Mark 9:23-24 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Day 3 of our fast we are focusing on the enemy of all true faith which is unbelief. The human inclination toward doubt is natural, but God’s word challenges the believer to operate by faith, which is supernatural. We live in 2 realities: Physical and Spiritual, seen and unseen, or in other words, faith and unbelief. Science says that something is only believable if one can validate their claims with empirical data and research. The entire world is shaped by the philosophy of scientific reasoning. As followers of Christ, we are to “walk by faith and not by sight”, this doesn’t mean that we throw all science, history, or need for education out of the window, it simply means that the foundation for what we believe is first based upon what God has said through His word, not what we see with our eyes or hear with our ears!
The disciples and the father of the demon possessed child had a problem and I believe it is often a problem many of us face today, we are “believing unbelievers”. “Lord I believe; help my unbelief” is a statement and a plea for God to understand their weakness. Have you ever been there before? You knew in your spirit that something was true, but you battled with doubt because everything around you, including your emotions disagreed with what you “believed”, by faith? I think most of us have been there and if we’ll be honest, many are probably there now, wrestling with that tension of faith and unbelief in their body, soul, and spirit. For example, we believe in an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving God, yet, there are countless murders, injustices, and crimes taking place every second of the day. Millions of people die annually of starvation or due to a simple lack of clean water. Babies are aborted by the millions, divorces have crippled so many families, perversion has become not only mainstream, but legalized and celebrated, for followers of Jesus, the phrase “Lord I believe, but help my unbelief” is certainly understandable, however it is not acceptable!
Unbelief is not harmless, and you must know that. Unbelief is actually evil. The definition of unbelief is not merely to doubt the existence of God, but it goes a little further. Biblical unbelief is when we agree with facts intellectually but in works deny what the truth demands of us. Simply stated, it’s actually when our words speak louder than our actions. Jesus said in Matthew 15:8 “these people worship me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”, In other words, they were guilty of unbelief. It wasn’t that they didn’t verbally agree, it was that in their heart of hearts they had no true honor for the Lord. Unbelief is evil in that it cannot coexist with faith. Apostle Paul taught us in Romans 14:23 that “Whatever is not of faith, is a sin” and again, the writer of Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…” By understanding the absolute non-negotiable role of faith in the life of the believer, we can also understand why unbelief is so detrimental and harmful.
HOW TO OVERCOME UNBELIEF:
- Fill yourself with the word of God. (Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”) If you want to have faith and overcome unbelief you must be saturated with the word of God. This means spending set apart, undistracted time simply reading. People often ask me for bible reading plans and the older I’ve gotten the more convinced I am of the old-fashioned method, which is simply to read the bible from start to finish Genesis-Revelation.
- Journal the accounts of God’s faithfulness in your life: (1 Chronicles 16:12 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth”) I was blessed to become a follower of Christ in a day when social media did not exist. Consequently, the archaic practice of journaling was something I began almost right away. How precious those journals are to me now in my times of weakness. We all need “memorial stones” and to keep record of God’s faithfulness in our lives. There have been countless days where the desire to give up seemed to be stronger than any other desire, but I would flip open my journal and remember the faithfulness of God in my own life. Unbelief gave way to faith, by way of remembrance.
- Surround yourself with godly people: (Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed). As a Pastor now for the past 7 years one of the things which I truly hate watching is the slow, methodical, demonic, and inevitable process of backsliding that happens when people who are born again, but refuse to distance themselves from the ungodly people of their past. The correlation between those who grow and mature in the Lord and those who fall back into a life of sin, or lose their biblical convictions is very clear: association determines elevation. Those who rise high in the spirit like eagles are those who broke free from the entanglements of the world below. The theme of all new testament literature is “Be holy, for I am Holy” God has always called us out from among them. We are in the world, but not of it, what fellowship has light with darkness? What about family, co-workers, classmates, roommates, in some cases spouses? To that I say, don’t isolate yourself from the world, simply don’t allow people to be influential in your life who do not love God! We can’t help who we live with, or are around, or who is apart of our family, but we do not have to follow them in their life of sin, excessive socializing with nonbelievers will always have negative consequences. To this people often reply “Jesus was a friend of sinners”, and I agree, but Jesus was not socializing for the sake of a good time. Every instance in the new testament where Jesus is seen with sinners, he is preaching the gospel to them or healing them, or casting demons out of them. Jesus was not and I repeat WAS NOT a friend to sinners in that sense, he was FRIENDLY to sinners. A “friend” has many definitions, so for clarity sake, I define a friend as someone who you confide in, seek advise from, and pour your heart out to. Be very careful that you draw lines with people who do not believe in Christ. They will sow seeds of unbelief into your heart.
- Pray and Fast (Matthew 17:19-21 “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”) In this story the disciples were befuddled as to why they could not cast out the demon from a young boy. Jesus immediately addressed the issue of unbelief! He goes on to say in verse 21 that demons vary in type and strength and that only through prayer and fasting can those types come out. Often this passage is taken as a proof text to say that only through fasting and prayer our certain demons able to be rebuked, but Jesus clearly said demonic warfare is a faith issue! Fasting and prayer are 2 means by which our faith is strengthened and unbelief is driven out of us first, thereby positioning us to be truly effective agents of the Holy Spirit. This passage also indicates to us that we can be “believing unbelievers” and not even know it, until we are met with a challenge that we are not prepared for. As we walk with the Lord, our faith must increase or unbelief will. By praying and fasting, we are plugging in to the source of power, which is God and making a declaration through our fasting that our faith is in God to strengthen us.
Conclusion: (Hebrews 3:12-14 “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.”)
To listen to the message “The Victory of the Cross vs. The Experience of my life” click here
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