UNBELIEF AMONG CHRISTIANS HAS CONSEQUENCES
By W. G. Guy
Many who call themselves believers in Jesus Christ, the Redeeming Son of God, fail to fully believe what is recorded in His Holy Word, and in His promises that He provided for us. This unbelief, or lack of faith, keeps people from receiving from God because unbelief is DOUBT. Doubt denies faith, and whatsoever is not of faith (trusting Him and His promises) is sin. Thus unbelief is SIN and needs to be repented of.
Romans 14:23 – And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is
sin.
Those that doubt God and His Word do not receive what God has provided.
James 1:6-8 – But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Where does doubt come from? Doubt is an enemy of God, and as such, obviously it comes from Satan. The devil began his
work of planting doubt in the garden when he tempted Eve ABOUT WHAT God said.
Genesis 3:1 – Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Planting doubt in God’s word has always been a ploy of the devil against mankind. Doubt, or double mindedness, is always the enemy of faith. Unstable faith means it is tossed to and fro and is not able to prevail in the storms of life.
In Hebrews we read that unbelief in His people makes Him angry, and He will withhold His blessings and provision that were promised. Please understand that our enemy, Satan, will do all that he can to destroy your faith through testing and challenges.
Hebrews 3:7-19 – Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
You can only receive what you truly believe God for!
Hebrews 4:1-7 – Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 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. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Some believers have hardened their hearts to some of the promises of God that are recorded in His Word. They refuse to believe certain portions, thus they will not enter into, or receive, all that God has provided through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:11 – Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Unfortunately, today there are many who claim to be believers in God, and His Son Jesus the Christ, who do not believe what all that God says in His Word and promised to us. Such as: the baptism in the Holy Spirit; the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit; healing; prophecy, etc. This makes God angry, and He said they shall not enter into what God has promised. Why? Because they deny His Word, which is the same as denying Him!
2 Corinthians 5:7 – (for we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Galatians 3:11 – ….. The just shall live by faith.
Why do some people not believe? They say, “Seeing is believing”; but that is not how faith works!
Hebrews 11: 1 & 6 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ……6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Jesus told us basically to believe and then you shall see.
Mark 11:24 – Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Are you making God angry because you don’t believe what He promised in His Word. Are you disappointing Jesus because you do not accept what He provided through His atonement on the cross for you?
Isaiah 53:5 – But he was wounded for our trangressions, (sins) he was bruised for our iniquities, (rebellion of our depraved spirits), the chastisement of our peace (of mind – soul) was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (in our physical bodies).
Jesus’ atoning work covered our spirit, soul and body: that is how much God cares for us. Are you losing out on all the blessings and provision of God due to unbelief, especially in your time of need?
Hebrews 4:16 – Let us therefore come boldly (without hesitation) unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Please understand that faith will be challenged and tested by the devil.
Hebrews 6:11-12 – And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful (weak or lazy), but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Don’t make God angry by denying what He freely offers and said He is willing to do for you. Obviously repentance is needed by those who say they are believers in Jesus Christ but fail to take Him fully at His Word.
John 14:12-14 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
These marvelous works that Jesus did, He said we will do also, because we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, just as He did after He was baptized in water, and in which He promised:
Acts 1:8 – But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
This power many don’t’ believe in, but it was given to us so that we can continue His work and carry it into all the world.
John 16:23-24 – And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
Do you believe all that He said and promised? Some believers need to repent for not fully believing!
