| by Nathaniel Burson & James E. Burson (Big Sandy, Texas) |
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| YOU LACK FAITH. You know this is true. You may not like accepting it, but it is true. You know full well that you could have more faith than you do – probably a lot. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? If the answer is not a resounding yes – a YES, that YOU INTEND TO BACK UP by doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to correct it – then you are reading the wrong article. If you are willing to pay ANY PRICE to have God pleased with you, if you TRULY want to have your prayers answered – no matter WHAT you might have to give up – then you are the reason for the writing of this article. And, indeed, the entire Bible. You will often find yourself in situations, where you know God promised something – Healing for instance – and yet, you still doubt for some reason. You know that you shouldn’t be doubting God, and so you try to squelch this doubt, you argue with yourself, and try to convince yourself that God will perform His promise. THIS IS WRONG!! This is NOT the appropriate thing to do if this happens to you! Unfortunately, most people have been taught to do this – most people believe that this is actually HOW you build faith! This is a TERRIBLE, HIDEOUS, FAITH-DESTROYING LIE! Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. You may lean upon the Lord – you may convince and argue yourself into believing God will do something – but that ISN’T FAITH. Convincing yourself God will do something IS NOT FAITH IN GOD. SO WHY DO YOU DOUBT? The ministry tries desperately to convince you that all you need is to somehow convince yourself to go BOLDLY before God’s throne – when in fact, you found that you never quite felt bold before God, no matter how hard you tried. I frequently have heard people say, “I COMPLETELY BELIEVED that God was going to heal <insert name here>, and He didn’t!” – and before this article is finished, you will see that that is not faith at all. That is self-delusion. I believe if you honestly look back over even the last few weeks of your life, you’ll remember a time where you needed help from God – but you doubted. Perhaps money problems, perhaps someone was ill. Perhaps you had trouble at work or wanted to take a trip somewhere… you will have to fill in this example yourself. In any case, you came to a point where the question came up – well, “what if God doesn’t…?” This thought can come at various levels of consciousness. But WHAT IF God doesn’t do something. HOW should you approach this question? WHAT should be your ANSWER? “WHY WOULDN’T HE??” The “What if’s” are endless. “What if a thief breaks into my house – I need my .45 under my pillow!” Or “What if you come home and someone is raping your wife – and God didn’t protect you?” Or again, “You can’t go to Costa Rica – what if someone suspects you are smuggling drugs!” You have heard, and may well have said, words, excuses like these hundreds of times. And yes – WHAT IF God doesn’t protect you? WHY WOULDN’T HE?? The question must be HONESTLY, and FAIRLY answered. Remember, you are not trying to convince yourself, you’re wanting AN ANSWER. Why wouldn’t God protect you? Well, let’s see what the Bible says. Psalms 34:21-22 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. The Lord doesn’t protect the wicked! And the reason you doubt, the reason you aren’t SURE of God’s protection – is that your conscience, your HEART, as it’s called in scripture – KNOWS THIS! Proverbs 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. WHY WOULDN’T HE PROTECT YOU? Get SPECIFIC. Find REASONS. And the Bible tells you how – if you really want to know. If you’d rather be comfortable, and go on as you are, again, you’re reading the wrong article. This article is about you SHAKING UP your mind, and turning it upside down, and RATTLING IT UNTIL YOU FIND THE PROBLEM! Do you want to fix this? Do you want to have TRUE faith – faith that produces WORKS – such as God answering your prayers? The key lies, not in trusting GOD, but in trusting YOU. Shocking? Unorthodox? Absolutely. Today, the truth usually is. There are three things that are required to have true faith. Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Notice the three parts of faith, ALL of which must be present for your faith to have WORKS, mentioned in this verse. Belief in God A good portion of the world has this much faith, and probably as much or more than you do. This is almost never what is lacking – almost never the PROBLEM. The demons even believe this – and they believe it more than you do – and it doesn’t help them! James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. Belief that God will reward a righteous person. This too, is believed, at least academically, by much of the world. It’s muddled and confused, but it is believed. You believe that God is good. And you know the scriptures that talk about the righteous flourishing. But, logically, this part of faith requires that another part be present, one that isn’t mentioned. Belief that YOU ARE A RIGHTEOUS PERSON Because, after all, what good is believing in a God that rewards the righteous, without the knowledge that YOU are righteous, and therefore ENTITLED to those rewards! And HERE we find the CRUX OF THE MATTER! Far too much – in fact, almost all – of the emphasis has been placed on believing in God, and not enough on the other two parts. IN PARTICULAR, the last part. Do not misunderstand, the first two ARE more important – without them, the last would have no value. But the LAST is WHAT IS MISSING IN YOU! You BELIEVE there is a God, and you will freely acknowledge that He IS GOOD. The missing piece is your firm belief that YOU ARE WORTHY OF THE PROMISES! This is not a believe you can just argue yourself into. Thank God for this! There is only ONE way to build faith! The problem is that YOUR HEART KNOWS that you are not worthy. YOUR HEART KNOWS you are not serving God. It knows that, while you should be studying, you are watching TV. It knows that, while you should be honest and scrupulous, you play slick little games – never actually STEALING of course – you couldn’t justify that – but you could justify only telling PART of the truth. Your heart knows the hundreds of ways you compromise your conscience DAILY – until your conscience is so seared, so calloused, that it can’t even RECOGNIZE a compromise! 1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. A good example of this is a good friend of mine had a low-income housing application, a house they really needed. Their income was received from two sources. Unfortunately, the total income would disqualify them from the program. So, the solution was simple; only report one of the income checks! It wasn’t a lie of course. And it wasn’t stealing. And there were many ways to justify this. If you take a few moments of clear thought, putting yourself in this situation, you could think of many ways of justifying it. And a conscience that was used to the thousand tiny lies you tell daily, everything from “Oh, it’s nice to see you!” to “Mm, that meal was great, dear”, a conscience that you have silenced until it has formed huge, solid, callouses will barely notice this. HOWEVER, THIS KILLS FAITH! Because, while you may silence your conscious mind – while you may argue and CRAM that annoying conscience of yours back into a corner where it’s quiet – it knows. And furthermore, you can’t lie to it. 1 John 3:19-22 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. If your heart condemns you – if you’re doing something similar to the story related above – then YOUR HEART KNOWS. And IT CONDEMNS YOU. And that means YOU CAN’T believe you are diligently seeking God. And that means… that’s right. It means that when you go to God, you have no faith. Zero. Oh, you can still believe that He IS – just as the demons do. You may even have convinced yourself, argued that little voice into submission, to where you THINK you believe God will do it. But as I’ve said, that isn’t faith. Convincing yourself that God will protect you, or that God will heal you, or that God will do ANYTHING is not FAITH! So, what do you do about this? It’s quite simple. When you feel doubt, and say, “What if God doesn’t…” IMMEDIATELY respond with “WHY WOULDN’T HE??” Then see what your heart says. If it says “Well, for a start you love watching movies about ghosts, witches, vampires and dragons…” Then GUESS what the solution is. STOP IT. Then ask yourself again “Why wouldn’t He now?” If your conscience replies “Well, maybe he wouldn’t be happy with you downloading illegal music…” then STOP IT! The fascinating part of all of this is that IT DOESN’T MATTER if it’s wrong or not. The point is, if YOU THINK IT MIGHT BE, then IT IS TO YOU. James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Whether it is truly wrong or not, DOESN’T MATTER. If your conscience suggests it, and you can’t completely justify it from scripture – if you can’t prove it is right, not only your lusts and your sense of reason, but your conscience – STOP IT! Repeat this process until your heart doesn’t condemn you, and YOU WILL HAVE STRONG, POWERFUL FAITH! Keep saying “Why wouldn’t He? What is THE MOST LIKELY REASON God wouldn’t protect me, heal me, or help me?” And when you come up with an answer, then STOP IT! At some point, when you ask, “Why wouldn’t He?”, if you have been doing this properly, your conscience will HAVE NO REPLY. It will be satisfied! You will have done what it says in 1 John 3:19 and ASSURED YOUR HEART BEFORE HIM! You will be able to think of no reason for God to be displeased with you if you eliminate all the reasons your conscience – working together with the holy spirit – tells you. At the end of this process, YOU WILL KNOW that 1. God is, 2. God is good AND 3. You have qualified for his promises. You will know this calmly, and surely, and you will no longer doubt God, for you will KNOW that He has no reason not to help you. So, stop – right now – take the time, and ask yourself “If God was going to punish me for something, if He was going to ignore my prayer – what is the MOST LIKELY REASON He would use?” Think about it. Carefully. Rationally. Don’t get caught up in saying “Oh, there are so many reasons”! Don’t LET yourself use the tired old excuse “Well, I’m just a rotten person”! DEMAND SPECIFICS. Get a REASON, something to sink your teeth into, something you can CHANGE! If you can think of things that you have done now, and are doing, that your conscience bothers you for, and want to change them, you are on the right track. Here is the answer. Ezekiel 33:10-16 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus, ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. —————————————————————————- Reprinted with permission from: The Simple Answers https://www.thesimpleanswers.com —————————————————————————- |
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