No Weak Places

"We must stop making our humanness a reason for doubt."

WHEN ISRAEL WAS promised Canaan, the Promised Land, it was occupied by men who'd lived there for many generations. So fierce and warlike were its people that initially, after leaving Egypt, the Israelites were not taken directly there. God knew they were not ready to fight battles (Exodus 13:17). But when the time did come, and they were supposed to enter and conquer, Israel chose to send in spies instead, something God had not told them to do. They saw the size of the people and became too afraid to obey God’s instructions (Deuteronomy 1:27). They did not see the size of His promise but forgot all He’d done for them. Though the battle was the Lord’s, though He’d promised them the land, knowing who lived there, they doubted and so spent forty years wandering in the wilderness until an entire generation was dead at an early age. It was not that He would fling them into battles they could not win. If they’d known Him, they would never have thought this. But He would fight for them and give them the land in miraculous ways. He intended to be the God of Israel.

“Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;” (Deuteronomy 1:29-30)

We have more reason to believe God is with us than they did. We have Jesus, and the battle is already won. He fought it for us. But the devil, who is the father of lies, would have us believe many other deceptions. Take your pick. "Everybody dies who gets what I have." "I'm not strong enough to make it through this." "This is what everyone in my family does when they get older." "I'm just too sick to get better." And a zillion other things, including, for some that do not know Christ, that there is no God in heaven at all.

The church is the church because we are here to pick up the slack. We are Jesus' hands and feet. We go for Him to where the hurting are. We embrace them when they come to us. We are His voice. We speak words of encouragement, and even if we have no words at all, through our misbelief or lack of knowledge, we always ALWAYS have patience, longsuffering, faithfulness, and love unending. We have belief in God who is faithful to answer our prayers. There is no place for us to make excuses and walk away. "Oh, thank goodness, they have left." Or to shake our heads and shrug our shoulders. There is no place for us to speak of faith and not teach faith. Even more importantly, we must show in our faces and in our sermons that our loving powerful God is faithful. We should not say we believe God heals then offer no instruction for those seeking healing. And when we do teach healing, we cannot put a cap on it, saying, "This is what God can do," when inwardly we don't think He will for that one, not for him or her.

Every man has THE MEASURE of faith, and that measure is Jesus. Everyone who confesses Him as Savior and Lord has ALL of Him. (Even if once saved they do not immediately clean up nice, as my mother says. Sometimes the evidence of salvation takes time, and sometimes it doesn't show in our hearts because of our personal prejudices.) Faith is in all of us because Jesus is. But the Word shows our faith can be weak or strong. It isn't the amount of it that is lacking but our strength of use. An athlete becomes strong through exercise. That said, we judge people for not using theirs, for not "having enough," a misstatement as I just said, and then we don't use ours on their behalf. The four friends tore off a homeowner’s roof because they believed when they lowered their friend in front of Jesus, he would be healed. And we are told Jesus saw THEIR FAITH. He spoke forgiveness and healing to the lame man, both effected by the power of God. The same power that forgives also heals. This has not changed. God cannot remove the "side effect" of His power. But point is, their faith rescued their friend.

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” (Mark 2:5)

We say, "I don't have any faith for them," something we should NEVER SAY. I personally have more than enough faith to believe on your behalf. He healed my brain twice of diagnosed problems. Ask me to pray and I will. I'm sincere in this. But where we doubt, we must apply God's mercy. That’s what He desires of us. He is great in mercy, of everlasting mercy and lovingkindness. Mercy fills in where faith ends. Jesus knew this when healing those who came to Him. He did not turn them away, He showed compassion, which is the same meaning as mercy. To be compassionate is to be merciful. To be merciful is to be compassionate.

READ "Tell Them."

And no matter how big that person's problem looks to us, we know God in us is bigger, and He loves them, and His power desires to set them free. We must stop making our humanness a reason for doubt. Minister Jesse Duplantis says in his book by that title, "I never learned to doubt." Doubt, He says, shows we don't believe God is faithful. Healing isn't about us, what we can do. In ourselves, we can do nothing. But in Him, nothing is impossible. He has lifted the burden off of us. We don't have to try to figure it out nor to come up with enough strength. He is our wisdom and our strength. We are using His authority (exousia) and His ability (dunamis). We are all saved by the Holy Spirit. He lives in us. We can also be baptized into Him and have His power upon us.

There is no more doubt about what God will do. If we ask in faith, in belief in His faithfulness, then He will do it. If we ask for His mercy then He will answer. There are not gaps between faith and mercy. No weak places. No places where God isn't able and willing. And there is no room in us to turn people away and not be the church, God’s power and love on display, else we have failed in why we were created. What the church in Acts did, we must be doing, and on that scale, with even greater power because we have modern technology in our favor. There are men and women saved, healed, and delivered because of the internet. The devil didn't create it, God did. We can travel much safer and quicker than they did without ever lacking resources.

We are not here to build big buildings (or small ones) absent of the power and compassion of God. If that one sees us and does not believe we care, then we have failed and need to lift our hands to God and repent. For without Him we are just walls, it is just an empty building. The building houses the people, and the people house the presence of an Almighty God who can create something out of nothing. We are His temple, filled with His sacrifice, covered in His blood, suffused to overflow with His presence, His goodness and mercy following us all our days. We have no excuse to be uncaring, unpowerful, and unwise. "Well, I don't know what to do," should never leave our lips because we know the One who can do all things.

He can and He will. We must believe this, or we don't know Him at all. And He would have us know Him so very well that we have no doubt when we speak for Him. What's His favorite color? What are His favorite foods? How does He feel about heaven? And how does He feel about earth? A bride would know this and hunger for Him. She would be seen as His helpmeet, the most beautiful adornment, because she does what causes Him to praise her and what their children see and call her blessed.

“Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” (Proverbs 31:28)

“Now, trust comes from our understanding with God, because he has demonstrated that he is trustworthy to fulfill what he has promised. And by trusting in him—the one who made the promises—we are confident of what we hope for, and are sure of what we do not yet see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com