Today we are continuing our discussions on the “Enemies to Your Faith – UNBELIEF!” Unbelief is a major enemy to faith.
The only fight the believer is called to fight is “the good fight of faith.” In First Timothy 6:12 the Bible says, “Fight the good fight of faith…”
In Ephesians 6:12 the Scriptures say, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
If there is such a fight, it implies that there are enemies or hindrances to faith. The things that prevent you from exercising your faith are called “the enemies to faith.”
To win in this battle of faith, you MUST eliminate unbelief from your heart because you can never be able to exercise your faith so as to enjoy the blessings of God, if you have unbelief in your heart.
What does it mean to believe? To believe means to accept as true or as conveying the truth. It means to place one's trust in God's truth; one that takes God at His word and trusts in Him for salvation. Trusting in God is a conscious dependence on God, much like leaning on a tree for support.
It is expected of every true Christian to believe on the Son of God; not only to believe Him that what He said is true, but to believe on Him, and to confide in Him.
What then does it mean to believe with the heart? To believe with the heart means to believe whatever God has promised in His Word apart from what your physical senses may be telling you. It means believing God independent of your sense knowledge. Listen friend, to look so as to see whether God is healing you or not is a sign of unbelief and it is a sin.
The body, the physical man, believes what he sees with the physical eyes, hears with the physical ear, or what his physical feelings tell him. But the spirit-man, however believes what the Word of God says, regardless of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting or smelling.
Faith begins where the will of God is known. Therefore, faith must be based on what the Word of God says. Those who are prayed for repeatedly and do not receive their healing (or whatever they desire from God) do not have faith in the Word.
The very moment you believe God’s Word with your whole heart, it is settled in the realm of the spirit. Then the manifestation in the physical follows.
You can’t understand this with your head. The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness unto the natural mind and the Bible is of the Spirit of God. The Scriptures are spiritually discerned. You have to understand it with your spirit-man.
God calls a heart that does not believe Him an evil heart.
In Hebrews 3:12 the Bible warns us saying, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, in departing from the living God.”
What then is unbelief? Unbelief is the lack of belief in something especially in matters relating to doctrine. When a person does not believe in what God said in His Word, that person is said to have unbelief.
Unbelief has serious consequences:
1. Unbelief will blind you to the truth and rob you of hope.
“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4).
2. Unbelief frustrates and limits God from reaching out to you. In essence, unbelief blocks what God has already provided for you from reaching you.
In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said unto them, “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
2 Chronicles 20:20 says, “…Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
In Isaiah 7:9 God said, “…If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”
In Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
Luke 1:45 said, “And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
John 20:30-31 says, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have [eternal] life through His name.”
3. Unbelief will prolong your journey to the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 1:1-2 says, “…Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai* to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir. 3 But forty years after the Israelites left Mount Sinai, on a day in midwinter,* Moses gave these speeches to the Israelites, telling them everything the Lord had commanded him to say.”
The Israelites spent 40 years on a journey that should have lasted 11 days. It wasn’t distance that stood between them and the Promised Land. It was the condition of their hearts – unbelief. Yes, the promise of God will only come to pass in your life when you believe the Word of God.
4. Unbelief will prevent you from entering the rest of God. Hebrews 3:19 says, “So we see that they were not allowed to enter His rest because of their unbelief.”
For instance, the Israelites failed to enter the Promised Land because they did not believe in God’s protection, and they did not believe that God would help them conquer the giants in the land (Num. 14-15). So God sent them into the wilderness to wander for 40 years. This was an unhappy alternative to the wonderful gift He had planned for them. Lack of trust in God will always prevent you from receiving His best.
5. Unbelief prevents you from seeing the glory of God.
In John 11:40 Jesus said unto her, “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
When you eliminate unbelief from your life you will see the glory of God.
6. Unbelief will cause you to stagger at the promise of God.
Romans 4:20 says, “He (Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through UNBELIEF; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.”
Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us labour therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of UNBELIEF.”
7. Unbelief will prevent Jesus from doing mighty works in your life.
In Matthew 13:58 the Scriptures say, “And He did not many mighty works there because of their UNBELIEF.”
Remember that in His own hometown, Nazareth, Jesus could not do many mighty works there “because of their unbelief.” They did not believe in Him.
Matthew 13:54-58 says, “And when He was come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And His brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? 57 And they were offended in Him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. 58 And He did not many mighty works there because of their UNBELIEF.”
But in the very next chapter, the Bible says that Jesus went to Capernaum, and there He healed them all.
Matthew 14:34-36 says, “And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased; 36 And besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment: and as many as touched Him (the hem of His garment, a touch of faith) were made perfectly whole.”
8. Unbelief will rob you of your expectations even though the Bible says that the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off (Prov. 23:18). However, unbelief will allow your expectation to be cut off.
Proverbs 10:28 says, “The hope (expectation) of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.”
9. Unbelief will cause God to rebuke (scold) you.
In Mark 16:14 the Bible said, “Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided [rebuke; scold] them with their UNBELIEF AND HARDNESS OF HEART, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen.”
10. Unbelief will make you to stagger at the promise of God.
In Romans 4:20 the Bible says, “He staggered not at the promise of God through UNBELIEF; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.”
11. Unbelief will cause you to be broken off from the family of God. In Romans 11:20 the Bible says, “Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.”
12. When you remove unbelief from your life, then you will receive all the promises of God.
In Romans 11:23 the Scriptures say, “And they also, if they abide not still in UNBELIEF, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.”
In Mark 9:23 Jesus said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
John 1:12 says, “But as many as received [believed in Him] Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
When you remove unbelief from your life and believe God for Who He is, then you can effectively exercise your faith so as to enjoy victory in every area of your life. Unbelief will keep you from receiving God’s best for your life. God’s best for you is to receive anything you want by your own faith. Therefore, eliminate unbelief from your life today! Then rise and receive your miracle even right now by faith in that Name that is above every other name!
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
- Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Head Pastor) Feb. 16th, 2020
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