Now He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:58
It would probably be safe to say that all of us have something unpleasant in our life that we have learned to tolerate or even justify why we should ignore the pain or discomfort and allow it to take residence in our lives. We try to reason with our selves that the situation, relationship, health issue, or financial struggle is really no that bad, after all we have so many blessings in our lives that we should be thankful for. Matthew 13 talks about a father who watched his son suffer from demon oppression and when the demon manifested, he threw the boy in the fire to burn him alive or into the water where he would drown. He had even learned to coexist with a demon. Can you imagine how stressful and tiring it was to always watch the child making sure the unclean spirit did not find a way to destroy the young boy. Then he heard about Jesus, and all the mighty things He did, He feed 5,000, opened blind eyes, healed people from leprosy, and he took his son to Jesus for help. He was met by the disciples and assumed that the disciples that walked with Jesus could do the same miracles, but they were unable to cast the evil spirit out. When they realized they had no authority over the unclean spirit they stood there arguing until Jesus walked into the circle and asked what was going on. The father explained that the disciples were unable to help his son. Jesus immediately addressed the issue, their unbelief. He said, “O faithless generation.” Then He called for the boy and as soon as the unclean spirit in him came into the presence of Jesus it made the boy convulse and fall to the ground foaming at the mouth. Once again, the father asked for help, listen to Jesus response, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father repentantly said “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.:” Then Jesus commanded the spirit to come out and not to ever enter the boy again.
The Modern-Day American church has learned to live with and justify too many things, after all God is in control, right? If you ask me, if everything that goes on in our lives and in the world is God controlling things, He is doing a terrible job. If you believe that, then you are stating that every child aborted or sold into sex slavery is all in the plan of God. Only those who win the healing lottery will receive their healing. I am amazed listening to people pray, “If it is your will for someone to be healed please heal them.” God’s Word says in Psalm 103:2-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things. So that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” Too often our belief system and the things we say contradict what the Bible promises, this scripture clearly promises that God heals all our diseases! The challenge is getting our belief system to line up with the word of God. I wonder how many of the problems we try to ignore are a result of choices, our wrong beliefs and the things we say.
I do not think we realize how powerful our belief system is. Jesus said all things are possible to him who believes. According to Matthew13 all things are possible for those who believe. The opposite of believe is unbelief. I think one of the strongest negative things we can do is be in unbelief. One of the definitions of unbelief is the absence of faith. Another is skepticism. We live in a microwave generation, and when things do not happen on our time table, it is so easy to jump to conclusions and instead of saying it has not happened yet, we want to declare that it will never happen. WE allow out natural vision and hearing to determine our belief in whether God will keep His promises of not. We have a yucca plant in one of our flower beds. This winter it liked like it died. All the leaves have lost their plumpness and fell paper thing and a dead looking brown color. It has been a busy summer and I have not had the time to remove what looked like a dead cactus. I would pull into the driveway every day and look at a job that needed to be done, removing what was left of the once beautiful plant. As I pulled into the house a few weeks ago I saws some green leaves poking up from the bottom of the plant. What I thought was dead, is now two smaller new plants trying to take root. Had I gone by what I saw, I would have pulled the plant up by the root and miss the new thing that was growing. Too often in the spirit world we do the same thing, we look at things (even things we have fasted and prayed over and all we see are the dried shriveled leaves of what had once been. Sometimes we question whether or not God wants to heal the dead places in our lives or if we should just pull the trigger and remove the things that God is working on. We fail to see the new growth that is lying below the surface. We start complaining about or cursing the problem. My dad was a dry land farmer in Whiteface my high school and college years. (He finally got the money to drill wells and irrigate after I married.) I remember driving home from school in the rain, worshipping God and thanking Him for the rain. It always seemed that when I got to the road in front of our house the rain would just stop, regardless how hard it had been raining. My mind started to believe a lie that the rain would never make it to my dad’s farm, no matter how we prayed and worshipped God. Sadly, we began to accept and live with a lie that contradicted the Word of God, then I began to carelessly throw around comments that it just never rained at the farm. Proverbs 6:2 “You are snared by the words of your mouth.” I wonder what would happen in our world if we took on the attitude of Jesus. I wonder if the words we say bind the miracle working power of Jesus. Jesus stated in John 12:49 “For I have not spoken of My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me command, what I should say and what I should speak.” How different would our lives be if we took the time and asked God what He had to say about out situation or problems before we start carelessly throwing around unbelief and keeping the miracles from working in our life. Several years ago, the WWJD movement was popular and it encouraged us to ask what would Jesus do before we did something. I think we should take it up a notch and ask Jesus what He would say before we speak anything negative. There are times we are called to speak against something and on rare occasions even curse something. Jesus cursed the fig tree and I know that there are things we are supposed to take authority over. Jesus said that we are to speak to the mountain and it will be moved into the sea. Too often we curse things with our words that Jesus is working on and then we refuse to speak against the things that God has called us to stand up for.
When we walk in unbelief, we refuse to trust God to do what He said to do or what He has promised to do. For example, we all claim the first part of Isaiah 54:17 “Mo weapon formed against you shall prosper,” while we fail to do our part “Every tongue that rises against you in judgement you shall condemn.” Too often we allow our emotions and the things we see with our eyes to determine if something is truth. Our faith should have dominion over our unbelief. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Before we believe something as truth, we should line it up with the Word of GOD, are there scriptures that support what your senses are feeling? Do your thoughts and emotions reflect the true character of God. I heard of some Muslims who said that Christians need to decide if their God loves them and is good or not. One minute they are talking about the goodness of God then denying that God is willing and able to do what He has promised. James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave if the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways.” If God said He will do something, we must be confident that God will do it. Luke 12:3 “Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark; will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.” God is the Judge and He promised to take vengeance on those who are evil. Deuteronomy 32:25 “Vengeance is Mine, and recompense.” Then Romans 12:198 “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.” God has promised. As a nation we are witnessing the things that people who tried to steal our country are being exposed. Even some of the mainstream media is exposing the fraud and waste. God is exposing and He will judge. We have to trust in Him and His time. Do not slow down the process or stop the miracles we are seeing by your unbelief and coming into agreement the lie “nothing will happen to those who are guilty”. Be like the father of the young boy who was possessed and ask Jeus to help your unbelief.
Cathy Nesmith