We don’t need Faith?
Many believe that its got very little to do with faith…
Many believe that if God wanted to heal them he would…
That if he wanted to heal instantly instead of them being partially healed he would of…
That God will heal me when He’s ready…
That if God didn’t want you to have the sickness you wouldn’t have it…
or they say… I have prayed for it to go and it hasn’t gone, then its God’s will…
They pray “If it be your will Lord”
All these demonstrate a lack of understanding in God’s plans and purposes for mankind on the earth.
The truth is; God can heal you easily, God wills to heal you, God longs for you to be healed…But He wants faith more…
Its impossible to please him without it! That means even all your good Christian activities, character and love won’t please him if you don’t have faith.
Rules are rules…
Some who believe the wrong statements above, could never preach these scriptures below, they are just not part of their doctrine, and would probably love them removed from the bible.
- According to your faith let it be done unto you (Matt 9:29)
- Your faith has made you whole (Matt 9:22, Mark 5:34, 10:52, Luke 7:50, 8:48, 17:19, 18:42)
- Signs will follow them that believe (Mark 16:17)
- You couldn’t cast it out because you never had any faith (Matt 17:16-21)
- If you can believe all things are possible (Mark 9:23)
- But shall believe those things he says will be done (Mark 11:23)
- Whatever you asking in prayer, believing, you will receive (Matt 21:22)
- Believe you shall receive and you shall have them (Mark 11:24)
- Only believe and she shall be made whole (Luke 8:50)
- Through faith in his name (Acts 3:16)
- Word didn’t profit because it wasn’t mixed with faith (Heb 4:2)
- Let him ask in faith nothing wavering (James 1:6)
- The prayer of faith shall save the sick (James 5:15)
Some believe that if God is going to do a miracle, He is going to do a miracle…
Lets get something straight, God is sovereign and could do whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it.
But in His sovereignty He has chosen to use our prayer and faith, to build and grow our faith, so according to your faith let it be done unto you is his plan (Matt 9:29) for He is building a people that will know and believe him.
The perfect picture of this is Matt 17:16-21…
“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water.
16 So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.”
What happened here? The disciples prayed and it didn’t work… Did God not want too? Did God fail? Was God unable? Did God even try?
If we drew a line here and finished the story the disciples (like the ones today) would come up with a doctrine to cover the reasons why it didn’t happen… e.g. “It wasn’t Gods will”, “If God wanted to He would of”, “Someone sinned”, “Its a timing issue!”.
But praise God, Jesus showed it was His will, healed the boy and didn’t give the apostles a chance to come up with a doctrine or two to cover it… He put it back on the apostles instead of God or His will.. and the same applies today, the block is at this end!
17 Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”
18 Jesus rebuked him, the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, “Why weren’t we able to cast it out?”
20 He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 But this kind doesn’t go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Many opinions say if it’s a miracle from God then it will happen instantly and it will be complete… well this was a miracle from God but nothing happened it was blocked by the disciples.
Jesus was saying to the apostles you couldn’t do it because of your perverse thinking, which caused unbelief, and because of that this is to big for you, you need to get some more backup (and purge some of that unbelief) with prayer and fasting.
Why did it work for them other times and not this time? I suppose because they laid hands and nothing happened, so they got confused, doubted and blocked God.
Today we as disciples are no different, some problems are too big for where we are at because of our perverse thinking (wrong heart beliefs) and our lack of faith.
Some things are extremely hard for us to believe for, sometimes we pray and can’t do it! Sometimes we pray and they only get partially healed, like the person Jesus had to pray for twice (Mark 8:24).
Sometimes there are issues that need to be dealt with.
But the main issues is we don’t realise its all about us, its about our faith being built, we are were it is at, it’s not where God is at, as with this story above shows us. We minister where we are at! God’s not pleased if we don’t have faith.
Because we don’t understand it’s all about God using our faith, building our faith, we have no confidence (a shipwrecked faith) we don’t know if He wants to, so we are defeated before we have begun.
We lay hands and say “if it be your will Lord”, and of course the only time that will ever work if the recipient has faith or God sovereignly does it, and that’s normally to spring board the persons faith and start the ball rolling.
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If your still not sure about God’s will then do it in a way that you can believe God 100% in.. Like this… Father I pray your kingdom come your will be done (regarding this sickness), the bible say If we pray according to His will he hears us! See you can have faith in that but in.. “if it be thy will” there is no faith there! Just a big question mark, will he? won’t he? question marks in your heart block God!
If you don’t believe or teach this next scripture you are preaching a different gospel than Jesus …. According to your faith let it be done unto you (Matt 9:29)
Woe to you who… neglect faith (Matt 23:23)