Our great peril if we won’t let God answer and remove our doubts!

[Living Stone]

Our great peril if we won’t let God answer and remove our doubts!

Each of us is choosing to believe God or doubt God, moment by moment, depending on what or who we are looking at, and the thoughts we are allowing to occupy our minds:

Matt 14:29 So He (Jesus) said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

Peter heard with his heart Jesus speak the word of God. God’s words impart faith, the ability to believe. Peter was thus enabled to walk on the water of God’s word, and to do what Jesus called him to do, which otherwise couldn’t have been done - So too with us:

v. 30 But when he (Peter) saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"

When Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked full on at his circumstances, and thought about them with his reasoning faculties, faith died and doubt and fear gained control. He started to drown, but, in a last gasp of faith he cried out to Jesus for help, and he was saved:

v. 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Everything God does requires our believing His word to us, doubt prevents Him from helping us:

James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

Heb 10:39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition (destruction, through doubt), but of those who (continue to) believe to the saving of the soul. Jn 20:27 Jesus, “…Do not doubt, but believe.”

We can doubt God, as to whether He exists, or is willing, fair or right. We can also doubt ourselves as to our ability or need to trust and obey God. What or who we look at controls whether our thoughts are of trust or of doubt. All sin causes doubt and doubt leads to fear:

Heb 12:2 Looking (with heart faith) unto Jesus (who is the word of God) the author (source) and finisher (increaser) of our faith… KJV

Heb 3:12 Take heed (listen with the intent to obey), brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil (sinful) heart of unbelief (doubt), in departing from the living God. Rev 21:8 …the fearful, and unbelieving…

But what about Grace? Grace is God’s word; it can’t work if there isn’t faith to receive it:

Rom 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace... KJV

Acts 20:32 So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Heb 13:9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines (words or thoughts that contradict God’s words). For it is good that the heart be established by grace (God’s words), not with foods (thoughts and words that feed the heart with doubt and falsehoods) which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

As our hearts think on God’s words, or on Satan’s lies, either faith or doubt is produced:

Heb 11:6 But without faith (to receive more grace) it is impossible to please Him...

Rom 5:17 ...Those who receive (by faith) abundance of grace (God’s words) and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Jn 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (our faith).

Peter began to doubt, but called on Jesus and was saved, so must we or we’ll go down:

Jer 33:3 Call unto Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'

When doubting thoughts come, and they will come because that’s what Satan does. He challenges our faith in God by imparting to us doubting thoughts, questioning thoughts, reasoning thoughts, to get us to waiver in our faith. He did this with Eve saying to her “Did God really say...” (Gen 3:1). Our faith is more precious than gold (1 Pe 1:7), we must not allow doubts to fester and so get a hold on us; we must go immediately to God for help:

Phil 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests (questions) be made known to God;

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace (by hearing more of His words) to help in time of need.

Ps 27:14 Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart (with His words that impart faith); Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Rom 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing of the word of God.

God says those who have let Him make and keep them righteous, live by faith (Heb 10:38) and involve Him and trust Him in all their ways. Doubting thoughts will inevitably come, but most will be quickly overcome by those Christians who receive their daily bread of God’s words and hence keep on growing in faith. Disobedience to God will always give rise to doubt. If doubts can’t be overcome it is imperative for any Christian to quickly eliminate sin, if any, and seek God. For God alone is the source and increaser of our faith (Heb 12:2). God will always be found by every Christian who seeks Him with a pure heart (Jer 29:13, Matt 5:8) and He will give them the exact words that always restore their faith.

But if Christians allow doubts to continue unabated, they will now be given even more doubting thoughts by their merciless adversary, Satan. Doubt will spread like a cancer with its goal of ruining a Christian’s faith in God and the consequential loss of their soul.

Faith is the victory! This overcoming faith comes when we hear God speak with our hearts, not with our heads:

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind (the human intellect, including that of Christians) is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law (or rule) of God...

Rom 8:6 Now the mind of the flesh. which is sense and reason without the Holy AMP Spirit, is death, death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin...

Rom 10:10 For with the heart (which is the spirit) a person believes... AMP

The words God speaks to us are spirit (John 6:63), they are intended to be received by us first in our spirits not the mind of our flesh; to which our spirits will then communicate them:

Prov 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding (your natural ability to reason and doubt, based on what you see); In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Our faith comes from the words God speaks to our hearts, and works by our love for God:

Gal 5:6 For if we are in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith...working through love. AMP

Luke 7:47 (Jesus) ...Her sins which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is (thought to have been) forgiven, the same loves little.

Our love for God is increased the same way our faith is, as our hearts receive His words:

1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him...

2 Thes 3:5 Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God...(into His word) Jn 1:1 …the word was (is) God…

We Christians are not saved by our works, but we are saved for works! We can easily say we have faith but if our actions don’t correspond to it, we are deluded:

Jam 2:14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works (that reflect that faith)? Can faith save him?

Jam 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works (to evidence it), is dead.

True faith, “God’s faith”, which is the nature of Christ always desires to obey His Father:

Heb 10:7 (Jesus) …I have come to do your will, O God…, So can you and I if, …I live by the faith of the Son of God… Gal 2:20 KJV

Rm 1:5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake.

Abraham believed God. Jesus says to us “Have faith in God” it’s the #1 thing in Christianity:

Rom 4:18-21 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do...He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief (doubt) but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. MSGE/NKJV

Mark 11:22 Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God”.

John 6:29 Jesus replied, This is the work (the service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent, that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger, (and the words He speaks to you) AMP

To be free from ruining doubts we must live in Christ and Christ must increasingly live in us:

To grow in confidence, or faith, toward God requires constant daily fellowship with Him, in the Spirit. And, an ever deepening knowledge of Him through His word as revealed to our spirits by the Holy Spirit. This alone will overcome any doubts about God’s existence or His character that arise, either due to the widespread false doctrines in the Church or due to the often initially perplexing turn of events, or behavior of some people, in everyday life.

John 6:56 (Jesus) He who eats My flesh (continues to receive My words - Jer 15:16) and NKJV drinks My blood (obeys My Spirit 1 Cor 12:13) abides (lives) in Me, and I in him.

Eph 3:12 In whom (that is, when we live in Christ) we have boldness and access with confidence (and without doubts) by the faith of Him. KJV

God has made provision in every way to build us up in our most holy faith, so let’s cry out to our Father, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Let’s feed and keep on feeding on His Faithfulness! Amen

 

[this human]

You alone, in all of humanity and beyond, are worthy my Lord and my God/Jesus, all thanks and praise be unto You.

 

[Abigailkayl]

I think it’s too late for me. I’ve looked so much to myself and doubt, that it feels impossible to look to Christ.

I fear I’ve lost the will.

 

[Living Stone]

I think it’s too late for me. I’ve looked so much to myself and doubt, that it feels impossible to look to Christ.

I fear I’ve lost the will.

Hello Abigailkayl, rather than speak to you regarding doubt/unbelief towards God and the crippling effects it has on His children; you’re already experiencing those effects, I’ll share with you the only antidote! Faith! Don’t be to quick to dismiss this. Most christians, of which I was one, don’t have a full heart revelation of what or who faith is. It might help to point out what faith isn’t, or the counterfeits to real “heart” faith.

Faith is not mental assent I can read or hear a promise of God from the Bible and agree intellectually with what it says; I can even memorize it – isn’t that faith, can’t I now stand on that promise and expect God to fulfill it? No, I can’t. This is a deadly counterfeit of faith, because I am only mentally, that is with my natural mind or brain, consenting to the scripture and it can’t be fulfilled. This fake head faith can never have the joyous doubt-free assurance of genuine heart faith, so it will always be tentative and wavering. Since it doesn’t know if a promise in scripture really is God’s will, it can’t fully commit its will to that promise. Mental assent accounts for most of the so called “faith failures” where a person claimed to be believing God for a certain promise but the promise didn’t happen – it couldn’t, because they confused trying to believe God with the natural mind, or mental assent, with heart faith.

Romans 8:7 The natural mind (sense and reason without the Holy Spirit) is God’s enemy..
Rom 10:10 For with the heart a person believes, trusts in, and relies on Christ...AMP

Faith is not hope, or wishing it would happen Faith and hope are not the same thing, although hope may often be the stepping stone to faith. Hope is wishing even longing for something to happen in the future, but it doesn’t know if the thing hoped for will happen. Faith believes, and when the Bible says believes it means “knows”, faith knows that it has right now whatever it is seeking, even though it hasn’t shown up physically yet. To faith it is just a matter of time, but not if, whatever it is shows up. How does faith “know” the future before it happens? Because genuine faith, according to scripture, has always heard directly from God what He is going to do. That’s why faith is doubt free whereas hope can never be.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance (the certainty) of things hoped for (bringing the future into the present), the evidence (the proof) of things not seen.

Rom 10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God (that He speaks personally to my heart).

Num 23:19 God is not like man that He should lie, has He said it and will He not do it? Or has He spoken it (and you heard Him), and will He not make it good?

Faith is not presumption Just because I may have believed with genuine faith one promise from God, such as the initial forgiveness of my sins, this does not somehow earn me the blessing of an unrelated promise, such as physical healing, when I have not yet genuinely heard and believed that other promise. For any one of God’s promises to be true in my life there must be genuine faith in that particular promise. Otherwise I will start to make false assumptions that can lead to great disappointment. Often we Christians wrongly presume that if we faithfully serve God in some way, this entitles us to have God fulfill certain promises for us, such as meeting our financial needs. No, grace must have faith to receive it, we must hear with our hearts His word of grace and then believe it, for it to come to pass.

Psa 19:13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then...I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

Matt 8:13 (Jesus) ...As you have believed (not presumed), so let it be done for you.

Faith is not fatalism Many Christians think that by waiting to see how events play out they are sort of trusting God, even though there is no knowledge of God’s will, or active belief in it, or obedience to His Spirit. No, that isn’t faith its passive resignation or fatalism. Fatalism appeals because it excuses us of any responsibility for what happens. It’s based on the teaching that in any situation God’s will is going to be done anyway. All of the Bible contradicts this: God’s will was not done by: Adam and Eve, by Cain, by the entire generation of Noah, by all Israel in the wilderness except Joshua and Caleb, by Saul and most of Israel’s other kings, by almost all of Israel at the time of Christ, by 5 out of 7 of the Churches in book of Revelation, and by the rest of the world according to 1 John 5:19:

1 Jo 5:19 ...The whole world (and many Christians) lies under the influence of the wicked one.

2 Cor 4:4 Whose minds the god of this world has blinded, who do not (actively) believe…

True faith makes us responsible to believe the will and word of God that He reveals to us, and to see that our words and actions are consistent with believing Him and obeying Him.

James 2:26 ...Faith without actions (which prove that faith) is dead (just like fatalism is).

God’s will is that none perish but that all come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9). But if we buy in to the false doctrine of fatalism, God is control, if it’s meant to be it will be, none of us could be saved. Salvation requires that we repent, change our minds about sin and God, and then, with our hearts, believe the first words of the gospel. If God’s number one priority, salvation, requires our heart faith, do you think any of His other promises won’t also require heart faith?

Jam 2:18-24 ...I will show you my faith by my actions...So you see, we are made right with God by what we do (that proves we believe), not by faith alone. TEV/NLT

Our lack of knowledge about what faith is causes us to fail and have resentment against God. If I have been deceived by one of faiths’ counterfeits, mental assent, hope, presumption or fatalism, treating it as faith, then it’s very likely that when troubles, and trials happen I will be overcome by that which I thought I had faith. But relief from God never came nor could come since it wasn’t true faith.

Rom 14:23 For whatever is not of faith is sin, whatever is done without a heart conviction of its approval by God is sinful. NKJV/AMP

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge…(especially about faith)

Inevitably and sadly when Christians through a lack of knowledge have latched on to a counterfeit of faith and God couldn’t, not wouldn’t, help them, they will often judge God falsely and harden their hearts toward Him. With the exception of abandoning their faith in Christ altogether this is the very worst thing a Christian could ever do. It will now be almost impossible for them to receive any of God’s blessings until they forsake their thoughts about God and are established in the truth about faith, and, in God’s unchanging love for them.

Mark 6:5-6 And He (Jesus) could not do any mighty work there (in Nazareth)… And He marveled because of their unbelief...

Jer 31:3 …I have loved you with an everlasting love…

What then is genuine faith? How do I get it, what are the conditions, and what destroys it?

Faith is the ability to completely trust God, first for ourselves and then increasingly for others.This ability can only exist within our hearts, meaning in our spirits, never in our heads. For faith to exist and grow, our hearts must be tender toward and able to hear God’s voice. Sin, any sin, will harden our hearts making them unable to hear God, and destroy our faith. God’s word, as we hear it with our hearts, is the word of faith, imparting Christ’s faith to us. God’s Spirit, as we submit to it with our will, is the Spirit of faith, imparting God’s faith to us. Faith, having heard words from God and being led by God’s Spirit, faith knows God’s will. Knowing God’s will in the heart, faith will think, act and speak always in line with God’s will. Faith fights, in the thought life, using God’s word and by God’ Spirit, every opposing thought. Faith is the life of Jesus Christ, imparted by His word and Spirit, trusting God the Father, in us.

Heb 3:15 ...Today, if you will hear His (God’s) voice, Do not harden your hearts... How do we harden our hearts?

Heb 3:13 ...Lest any of you be hardened (in heart) through the deceitfulness of sin (the deception and confusion of doubt and unbelief).

Draw near to the Father of our heart/spirit by believing right now and moment by moment His words made alive to our hearts by His Spirit,
Rom 10:8 The word is near you...that is, the word of faith which we preach:

2 Cor 4:13 ...we have the same Spirit of faith...we also believe and therefore speak. So that,

Col 1:9 …you may be filled with the knowledge of His (God’s) will….

Then you will be enabled to,
1 Tim 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith (how?) lay hold on eternal life (on God’s words)

John 6:68 ...Lord...You have the words of eternal life.

Col 1:26-27 The mystery of the gospel...now has been revealed to His saints...(what is it) Christ (living) in you (His faith working in you), the hope of (eternal) glory.

Gal 2:20 ...The life which I now live...I live by the faith of the Son of God... KJV

Whats impossible with us is possible with our heavenly Father! Faith is the nature of Jesus Christ, and He live inside us!

Father, make the faith of Your child Abigailkayl be ever increasing. By Your Words of faith and Spirit of faith bring victory over all doubt and unbelief, Thank You Father, in Jesus Name Amen.

All of us need to be immersed in the thoughts of God so that He can equip us for the thought life battle that rages around us. Our enemies, the world, our flesh including our natural minds (our sense and reasoning abilities without the Holy Spirit), the devil and his angels are seeking to devour us through thoughts! That’s why God says. “think on these things”, the things of God, God’s thoughts as He reveals them to our hearts by His word and Spirit. Here are some additional resources,

Carnal or Spiritual - Andrew Murray - The Spiritual Life,

Andrew Murray - Triumph of Faith,

The God of all comfort - Hannah Whitall,
http://madelikechrist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/God-of-All-Comfort.pdf

A Larger Christian Life - A. B. Simpson,
http://madelikechrist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/larger-christian-life.pdf