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Studies On Faith
by Carol Balizet
If we are to succeed in the Christian life and if we are to please God, we must operate in faith. Without it, it is impossible to please Him; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Actually, we - the just - live by faith, according to the Bible. |
Contents:
Fighting enemies of Faith
What faith is
If we are to succeed in the Christian life and if we are to please God, we must operate in faith. Without it, it is impossible to please Him; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Actually, we - the just - live by faith, according to the Bible.
Faith is both a gift and a fruit of the Spirit and it is an aspect of God's nature. It is the eternal, creative, unseen substance from which everything is formed.
Hebrews 11:1 says: "Now; faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is the building material from which God constructs the things we pray for; hope is the blueprint. God creates the reality of the thing which we "image;" what we receive (what is brought forth from the spirit realm) can never exceed the level of our hope because that is the pattern, the mold, the likeness.
In a way, faith can be compared to a Fax machine; what we receive is a perfect facsimile of what we hope for, believe for, have faith for. The Bible says, "Be; it done unto you according to your faith." (Of course, all this assumes that the object of our hope and faith is in the will of God.) A measure of faith is given to every man; that faith is increased by hearing the word of God. The more we act in faith, the more faith we have. Faith is released by our praise, when we proclaim victory before it is seen. Like worship and forgiveness, faith often begins with a choice, an act of the will. We choose to believe what God says.
Faith is running toward the Giant, as David did.
Faith is the hand that reaches out to receive from God.
Faith is living your life as though God told the truth.
How faith works
Everything we receive from God comes first in the form of a promise; faith converts the promise into possession. Faith "comes;" when we hear a word from God, a specific, personal, quickened word. This can be called "Rhema;", as opposed to the Logos, the totality of God's word.
The quickened word contains within it the power for its fulfillment. God speaks, our response determines the effect it has in our lives.
For example, in Luke 1:37-38, the angel tells Mary: "For; with God, nothing (literally no word, no rhema) shall be impossible".; That is her Rhema. She responds "...be; it done unto me according to thy word." Her affirmation of God's word confirmed it, empowered it and loosed it into the natural realm.
In the seventh chapter of II Samuel, Nathan has prophesied to David of all the things God plans to do through him and his line; verse after verse of glorious promises. David's response (verse 18-29) is one of the Bible's most soaring prayers, and in it he validates all these promises by saying "...do; as thou hast said" (verse 25). David agreed with God, and therefore what God had said came to pass. His faith transformed the promise into possession.
It's the same pattern as Jesus' encounters with Mary and Martha after the death of Lazarus (John 11). He says to them: "I; am the resurrection and the life... Believest thou this?" When they profess their belief, Jesus is authorized in that situation, and their brother rises from the dead at Jesus' call.
God speaks to us; we say "Amen;, so be it", and it, that expression of our faith, activates God's power on our behalf. It authorizes and commissions Him. Faith is the force that releases God's power.
The fight of faith
Faith is also Satan's target. Satan isn't concerned about our good intentions, our works, our church attendance, our morals or our religion, because none of these things initiate the energy of God. The force that mobilizes God is faith.
Satan has many different ways of combatting the working of faith in our lives. He usually uses one of these eight primary enemies of faith:
Ignorance
Faith must be based in the word of God, not in tradition, the world's reasoning or in probability. Several Scriptures warn about basing our faith in some source of knowledge other than God's word. Colossians 2:8 says: "Beware; lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of this world and not after Christ."Words of death
Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death; and life are in the power of the tongue." Nothing is more destructive to the walk of faith than the barrage of death-dealing words which often attack it.
Words are the creative force of the universe. God didn't just think, He actually said: "Light; be!" And light was; and is. It still pours forth from the unending power of God's faith. Words are the building blocks of thought, of relationships, of our communications with God. I have heard many wise and godly people define this "power; in words".; Kenneth Copeland said once that words are like bowls, full of spiritual power. But my favorite explanation was given by one of my granddaughters when she was about eight years old. She was explaining it to a slightly older friend, and she said: "This; whole room is full of angels and demons, and whatever you say, one group or the other will go to work to make it come true." Not an elegant explanation, but very graphic. Our words have power, for good or for evil. Death and life are in our words.Words which bring death include those which involve >criticizing, lying, backbiting, slandering, complaining, gossiping and murmuring. If we speak unwholesome words or if we give an evil report, our faith is diminished - and so is the faith of those who hear us. A work of God can be hindered when we give a bad report.
And when we receive one as well. Even more damage is done if we're the subject of one! The words which others speak over, against or about us can injure us, too.
If these destructive words are couched as prayers, offered in good intentions by Christians friends or family members, they can be devastating. Satan works in opposition to us and a confession of doubt, fear or unbelief gives him the initiative.
In Numbers 13, Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan. Ten returned with an evil report and despite the faith of Joshua and Caleb, the nation of Israel was doomed to wander forty years in the wilderness because of the words of death spoken by the ten.
We must speak life. We must speak words of edification, praise, gratitude, love; especially we must proclaim the Word of God. If we speak in agreement with what God says, consistently and faithfully, the facts will eventually agree with God also.
Any words we say which are not in agreement with what God says will nullify His word (in that area) in our lives. We must compare what God says with what the Enemy says: OUR words will determine the outcome for us.
The manifestation of faith will always follow the confession of faith.
Fear
Fear is a spiritual force just like faith; it empowers Satan just as faith looses God. Fear is never from God, for the Bible says, "God; has not given us a spirit of fear..." In fact, the Bible tells us over and over - in different ways including such words as "worry;", "fret;", "be; anxious" - almost 365 times: "Fear; Not!"Fear is the only so-called emotion which is sinful; we are allowed to be sad, excited, mournful, angry, joyful, confused: never fearful.
Job said, "What; I greatly feared is come upon me." (Job 3:25). The gap in Job's hedge was fear. Jesus could say of Satan, "The; prince of this world comes and he finds nothing in me..." (John 14:30) and the foothold Satan sought was not just sin; it was also fear.We often hear fear, doubt and unbelief grouped together, but they are very different forces. Take a moment and examine figure A showing them in contrast with faith and what each of these attitudes produces.
If we want to move in faith, fear must be defeated. There is no way that fear and faith can operate at the same time.
Unbelief
Unbelief is a not a weakness, not a stage we pass through on our road to glory; unbelief is a sin (Hebrews 3:12,13). It is light refused and John 3 tells us, "This; is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men love darkness more than light." We must see unbelief as God does, and He says it's evil!When we deny the light, and seek to go back into Egypt, we find that the Red Sea is closed and we can only go back as far as the wilderness; and the wilderness is the realm where all those lacking in faith died. Remember:
"Joshua; the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunny, were the only two who ever got through to the land of milk and honey."All the others died and their bones were bleached in the desert.
We tend to think of the nation of Israel as leaving Egypt, wandering forty years in the desert, then entering the Land of Promise. But this was not a fixed, unchanging company. They aged and died, others were born, and there was an almost total change of personnel. Only two men of all those who crossed the Red Sea also crossed the Jordan! All the others died, because of unbelief. They did not believe what GOD had said.
I wonder if the statistics are any better for the modern church?
We are responsible for any light we have been given; as the outline above illustrates, ignorance and unbelief are not synonymous: one is no light, the other is rejected light. The Lord always provides the grace to respond along with any light He gives us; the fact that we're receiving this light means that we are enabled to respond in faith. God will not require something of us without making it possible for us to accomplish that thing.The thing that matters isn't so much how far along the road we've come (we don't have to walk in the fullness of a new teaching at the beginning. God gives us time and space to grow.) But we must agree with the light and turn toward it, because what does matter is the direction which we're headed. We aren't accountable for lack of light, only for rejecting light.
Presumption
To presume is, "To; undertake to do something without right or permission" according to Random House Dictionary. In the Christian faith, it is assuming that God is obligated to respond to us is a certain way regardless of our attitude, behavior or alignment with His word. It's a form of tempting God and it's a sin.Presumption seeks to make God into a force which we can use for our own purposes, and Christians become magicians, trying to manipulate their circumstances through an exercise of supernatural power. This kind of Christianity considers prayer a legitimate technique for controlling God, to make Him into a sort of celestial Santa Claus whose only goal is to meet our demands.
There are formulas which involve things like planting seed faith, positive confessions and even visualization. Presumers often "claim;" something as their right and they don't often talk about submission to the will of God. Their testimonies are full of "What; I got" rather than "How; I died".; Their Christianity is man-centered (or more properly ME-centered) and they often lack maturity, discipline and the desire for an intimate relationship with the Lord.
Presumption can masquerade as faith, but it is based in the will of man rather than in the will of God. It has nothing of Jesus' prayer in the garden: "Not; my will but Thine."
They have a need or a desire, and they "claim;" it. They ask others to "agree; with me for..." whatever it is they're after. Then they move into the "holding; on" stage, where they guard against "negative; confession", often to the extent of denying reality. It rarely works, and when it does it can be like the quail which the Israelites demanded - and GOT - in the wilderness. And that produced a lean soul.
"But; lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. .and he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." (Psalms 106:15)
Incidentally, I challenge you to find the techniques which I have put in quotes above as Scriptural principles.
And finally: presumption tends to hinder maturation because it denies the consequences of sin and our need to fear God. Presumption says "I; can sin and God will forgive me... because He loves me... because I'm under grace... because He will meet me where ever I am (usually they say "where; ever I'm AT")... because I will repent..." Whatever route it takes, presumption tells us that we can sin without consequences, and that is an alarming perspective.
Perhaps all those things are true: God does forgive us readily, He does love us, we are under grace, we are only accountable for the light we have received, and we will be led to repent after sin. But there are still consequences. There are always consequences following sin, even if it is forgiven, not the least of these being that the sin has hurt our Lord.
Impatience
Patience is a partner of faith; they work together to produce the thing hoped for. Hebrews 6:12 says we should follow those who through faith and patience possess the promises. So faith alone won't do it: we must also exercise patience.We see Abraham, our Father in faith, waiting twenty-five years for the son of promise, Isaac. Because his patience wavered, he agreed to Sarah's plan for him to beget a son through Hagar. Sarah's good idea and Abraham's natural efforts produced a son, but not the son of promise. We have a world full of Arabs today as a testimony to Abraham's fall into self-effort.
And Romans 4:20 makes it clear that Abraham's detour from God's plan was NOT a problem with faith. It reads, "[Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God..." We are told unequivocally that there was no problem with Abraham's faith. The obstacle was a lack of patience.
(And God, who IS patient, went on in His own inexorable way, to bring forth Isaac in his timing.) The Prodigal Son's problems might have stemmed from a lack of patience; he was eager - maybe overeager - to receive his inheritance ahead of time.
Our faith is as a seed planted, and we must wait through the growth period until the harvest is ripe. God's time must prevail. Remember, they work together:
Faith surrenders to the known will of God.
Patience surrenders to the unknown timing of God.The flesh
Flesh" doesn't mean simply our physical bodies; it means the realm of the senses, the natural, comfortable domain wherein dwells the natural, comfortable man. It operates in direct opposition to faith.Romans 8:4-8 describes this: "That; the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity with God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
We are born from below as natural creatures, and after Salvation we are "converted;" - our minds are changed - into a totally new way of living. We become a new creation which is capable of walking by faith, understanding the spirit realm. We have a choice of what we might call our "power; source" we can utilize either natural or spiritual forces to control our lives. We can choose how we will walk, what we believe, which realm we will inhabit.
Abraham brought forth Isaac, the son of promise, when he "...considered; not his own body..." (Romans 4:19). He ignored the natural realm and held fast to the word of God. We diminish faith when we deliberately "consider;" the natural realm, when we use it as a source of wisdom, power or comfort.
Adding "the; flesh" - that is human endeavor and reasoning - to faith will diminish faith. The flesh will not fortify or augment faith; it does not bring "balance;".; It produces a double mind and an inability to receive from God.
And of course the reverse is true. Faith alone is far stronger than faith diluted. Not just the flesh, but anything we add to faith, will pollute and minimize it.
Double mindedness
The first chapter of the book of James is the clearest Biblical teaching about a double mind. "...; let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." (James 1:6,7)It's simple and unequivocal: if you're double minded, if you're of two minds about the thing, there will be nothing received from God. You may get something, but God won't be its source.
There are many other Scriptures which deal with this subject and I'll list a few.
"Unstable; as water, thou shalt not excel..." (Genesis 49:4)
Jacob is blessing his twelve sons, and he says to the firstborn, Reuban, that he is "unstable; as water".; (The words "unstable;, "wavering;" and "lukewarm;" all refer to double mindedness. The result of this is, Reuban does not excel."Of; Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: [they were] not of double heart." (1 Chronicles 12:33) Here the equivocation is referred to as a double heart. These warriors were admired for NOT being double minded.
"Teach; me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name." (Psalms 86:11) The psalmist cries out to God to heal his divided heart, to unite it.
"They; speak vanity every one with his neighbour: [with] flattering lips [and] with a double heart do they speak." (Psalms 12:2) Another result of a double heart: it speaks vanity.
In the encounter between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, told in I Kings 18, the prophets refers to the double minded as"halting;" between two opinions. It's the same phenomenon. The Lord wants us to make a choice, one or the other. You can't have both. "And; Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD [be] God, follow him: but if Baal, [then] follow him." (1 Kings 18:21)
As we all know, this same spirit of Elijah the prophet was promised "before; the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD" (Malachi 4:5). And that's not just to turn the hearts of fathers to children - it's also to rebuke and admonish the double minded.
Jesus alluded to this same attitude, to those who can't seem to decide once and for all which route they'll take, which God they'll serve.
He said: "He; that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." (Matthew 12:30) and,
"So; then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:16)
Double mindedness is often unrecognized because it has so many aliases. It goes by so many other, righteous-sounding names:
- "wisdom;"- It's considered unwise by much of the church to trust God whole-heartedly.
- "balance;" - We're told to put just a little bit of flesh on the other side of the scale, to keep faith from taking over and being radical.
- "being; sensible" - They urge us to stay down in the realm of the five senses instead of rising above them into the realm of faith where we believe as seeing Him who is invisable.
- "not; tempting God" - They seem to feel that believing God's word will somehow offend Him, and therefore they assume God doesn't want us trusting Him fully, but wants - even needs - the arm of flesh to help Him out.
Not just between faith and flesh, but faith and SIN.
The common practice in the American church today is to have faith in God and faith in something else at the same time. I've heard it called "The; best of both worlds".; We say: "God; will heal, but I need a doctor also".; Or, "I; know God will supply all my financial needs, but I can get a very low-interest loan on my house".; It may sound good, reflect a certain logic which seems right to the natural mind, but the merging of the world with the kingdom is double minded and it's a strong hinderance to receiving from God.In every area, we have a choice. We can chose faith in God or faith in something else. Faith or non-faith. Only one of these will move God, will please Him. It is His policy to allow us free will; we can choose either route. But it is also His policy to allow us to walk out the consequences of the choices we make.
The consequences of not living by faith are profound. For time and for eternity.
Isaiah 5:13 says, "Therefore; my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge..." Hosea 4:6 says, "My; people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..."
The foundation of our faith must be what God actually says, not what we think He said, or what we wish He'd said, or what men say He said. Our foundation must be the truth, without dilution or mixture. That is the only thing that God has obligated Himself to fulfill.
"So; shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)
It is his word which will not return void. When we return to Him what He has already said if we believe it, and if we are in a position to receive, then it shall happen, in His timing. This is a very different things from "claiming;".; Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the high priest of our confession; that word means to "say; with".; We must "say; with" God, agree with Him. That is what Jesus is high priest over. And it begins with really knowing what God really says.
Balancing faith
Is our faith out of balance?
God requires that we walk by faith, and because the devil opposes anything that pleases God, he has brought his usual obstacles and complexities into this business of living by faith.
There are two diverging paths we can stray onto when resolving to follow "the faith walk". Although they are opposites in many ways, they are similar in that they are both based in deception; they both hinder the walk; and they both consider themselves a valid response to the other's errors. One of these paths is popularly known as "Hyperfaith;", the other is called "Balance;".;
The following is an attempt to bring insight into this subject, and to defend the particular position we take on divine healing. The principles will hold true in any other area, but our focus here is on healing.
We are Christians not because of what we do and certainly not because of how we feel. We are Christians because of what we believe. We believe what God says.
For Salvation, we must believe what God says about Jesus - about His divinity, His atonement, His resurrection. We must believe it, say it and receive it.
At the beginning of our walk with God, this may well be the only point where we agree with Him. The rest of our beliefs are probably still what we've learned from the world. We need the constant renewing of our minds, as lies are exposed and the truth is engrafted to replace them. It's a life-long process.
The Bible is full of instructions on this subject. God makes it clear that what we believe is of paramount importance. We are warned against believing:
- Traditions of men (Mark 7:8)
- The doctrines of demons (II Timothy 4:1)
- The thoughts of our own hearts (II Corinthians 10:5)
- Our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)
- The commandments of men (Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7)
- Jewish fables (Titus 1:14)
- Ungodly counsel (Psalm 1:1, Isaiah 30:1,2)
- Human reasoning and logic (I Corinthians 2:14)
- The way that seems right to man (Proverbs 14:12,16:25)
- The evidence of our natural senses (II Kings 6:17)
- Philosophy, vain deceit, rudiments of the world (Colossians 2:8)
- The wisdom of the world (I Corinthians 3:19)
- A lie (II Thessalonians 2:11)
- All men (Romans 3:4)
In addition, our beliefs circumscribe - and can seriously restrict - God's power on our behalf. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the High Priest of "our; confession", and that means "say; with".; He works in areas where we "say; with" Him. He can work in our lives primarily - if not exclusively - where we agree with Him.
In order to receive deliverance, we must believe what God says about demonic activity and Jesus' dominion over enemy forces. To loose His power to provide, we must agree with Him when He says, "I; will meet your needs".; To overcome obstacles in our lives we must accept the reality of His promises to empower us to be overcomers. Jesus said to Mary and Martha, "I; am the resurrection and the Life... Believest thou this?" They each answered, "Yes;, Lord, I believe..." and Jesus raised their brother from the dead. To receive anything from God, we first believe. (And of course we need His grace to do that.) So our growth in God, our spiritual maturation and development are all based, at least in part, in what we believe.
The world is wrong
There are two sources of "truth;", two fountains to which we can go when we seek accurate information about life. There is the Word of God, absolutely true, immutable and beneficial. There is also the realm of "the; expert", AKA "professionals;", "researchers;", "authorities;" and "specialists;".; These are the men and women who have searched out, been instructed in, and achieved some status or position of honor, in the world systems. They offer whatman says about things. Man's point of view, ideas, conclusions, answers and solutions, and it's foolishness. They don't take God into the equation, and as the Bible says, the fool is one who says in his heart, "There; is no God." They don't acknowledge what GOD says, and that means they're fools.
Whose report are we going to believe: man's or God's?
In many cases, when we believe what the world has taught us, we are not only believing a lie, we are accepting the absolute opposite of what God says.
Here are some examples of this.
The world says if we need money we should work overtime, or borrow it, maybe even steal it. We might buy lottery tickets. At any rate, the emphasis is on acquisition. God says give and it shall be given unto you. The opposite.
The world teaches us that corporal punishment is abusive, the result of the parents' aggression or unmanageable emotions. God says it is a duty to Him and an obligation to our children; and it's proof that we love them. Again, the opposite.<-p> The world tells us our goal should be self-fulfillment; we should esteem ourselves and indulge our desires. We are entitled to life, liberty and happiness and if we don't provide it for ourselves, maybe the government will. But God tells us to lay down our lives daily, to esteem others better than ourselves, and to have within us the mind which was in Christ Jesus when He willingly abandoned the glory of His heavenly position and became one of us: born as we are, born to die.
He accomplished the salvation of the world by despising the concept of selfesteem. But how many of us who call ourselves Christian are involved in programs and exercises which are designed to increase our capacity to like, admire and "feel; good about" ourselves?
The world embraces the theory of evolution; it's more comfortable for the carnal mind to believe in "time; and chance and matter" than to accept the reality of a Creator to whom we are inferior. There are literally hundreds of other examples. The world says giving out free condoms will halt the spread of AIDS. (It will, in fact, increase its growth.) The world really believes that vaccinations will inhibit the incidence of disease. They believe that gun control laws will decrease crimes of violence; that counselling will control antisocial behavior; that education, enlightenment and sensitivity training will defeat racial conflict. They operate under the assumption that tolerance, education and political correctness will overpower the hatred which lurks within every human heart. wrong!
All of these and many other worldly beliefs are totally incorrect. Why? Well, first of all because their foundation is faulty; they are deceived about the true nature of man. Man is inherently wicked and no amount of external activity - education, counselling, fleshly effort, condoms, enlightenment, vaccines, self-effort, obedience to rules and such - will alter the predictable consequence of his basic, sinful character.
Only the Blood of Jesus can do that - can actually change man's fundamental naure. But even more importantly, the world's ideas are inaccurate because not only are they wrong about man, they're also wrong about God. They fail to take God into account. Since God does exist, and he IS active in the affairs of man, these previously mentioned beliefs are based in a lie.
Human reasoning which ignores God and fails to take into consideration the effects he will produce, will always end in deception. When worldly minds base their analyses on false premises, they will naturally come to inaccurate conclusions. What they believe will be untrue - and lives based on wrong data ultimately fail to prosper.
Those are just a few examples of how the world's beliefs are always contrary to the wisdom of God. As a race, our intellect was darkened by the fall, and we have no natural, inherent tendency toward truth. In fact the opposite is true, and without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we will naturally fall into error. Man's fleshly reasoning is always fallible.
What God says is true; anything which contradicts what he says is wrong, a lie.
One particular lie
I have said all this as background for exposing one very specific lie, the lie which is most prominent in the realm of divine healing.
This is the lie: "God;'s power to heal is loosed, increased, strengthened, more assured and easier to appropriate when we add the arm of flesh to God's action. It is proper and wise, and it is God's will, that we mix divine healing with the worldly medical system."
And that, my friends, is a lie.
In my opinion, and in my experience, belief in this lie is the number one reason there is so little healing in the American church. Let me expound on this by restating this same lie a number of different ways. What is really being said is:
- God is stronger when Man helps Him out.
- Merging divine and natural healing will produce something which is greater than either would be alone.
- God prefers - or at least is willing - to cooperate with man's system and man's methods in order to heal.
- The things man uses and the things he does in his attempts to heal - however dangerous, humanistic, destructive or sinful they may be - will increase our chances of being healed.
- God can heal simple things on His own, but for anything serious or complicated, He needs man's help.
- The way to be sure we're not tempting God or acting in presumption is to mix flesh with faith. We can call this "using; wisdom" or "being; balanced".;
- When we surrender our authority to man (when we sign a Consent for Treatment, giving the doctor the right and power to make decisions on our behalf) we are somehow released from our God-given responsibilities for our own bodies. But the relinquishing of responsibility does not diminish our authority before God; we can continue to pray as though we still retained the stewardship over our bodies.
Acting in faith in doctors, hospitals, drugs, tests, procedures, etc., does not diminish our faith in God. It is possible to have faith in God and faith in the medical system at the same time and if we do, God will work through the system on our behalf. He will meet us wherever we are. All of these statements are lies. They are the exact opposite of truth! The fact that they are almost universally believed within the body of Christ doesn't mean they're true; it only means they're popular. And remember that every time the spies went out, the popular opinion was wrong! Let's go over these points again.
- Lie 1.) God is stronger when Man helps Him out.
- Truth 1.) God's strength is infinite; we can neither augment nor diminish it. However, the lack of faith implicit in our adding man's efforts to God's power can limit Him, since our faith is one essential to His action on our part.
- Lie 2.) Merging divine and natural healing will produce something which is greater than either would be alone.
- Truth 2.) Man's system can in no way increase an already infinite, omnipotent God.
- Lie 3.) God prefers - or at least is willing - to cooperate with man's system and man's methods in order to heal.
- Truth 3.) So many Christians pray, "God;, guide the doctor's hands; give him wisdom..." This is really asking God to empower and support the natural efforts of man - even if the man is Christian, he is still operating in the natural realm - and "natural; man" is what the Bible tells us needs to be crucified. God does not want to strengthen and support natural man - He wants this carnal thing to die, that the Christ nature can replace it. Jesus was incarnate not to improve the human race, but to make possible a whole new race.
- Lie 4.) The things man uses and the things he does in his attempts to heal - however dangerous, humanistic, destructive or sinful they may be - will increase our chances of being healed.
- Truth 4.) In the Bible, God has forbidden almost everything pertaining to the medical system: drugs, surgery, the viewing, intruding and manipulating of other peoples' bodies, the counsel of the ungodly, the arm of flesh, etc. But primarily He refuses to align with the mind-set which gives honor and glory to man, and demands faith in man. God wants ALL our faith and ALL our glory to be HIS. The first of the Ten Commandments tells us that He is a jealous God.
- Lie 5.) God can heal simple things on His own, but for anything serious or complicated, He needs man's help.
- Truth 5.) Many people don't realize that they believe this, but their attitudes reveal it. "What; if something goes wrong? In that case you'll certainly need a doctor." Unspoken but exposed: "Because; if there's a problem, God can't handle it and man can." Whenever divine healing is discussed - that is, healing without the medical system - we are always treated to increasingly grim scenarios (broken bones, severe hemorrhage, crushed skulls etc.) as our gainsayers try to find a problem so great that we'll admit God is inadequate, and therefore we agree with all right-thinking, logical people, and see the wisdom of turning to man's system. They want us to agree that when God fails, man can rescue us.
- Lie 6.) The way to be sure we're not tempting God or acting in presumption is to mix flesh with faith. We can call this "using; wisdom" or "being; balanced".;
- Truth 6.) Anything we mix with faith - fear, unbelief, the flesh, common sense - will not add to faith, it will subtract from it.
- Lie 7.) When we surrender our authority to man (when we sign a Consent for Treatment, giving the doctor the right and power to make decisions on our behalf) we are somehow released from our God-given responsibilities for our own bodies. But the relinquishing of responsibility does not diminish our authority before God; we can continue to pray as though we still retained the stewardship over our bodies.
- Truth 7.) The opposite is true: we cannot delegate our responsibility, but we can most certainly give away our authority. The effectiveness of our prayer is seriously hindered when we have signed away our birth-right. God made us stewards over our bodies (and our children, our money, our words, our heavenly calling, etc.) and we will some day stand before Him and give account for this stewardship. The "Consent; for Treatment" which gives this authority over to the doctor IN NO WAY diminishes our accountability before God; it merely (and most certainly) diminishes the authority with which we pray.
- Lie 8.) God is obligated to respond to our need; our exercise of faith in the medical system will in no way hinder His efforts on our behalf.
- Truth 8.) Our need does not obligate God. It is faith that moves God. And of course that means faith in Him, not faith in man's system. (It is important to recognize that the guiding force of Jesus' life and ministry was NOT to meet the needs of man - it was to obey the will of the Father. He is TOUCHED by our need. He is moved to action by our faith.
- Lie 9.) Acting in faith in doctors, hospitals, drugs, tests, procedures, etc., does not diminish our faith in God. It is possible to have faith in God and faith in the medical system at the same time and if we do, God will work through the system on our behalf.
- Truth 9.) Faith in something other than God (or in addition to God if that's possible) will not merely direct how God will work: it will diminish faith and will hinder His work.
Let me explain why. First of all, we hear in Matthew 24 that "No; man can serve two masters".; This is only one of a number of Scriptures which tell us that we must choose between two masters: that is, two different sources of truth, two powers to be loosed on our behalf, two fixed points for our faith, two sovereigns to whom we yield dominion and to whom we give honor.
Elijah demonstrated this on Mt. Carmel, when he confronted the 450 prophets of Baal. Will we serve Jehovah or Baal? In the New Testament, Pilate asks the crowd at one of Jesus' trials before the Crucifixion: "Whom; should I deliver unto you?" and we choose Jesus or Barabbas. Moses told us in Deuteronomy 30, choose ye THIS DAY, life or death, blessing or cursing, good or evil. These contrasts, these opposites, are set before us each day and we choose. They are all, to some degree, a choice between flesh and spirit. Between the Divine and the merely human. (Or the demonic.) There is nowhere in Scripture an acceptable merger of good with evil, the sacred with the profane, the altar of God with the altar of Beliel. What fellowship has light with darkness?
Another reason this merger of the system with the Lord won't work: there's the problem of being double-minded. Tossed to and fro, unstable as the waves. James says, "Let; not this man think he will receive anything from God." (Maybe he gets something, but it's not from God!)
God hates a mixture. He told His people not to plant two kinds of seed in the same field, not to wear wool and linin at the same time. He also hates unbelief, and reliance on the flesh. God is moved by faith. He is touched with compassion by our need, but he is activated - He rises to scatter the enemy - when we move in faith. If we assume that He is mobilized merely by our need, we probably won't get healed.
Think of another promise of God: that of salvation. Do we add fleshly endeavor to this, as so many of us do to the promise for physical healing? Do we assume that we're SUPPOSED to?
We'll be saved, become a new creature in Christ, an Heir, an adopted son, if we believe, proclaim, and what? What can we possibly add to the Atonement which will help the Blood of Jesus? Will fleshly efforts make it more powerful, more likely to work for us?
Maybe right at first we don't look or act very different; there are still symptoms of our previous state. But despite a lack of perfection we believe that we have been saved. Why? Because God said so.
And our healing is just as much a promise; it was done on the same day, at the same place, by the same Person, with the same Blood, requiring the same response: faith. If we can't believe He can heal us, how can we be sure He'll save us? If He lied about the healing part, maybe we can't trust Him for the salvation part, either.
If God is a liar, let's go find a god who'll tell us the truth. If He's not a liar, let's act like it.
Here's another, more earthy, illustration of my objection to mixture. How many of us would counsel a new mother to nurse her baby, expounding all the multiple benefits of God's provision of breast milk, then say, "Well;, of course you must be practical and use wisdom. It would be tempting God to use only breast milk. That wouldn't be wise; you need to be balanced. So, just in case breast milk fails, you should give a little supplemental formula. That's just common sense." How many of us believe that would improve the baby's chances for successful breast-feeding?
And what if there were some problem; what if at first it didn't go perfectly? What if it took a little time for this new mother to get it right? Would we counsel her to quit trying? Or would we urge her to hold fast, persevere? Would we consider the end result worth a little effort? Certainly obedience to the will of God in the area of healing is worth a little effort, too. I think it's interesting that in this instance the substitute, the counterfeit, the thing that is mixed with God's provision is formula. (In the case of infant nourishment, the alternative is often cow's milk, which was designed by God for COWS.) Folks often prefer man-made formulas, plans, methods, agendas and such to trusting God's provision without any of man's additions.
There is nothing of value in Egypt for the children of God. The very best they have to offer out there in the world, outside the Kingdom, is the wisdom, character and capabilities of fallen Adam. That's all they have, and Adam cannot compare to Jesus! So why in the world is it even an option?
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