In this issue, I will continue on the topic of triumph over doubt. I will examine the danger of unbelief in our christian walk. One of my respected mentors David O. Oyedepo once said “whatever you don’t fight or contend with, have the right to stay”
By the grace of God, I want to provoke a holy anger in you through the page of scripture to show that doubt is an enemy to be dealt with.
Doubt: It hinders divine Intervention
Faith in God’s Word will always and will forever provoke God to confirm His Word, The man of God Benson Idahosa said “God can never say no to faith”
If faith provoke God’s intervention (Mk 9:23) then doubt hinder divine intervention. In Isa 53:1 – the Word said “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” Until you believe God’s report, you will never experience His hand.
Doubt: Disconnect you from God
The Word made us to understand that faith is the fundamental requirement to walk with God (Heb 11:6) and that whatsoever that is not done in faith is sin (Rom 14:23) and the wages of sin is death.
God loves you and I so much, but He can’t reach when us when we are in sin, because sin disconnects us from God. Since anything not done in faith is sin, so doubt disconnects us from God.
I wrote in one of my publication “the healing power of faith” that your cry never moves God but faith provoked cry does. I also said in the same publication that prayer heals nobody but the prayer of faith does.
So when doubt is present, God can’t reach you when you cry and you can’t even connect to God in prayer. What a disconnection!!!
Many believe that only sin can disconnect man from God, let me shock you with something, unbelief is also a sin, hear what the Word of God
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD. (Heb 3:12)
So the bible categorized unbelief as evil just as sin is evil, departing from the Living God.
It Short-circuit the flow of God’s Power
In Mark 6:1-5, Jesus came to His hometown and He could not do any mighty works. The word of God said that “He marveled at their unbelief” Jesus came with the fullness of the blessings, anointing of God but He couldn’t do anything because they didn’t believe in Him. The biblical kind of faith simply connects you with God’s power to bring to pass the Word you have believed but doubt stop the flow of that power.
Friend, doubt is a curse that must be avoided, faith brings the faithfulness and the life of God in your situation but doubt cancels everything out.
Disconnect you from the validity of Christianity
It is a shame in the body of Christ that many people play politics in the name of God, what a tragedy. The Church of Jesus is not a social club or a religious group but the kingdom of God made manifest on the earth. It is rooted on faith that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the whole world.
Christianity is not a religion but a relationship – one on one relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the head of the body, while everyone that have accepted Jesus as the Son of God and Savior is a part and a member of that universal body (1Cor 12:13,27)
This means that at new birth, you and I were drafted into Jesus the Vine. Jesus said in John 15:5 that He is the vine and we are the branches.
Hear what the Lord said in Rom 11:16-23
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. (Rom 11:16-23)
By faith in Christ Jesus, we were drafted into Christ- the productive Vine, so whatever flow in the vine automatically flow through the branches, Rom 11:16 put it this way “if the root be holy, so are the branches.” and verse 17 says “and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;”
This mean that whatever is not permitted in Jesus is not permitted in you, because the branches even if it be of the wild is grafted in the olive, it automatically partake of the fatness of the tree.
But according to v23 if they abide not still IN UNBELIEF, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. What keeps us drafted in Christ is faith while unbelief disconnects us.
Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.
So your connectivity to Christ which in turn determines your exploit and productivity in life is determined by your faith but what disconnects you is unbelief, and Jesus said without Him (Vine), we (branches) can do nothing.
Unbelief result to unproductive walk with God
Sometime ago, I was mediating on the life of the man called Enoch, the scripture has this account of him that “And Enoch walked with God and He no more for God took him”
How could a man walk with God and experience translation in a time of great evil on the earth? The bible answered the question in Heb11:5 “he had this testimony that he pleased God” but how? Heb11:5,6 answered by Faith. Verse 6 said without faith it is impossible to please God. Note the word “Impossible”
This mean that unbelief annoys God, in Heb 3:8-19, the Lord was grieved with the Israelites because of unbelief. In verse 12 of Hebrew 3, the word called it evil heart of unbelief and that it leads to “departing from the Living God”
Without faith you can’t please God and when a man can’t please God, you and I know where such a person will spend eternity.
Render the Word of God unproductive
In Math 13, the parable of the sower, the scriptures said that those grounds that the Word produced fruits were those that “heareth the word and understandeth it”
So the level of fruit that the Word of God will produce in your life is determined by the level of your understanding in that particular truth. It is only the truth you know, that can bless you not the truth you know not.
In Ps 119:144 – “Give me understanding and I shall live”
And in Hab 2:4, Rom 1:17 “…but the just shall live by his faith.”
If we live by understanding according to Ps 119:114 and Rom 1:17 say we live by faith. Then it mean that understanding equals faith (Rom 10:17)
This implies that productivity of the Word of God in your life is determined by faith. This truth was also validated in Heb 4:2
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. (Heb 4:2)
So before the Word deliver in your life, faith is paramount, the Word said in Luke 1:45
And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. (Luk 1:45)
If faith is the fundamental requirement for the fulfillment of prophecies and God’s promises in our lives, then doubt stop the fulfillment of God’s great agenda. Doubt is a curse, refuse to sell off your birthright – faith is not a risk but an asset of destiny.
When Peter believed in words of Jesus and started coming to Jesus on the water, he was doing fine – his faith was working but when he gave in to doubt due to the wind and storm, he started sinking.
Faith empower the Word to deliver its blessing
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16)
The word of God is translated to power only when you believe, when you believe God, you are in rest (Heb 4:6) and when you are at rest, God take over the battles of your life, the scripture said “be still and know that I am God ” According Heb 4:2,6, the reason for lack of fulfillment and confirmation of God’s Word in the life of many is because of unbelief .
I don’t care how great the prophecies that have gone ahead of you or the word you have received of the Lord, if you doubt, it will forever not come to pass.
It cancels out your awaiting spiritual harvest
When I was writing this message, the Spirit of the Lord brought this truth to my heart.
Every form of labor will always result to harvest (Gal 6:7), our spiritual labor and the good we do unto the Lord is not a waste but doubt can cancel the harvest.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, IF WE FAINT NOT.(Gal 6:9)
Note something in that verse “for in due season, we shall reap IF WE FAINT NOT” i.e. a condition: if we don’t give up – if we don’t cast our faith out, if we don’t give into unbelief (Heb 10:35-38)
That why most Christians miss out of their blessings, we serve God in church, pay tithe and serve in various kingdom steward positions but after a given period of time, if we don’t see result we give up.
The scripture say “you will reap if you faint not” God is faithful, He will surely reward you in due season, hold on refuse to sell off your harvest to doubt.
In 2011, while studying Gen 22, the Spirit of the Lord said to me “Until your obedience of faith is fulfilled, there is no divine intervention” that is to say obeying God is not enough, you must hold on until your obedience of faith speaks. Speaking of Joseph, the word of God tried him, until his time came.
Think about it, Abraham obeyed God by taking his son on that journey, that is obedience 1, although he was old, he yet climbed the mountain – obedience 2, he also tied his son up – that is not easy but he did it – that obedience 3, despite all this acts of obedience God never intervene until Abraham wanted to kill his son.
God is watching, He has a due season for you, just like there are raining and dry season, so is with our harvest, hold on.
As you have seen from God’s Word, doubt is not a friend of any believer that desire a grand destiny in God, In summary, it disconnect you from God and the validity of Christ, hinder the flow of God’s power, hinder the fulfillment of God’s Word, cause you to depart from God and cancel your precious seeds of labor.
By the gift and grace of God bestow on me through the faith mandate, which was given to me for you, I curse the operation of evil heart of unbelief in any area of your life In Jesus Name Amen.