Only Believe

. . . all things are possible to him that believeth.  [Mark 9:23]

21st century Christianity has focused on the ‘all things are possible’ aspect of this verse of Scripture.  However the key here is not the ‘all things are possible’.  The key here is ‘to him that believeth’.

All things require faith to accomplish, whether they are of God or of the world.  It took faith to bring forth the lightbulb (after 10,000 attempts, faith had to be in there somewhere!).  It took faith to turn visions of flight and wireless communication into realities, yet these are not the impossibilities that Jesus was referring to in the above scripture.

21st century Christiandom has taken this scripture concerning belief and turned into a licence for witchcraft, re-framing it to mean if you can believe it, God will do it.  That is what has led to so much deception and delusion in the Church today, and prepared the way for the lying signs and wonders that are becoming prevalent in many charismatic circles.  Yet this is also not what was referred to in this Scripture.

Jesus reply of all things are possible to him who believes, was a response to the fathers cry: If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.

Jesus reply was an answer to one who no longer believed that God could or would have compassion on him and his child to deliver them, or do anything for them, especially seeing as nothing happened through the efforts of His very own ministers who had a track record of being able to do these things.  Even they could not understand why their ‘anointing’ failed them at this time.

The root issue of the disciples failure was their unbelief in God, not a lack of fasting or praying.  Fasting and praying are not about performing deliverances or healings but the end to which those things (fasting and praying) are directed ~ a purified belief that God is willing to help all and do good to all.

The issue here is, Do you believe?  It isn’t about what you believe for.  It is simply, Do you believe?  Do you believe that God will deliver you from your afflictions?  Do you believe that God will have compassion on you in your distress?  Do you believe that God can effect a permanent and lasting, effectual deliverance of your life from sin and all that pertains to it?  If you do not believe that God will do it for you, then how do you expect to come to a faith to believe that He will do it for anyone else?  And how do you figure that you will come to believe, if none of these things arethe things you have been believing God for?

Furthermore, if you do not believe in God for these things, then what kind of faith-oil are you selling in the name of Jesus?  What is the good news of your Gospel, if it isn’t about deliverance from sin and all that pertains to it, that we might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives [Luke 1:74-75].

If Christians actually believed this promise of God unto salvation and the virtue of sinlessness that flowed from Christ, then we would actually see Christians walking in the holiness, purity and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. It was this purity of faith and sanctification unto the purposes of God that brought forth the glory of the first church.  It was this purity of faith and sanctification that overturned the world in such short order.  Furthermore, it is through this purity of faith and sanctification whereby you would know the will and heart and purpose of God, for you would be perfected in your love of God.  You wouldn’t have to play 20-questions concerning what the will of God was, and toss the dice to see if He really wants you to have this or go there and such like.

The fact remains, one look at the Church declares most evidently that you do not believe that God can do anything at all unto purity, holiness and sinlessness, for no one is bothering to seek unto God for these things.  It would also appear that we do not regard eternity and our resurrection from the dead to be the outcome of our faith and our salvation, but a mere byproduct ~ the given that is not a given. Instead, we fast, and pray, and seek to and fro, running from hill to dale looking for ever more powerful or more anointed ministers to get us what we want, rather than deal with God concerning the issues of unbelief that hinder us from obtaining that which we need ~ to be found without spot, wrinkle or blemish before God, perfected in love and faith, the Bride worthy of the Lamb.

The Church is going through a season right now of the prophesied lying signs and wonders.  This is the result and outworking of our unbelief.  We would prefer to believe in the evidential and sensoried miraculous of signs and wondes and prophetic words and impartations rather than confront our own individual issues of the many and manifold ways that we, with our words, and with our deeds, and with our attitudes, outlooks and pursuits, call God a liar, and portray Him to be wholly ineffectual to do anything for us or for His own kingdom, all of which has also profaned and polluted the truth of what the Gospel and our salvation is really all about.

If you would deliver your soul from the strong delusion that has enshrouded this nation and generation, then seek not the ‘all things are possible’, but seek to enter into the ‘to him who believes’.  If you believe, you will obey God, in all of the mundane, everyday sort of things, all day, every day.

In short, if you believe Jesus is your strength, then be willing to be made weak.  If you believe Jesus is your glory, then let Him rid you of yours.  If you believe Jesus is your all in all, then let Him empty you of all this is yours.  If you believe Jesus is with the needy, then be willing to be made needy, and if you believe that He is with those who are afflicted for His sake and the Gospel, then we willing to be afflicted.  If you believe Jesus is your LIght, then acknowledge your darkness.  If you believe Jesus gives His grace to the humble, then be willing to be humbled.  If you believe all that Jesus is, then we willing to be made all that you need Jesus for.  And if all you believe is that Jesus is merely your banker and your doctor, then woe unto you, for you have chosen the consolations of this life only.

Belief of God is a process.  Not one single person alive has ever had full blown, to the uttermost height, breadth and depth belief of God unto all things from the first ~ not even Abraham.  If such were the case, we would be blown up in a moment.  What we have is what we think is belief.  This is what needs to be addressed in our lives.

We think we believe, tell ourselves that we do believe, we search the scriptures and convince ourselves that we are in fact believing, yet when the test comes, we show by our very prayers and efforts, our declarations and proclamations and all of our calling forth that we do not believe God is paying attention at all.

Understand that belief of God does not rest in a natural outcome.  Abraham did not believe ‘for a son’.  He believed that God was able to do what He had said He would do.  It was because Abraham believed God,  and not an outcome, that He was enabled to endure and wait upon God in trusting faith and belief, even until the point when all natural hope was long and far gone.  His faith got moved out of the highly unlikely, unto the abiding faith of God to do what He said He would, when He would, and this was the source of the righteousness that was attributed to him.

If you would honor and glorify God, then start looking to Him for this living faith, that believes God can do what He has said He would do, and that He will do it when He will do it.  Stop redirecting His promises to lay the foundation to convince yourself for getting what you want, or doing what you want.

They soon forgat His works; they waited not for His counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the winderness, and tempted God in the desert.  And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.  [Ps. 106:13-15]

You may very well get what it is that you wanted and hoped for, but know that if your faith was vested in an ‘outcome’, chances are more than likely you now suffer from the very leanness of soul that is nothing more than a poverty of that faith and righteousness that was of Abraham.  And the general condition of the Church attests to this very thing.

The words of Peter are those that lead us into the right direction concerning this issue of faith:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.  1 Pet. 5:8-10]

The faith of God is what brings you through the afflictions, tests and trials that perfect your faith and love of God, the process of which is what strengthens, settles and establishes you in a faith that cannot be moved, regardless of what you see, regardless of what you hear, regardless of who you see or hear it from.  This faith knows truth from error, and cannot and will not be led away by a deceit or a delusion, for this faith is brought forth by God, upheld by God, made secure through God.

There is a counterfeit for all things that are of God.  Be sure that your ‘faith’ is not one of them.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone:  which is the second death.  [Rev. 21:7-8]