God’s Blog – By Hal Mitchell
Increase Our Faith – 12/06/2025
In Luke 17, Jesus talked to His disciples about offenses and He said that they would come but “woe or trouble to him through whom they came”. Then He added in verse two “It w0uld be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones”. (I once was renting a house from a man named Millstone. When I had trouble paying the rent I thought I had a millstone around my neck) In the Bible, “little ones” refers primarily to humble, vulnerable believers, often childlike in faith, or even actual children, whom Jesus warns against causing to stumble (sin or lose faith) in passages like Matthew 18:6,10 and Luke 17:2.
Then, in verses three and four, Jesus talked about forgiving people of their trespasses or offenses. When the Apostles said “Increase our faith” Jesus replied in verse six with “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine (Mulberry) tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it (Your Faith) should obey you”. “It” here, is not the sycamine tree, but their Faith. The main subject here, is Faith, not the sycamine tree! The sycamine tree represents the hindrance to their faith and must be “Plucked up by the root”. “Grain of Mustard Seed” shows just how well even a little faith will work.
A portion of this message, I received years ago from Kenneth Copeland who emphasized that “Faith is your servant, and it must obey you!”
Hal Mitchell, The Bard of Hearthstone Hills.