THE STAGGERING QUESTION

“Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:3




Can that sinner be turned into a saint? Can that twisted life be put right? There is only one answer: “O Lord, Thou knowest, I don’t.” Never trample in with religious common sense and say – “Oh, yes, with a little more Bible reading and devotion and prayer, I see how it can be done.”



It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we mistake panic for inspiration. That is why there are so few fellow workers with God and so many workers for Him. We would far rather work for God than believe in Him. Am I quite sure that God will do what I cannot do? I despair of men in the degree in which I have never realized that God has done anything for me. Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.



“Behold, O my people, I will open your graves.” When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He has to show it you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” God’s Spirit continually reveals what human nature is like apart from His grace.



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“Is my experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never despair of anyone I see? Have I had any spiritual work done in me at all? The degree of panic is the degree of the lack of personal spiritual experience.”



I know that God has been at work in me but it has been so subtle and gradual a process that most of the time I don’t realize anything has changed until I stop and go over my life and realize that indeed I have changed, but I just don’t ‘feel’ like I have really had any ‘personal spiritual experience” that I can fall back on. When I asked God into my life, I felt nothing, I felt no spiritual presence. My whole Christian experience has been a matter of personal decision of my will and choosing to believe that this path is the right one for me, but it sure hasn’t been one of any personal ‘spiritual’ experience of any Presence from God in my life. This has been my greatest leap of faith just using my will to believe. Choosing to have faith in God and His process of transformation in me. This faith in Jesus is based on knowing that there is nothing out there in other religions that comes close. My problem sometimes is listening too much to other people’s testimonies and hearing all the most spectacular things God had supposedly done in their lives ,that many times I walk away feeling a bit left out or that I must have been behind the door when God was passing out all these experiences. But in the end I must realize that God deals with each of us differently and our walk with Him is personal and so my experience will not be like any one elses. The passage of scripture that does my mind good on this topic is here in
the Gospel (John 20: 19-31) which  recounts one of the Post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ to his disciples, where Jesus appears to his disciples, coming through locked doors and says “Peace be with you” breathing upon them the Holy Spirit and communicating His authority to forgive sins.
However, Thomas was not present. The Beloved disciple John records this exchange between the Risen Lord and Thomas which follows: “Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
“Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them.Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
This encounter led to Thomas being called “Doubting Thomas”. Yet the tradition tells us that so called “doubting Thomas” died a martyr for his faith. He also became a messenger of Mercy to India, a missionary who shed his own blood for the Master whom he encountered on that day. His insistence on touching the wounds presented the Disciple John another opportunity to explain for all of us the implications of the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ.But what is outstanding is what Jesus then says to us who have trouble believing, but still choose too without the experience of some tangible proof..29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So this is where I am and because I have not ‘seen’ Him and yet believe, I can trust that I will be blessed in this.

FAITH AND UNBELIEF

A COUNTRY ROAD IN SOUTH CENTRAL MO.

I had written about faith in healing and salvation, I am convinced that the Scriptures teach that it is for today, but yet I know deep down I still have my doubts , and so still walk in unbelief on many key issues. So what am I to do?

What exactly is Biblical Faith? Is  faith something that is  limited in both knowledge and power, and does faith lie  in the region of non-absolute certainty and control? Is faith something we blindly accept as true without evidence?
Lets see what the Bible says Faith is:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Heb 11:1 NIV)

I like the way the Amplified Bible puts it:
"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."(Heb 11:1 Amplified)

The proof of what we don't see? The conviction of that reality? Perceiving as real fact? This doesn't sound like something in the region of non-absolute certainty! In fact, a better definition of faith would be ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY.
What sight is to the blind, faith is to the unbeliever. Before they receive it, its foolishness and nonsense, no matter how well its explained. But after they receive, it needs no explanation!
Does your ability to see depend on your understanding of sight? Once true faith in God comes, naturalistic or philosophical explanations, although interesting, are certainly not necessary. We've been trying to get people to "see" God or the Bible through explanations and archaeological or historical evidences,it simply won't work, you can not argue people into God's Kingdom. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can heal people of their spiritual blindness, and it is only through Him that true faith comes.
Biblical faith, is not philosophy or guesswork or wishful thinking, it is a continual, increasing revelation of and relationship with the Creator and King of the universe!Faith from God is literally seeing into the eternal things of God, and it is precisely this "sight " that is the solid rock foundation upon which we build our lives.Only those who have true  Biblical faith, will be doers of the word and not just hearers only, because they are absolutely certain that the words are true and trustworthy.

I have to say that I am not at the level of Biblical Faith that I desire, I have many doubts and unbelief in many areas. But you know I really did not understand that my unbelief was a sin, did you know that it was? I did not.But unbelief is listed with all the other terrible sins that will keep one out of the Kingdom of God.
The sin of unbelief will appear to be extremely heinous when we remember that it is the parent of every other iniquity,unbelief is the root cause of other sins.Unbelief not only begets, but fosters sin. Unbelief is the sin which keeps the power of the gospel from working in the saint and the sinner: Unbelief disables a person for the performance of any good work. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," is a great truth in more sense than one. "Without faith it is impossible to please God."Virtues without faith are whitewashed sins. Obedience without faith, if it is possible, is a gilded disobedience. Not to believe, nullifies everything.Faith fosters every virtue; unbelief murders every one. Thousands of prayers have been strangled in their infancy by unbelief. You do  know that unbelief kept of all people,  Moses  out of Canaan the Promise land? He could only view it from the other side, how sad, with all that they had done , in the end he missed what he had worked so hard to achieve and all because of unbelief. You know ,that to this day the Jew and all unbelievers are cut off from the promises of God, as a branch is cut from a vine; and why? Because of unbelief.


But hear this, it is not until the Holy Spirit strikes that unbelief out—it is not until the Holy Spirit rends away that unbelief and takes it altogether down, that we can find the saint and the sinner coming to put his trust in Jesus.I am reminded in the Word that all the promises of God are obtained by faith. No faith, no promise! So once the will of the Lord is understood in a matter, you must then pray in faith to receive what was promised. This is where I run into a snag! The Word of the Lord says:

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...(Mark 11:23 NIV)
So in order to receive what you pray for, you must believe AND you must not doubt in your heart! So the question is, how can you avoid having doubt in your heart? Once I understood that God wanted me to have something, it seemed impossible to not doubt. I am by nature a skeptical person and doubts come very easily to me and it seemed to me, the harder I 'tried' to have faith, the more doubts seemed to rise up in my mind. Then came the revelation; repent of unbelief. Of course, that's the answer! If we're supposed to repent when we have doubts, then unbelief is a sin:

"See to it, brothers (and sisters), that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. "(Heb 3:12 NIV)
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8,9 NIV)
Notice that the verse says to confess our sins, and not to stop sinning, which because we are not perfect we will still have the problem of sin in our lives. But Praise God we have the forgiveness we seek,when we continue to confess our sins to God.Which is admitting that we can't handle it on our own, that we're completely powerless against sin, and we are in desperate need to have His blood and His power free us from its bondage and purify our hearts. To confess our sins before God is itself an act of faith. You're not telling God something He doesn't already know. Rather, you're getting rid of your sin by trusting in the power of God and the righteousness of Jesus!
If you find doubt in your heart, instead of trying to have faith like I have been doing most of my life and then being condemned over it when I fail,which I have done time and time again, confess it before the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to get rid of it for you! If the same doubt keeps coming up, keep confessing it! Don't give up until its gone. The Lord rewards patience and persistence, so put your faith in His Word and keep trusting Him to strengthen you.

So decide for yourselves, what have you become convinced of? Are you doubting any truth that you know is clearly taught in the Word? If so, repent of unbelief and free yourself from the spirit of doubt! Are there certain truths that you're not sure whether or not to believe? Then ask the Lord to reveal this to you in His Word. Keep seeking Him on this issue until you are fully persuaded, one way or the other. You can always trust what is revealed to you, as long as you're basing your truth on the Word of God and NOT on your own (or someone else's) experiences.

Heavenly Father, forgive me for my unbelief!! Lord send your Spirit and teach me what I need to know, and give me the faith to believe it! amen

Shalom


Mark 9:24 NIV • Read this chapter
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

John 7:45 NIV • Read this chapter
[ Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders ] Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn't you bring him in?"

John 10:22 NIV • Read this chapter
[ The Unbelief of the Jews ] Then came the Feast of Dedication [ That is, Hanukkah] at Jerusalem. It was winter,

John 12:37 NIV • Read this chapter
[ The Jews Continue in Their Unbelief ] Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.

Romans 4:20 NIV • Read this chapter
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

Romans 9:30 NIV • Read this chapter
[ Israel's Unbelief ] What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;

Romans 11:20 NIV • Read this chapter
Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.

Romans 11:23 NIV • Read this chapter
And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

1 Timothy 1:13 NIV • Read this chapter
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7 NIV • Read this chapter
[ Warning Against Unbelief ] So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice,

Hebrews 3:19 NIV • Read this chapter
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.