Faith vs Unbelief

Jesus taught His disciples that unbelief could block the power of God.

Matthew 17:19-20 MKJV (Modern King James Version)
(19)  Then the disciples came to Jesus apart, and said, Why could we not cast him out?
(20)  And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For truly I say to you, If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there. And it shall move. And nothing shall be impossible to you.

Up until the 17^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, His disciples had experienced positive results and success when praying for people and healing them of various sicknesses and diseases.

Notice in the 15^th and 16th verses what the father said to Jesus –

Matthew 17:15-16 MKJV
(15)  Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and grievously vexed; for oftentimes he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
(16)  And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.

The father brought the son to Jesus’ disciples because believing they could cure him. It’s also obvious the disciples thought the same thing or else they wouldn’t have asked the question, “Why couldn’t we cast the spirit out?”

The answer was simple. “Because of your unbelief.”

You can see two things from this story. First, they had enough faith to try. You may think they didn’t have enough faith to get the job done… but Jesus emphasized their unbelief as opposed to the size or amount of their faith.

This may be the first time they experienced a situation like this. For example, if this were the second or third failure they’d faced, they might have said, “Was it out unbelief that kept us from casting it out?” Or, “Was it our unbelief again?”

The father himself was very direct about the situation when Jesus told him he had to believe. He cried out and asked Jesus to help him overcome his unbelief. But again, the father himself must have had some kind of faith in the disciple’s authority and ability to get the victory for his son or he never would have approached them to begin with.

So after Jesus delivered the boy from the epileptic spirit, the disciples wanted to know “why” they didn’t get results. It seems that everyone in this situation was blind to their own unbelief until Jesus pointed it out to them.

It’s really no different today.

There are people who teach on the topics of prayer and faith and write books about the topic. They even pray for others who get delivered and healed. Some instantly, some gradually… and some not at all. When it doesn’t seem to work for them 100% of the time, however, people are troubled by it – as though God’s Word isn’t 100% reliable.

Consider this – if you remove the word “healing” out and substituted it for the word “salvation,” most Christian people wouldn’t have a problem with the subject of faith vs unbelief. They’d say, “If you don’t believe, you don’t get saved. Period, no exceptions.”

Hebrews 4:11 KJV
(11)  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The 4^th chapter of the Book of Hebrews shows that God’s people under the Old Covenant faced the same obstacle that we face under the New Covenant. Unbelief can be present in a person of faith. That was the case with the disciples who saw Jesus’ miracles firsthand. They weren’t exempt. Neither are we. If something doesn’t happen right away, the fight of faith goes into motion.

Mark 9:23-24 KJV
(23)  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
(24)  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH

This brings up a point that’s worth going over in some more detail. Faith is a fight. The Bible says, “Fight the good fight of faith.” (1 Tim 6:12)

A lot of attention focuses on scriptures like Ephesians 6:12 that say we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We don’t physically wrestle with invisible creatures, of course. We wrestle against thoughts and reasoning’s that originate from the spiritual realm. Those thoughts are designed to fill your mind and heart with unbelief.

They’re designed to cause you to think and do things that will limit God working in your life.

Psalms 78:41 KJV
(41)  Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

Some people say they believe the Bible but they blame God when the answers don’t come.

Faith is a fight.

For years, I’ve followed professional boxing. Sometimes, fighters quit. That’s right, for whatever reason, they stop fighting and the fight ends. Maybe they’re taking too much punishment and get tired of taking it. Maybe they say to themselves, “I want to be back in the dressing room. Forget this craziness!”

The same thing happens to people – even if they do have strong faith.

Fighting isn’t easy. If you’ve ever wrestled with pain or sickness yourself, you know from firsthand experience how debilitating it can be on the mind and the morale. I think something people think, “I’d rather be in heaven than to have to keep dealing with this.”

I firmly believe it’s never God’s perfect will for His people to die of sickness and disease any more than it’s His will for people to reject Jesus and be found guilty in the judgement.

FAITH PREACHERS WHO DIE OF SICKNESS OR DISEASE

Recently, the daughter of Novel Hayes (Zona-Hayes Morrow) passed away at the age of 63 after a battle with cancer. Of course, many naysayers came out of the woodwork to say this is proof (once again) that the “faith teaching” doesn’t work (at best) and is a heretical teaching (at worse).

But saying that faith doesn’t work sometimes is like saying the Gospel (or salvation) doesn’t work some of the time. The same people who boldly proclaim, “So and so is in hell because they didn’t believe in Jesus,” think it’s a slight to ascribe unbelief to a person. They know because it carries such a negative connotation in many segments of today’s church world.

Jesus told His disciples plainly, “It didn’t work because of your unbelief.”

In each case, we can’t see what’s in the individual’s heart and what isn’t. Only God can.

Some people are overcome by cares and worries which allow unbelief to enter in and choke their faith

Some people may catch a glimpse of the other side and say, “Forget this place, I want to be over there.” We can only judge ourselves, not the people around us. You may judge their actions as wrong or right, but only God knows the heart.

None of us wants to get to heaven and hear God say, “You struggled in this area throughout your life because of your unbelief.” And yet, there are areas of my own life I struggled with for years because deep down inside – there was doubt.

Once the doubt was gone, things gradually changed. It was almost a matter of pushing certain thoughts out of my “thought life” and treating them like lying intruders that weren’t welcome in my house no matter how many times they knocked on the door or left their “literature.”

When Jesus said, “Have faith in God,” (Mark 11:22) He meant exactly that. Faith in God produces the faith of God in the individual’s life. It’s not a matter of intellectual agreeing with Bible. Yet, there are many people who place their faith in the wisdom of men (even preachers) instead of the power of God.

That’s why we have so many books written about subjects like prayer, faith, God’s will and so forth. For most people, the Bible isn’t enough. They won’t believe it as it’s written. They look to the opinions of others and that’s what they place their faith in. Ultimately, though, you either connect on the inside with God for yourself or you don’t. You either move towards Him or away from Him in your individual experience from one day to the next. I’m talking about what happens on the inside of you. So at the end of the day, we all have obstacles to overcome. God always provides a way of escape so you don’t have to remain victimized by unbelief (1 Corinthians 10:13).

While we may be curious why certain things happen with other people, it’s enough that we give ourselves to the things God has placed in our own paths.

John 21:20-22 AKJV
(20)  Then Peter, turning about, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrays you?
(21)  Peter seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
(22)  Jesus said to him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? follow you me.