Planting Doubt

"Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.  So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."  Mark 9:17, 18

The next comment from Jesus was this:  "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him to Me."  Then, after answering a question on his son's condition, the father says, "But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

Apparently, the disciples' unbelief in the face of insurmountable odds planted a strong seed of doubt in a non-disciple.  However, when the Lord entered the situation He corrected it immediately. Of course the truly good, unlimited Master of the Universe had compassion and could help and He said, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."

The result was the praying of a truly great prayer in scripture:  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

This is a clear illustration of how our weakness of doubt clouds the concept of His all sufficiency for those who are watching us in their lost condition, as well as our own brethren who observe our behavior.  They see us living under our circumstances instead of projecting our confidence in His all sufficiency.  As the lost onlookers and our brethren start thinking, "IF this Jesus can do anything..." or worse, the Lord Himself can just as well say to us, "O faithless generation..."

A perceptive but lost man recently made the comment, "I believe in Jesus but not in His followers."  You have to concede that his thinking is valid and he has probably seen too much unbelief in the words and actions of followers of Jesus.  We should pray that the Lord will enter the situation and convince this man of his desperate need to believe and that his heart would respond, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

Statement of Position - Holding The Master Key

"And Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us.  For there is nothing to prevent the Lord from saving by many or by few."
1 Samuel 14:6

Jonathan revealed that he had chosen to trust in God's power and all sufficiency.  There is no doubt where he stood when he said the above underlined sentence.  No doubt, with faith like that, we'll see him in heaven.  That sentence is one of the more important records of faith connected to the Lord Jesus offering Himself on the cross, as only One, to save billions.

We were discovering the blog of someone who has been through great difficulty.  Not knowing at first what she really believes, we saw the statement below and immediately knew there was an unshakable faith wrought from believing in Him and seeing His power.

That's the safe shelter, the strong tower that we can all run into and be safe in every large or small circumstance.

Thank the Lord for the faith that He gives us and ask Him to increase it.

Slavery Is Alive and Well

Healthcare?  An official doctor has a chemical combo to reduce and manage your symptoms.  It will "improve your quality of life."
Planning for the future?  Someone else out there has plan that works well enough for most.
Education?  An army of trained educators know best about teaching your child in the ways of the environment, the origins of the universe and tolerance of cultural decay.
Religion?  There are plenty of institutionally prepared experts to choose from who can handle your spiritual matters.  God is too busy, (limited), to handle all of us and our minute details, so he has people; lots of people.

A generation hires out the future to those who take our money to think for us.  Believing in a truly unlimited God is too much of a stretch.  The next generation observes and become slaves as they trust in institutions, man's thinking, and an approach to God that is derived from someone who doesn't even know what faith is.  The word "faith" is a popular but powerless word.

Faith, the leaning on God, fully relying on Him, confidently trusting His all-sufficiency, His limitless ability, love, grace, mercy and power:  That is freedom.  As we farm out the parts of our lives that God's power is available to address to someone else, particularly the spiritual, we become sure slaves.

"See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah)."  Col. 2:8

The Clear Gospel, (Freedom from Fear)

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

Proverbs 3:5 AMPC

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ [give yourself up to Him, take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping] and you will be saved

Acts 16:31 AMPC

This isn't a 12 step program

There is no cost

No approval required by anyone before you trust in Him

There's no gauntlet to run

No hoops to jump through first

Are you afraid that it's too simple?

Take in and do every word in the above verses and you will be rocked by the greatest Power that you will ever know.

The Ties That Bind

We might all have certain items on the shelf of our heart that are sitting there to be more fully understood and used at a later time.

I witnessed a process where sin came in, and the sin used doubt like a wrecking ball, overtaking and becoming completely hopeless.  Then, the depth of the truth of liberty in the Gospel of Our Salvation was simply believed in and life changing freedom immediately resulted.

Still, there were those who were blind to what had just happened and some were those in charge of "handling" the incident.  After all, it happened to young people who were born again.  As the situation handlers struggled with the young people's previous behavior, they saw the depth of sin but could not see the stunning power of God that had just changed lives in front of them. They had been able to preach about God's power but could not comprehend that the same power that creates a new nature in one born again is the same power that delivers a heart that knows Jesus Christ as Savior but doubts His all sufficiency, and is consequently stuck in a cycle of sin.

The process turned a little ugly as certain rules were set up, certain expectations were raised and certain demands were required.  Scriptural logic was used to batter the soul of the dear ones who, by this time, were already free.  I kept thinking, "There's something wrong here," but didn't know how to define it.  Besides that, the scriptural logic was flawless.

[As a side note, those of the world love to observe these ones who claim Christ as Savior but sin grievously.  They point a finger and laugh because these dear ones aren't perfect after all.  The world sees it as an excuse to continue in their own life of godlessness while proclaiming personal self-righteousness.]

I had been able to conclude that the "something wrong here" was related to the leadership lacking understanding of the process of The Gospel but could not define what happened.  Then, in a Bible study, someone made a comment that caused me to reach for that shelf to finish the missing definition.

It was the story of the demon possessed man and the herd of swine.  A brother pointed out that he was bound in three ways:
(1) Bound by sin,
(2) bound by demons, (both of those resulting in the most terrible inner condition possible),
and then,
(3) bound in chains, (man's reaction).

Finally, there it was.  Number 3!  Our own brethren, reacting in a way that didn't regard the Gospel of our freedom, were tending to do the same with those who had sinned in our midst.  Binding with rules, expectations, demands, and Old Testament law.

(1) Sin binds.
The Lord Jesus releases from sin, but
(2) doubting His all sufficiency binds spiritually
and then we, as brethren who are not of this world, react like men of the world and
(3) bind with the chains of requirements.  That is, requirements to prove that *I am enough, not that HE is enough.

*Yes, dear one, you said it as you entered freedom.  The Gospel in three words - forever.

Trust ME

God's message to the world, unmistakably woven throughout His Word, neglected as a general human rule:

"Trust ME."

Trust in the Lord with all your heart...
It is better to trust and take refuge in the Lord...
...how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.
...He knows those who trust and take refuge in Him.
What time I am afraid I will trust in You.
Pray...without doubt.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is firmly fixed, trusting in the Lord.
For surely I will deliver you...because you have put your trust in Me...

We are at peace if we treasure and earnestly remember these words.

We are rich if we collect all of those sayings and so many more just like them in our hearts while we read through His entire Book. 

All of these nebulous titles that we frequently speak of but don't really know how to explain:  "The Gospel," "The Glory of God," "His power."  These all have their meaning, and our understanding of them is complete, when we take Him at His word and trust Him.

Old People

"Old people" who have learned to be content in any state of existence because of their confident trust in Jesus Christ their Lord are described right here:

The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible]. 

Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

[Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment].

[They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises.
Psalm 92:12-15 Amplified (Classic)

It's likely that you know a handful of people fitting this description.

It's God's intention for you to be the same way.

Power

In seeing God's power we better comprehend His glory.  Without this comprehension, how can we confidently trust in Him?

Pay attention to those times of deliverance in your life that you think are only remarkable to you.  His power was manifesting itself on your behalf.  Watch His powerful deliverance of others around you as they choose to trust Him.  See His obvious power to overcome the impossible in us.

Earnestly remember how He has delivered you in so many ways since your youth.

Then, as a believer, you can say:

"The Lord God is my Strength,
my personal bravery,
and my invincible army;
He makes my feet like hinds' feet
and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk]
and make spiritual progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]."

Habakkuk 3:19 (Amp Classic)

Deliverance Through the Faith of Others?

"Then they came, bringing to Him a paralyzed man, who was being carried by four men.  When they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Jesus; and when they had dug out an opening, they let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying.  When Jesus saw their [active] faith [springing from confidence in Him], He said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
Mark 2:4 (Amp)

We need to pray with active faith for deliverance for our brethren:
Deliverance from spiritual bondage,
disease,
wasting fear,
servants of the evil one,
physical disorders and the mental disorders that they cause.

When Jesus saw the active faith of the four men springing from confidence in Him, He delivered the paralyzed man.

Pray with confidence for your brethren AND your friends who are not born again.

Integrity Defined

Occasionally you might hear something like this; "The Lord is holding up His end of the deal, how about you?"  Instead of feeling undue pressure and misplaced shame, the confident reply could be, "I am walking in my integrity."

Bold, isn't it?  Maybe not what the person asking the question is looking for in an answer.

What is integrity?  Unless we are having a proud moment, the first thought might be that we don't have much - if any - integrity.  That could be true if we are using the world's definition or even the definition that our brethren might hold over our heads.

The Final Authority defines it this way, (more clearly, I believe, when read in the Amplified Version):
"Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; 

I have [expectantly] trusted in, leaned on, and relied on the Lord without wavering and I shall not slide."

Psalm 26:1

Sure, "holding up our end" is not always easy. We make it harder because we might value self imposed busyness or buy into the pressure of living up to the misguided expectations of others. Those two influences pressure us to take our integrity into our own hands.

Trust Him and don't waver.  That's His expectation.  That is integrity.

As always, His way with us is simplicity and freedom.

Choices

"Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord?  Him shall He teach in the way that he should choose."
Psalm 25:12 Amp.

This verse shows liberty regarding our choices, as ones who love God.  It also shows that the Lord will teach us in that way that we choose.

So many project negativity on God in that He will most likely have to painfully redirect us from our choices when most often He very positively uses those decisions that we make to gently teach us and reveal even more of His careful love and awesome glory.

I've seen a boy and girl choose each other at a young age.  Despite substantial condemnation of their choice the Lord taught them in that way that they chose.  The two of them are now beautifully one and the Lord's love, power and glory have been generously displayed.

Have confidence in Him, knowing that the way you chose is an opportunity for Him to teach His everlasting ways.  Freedom to choose is a gift and an open opportunity.

Why?  Because He is enough.

A Thankful Heart

It occurred to me that our thankfulness to God is an expression of our seeing of the unseen.

He faithfully takes us by the right hand and leads us through the impossibilities.  He reveals His delivering power over the obstacles that are impossible for us to overcome.  We see this activity and our confidence is boosted, doubt flows away and our hearts react with thankfulness.

So take courage.  Your thankfulness is a deep expression of faith in Him.  It is worship and it is an expression to others of His glory.  You are part of His kingdom of priests as you tell of your thankfulness to others.