The early desert father, Abba of Iliu, said, “Obedience begets obedience, if a man obeys God, God will obey him.” (Vol. 2, Paradise of the Desert Fathers, p. 55).
“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”
St. Mark the Ascetic once asked a visitor if there were still people in the world able to command and say, “mountain be moved into the sea,” and as the ascetic spoke those words the mountain before him began to move and so he said, “I did not mean for you to move,” and it re-settled.
