere since then, as I’ve never had the direct “mandate” from God at stake like that. However, if I ever had a tornado coming at my house, I would definitely speak to it. I have a friend who DID have a tornado head straight for his house. He commanded it to go back up in the name of Jesus and it did. He doesn’t go around moving tornadoes all the time, either, but he was a tither (as I am) and the devourer was rebuked for his sake, so that storm had no business trying to devour his house.
Jesus said explicitly in Luke 17:5-6 and Matthew 21:18-22 that you can speak to a tree. Jesus did so Himself and the disciples saw the results of Jesus’ faith-filled words spoken to an object. While Jesus mentioned only a mountain in Mark’s gospel, the conversation was triggered by what Jesus had said to a fig tree and the later visible results.
I have yet to have an actual need to speak to a tree in my experience, but it is nice to know that if a tree were falling or coming at me for some reason in a storm, I could speak to it and change its course.
Don’t freak out because Jesus said that you can speak to objects that are not sentient beings. He said you can and He demonstrated it. It’s futile to argue with the Son of God about something. He spoke to the wind and waves, and they obeyed Him. Wind and waves don’t have ears to hear you any more than trees and mountains do. (I've heard of mountaineers, but they’re something different.) Yet Jesus spoke to such things and got results! You don’t have to understand how it can work; you just have to believe it!
If you can speak to a mountain and you can speak to a tree, you can speak to disease in your body or someone else’s body. This is of far more practical use than in telling a sycamine tree to be uprooted and cast into the sea, especially in many locations where you might expose and twist underground cables and get in trouble with the local Dig Safe people as well as with the local fishermen near where it lands. If you can command a great big lump of rock and earth to be gone, it’s a far smaller thing to command a lump of cancer to be gone. If you can command a tree to be yanked up by its roots and removed, it’s a far smaller thing to command arthritis to be yanked up by its roots and removed.
I’ve had a LOT of cases where I spoke to a disease and it left. That is usually how I see people get healed, though I’m also usually laying hands on them as well when I do it. At this point, I’ve lost count of “stage four” cancer cases that I’ve seen healed by taking authority over the cancer in the name of Jesus. It is helpful to remember that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21) because sometimes you will need to speak death to cancer and other diseases just as Jesus spoke death to the fig tree.
It should follow from the statements that Jesus made that you can speak to diseases just as you would speak to mountains or trees. In fact, Jesus demonstrated this fact explicitly. He rebuked the fever in Peter’s mother-in-law in Luke 4:38-39. In Mark 7:32-37, Jesus spoke to a deaf ear and commanded it to be opened, and it was. This is not the only way to minister to a sick person; you can simply lay hands on the person in obedience to Mark 16:15-18. Even when you do this, you should do so with the understanding that you are exercising your authority over the sickness that is in the person’s body.
The fact that you have the right to speak to diseases is a neglected key to ministering to the sick. It is right to pray for the sick inasmuch as we should pray that the sick get a revelation of God’s healing covenant. However, it is not right to “pray for the sick” if that means tasking God to heal the sick. No one in the New Testament ever asked God to heal a sick person! Instead, Jesus and His followers took authority over sickness and taught the truth about healing. Instead of “praying for the sick” in the modern sense, they preached the gospel (which includes healing) and healed the sick in the name of Jesus. (Paul prayed before he laid his hands on Publius’s father, but Luke did not say that Paul prayed for that man’s healing in Acts 28:8-9.) You will see better results when you quit “praying for the sick” and start speaking to sickness, exercising your authority over it in the name of Jesus. Don’t ask God to do something that He has already delegated authority to you to do. The key is the realization that God has put the ball in your court, so to speak, by giving you that delegated authority.
Take authority over that disease that is in your body. Don’t ask God to heal you because you are out of agreement with His Word if you do that. God says that you were healed by the stripes of Jesus (1 Peter 2:24). Agree with that instead and thank God for it. Command disease to leave your body in the name of Jesus. Remember that Jesus backs His name when you use it. When you ask anything in His name, He will do it (John 14:14). Similarly, when you command a disease to leave your body in the name of Jesus, Jesus Himself personally backs His name and Jesus Himself forces the disease out and heals your body.
When it comes to other peoples’ bodies, you need their consent and cooperation. If the person is an unbeliever or a young Christian, he must at least allow you to speak to his body and his condition in the name of Jesus. You should explain what you are doing first, of course, so that the other person can agree to the best of his ability. Also, if you don’t explain yourself, the person may misinterpret you if you say “I command you to die in the name of Jesus!” or “I command you to leave in the name of Jesus, you foul thing!” With more mature believers, you are really praying the prayer of agreement together with them, uniting your faith against the disease as you speak to it.
Jesus said something that will help give you confidence when you speak to mountains, trees and diseases. He said, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). Your confidence is NOT in your own “spiritual power” to relocate something. Your trust should be in God’s faithfulness to back your words because you’re speaking in accordance with His word and His will. (If you’re not sure that what you plan to speak is God’s will, you need to take a step back and find out from Scripture if you have the right to speak it before you start speaking. Otherwise, you will have no confidence that what you say will come to pass, and you won’t really believe it in your heart.) Speaking is the easy part, and that’s all you have to do. God will back your words. You are to have faith that He will do it. God set up everything with HIS words, and now you have a lot of control over your destiny with YOUR words. God gave YOU the authority to shape your destiny with your words. He will honor your right to do it.
This doesn’t mean that you can control the actions of others or that you can stop all unforeseen storms from popping up in your life. Life sometimes throws curveballs. You’re not living in a Christmas romance movie where everything is predictable from start to finish. (By happenstance, an attractive girl meets an attractive boy who has a lot of money. At first, they do not hit it off. Then circumstances cause them to have to be together and they discover that they misunderstood each other at first and they really like each other a lot. Then a disagreement pops up that looks like it will surely scotch their relationship. Another suitor gets involved in the situation, who is probably the person that one of them was engaged to but not married to at the beginning of the movie. Now things really look hopeless. The other one sees this situation and gets very discouraged, but a friend says the line that is the hallmark of such movies, “It’s Christmas, so anything is possible.” At the last minute, the other suitor’s unsuitability is unmasked and the two get together for keeps just in time for Christmas. While I realize that I might have just given away the plot to the next four dozen Christmas romance movies you’ll watch, I hope you realize that real life doesn’t go that predictably.)
You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond. If you continue to speak in agreement with God’s Word, He will bring you out the other side of your trial. Look at Paul’s life. If anyone had constant, horrible trials, he did. Many were the afflictions of Paul, but the Lord delivered him from them all! He will deliver you just as much if you’ll trust Him.
Proverbs 12:6:
The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
You need to understand that MAN, not GOD, has authority over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28, Psalm 115:16). God has given us more latitude than most people realize. Satan, who has no real spiritual power over you, wants to get you to speak HIS thoughts so that you can reap HIS results. You have the legal right, though not the moral right, to speak words of unbelief and have them come to pass. Satan has the right to enforce negative words that come out of your mouth. If you say, “I just know I’m going to die young,” you’re authorizing it to happen. It won’t be God making you die young, but it will still happen if you say it with your mouth and believe it with your heart.
God’s angels get involved with your situation when you speak God’s Word (Psalm 103:20). All of heaven will back you. But if you just sit there passively in the midst of a trial and don’t say anything, life will just run you over like a steamroller. If anything in your life is going contrary to God’s Word, you need to speak to that situation in the name of Jesus and move that mountain!
Too often someone will say, “I’m just trusting in the Lord.” But no one will move a mountain, tree or disease just by saying that he trusts God. You need to speak TO that mountain, tree or disease and MOVE it!
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