How to deal with doubts in faith? How to help your unbelief?

How to deal with doubts in faith? How to help your unbelief?

Answer:

You know, there must be reasons for faith.
Faith, unlike superstition, must have a basis. Faith is not self-hypnosis, it is not even some kind of effort on one’s own will or intellect. I am convinced of what I say: faith has a foundation. It often seems to us that the basis for faith should be something from the realm of the supernatural, some kind of miracle. Then we will have faith, or much faith, or strong faith. In fact, he said: “It is not a miracle that produces faith, but faith that produces a miracle.” What is faith based on? As I see it, as I understand it from the word of God, I’ll even quote it to you: “Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Let's be first graders, let's get back to the basics, let's get back to the word of God, no matter how long you have been in church, no matter how long you have been a believer. Christ reproached His disciples for their unbelief. Even when they heard that He had risen from the dead, and heard from loved ones whom they had known for a long time, they did not believe. When He walked with them to Emmaus, and they did not recognize Him, He did not just show them the wounds, He did not just open their eyes so that they would say: “Oh, this is the Lord and God!”, as Thomas said. Christ said to Thomas: “You believed because you saw Me; Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed” (John 20:29). That is, He really shows and emphasizes something else. What did Jesus do with his disciples while walking with them on the road to Emmaus? He began to explain the Scriptures to them! Moses, prophets (Luke 24:27). What did He want to show them in the Scriptures? He showed in the Scriptures that "these things had to be." They are disappointed, they say: “We thought that He would restore the Kingdom. It seemed to us that everything was about to lead to this, but it’s already the third day since He was crucified,” that is, their faith was shattered. They made their assumptions. He tells them: “So this is precisely what Christ had to suffer and enter into glory. Look! (Luke 24:26). And He began to quote Scripture to them. Scripture! Scripture! He said many times: “Search the Scriptures!” (John 5:39) “But through them you think that you have eternal life. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me. Why? Because he wrote about Me." Jesus Christ always confirmed the faith of people on the basis of the sacred scriptures. Not some signs, wonders, predictions. On the contrary, He said, “Beware of this. You will be deceived. You will be deceived. Fire will be brought down from the sky. Give various signs in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” I personally believe that a person should spend a lot of time searching the word of God, reading the word of God, even, I would say, confessing the word of God, as Moses commanded Joshua: “Do not let the book of this law depart from your mouth” (Joshua 1). :8). At one point I stopped and realized, not just from your eyes, that you were reading it, but from your lips. Notice! So that this book does not leave your lips, that is, proclaim, pronounce, confess. What did the Apostle Paul write? “If you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth, for with the heart one believes leading to righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses leading to salvation” (Rom. 10:10). That is, if it were something unimportant - confession with the mouth, then why does the Bible so strongly recommend it in so many places? I have been practicing this in my life for about 10 years now. What am I doing? I simply quote the texts of the Holy Scriptures, confess them while walking in the house, in my secret room where I pray. I began to often pray with the texts of the Holy Scriptures. I confess them, I proclaim them, especially those texts that contain powerful promises: “The Lord is my shepherd. I won't want for anything. He makes me lie down in green pastures” (Ps. 22:2). This is not just a fantasy of King David, this is not just a rhyme for another hymn. These are prophetic psalms, this is the word of God! I personally testify to you from not so much experience that faith is instilled. At some point, such a strong confidence in the word of God takes over the heart, such a creation of the inner man takes place. This is faith. Then you open the door and go out into the world, to work, and meet people. And they hit your shield of faith, someone says: “Yes, you are only preachers, you are only pastors, you only preach about this. Look at the reality of life, look reality in the eyes.” And I will tell you that the arguments of these people are so weighty, so difficult, so difficult circumstances that if not for these moments, if not for these affirmations of faith, if not for these visits of the Holy Spirit, if not for these seals of God’s promises, which are not just on paper, but “...to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20), as the Apostle Paul wrote. “All the promises of God are in Him “Yes” and in Him “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.” If it weren’t for these moments in the secret room, you really lose faith, you really throw up your hands, you really don’t know what to say to the person. And you not only don’t know what to say, but you don’t know how to look a person in the eye, you simply don’t have the strength to resist the facts, because, as you know, facts are stubborn things. I believe that this is the spiritual creation of personality, this is painstaking work. There is no magic formula here that if you do this, or read this, or repeat this, then this and that will happen. No. This is painstaking work on one’s own soul, obeying the Holy Scriptures, and it builds the inner man, and he is confirmed in faith. We could go on and on about this. But notice that Jesus Christ did nothing else, but expounded the sacred scriptures, showing what these things should be. “This is exactly what it was supposed to be!” In other words: “Disciples! You should have twice as much faith, because if you would have looked carefully at the scriptures, what these things should have been. That's how it should be! It's unavoidable! Christ had to suffer and enter into glory. There must be just strong faith here, because everything that was predicted came true. And you, it turns out, have lost faith. How so? Because you thought, you thought, you thought... you built your idea about it.” Answered live on December 21, 2012, time 28 min. 47 sec. (1030)
Question answered 9 years ago in category: Personal growth

Victory over fear and doubt

2 TIMOTHY 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

Even though we may be afraid in the flesh, we should never confess fear. Fear is not from God. The above verse says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, “but of power and love and a sound mind.”

Fear does not come from within you. He comes from outside, trying to take over you. It's from the enemy. We must not profess fear; but instead, we should profess strength, love and chastity.

The same applies to doubt. Don't confess your doubts. This does not mean not admitting that you have doubts. But just don't say anything about your doubts. Doubt is from the devil. Doubt is a contraband commodity. Doubt is evil. A Christian has no right to talk about doubt, because it is not for him. Many people think they are honest when they confess that they have doubts. You may be tempted by doubt, but by resisting the devil, you can make him run away.

Therefore do not profess doubt; confess your faith. Start talking about who you are and what you have in Christ. You are a believer. You are a new creature. Say so; believe it; think so. And if you are in temptation—none of us can avoid this— “resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

(James 4:7). Refuse to doubt, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and doubt will leave you.

Confession of the Word of God

Instead of confessing doubts and fears, confess what the Word of God says. God said: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you...”

(Isa. 41:10). Therefore you can say, “I am not afraid. I am a child of God, and He is with me. He gave me a spirit not of fear, but of love, strength and chastity. I don’t doubt it, but I believe it.”

Stop speaking the devil's language of doubt and fear. Start speaking God's language of faith. God is the God of faith. We are children of faith of the God of faith.

At one of the services, a woman spoke about her sister, who was in an institution for the insane. She said: “She's not that bad, but she needs to be there. She understands what they are telling her. Sometimes I take her home for two weeks. And so I will bring her to one of these meetings. I believe they will help her. »

I never prayed for this sick woman during those two weeks, but she came to every service. Just by hearing the Word of God, her mind became clearer, and she did not have to return to that establishment. Doctors released her, declaring her healthy. In the past, she confessed defeat, fear and doubt until it all became ingrained in her. But as she listened to the Word preached, she saw where she had been doing wrong. She began to confess what she needed and was healed. After seeing this woman's amazing recovery, another woman in the church brought her neighbor, who was about to be placed in a similar institution. Neither the neighbor nor her husband were Christians, but the husband agreed for his wife to attend our services with the neighbor. In one week, this woman believed, was healed, filled with the Holy Spirit, and never needed to be treated. People sometimes get sick mentally just as they do physically, and God can heal mental illnesses just as easily as He can heal physical ones. We must admit that God has not given us a spirit of fear. We must learn to resist the enemy.

Remember that confessing fear gives fear control over you. Your fears will become stronger, and you will fall into slavery to the enemy. But if you will confess the Father's care, confess His protection, confess His Word, confess with boldness what God says is true about you, confess that He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, you will always be above Satan's influence .

When you confess your doubts and fears, your illnesses and infirmities, then you openly confess that the Word of God is untrue and that God has not supported it. His Word declares that by His stripes you are healed.

1 PETER 2:24

24 He Himself bore our sins in His Body on the tree, so that we, having been delivered from sins, might live for righteousness: by His stripes you were healed.

MATTHEW 8:17

17. Let what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah be fulfilled, who says: “He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”

If, instead of confessing that Jesus “took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses,”

we proclaim that we still have them, we will remain sick. But when we begin to confess that He has already done something about our illnesses, we will receive healing.

Too often we accept the testimony of our senses instead of the testimony of the Word of God. We must practice the Word of God to make it work for us.

Lyrics by heart : “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).

LESSON MOTTO: Be doers of the word, and not hearers only...” (James 1:22).

Lesson 15

Faith for Prosperity

Bible Texts: Galatians 3:13, 14, 29; Deuteronomy 28:1-8, 11, 12

Central Truth: As born-again believers, we are redeemed from the curse of the law and are heirs of Abraham's blessing and God's promises of prosperity.

For many years I did not understand that it was God's will for His children to prosper. I thought, like many, that poverty is a sign of humility - and in order to be humble, you have to be poor.

I thought that a righteous person cannot be wealthy, and a wealthy person cannot be righteous.

I thought that all the promises in Scripture regarding financial blessings applied only to the Jews. But I have learned, through studying the Word of God and applying it to my life, that God desires for every child of His, “that you may prosper and prosper in all things, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

Some may say, “The Bible says that money is the source of all evil. “However, the Bible does not say this at all. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, having given in to it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” A person can be guilty of this sin without having even a penny to his name!

I've heard people say, “Well, I guess I'm another Job. “Some people think that Job lived his entire life in poverty, illness and sorrow. However, the entire content of the book of Job covers a period of nine months, and in the last chapter it is said that God restored Job's loss, and “the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).

When thieves stole Job's property, he was in bondage to Satan. When the fire started and burned his crops, he was in bondage to Satan. When the storm came and brought the house down on his children and they died; when he was stricken with sores from head to foot; when his wife turned on him and said, “blaspheme God and die,” Job was in bondage to Satan. But God freed him from this slavery. If you think you are another Job, then you are one of the richest people! You will have twice as much as before. You will be healed and live to old age. (Job lived another 140 years after the events recorded in the Bible.) If you are another Job, then you will succeed.

Redeemed from the Curse of the Law

GALATIANS 3: 13, 14, 29

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

14 So that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith...

29 But if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

These verses tell us that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. What is the curse of the law? To answer this question, we need to look at the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Pentateuch, or books of the Law. From there we learn that the curse, or punishment, for breaking God's law is threefold: poverty, illness and the second death.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of poverty. He has redeemed us from the curse of disease. He has redeemed us from the curse of death—spiritual death now and physical death when Jesus comes the second time. We do not need to fear the second death.

Blessing of Abraham

Just as the curse is threefold in nature, so is Abraham's blessing. First of all, it was a material, financial blessing. Secondly, it was a physical blessing. Third, it was a spiritual blessing.

3 John 2 of the New Testament says that God desires for us to have material, physical, and spiritual blessings: “Beloved! I pray that you will be healthy and prosper in everything, just as your soul prospers. » Too many people think that all the Bible's promises of material blessing and prosperity apply only to Jews. However, this verse is addressed to New Testament Christians. The word "Jew" is a short form of the name "Judas." » The Israelis began to be called Jews only after the split of the tribes. Judah had as many promises of material and physical blessings as any other tribe of Israel. They received or inherited the blessing through their father Jacob. Jacob inherited the blessing through his father Isaac. Isaac inherited the blessing through his father Abraham. Therefore it is not a Jewish blessing or promise. This is not an Israelite blessing. This is Abraham's blessing. And this is my blessing! “That the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus...” (Gal. 3:14). In the same third chapter of Galatians we read: “Know this, that those who believe are sons of Abraham” (v. 7). If we are born-again Christians, then we are “Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

After these verses became clear to me and I began to see what I had as a child of God by faith in Him, other passages of Scripture began to be revealed to me. Everything belongs to God and is at His disposal.

“For all the beasts of the forest are Mine, and the cattle on a thousand mountains. I know all the birds on the mountains... for the universe and all that fills it are Mine” (Ps. 49:10. 12). “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it...” (Ps. 23:1).

God created everything; then He created man, Adam, and gave him dominion over everything. God did all this for His man Adam. He gave Adam dominion over the cattle of a thousand mountains, over gold and silver, over the world and everything in it. In other words, Adam was the god of this world.

But Adam committed high treason and sold himself to Satan. Thus, Satan became the god of this world. However, Jesus came to redeem us from Satan's power and dominion over us. Romans 5:17 says, “For if through the one’s transgression death reigned through one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.” " In the Amplified Translation of this verse we read: "For if through the crime (iniquity, violation) of one man death reigned through one, how much more will those who receive God's abundant grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness (right standing before Him) reign in lives as kings through the One Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.”

We need to reign in life like kings. This means that we have mastery over our lives. We need to dominate, not be dominated. Circumstances should not control us. We must control our circumstances. Poverty should not dominate and reign over us. We need to dominate and reign over poverty. Sickness and disease should not dominate and reign over us. We must dominate and reign over disease. We must reign in life through Christ Jesus, in whom we have redemption.

DEUTERONOMY 28:1-8,11,12

1 If you... will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and be careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

2 And all these blessings will come upon you and be fulfilled if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

3 Blessed are you in the city, and blessed in the field.

4 Blessed is the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your livestock...

5 Blessed are your barns and your storehouses.

6 Blessed are you when you enter, and blessed are you when you go out.

7 The Lord will defeat your enemies who rise up against you before you...

8 The Lord will send you blessings in your barns and in all the work of your hands; and he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you...

11 And the Lord will give you an abundance of all good things...

12 The Lord will open to you His good treasury, the heavens, so that it may give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the works of your hands...

The first part of Deuteronomy 28 lists the many blessings of God with which He blesses His people if they obey Him. He promised to bless their children, crops and livestock. He promised to bless and protect them in battle. He promised to give them "an abundance of all good things" and to bless them "in all the work of their hands."

This is an all-encompassing blessing. But it is also conditional. They must keep all God's commandments. They must be a holy people, not forsake Him and not seek other gods, but serve Him with all their hearts. The remaining verses of this chapter, from 15 to 68, are devoted to listing the curses that were to befall His people if they did not keep His commandments.

When I first understood this truth and saw the prosperity, material and physical, that God has planned for his people, and that every born-again believer in Christ is an heir of this promise, I could hardly contain my joy!

I was shocked to discover that I was redeemed from the curse of the law, from the curse of poverty, and that I was entitled to the blessing of Abraham.

As Christians, we should not be held captive by financial difficulties; we don't need to be held captive by poverty or disease! God has prepared healing and prosperity for His people if they obey His commandments.

When Jesus was here on earth, He said, “So if

You,
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him”
(Matthew 7:11).

How many of us parents want our children to go through life hungry, sick or suffering, never having enough? None of the parents want this. In fact, we work and sacrifice to try to give our children a better education so that they can have a better life than we do.

God placed all animals on the earth; all gold and silver. Did He do this for the wicked? Of course He loves the sinner, but does He love sinners more than His children? No. God placed all this for His people.

He told Israel: “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land.”

(Isa. 1:19). And if God wants His children to eat the best, He wants them to dress in the best; He wants them to drive the nicest cars; He wants them to have the best in everything.

Tested by personal experience.

When this truth became real to me, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Don't pray for money anymore. You have the power in My Name to claim prosperity. I have already placed gold, silver and cattle on a thousand mountains for My man Adam and given him dominion over everything. After he sold himself to Satan, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came to redeem you from the hand of the enemy and remove the curse of the law from you. Now, instead of praying that I will do it, because I have already provided for all your needs, all you have to do is say: Satan, get your hands off my money. Just declare what you need. You reign in life through Jesus Christ.”

I was an evangelist then. In the church where I was preaching at the time, I said, “Lord, if I get what I need here, it will work. Last time I was here I got $60 for the week. For this week I am proclaiming $150. “Then I said, “Satan, get your hands off my money in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

You see, we don't believe in what is possible, we believe in what is impossible. I was only supposed to be in that church for a week, but it turned out that I stayed there for ten days. I declared $200 for those ten days. The pastor did not ask for money at all, he simply passed the tray along the rows, and when the collection was calculated, it turned out that I received 240 dollars.

After that, when I held services in churches, the money came so easily that often the pastor would say in surprise, “This is the largest donation the church has ever given to evangelists. “And I didn’t beg at all. I had the key that opened the door.

Thank God we are not under a curse because Jesus has set us free! “Instead of sickness I have health, instead of poverty I have wealth, because Jesus has redeemed me.”

Lyrics by heart: “Beloved! I pray that you will be healthy and prosper in everything, just as your soul prospers.”

(3 John 2).

LESSON MOTTO: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only...” (James 1:22).

Lesson 16