The Power of Believing

               Overcoming the stronghold of unbelief:  MAIN HEALING LESSON 13

This teaching on defeating depression and discouragement is just one of the 24 lessons in our workbook for personal transformation, "Matters of the Heart."  All 24 lessons will be helpful to the person seeking restoration and freedom and have been posted on this web site. They are available as a complete set in our workbook which can be purchased as a download or ordered through the mail. The lessons are also available on CD and DVD as 24, 1/2 hour teachings. All scriptures are from the NKJV unless otherwise noted.
 

Introduction 

"Blinded" by the Light?
Unbelief is one of the primary obstacles that believers are called to overcome. It is a major stronghold in many believers’ lives. But wait! Wouldn’t it make more sense to say this of un-believers? Certainly, it is a huge obstacle for them, but that doesn’t diminish its power and effectiveness against us. In fact it is often (if not always) the thing that we don’t see which trips us up. For instance, if you ask most Christians they will tell you that they believe in Jesus. But have we been “blinded” by the light? The all important issue of believing doesn’t end there. The demons also believe that God the Father and Jesus exist, but they take no joy or peace in believing it. Neither do they live surrendered to Him in trust and obedience.

You believe that there is one God...Even the demons believe—and tremble! James 2:19

Take this simple test from Romans
God’s Word says plainly and emphatically that we who believe can be filled with all joy and peace in believing. That is the power of believing and it is always at our disposal, since we are the ones who get to choose what we are going to believe about our self, our God and our situations. Therefore, if peace and joy are not what you experience through the day--if indeed you are experiencing more than your share of anxiety, fear, discouragement, despair, and depression--then perhaps there are a few things you still need to learn about recognizing and overcoming the stronghold of unbelief.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
 

Teaching summary

Believing is the active power of the new life
The critical issue is believing God’s written Word—with a full heart of faith. Believing that the Bible is true and that it is God's Word is a good beginning. But actively believing each truth of the Bible in the face of adverse circumstances and feelings is the true challenge. This goes far beyond believing that the Bible is God's Word--it means betting your life, your hope and your heart on the Truth of what it is saying to you--in each moment of your life.  John says that he wrote his gospel in order for us to believe and that by believing we might have life (see Beholding the True Image (Main Healing Lesson 8)) in our workbook for more on believing and beholding).

…but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31

What John means by life is more than mere existence and it is not limited to heaven only. John is writing about a quality of life that is filled with joy, peace and love—what the Bible calls eternal life, new creation life, or abundant life. Peter says that the joy that God wants to give us through believing can come to us even when we are in the midst of trials—and it saves our souls, that is, it brings peace and confidence to our heart and mind—in this life.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, … Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:6-9  

This is not done by force of will
Peter is telling us that there is a way to hold our faith, even in the midst of hard trials, so that we have inexpressible and glorious joy—deep, inward encouragement. This is not will power. You cannot fake this kind of joy. You cannot work it up by your own efforts. This kind of joy is something you get to experience by learning to agree with the truth about God that you most need to agree with in the time of your trial. Being united to the right truth about God will automatically begin producing joy in you. That is the power of beliving upheld by the Holy Spirit. Such joy is the fruit of dealing with unbelief and learning to mix your faith with the truth of God’s Word (Hebrews 4:1-2). But know this: very often your feelings, your understanding, and your circumstances will seem to be shouting out that God’s Word can’t be true for you.

All believers have pockets of unbelief

Unbelief is a stronghold that the enemy has built into every believer. We all have limits to what we are presently able to believe about God and to what we are able to believe God for. If this were not so we would already be filled with that  joy that Peter says can come even in the midst of hard trials—just as Paul and Silas received it in prison (Acts 16:25). We are not there yet and so it is vital that we begin to learn to recognize the ways in which our own unbelief is limiting our growth in the Lord—and keeping us bound to patterns of the past. Unbelief is also a block to healing. Jesus could not do many healings in Nazareth because of the spiritual climate of there (Mark 6:5-6).

Biblical faith in God is believing God at His Word. The quality of our life depends upon our ability to believe Truth as Jesus reveals His Word, even in the face of great adversity. It is believing that God is honest—true to His Word as a Person of great integrity (Psalm 119:81; Ps 56:4). Unbelief is the opposite of faith in God and His Word. Unbelief is the sin of hardness of heart that doesn’t believe God is honest with us about His Character, Purposes or Promises. It is the stronghold that kept God’s people out of the Promised Land.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness… So I swore in My wrath,' They shall not enter My rest.'" Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God… Hebrews 3:7-8, 11-12

Unbelief becomes a barren land
The wandering in the wilderness happened because the children of Israel drew back in fear and unbelief from following God and Moses into the Promised Land, their place of “rest.”  Have you been wandering, seeking rest, and finding none? Our promised place of rest is the peace that passes understanding—the peace Jesus gives us in any situation whenever we surrender our fears and our obedience to Him and abide in Him. There is no real peace without complete surrender. But surrender only happens within a heart that is rising in faith, trust and release. Tellingly, the entry into our own "Promised Land" of abundant life in Christ is dynamically based upon our ability to believe the Promises of God in the circumstances of our life.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:2-4
 

Resting requires working

There is no abiding in rest without being willing to trust and obey (John 15:1-17).  Sometimes we have to labor to enter that rest (Hebrews 4:11). Always we have to keep watch lest the enemy draw us away from our new life of trust and obedience (Jas 1:16). Our promised land is a life of abundant joy and blessing lived in close relationship with Jesus Christ in this life and the next. Heaven is promised to all who believe, but the Kingdom of God on earth is promised to those who by faith exercise an aggressive seeking of His Kingdom.  

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12

Naturally, deception is very deceptive
A convincing temptation to doubt God’s Word precipitated the fall into sin. So convincing is the enemy’s deception, that at critical points in our growth we will find it much easier to believe the lies that the enemy has sown into our lives, than the truths from God’s Word that the Holy Spirit is seeking to teach us! Forewarned is forearmed!  God's Word to us and our place in Him is so incredibly secure. He has confirmed these truths by covenant (see Covenants of Promise) by promises ( see The Promises, Oaths, and Guarantees of God) and by the blood of His son (see The Blood of Christ: Atonement and Communion).

God cannot lie--His Word is His bond
The Word of the Lord is the effective instrument by which everything that now exists was created. All of creation is a testimony to the Truth and Power of God’s Word to create and to sustain life (Genesis 1:1-3). It is impossible that God could ever speak forth a Word that would not be true—His word is Truth; He cannot lie (John 17:17; Nu 23:19). Yet, there is one whose word cannot be trusted. From the beginning God’s Word has been contested by Satan. He seeks to “father” us into believing his lies, his distorted perspective, and his false ways.

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8:44
 

God seeks a people who will trust His Word to be true

God’s answer to the Fall was to seek a son of Adam who would believe God at His Word and therefore become the spiritual father to a nation of restored believers. In calling Abraham God promised him great things which Abraham at first gladly believed (Genesis 15:1-6). But God did not make it easy for Abraham to go on believing the promises. The unexpectedly long delay between the promises and their fulfillment (with the birth of Isaac) severely tested Abraham’s ability to believe God’s Word.

Just as Abraham, we too have been given magnificent, life-giving promises through God’s Word. Some of these promises have to do with who He is to us; some have to do with who we are in Him; some have to do with what our life in God could become. But God does not make those promises easy to believe--in our seasons of challenge. Sometimes they may seem impossible to believe at all. We may stagger in unbelief, but we must learn Abraham’s way who, contrary to hope, in hope believed—if we are to reap the full life of faith promised to us and enter our Promised Land. This is the power of believing and it gives us access to the Kingdom's peace and joy whenever we turn the key of an activated faith.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:2-4

Check your understanding and feelings at this door
Our own understanding can be a huge obstacle to believing truth; so can our feelings. We are not to lean on our understanding (Proverbs 3:5) or be led by our feelings (Romans 8:14). Trusting in God with our whole heart means our new life will depend upon our ability to believe in God even when our understanding can’t understand and our feelings are kicking and screaming. That kind of believing in God is hard work, but this is the real work we are called to do.

Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." John 6:29

It was unbelief in the truth of God’s Word that broke the world
Believing in untruth has been breaking hearts and breaking down lives ever since. Jesus has come that we might know the truth and that by the truths He shows us we would be made free. However, for His truths to work we often have to work at believing them and be willing to cast down all unbelief.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32

Let God help you believe
Fortunately, we do not have to work at believing in God and His Word by will power. No stronghold can be defeated in our own strength. God is gracious and willing to help us with our areas of unbelief. Let us pray with the Centurion: “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:23-24).  Unbelief in God’s Word can block healing, keep us from receiving the blessings of God and prevent us from entering the Kingdom, but it cannot separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:37-39). So, learn to let your every recognition of unbelief carry you in gratitude to your loving Father and let His perfect love for you cast out your fears (1 John 4:18)—even where seeing your own unbelieving heart is concerned.

Get the grace of believing He loves you
--even in your times of unbelief!
 

Interested in going deeper?

Don't just give these truths a "head bob"!
For further study and for help working these truths into your heart and life, see The Power of Believing part 2 (Head to Heart Guide 13) and "work out" with exercises, discussion questions, review of main points, digging deeper, more scriptures, model prayers, renunciations/affirmations and practical steps of life application.

Or better yet, let us minister to you in person
     --at one of our Savannah Seminars...