The Cure for Unbelief

"Unbelief is stifling the flow of God's presence and power in our church today." (Quote taken from previous post)

We are hesitant - afraid - to really put ourselves out there and truly believe. We fear disappointment. Worse, if we're gut-level honest, at times we fear that nothing at all will happen, which might poke holes in our decision to believe in God. We're afraid if nothing happens, we will have to justify our belief in God, and maybe we're not sure we can do that. The possibility of believing and not receiving 'results' brings us face to face with our now-wavering faith and the ugly question that lurks somewhere below the surface...'What if God's not real? What if He's not Who He says He is?'

We must recognize that unbelief leads to unbelief. If God cannot, or will not, act in our circumstances when there is unbelief, yet we are afraid to believe because we fear He will not act, then we spin ourselves into a circle of dormant, inactive, ineffective faith, at the core of which lies a seed of doubt with regards to the very existence and/or sovereignty and ability of God Himself.

The remedy for this must be a sweeping epidemic of personal intimacy with the Creator of the universe. It may seem a stretch to seek intimacy with someone whose existence we are, for the moment, unsure of, but it must be if we are to correct the shift of unbelief that is weighing down the Body of Christ. When we know someone personally, it becomes quite difficult to doubt their very existence. The same holds true with knowing God.

As we seek Him, with the determined purpose of knowing the TRUTH, of knowing Him, He will make Himself known. But before any of this can begin to take place, a decision must be made. We must set our minds and keep them set. Regardless of our feelings, we must, in our hearts, rely on the fundamental assumption that God IS and that His Word is true. Not that we believe without reason, but rather we choose to persevere and press on in times of trial, giving God the benefit of the doubt for the time being, and allowing Him the necessary time to do a work in us and for us, that He would be given the opportunity to reveal Himself and make Himself known.

I have walked through this in my own life, facing some monumental, and seemingly insurmountable struggles in my faith. I've faced questions for which I had no answers. I've battled with severe, almost suffocating doubt. I've struggled to pray - to even force myself to say the words because they seemed so absurd. I believe that one factor made the difference in the outcome of my struggles. At the outset, I had determined that I would give God a chance to be known. For the time being, I clung to the foundations that His Word is true. I stayed in His Word, and time and time again, I found answers to the questions; I found peace to quiet the doubt. I found strength to pray when I had no words.

I find myself now on the other side of these struggles, and in the most incredible place. Time and time again, God not only saw me through my trials, but He used them to develop me and help me grow. He revealed His truths, His nature, and His character to me through His Word and through time in prayer. I began to see the evidence of His presence in my life. I began to recognize the sound of His voice, the promptings of His Holy Spirit. I began to know Him, and I began to fall in love with Him - desperately, madly, crazy in love like I never could have imagined. And the more I know Him and love Him, the more my eyes are opened to see more of Him. And the more I see and experience Him, the less room there is for doubt; the greater my courage becomes. I am much more willing now that I was even a year ago to make myself vulnerable in the hands of the Lord, because now that I know Him, my belief in Him is rooted in what I know - what I know from my own personal experiences. My experiences with God have given me more than enough reason to believe in Him, to believe that He is , that He is sovereign, that He is good, that He loves me, and that He is wholly capable.

Knowing Him is the cure for unbelief.

Does Faith Really Work?

NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. (Hebrews 11:1, AMP)

There is some strong language in this verse. Assurance. Confirmation. Proof. Conviction. Reality. Fact. This verse is, more or less, defining faith the way God sees it and the way He has designed it to work. By definition, faith is all or nothing. It is total and complete. It leaves no room for doubting and wavering and hesitating. It is assurance. It is confirmation. It is proof. It is having conviction that something is reality, and perceiving in the spirit a fact before it can bee seen in the natural. Faith is certainty.

What if it's wrong? What if I'm certain of something that doesn't happen? What if I pray for my child to be healed, and she keeps coughing? What if I believe for someone to recover, but instead they pass away? Does faith really work?

When I was young, my mom and I took a lot of trips to West Virginia. Her parents lived there, and we would go a few times a year to visit. West Virginia is a beautiful state with the most amazing mountain landscape. I remember on one particular trip to my grandparents' house, I was looking out the back window of our car as we were waiving our goodbye's and heading home. I had recently learned a new verse in Sunday School that says, If you have faith and you believe, you can tell a mountain to move, and it will be moved (Matthew 17:20). So, I looked out the back window, and with all the faith in me, I prayed that the mountain I was looking at would be moved, just so I could see that this worked. I waited. I watched out the window until the road had wound around and the mountain was out of sight. The mountain never budged. Not even a little. I was at a loss to understand why it hadn't worked. I mean, I really believed the Bible. I really believed that what it says is true. And I had full faith that my mountain was going to crumble at any moment.

I think this was one of my first experiences of exercising my faith and feeling disappointed at the result. Since then I've had countless experiences of praying for something, believing for something, and seeing no obvious results. And every time, I was left with a hint of a doubt to preface my next prayer. It seems that, over time, every prayer for healing or prayer for God to work in a situation became clouded with a shadow of a doubt that whispers, 'This isn't going to work anyway.' Why? If faith really works, why didn't my mountain crumble? Why do people suffer? Why does anyone go unhealed?

Can I tell you a true story? About a month ago, I was driving down my road, on my way home from the grocery, and a fleeting glimpse of my childhood attempt to bring down the mountain flashed through my mind. Then God spoke something very simple to me. 'It was never my will to move that mountain.'

How odd. I had not been thinking about it. I had not been seeking an answer to my mountain riddle. Yet, He spoke to me directly about it. Plain and clear. Obviously, He has a few things He wants to teach me about faith and how it operates. That was the first thing that He made clear to me. My prayer must be in line with His will for it to be effective.

Now let me show you a second thing God showed me shortly after this 'mountain revelation' (LOL). Quite a while ago I bought a book called 'The Spirit of Faith' by Mark Hankins. I got about half way through it, but got distracted by something else and never finished reading it. One day, though, I sat down in my bedroom floor, and of all things, I picked up this book and started flipping through it. I came across something that made me stop and give a lot of thought to the impact of my faith on the outcome of what I am believing for. The following is taken directly from the book I just mentioned:

People often say, 'It's up to God. If God wants to do it, God can do anything. He is a sovereign God.' Apparently, Jesus didn't know that. If God can do anything anytime He wants to, why didn't Jesus do it right there in His own hometown?

Mark 6:5-6 - And He was not able to do even one work of power there, except that He laid His hands on a few sickly people and cured them. And He marveled because of the unbelief (their lack of faith in Him). And He went about...and continued teaching.

Unbelief is stifling the flow of God's presence and power in our church today.

The second thing God has lead me to understand: Our own unbelief limits what God can do in our circumstances.

There's one more thing I want to share with you before I finish. This afternoon, as I read back through the verse in Hebrews that I shared at the beginning, even today my response was, 'What if it doesn't work?' (Clearly I've still got some work to do in this area). But what God put on my heart in response was so simple, yet so powerful. 'If it doesn't work, believe it again.' If I don't see results today, believe I will see them tomorrow. If I don't see results tomorrow, believe I will see them the day after. I will never see what I am unwilling to believe for - believing with complete certainty, as Hebrews describes. Faith is ongoing, and must outlast the circumstances. I would rather die in belief, never having received what I was believing for, than to never receive what I had hoped for because I would not believe.

Sometimes it does seem like our prayers aren't accomplishing anything. It feels like our faith is pointless, like it just doesn't work. Still, I've seen so many instances where the complete opposite has proven to be true. I've seen amazing answers to prayers that I've prayed. I've seen God work wonders in situations and circumstances that seemed impenetrable. Because I've seen God work, I KNOW my prayers are heard. I know that faith works. But faith does not leave room for doubt. When we doubt, we tie God's hands, and keep Him from being able to work miracles on our behalf. Further, our faith must line up with God's word and God's will. It is important that we take time to seek Him and sit in His presence, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our prayers. That is when we are certain to pray according to the will of God. When I have prayed, in full faith, and in accordance with God's word and His will, I must continue to believe and wait on God, expecting to see an answer to my prayer at the exact moment, in God's perfect timing.

We are not often capable of understanding His plan, and we do not have the capacity to look ahead to see how circumstances will all work together for the good of His plan. We do, however, have the capacity to seek Him, to know Him and to trust Him, believing in full faith that He is a good God, that He alone is sovereign, and that He is capable of doing all things.

Jesus said to him, You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later on. (John 17:3)

We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are fitting into a plan for good to and for those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait and hope for and expect the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

Teach them to seek Me.

I had the privilege of teaching the 5th & 6th graders this past Wednesday night, and it was quite an awesome experience. God was all over it, which is so amazing to me - that he could use someone like me to reach into the lives others...incredible!

Last week we had talked about worship and prayer time. My friend had done a pretty incredible demonstration of what her time is like in her prayer closet, just worshiping and praying and praising God. It was pretty powerful, and it was clear that many of the kids had been impacted by what they had seen. So, she thought that a good follow up to that would be to talk about the kind of music they listen to.

But God had a different idea. Last Monday I was in prayer, just going on about all the stuff I wanted to talk about, when He broke into my ramblings and spoke something very clearly to my heart. My pen and journal were right there, so I grabbed them and started writing. This is some of what He said:

Teach them to seek Me. Without knowing Me, they cannot love Me. If they do not love Me, surely they will not cling to Me; they will turn away from Me, and many, once they've turned away, will not turn back. Break the idea that a relationship with Me is for sometime later in life. Now I AM. Now I am here. Now I love them. Now I am waiting.

I was overwhelmed! A lot of times when I feel God speaking to me, it's through His word or through discernment of circumstances, situations, emotions, etc. He gives me ideas or guidance, but often it comes in much smaller installments. But sometimes it seems He will just open the floodgates and let loose- or maybe He's wanting to do that all the time, and I'm just not listening? Anyway, this was definitely one of those times. As I listened to Him, and as I wrote what He was saying, I was just trying to keep up. He even gave me Scripture references, which was very cool - and I discovered that a few of them were more for my own sake than for anyone I would be talking to.

He said, Tell them that what I want from them is a relationship. Show them the heart of a worshiper - show them David. Then tell them your own story. Tell them that it's okay to ask Me for help.

How cool is that!? How amazing to get a glimpse of His heart for these children - kids that I see every week. How awe-inspiring to see how much He longs for them to love Him, He desires to show Himself to them. When I think about it, even now, I'm completely moved by His love and His tenderness toward them - these kids who may never have known even a moment of tenderness, or even an instance of pure love. These are kids who are, in many cases, really troubled, living in awful family situations, getting little or no positive attention, or any attention at all, from their parents. These are kids who many adults have already written off as problem kids who will go nowhere and be nothing. And to see that God has not for an instant written them off! Oh, how I love Him! It gave me a fresh perspective on reaching out to these kids and being a consistent source of love and support in their lives.

The teaching went really well. It flowed smoothly. I spoke with ease. It was a blessed evening, for sure. But the greatest thing about the whole night was a conversation I had with one girl at the end of the evening. She's one of the 'worst of the worst' when it comes to tough cases. She has always carried an attitude, and put up walls, been a little resistant and defiant. At one point, one of our leaders had even suggested telling her she couldn't come anymore because she was so disruptive. But attitude or not, she still comes regularly. And whether she likes it or not, she's still sitting under the Word of God for 20 minutes a week. It's not a lot, but it's plenty for Him to work with.

Well, while we were all hanging out, having pizza and pop, she came over and sat down next to me. She looked me straight in the eye and said, 'Rebecca, I'm afraid to die.' She didn't hesitate. She didn't waiver. I could see in her eyes she was plain freaked out by the thought of it. I could tell to that it was a good kind of afraid. God had definitely gotten a hold of her heart that night, and she didn't know what to do with it. We talked about it, and she told me she was afraid of what will happen to her when she dies. She's not yet to the place that she is ready to make the commitment to God, but it's awesome to see Him working in her heart! And it's awesome that she feels comfortable enough to talk to me about it.

I'll keep praying for her, and for all of our kids, and I'll continue to rely on the promise of God's Word that His Word will not return void, but that it will accomplish all that it was sent forth to accomplish. That's a sweet promise and a great hope for these kids! I pray that they will open themselves up to Him and take the time to get to know Him!