Moving Mountains

Summary of Moving Mountains

1. 1

   When Fire Meets Faith and the War We're Fighting

   

   00:00

   00:00

   A firefighter once told me about the day the impossible happened. The Waldo Canyon Fire was devouring everything - 100-foot walls of flame driven by 65-mph winds that should have consumed an entire neighborhood. Yet at one property line, the inferno simply stopped. Today, you can still see the stark contrast: blackened stumps on one side, living trees on the other. Friends reported seeing what appeared to be angelic wings spread against the flames. This isn't folklore or wishful thinking - it's the kind of breakthrough that happens when we learn to pray with authority rather than just hope. Most of us approach prayer like sending wish lists to a distant deity. We recite careful words, add "in Jesus' name," and wonder why nothing changes. But what if prayer isn't about polite requests? What if it's about wielding the most powerful weapon in a cosmic war we didn't know we were fighting? The nativity scenes in our living rooms tell a sanitized story. We forget that God's arrival on earth triggered a massacre of infants, forcing Jesus to flee as a refugee. If God is truly all-powerful, why didn't he simply obliterate Herod? This paradox reveals something crucial: we're living in contested territory. Think of it like being a third-grader storming Normandy Beach, or a hobbit with a handkerchief facing a dragon. We're outmatched, and our prayers reflect our ignorance. When Daniel prayed, God answered immediately - but demonic forces blocked the response for three weeks until angelic reinforcements arrived. This isn't ancient mythology; it's the reality Scripture repeatedly describes. Christ's arrival accelerated a global conflict, with Satan unleashed in fury against anyone following Jesus. The brutal executions by extremist groups aren't random violence - they're evidence of a war most Christians pretend doesn't exist. This warfare context explains why our gentle "Jesus be with us" prayers accomplish so little. When Jesus said "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves," he wasn't speaking only to first-century disciples. Prayer isn't just asking God to do things - it's learning to wield authority in battle.

2. 2

   The Raw Honesty and Shifted Focus God Requires

   Start Listening

   Some prayers require no training. When my friend's van hit black ice and spun toward catastrophe, all I could manage was "Jesus!" These spontaneous heart-cries erupt from our depths in crisis, and they're always welcome. The Psalms overflow with this raw emotion - David's apocalyptic cries for vengeance, his shouts of joy, his unfiltered honesty. Modern churches might send him to therapy, but God made him king and canonized his prayers as our primer. Jesus himself offered "prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears." The Cry of the Heart requires no religious language - just permission to let your heart speak. But here's the crucial distinction: don't let honest emotion become agreement with despair. David poured out his pain but refused to stay there, reminding himself of God's faithfulness. "I feel forsaken" differs vastly from "I am forsaken." Yet effective prayer demands shifting our focus from circumstances to Jesus himself. When facing crises - a friend's cancer diagnosis, a child's rebellion, financial collapse - we naturally fix our gaze on the suffering. But like Bain in "The Battle of the Five Armies" who needed to look away from the terrifying dragon toward his father's face, we must turn from our fears to see God. Consider who God truly is: creator of everything we love and approximately four hundred billion billion suns across the universe. And who are we? No longer slaves or orphans but sons and daughters with "full rights of sons." Just as my own sons freely raid the refrigerator with my blessing, we approach God with the confidence of beloved children - and as friends and allies of God.

3. 3

   The Secret Currency of Heaven and How to Wield It

   Start Listening

   Prayer operates on authority-the secret to the kingdom of God. Jesus marveled at the centurion who understood this: just as he commanded soldiers, Jesus could command healing from a distance. The spiritual realm functions according to authority structures. God originally gave authority over earth to Adam and Eve, but they forfeited it through disobedience, allowing Satan to become "the prince of this world." Jesus came to reclaim this lost authority through his perfect obedience and atoning death. Though Jesus won the ultimate victory, his kingdom hasn't fully come on earth. That's why he taught us to pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"-invoking his kingdom authority into our present circumstances. Having overthrown the kingdom of darkness, Jesus now shares his authority: "I have given you authority to overcome all the power of the enemy." We're not orphans begging at the door but sons and daughters wielding royal authority. When King Herod imprisoned Peter, the church prayed "very earnestly"-the same Greek word describing Jesus' anguished prayer in Gethsemane-and an angel miraculously freed him. Biblical accounts show effective prayer requires time: the church prayed all night for Peter, Elijah prayed seven times for rain, Daniel's prayer took three weeks. Powerful prayer demands focus and persistence.

4. Chapter 4

   The Essential First Step and Revolutionary Question We Skip

   Consecration is the essential first step before God's protection and provision can flow - deliberately dedicating something to Jesus and bringing it under his rule. Christians often pray frantically without first aligning with Jesus, like soldiers firing blindly or musicians playing without the conductor. Agnes Sanford compared consecration to electrical wiring - while electricity fills the world, only what flows through proper wiring powers appliances. Similarly, God's creative energy fills the universe, but only what flows through consecrated channels works for us. Moses instructed the people to consecrate themselves before God appeared at Mount Sinai. Joshua did the same before crossing the Jordan. Here's what transformed my prayer life: gathering for a repeatedly ill friend, I sensed our prayers weren't working. Following an inner prompting, I asked Jesus what was happening. His reply: "Ask him how he feels about his body." Our friend cynically admitted, "I hate my body." You can't bring blessing to a body while its owner curses it. After breaking those agreements with self-hatred, our prayers became effective. This taught me the most revolutionary practice: asking Jesus what I should pray. Despite witnessing countless breakthroughs over thirty years, I never presume to know what each situation requires. As God's intimate ally, I ask what he wants me to pray, aligning with his current work.

   Chapter 5

   Banishing the Darkness with Simple Authority

   Warfare prayer achieves dramatic results through simple authority. Paul commanded a spirit to leave a fortune-telling slave girl "in the name of Jesus Christ," and it departed immediately. Jesus modeled this in Luke 4, rebuking and banishing a demon with few words. When a young woman sought prayer for nighttime fear and anxiety, discernment revealed fear was both inherited from her mother and enabled by her own perfectionism. The prayer followed three steps. First, declaring her identity: "We declare and proclaim that Cammie belongs to Jesus Christ." Second, she renounced the ways she'd given fear a claim-her perfectionism and family's agreement with fear. Finally, they bound and banished the spirit: "We bring the cross and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ against all fear and anxiety... By the authority of Jesus Christ we command all fear and anxiety bound and banished." Demons fight to maintain oppression, so be specific. Jesus demonstrated this with the man in the tombs-he asked the spirit's name before successfully banishing it. The enemy's presence always has some basis: sin, unresolved emotions, or other footholds. Effective warfare prayer employs three actions: proclaiming truth, invoking Christ's authority, and enforcing Christ's work directly against the oppressors.

   Chapter 6

   When the Answer Is Silence and Life Seems Dead

   Months ago, my wife and I returned to Hawaii hoping to recreate a perfect day swimming with dolphins. Instead, we encountered storms and spiritual warfare. Our deferred hopes made our hearts sick. Around us, unanswered prayers multiplied - a friend battling cancer, another's daughter on the streets, a young man struggling with mental illness. We must carefully interpret unanswered prayer when vulnerable. Conclusions rush in: God isn't listening, he doesn't care, prayer doesn't work. Catch yourself! Don't let your heart go there. Ask Jesus to help interpret what's happening. Jesus told the parable where only one in four seeds bears fruit. Even he saw his efforts prevail only sometimes. We must accept this life's partial nature. When life comes together, something whispers, "Maybe it can always be like this." This Eden-longing is beautiful but premature. My friend, wracked with hospital pain, whispered between episodes, "I love you, Jesus." His wife wrote their room became "the Holy of Holies." Another friend, paralyzed thirty years, texted on his accident's anniversary: "No regrets." Human existence aims for union with God - to say with David, "Your love is better than life."

   Chapter 7

   The Explosion of Life That's Coming

   After the Waldo Canyon Fire, I walked devastated hills behind our house, shoes blackened with ash. The landscape was dead, rocks cracked from furnace-heat. But returning the next summer, I found an explosion of life - lavender asters, sunflowers, blood-red Indian paintbrush, purple penstemon blooming in greater abundance than ever before. This is what we've staked everything on: life wins. Sometimes now, especially when we pray. But life wins fully, and very soon. In a world that teaches polite requests to a distant deity, we've forgotten we're warriors in a cosmic battle with authority to command darkness to flee. Your prayers aren't meant to be careful - they're meant to be powerful. Stop begging and start wielding the authority Christ died to give you.

   Continue Reading