Faith Versus Unbelief: Part 2

Our faith does not make GOD do anything.  Our unbelief hinders our faith and therein lies the problem.

Mark recorded by The Holy Spirit in chapter 9:

14 Now when they came down the mountain to the other nine disciples, they noticed a large crowd of people gathered around them, with the religious scholars arguing with them. 15 The crowd was astonished to see Jesus himself walking toward them, so they immediately ran to welcome him.

16 “What are you arguing about with the religious scholars?” He asked them.

17 A man spoke up out of the crowd. “Teacher,” he said, “I have a son possessed by a demon that makes him mute. I brought him here to you, Jesus. 18 Whenever the demon takes control of him, it knocks him down, and he foams at the mouth and gnashes his teeth, and his body becomes stiff as a board. I brought him to Your disciples, hoping they could deliver him, but they were not able to do it.”

19 Jesus said to the crowd, “Why are you such a faithless people?  How much longer must I remain with you and put up with your unbelief? Now, bring the boy to me.”

20 So they brought him to Jesus. As soon as the demon saw him, it threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground, rolling around and foaming at the mouth.

The demon saw Jesus then tried to stir up unbelief by using sight and sound to move Jesus into some level of unbelief.  No, it did not work! Jesus was well aware of the demon’s tactics.

21 Jesus turned to the father and asked, “How long has your son been tormented like this?”

“Since childhood,” he replied. 22 “It tries over and over to kill him by throwing him into fire or into the water. But please, if You’re able to do something, anything—have compassion on us and help us!”

23 Jesus said to him, “What do you mean ‘if’? If you are able to believe,all things are possible to the believer.”

24 When he heard this, the boy’s father cried out with tears, saying, “I do believe, Lord; help my little faith!”

Now the man is grasping the difference between faith and unbelief.

25 Now when Jesus saw that the crowd was quickly growing larger, he commanded the demon, saying, “Deaf and mute spirit, I command you to come out of him and never enter him again!”

26 The demon shrieked and threw the boy into terrible seizures and finally came out of him! As the boy lay there, looking like a corpse, everyone thought he was dead. 27 But Jesus stooped down, gently took his hand, and raised him up to his feet, and he stood there completely set free!

The demon made one last attempt to promote unbelief but failed.  The result is that the demon departed, never to return.  His assignment was cancelled.

28 Afterwards, when Jesus arrived at the house, his disciples asked Him in private, “Why couldn’t we cast out the demon?”

29 He answered them, “This type of powerful spirit can only be cast out by fasting and prayer.”

The disciples learned a valuable lesson that day.  There are different levels of power among demons and they needed to be prepared for this reality.  We do too.  If we spend all our time feeding our physical senses through the media, we will not be prepared to confront this level of demonic activity.  Hasn’t this been the case with the church and its inability to deal with the pandemic crisis?

We are called to be fruit inspectors and we cannot let this lack of fruit in the church become acceptable.  We failed the test once again.  The Good News is that we get to take the test until we pass it!  We must renew our minds and be transformed in our souls so that we are not hesitant to act when confronted with major challenges that threaten our walks.

Jesus made it clear that faith differs from unbelief.  How do you remove unbelief?  It is done by prayer and fasting.

As I wrote yesterday, I am responsible for removing unbelief, not FATHER.  I must ask HIM to show me where my issues, weaknesses, and/or hindrances are at then deal with them.  This is renewing my mind and taking the necessary remedial actions resulting in transformation.

We cannot be moved by what we see, hear, touch, smell, or taste.  If we are unwilling to block the world’s media, we will not progress to full maturity as Sons and Daughters.

Last night, my wife and I want to a casual restaurant and sat next to a young couple with a toddler.  The parents spent the entire meal focused on their cell phones and barely spoke to each other.  They kept the toddler preoccupied with food.  Do you think they are able to hear The Spirit through their cell phones?

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