It’s still a fascinating concept if you think about—God restricting his power on the earth and limiting it through us. What a sobering concept!

Psalm 78:41 says, “Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” Wow, the Israelites tempted God and limited him. They limited God. How was that? Through their unbelief, they limited God.

I was talking to my son the other day about this concept of how God needs us, and how throughout the Bible, God would not do anything unless it was in cooperation with a person. Immediately, my son said, “Well, what about the Flood?”

Hmmm? Good question.

So, I re-read the Flood story, looking specifically for an instance where someone prayed for judgement or some sort of human interaction. Obviously, Noah was found righteous and instructed to build the boat, but did God consult Noah beforehand? Here’s what I found in Genesis:

But Noah found favor with the LORD. This is the history of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless man living on earth at the time. He consistently followed God’s will and enjoyed a close relationship with him. (Genesis 6:8-9).

It doesn’t say specifically that Noah prayed and God responded with the Flood, but it does indicate some human interaction and possible intercession. It says that Noah “enjoyed a close relationship with [God]“. I think it’s very likely that God and Noah were talking about the current state of humanity throughout the earth, and God’s heart grieved that he ever created Man. But, Noah was there, by his side, talking with God.

Even at the Flood, I believe God consulted a human on what to do, and it was through that same man that God saved all of humanity.

When you think about it, if God had not limited himself years ago with the initial creation of Adam, he could have easily wiped out the earth and started over from scratch again. But, he couldn’t. His irrevocable laws and principles were in place already. He chose to limit himself through them.

What does God want to do through you?

This is another one of those amazing stories about faith, about believing:

When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, a huge crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

Jesus replied, “You stubborn, faithless people! How long must I be with you until you believe? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” “You didn’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible” (Matthew 17:14-20).

I find this story amazing because here the disciples had been with Jesus for quite awhile now, and they had seen the miracles, the power, the results of faith in Jesus. At this point, they had seen bread and fish multiplied (Matthew 14:19), they had seen Jesus (and Peter) walk on the water (Matthew 14:25), and they had seen numerous miracles. Surely, you would think they could believe by now. Maybe it wasn’t the disciples lack of faith as much as it was the people’s lack of faith. Jesus did rebuke them, “You stubborn, faithless people.”

Yet, it was when he was long with the disciples that he said, “You didn’t have enough faith.” So, it was their lack of faith as well. They didn’t believe. If they had just a mustard seed of faith, “nothing would be impossible.”

What seems impossible to you right now? An upcoming reorg at work? A struggling marriage? Rebellious kids? A serious sickness? What seems impossible to you, right now? Listen carefully to the words of Jesus, “If you have enough faith, nothing is impossible. If you believe, it is possible.“