God does condescend to us and loves us and works for and with us at what ever level our faith is at, but he will not do sheer mighty acts of faith that counter everything in this material world without at least a tiny mustard seed of faith. If we haven't seen great and mighty miracles it isn't because He is not willing to do them. It is because we do not, in this complicated, faith consuming world know how to have the kind of faith that will allow Him to do them.
He is willing, but we are very minimal when it comes to faith. That doesn't mean that He doesn't love us and use the tiny, tiny amount of faith that we practice. It doesn't mean that we should feel guilt or condemnation or place it on others. It means that God's Word doesn't change because of what we think or what we have seen. It means that all of us have much soul searching to do. Many of us are satisfied with a minimal amount of faith, after all it is what we have been taught, and He still loves us mightily. He still responds to the amount of faith we do have. He still works through us to the level that we will believe Him to.
Jesus said that nothing is impossible with God. Jesus said that if we ask we will receive. Jesus said that the works that He did we will do and greater (because The Holy Spirit has been poured out). Jesus said that if two or more agree upon anything on earth it shall be done by our Father in Heaven. Jesus said that if we ask anything believing that it shall be done by His Father in Heaven. Jesus said that as your faith is so shall it be done onto you. Jesus made many, many statements like this. It is not His Word that is deficient, it is our faith. We may never get to the place where we even have a tiny mustard's seed worth of faith but we should try. And if we fail, though we try, God will take notice and will bless even our trying. There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's not worry about being condemned if we fall short. Let's rather endeavor to believe in God's Word with all of our hearts, for even if we fall short, we can afford to because He loves us so much.
Excuse me; but is this the Angels Dancing on a Pinhead thread?
Just what difference, then, is there between mustard seed size faith and tiny tiny faith?
Isn’t that exactly what Jesus meant when He used the comparison?
The problem with the name it and claim it kind of faith is many fold.
First of all, it puts God in a box and limits Him to what the person thinks He MUST do. It means that some person somewhere has decided how God must act at all times and insists that He always act in accord with the perception of God that the person has.
It disallows that God may have other purposes in mind that the affliction is working out in the person’s life.
It blames the person who is sick for their condition.
When Jesus healed, He healed people who weren’t looking for it and didn’t even know who He was. His healing people NEVER depended on their faith but on HIS work.
NEVER did He tell someone they weren’t healed because they didn’t have faith, like so many misguided Christians do.
If God wanted to heal everyone all the time, all that much, He could certainly do it without anyone *blocking* the healing. Jesus did it to people who didn’t know what was happening to them. They had no faith, so clearly the amount of faith is NOT a factor in a person’s healing.
And again, we still haven’t had a decent answer about God healing amputated limb and the one about Joni. She’s still in that wheelchair last I knew.
Who’s going to go to her and tell her to her face that she doesn’t have enough faith?
So suppose two women get cancer, both get prayed for and one gets healed and one doesn’t?
Who’s got the greater faith? The one who got healed or the one who still lives for Jesus and praises Him for what He’s doing in her life and isn’t rattled by the fact that she wasn’t healed?