Oh Ye of Little Faith!
I’ve heard the topic of faith abused so much I decided it was time to take keyboard in hand and express a little different viewpoint on the matter. I’d love to hear your feedback, so PLEASE use the comment form at the bottom of the page.
Reader beware: I have carefully thought out my position on this matter. You may at first disagree with what I say, but I’d venture to say if you give it some time you’ll see the main point I’m bringing out and you might even find yourself agreeing! ;-D
How many times have you heard someone say “Oh, I just have the faith that XYZ will happen!!” (where XYZ is usually God healing someone or God is bringing backslid loved-one back to Him)? I’ve heard it all to often.
Here is the biggest flaw with this belief: If God didn’t say it, how can we have faith to believe it will happen?
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Take note of all those in the Old Testament that “had faith”. They had faith because there was already a spoke word that they could believe in. Here is a typical reference: Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Jesus’ healings were precipitated by (a) the word of God in the Old Testament about the healings that would happen (Mal 4: 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; – those “wings” were literally the “border of his garment” which the woman touched in Luke 8:44), and his words that they would be made whole.
So, what word from God do most people have that they are basing their faith on when they say “I have the faith that XYZ will happen?” If God has spoke through a prophet, or a dream that something will take place, that’s wonderful, believe on! But if they don’t have a word from God they run the risk of being faith-sick.
One thing I’ve seen that happens when people say they have faith that something will happen, and then it doesn’t happen, is they either (a) become discouraged with God and think that God doesn’t love them, isn’t real, is out to punish them, etc, or (b) they think “I just don’t have enough faith, maybe if I just believe a little harder.” and they spend all their life trying to “believe harder”, “live more righteous”, etc. Both of these conditions is what I call being faith-sick.
Think about this – if God said something is going to happen, you can have faith in it – it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen whether I believe it will or not. Does God think “well, since no one believes what I said, I guess I’m not going to do it now…”?? Absolutely not. So “believing harder” or “having more faith” isn’t going to bring it about any more than it already is. If God says something is going to happen – it will.
The symptom of “believe harder” or “have more faith” only comes about when what we are “having faith” in isn’t from God.
Are you in a situation where God has clearly told you what will happen? Great! Sit back and relax – it’s going to happen. Of course, if he told you that you needed to do something, be diligent and do your part – but don’t worry. You don’t have to “believe harder” in order to make it happen.
So the natural question comes up “What if I haven’t heard from God?” In this situation we can have hope. We hope God will do this or that. Some things you can have faith in – he will always take care of you. You don’t have to worry about facing the situation by yourself – he’s in it with you. Our God is not so weak that he has to avoid problems – he’s so strong he can take us through them. He loves to show how strong he is. When problems come up, he’s not surprised. Nothing takes him by surprise, and he doesn’t run from difficult times.
Nahum 1:3 says “…the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind…”
When a trial (a whirlwind) comes up, God makes his way through it. If he were weak he would go around it, but our God is so strong he can go through any storm. And there are many promises in His word that do apply to us that let us know he is going to help us. We don’t always know how he will help us, but we can have the faith that he will help us. And we have the hope that he will help us in certain ways. But if He chooses to not help us in the way we hoped, we don’t become discouraged because we’re not “demanding” that he help in any certain way.
So when we’re in a situation and we haven’t heard from him we are hoping for the best, but our heart isn’t fixed on things happening “our way”. Instead we begin to look for God’s will. What does God really want to do in this situation? What does he expect me to do in this situation?
For example, if you’re going through a sickness, maybe it’s even unto death, which would be better – to “believe harder” that he’s going to heal (and if he doesn’t your friends and loved ones loose confidence in God as a result of being “faith-sick”) or to look for his will and continue to show that he does what he says he will do and if he doesn’t heal I’m still going to trust? If we have to go through a situation, we might as well go through it the right way and not waste that bad situation without getting anything good out of it.
Then there’s the situation I mentioned in the start of this article – one where we “believe that God will bring my loved one back to Him”. One thing I’ve learned about God is he doesn’t override anyone’s will. Look at the shape all of mankind is in – if we’ve ever needed a time for God to step in and “make” people stop violence, etc, now is the time. Yet he doesn’t. God allows everyone to do whatever they want – he respects their own free will to chose. So God will never “force” someone to come back to him – he respects their choice to leave him. He may bring about circumstances that are very difficult for the individual (I tend to think these are more consequences of breaking spiritual laws than God “actively” making life hard on someone – take for example gravity, if you jump off a building did he “push” you to the ground? No – he created a law from the beginning and the consequence of your action (jumping off the roof) submits you to the law and therefore to the fall.)
A friend of mine recently asked me to review verses like this one and give a response:
Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
All verses like this have to be taken in balance with asking according to his will. You can’t just arbitrarily ask God for something and expect to receive it – what if it’s contrary to his will? Would he act against his own will? Absolutely not. So asking outside of God’s will is automatically discounted.
James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
This verse from James shows that we don’t receive from God when we ask out of our own self-centered desires. Our desires are not God’s will, so he won’t honor those requests.
I John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us
Notice, it has to be according to his will. So just quoting verses that say we can ask for whatever we want and we’ll get it has to be balanced out by the fact that we have to ask according to his will.
This is an important factor in our faith and hope. When we are in a circumstance and need his help, we should seek his will first rather than just asking “change this”. Maybe his will is that we learn something in the situation, that we change, that we grow. If we ask to be taken out of the situation we’re really asking God to let us stay the same, that we don’t want to grow spiritually.
Another verse I was asked about was this one:
Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
This verse needs to be taken in context. Notice starting in verse 15 Jesus is talking about dealing with conflicts between saints. There is a set order to resolve the conflict. First we must go to them in private, if we can’t get it worked out we need to take someone else with us that would be impartial to help us resolve it. If we still can’t resolve the problem it should be brought up before the church. Then we come to the place where he says whatever you “bind in earth will be bound in heaven” and this verse 19 immediately follows. So what Jesus is saying is, if we will follow this order in resolving our conflicts, when we come together in an agreement on the resolution of the problem, God will grant them what they ask. It’s not saying (as some people would love to have it) that if you can find a couple people to agree with you that you’ll all become millionaires that God will make it happen.
I look forward to your feedback, please use the form below to let me know what you think!
December 18th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Do you think you can change God’s mind?
December 18th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
@Daniel – I don’t know if _I_ can change God’s mind, but I do know his mind has been changed (Moses Changed God’s mind in Ex 32).
December 18th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I can agree with all of it as long as I can expound on the faith of xyz. It is a matter of giving it to God and having faith in God himself to do and handle it right and do his best to “Make it work”, whatever that might mean to God. It is a matter of giving it to GOD. Thats it in a nutshell. BW
December 18th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Oh my Goodness! Thanks so much Richard! This helped a lot! The example you made about gravity made so much sense, and the whole article too!
December 21st, 2009 at 12:18 am
Well I know you said reade beware in the title and I read your article. “On ye of little faith” very well put. But notice a few time you mention people believing hader or belive hard, how do you dou that you either belive or you don;’t.
December 21st, 2009 at 12:45 am
@Moe – I’m not saying you can believe harder. I’m saying that’s a trap people fall into – they think they are supposed to believe harder.
Here’s a typical example. Someone in the family is sick and the preacher starts preaching about how anyone can receive divine healing. So you come up and say you believe your family member can be healed. The preacher starts telling you they will be healed “In the name of Gaaaawwwwd”. When it doesn’t happen the preacher will tell you that you just didn’t have enough faith, you didn’t believe with your whole heart. He won’t take the “blame” for it, so he makes you out to be the one who isn’t spiritual enough. The people who are susceptible to this falsehood end up thinking they have to believe harder, have more faith, etc. And in the end they will be faith-sick.
The bottom line is, if God didn’t say the loved one would be healed we can’t just conjure up faith that they will be – at most we can just hope (and we should do that). But to step out and say they definitely will be healed when God hasn’t spoken to us is not just foolish, it’s dangerous.
I hope that helps clarify it.
December 21st, 2009 at 2:09 am
Here is my question. In James 5: 13-15 it says;
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Perhaps God did not say this statement directly but I would assume that being that it was supposedly written by a Godly man it would not have been directed without authority…
Also, when Jesus healed many He said to them, as you have believed let it be, or according to your faith let it be etc… how then is this so, truly I believe God placed these people in each situation so that He would be Glorified, but as you say all have a will and choice, yet all these chose to be healed and were…
December 21st, 2009 at 2:42 am
@Travis.
“5 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
Actually this word “faith” here is mistranslated. The original Greek word is “euche”. It appears in the New Testament only 3 times, the other two times are in Act 18:18 and Act 21:23. Both times it’s translated as “vow”. I think if you go to each of those verse and try to insert the word “faith” instead of “vow” it wouldn’t make any sense. But if you put the word “vow” here, it would read something like this:
“5 And the prayer of a vow will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
Another similar term that could go there is “conviction” – not a conviction that “I’m going to be healed”, but rather one where there hadn’t been enough conviction (or vow) before. Notice the context, he addresses that if they’ve committed sins they would be forgiven. In I Corinthians 11:30 we see that some are sick and even dead because they were sinning and still partaking of the Body of Christ, They didn’t have enough conviction or they hadn’t “vowed” off certain things in their life and they were sick or dead as a result. So James is saying that if they were sick because of this condition (of living in sin) that they could make a vow (or have conviction against their sin) and be prayed for by the elders, and they’d be healed.
It’s not just a “prayer of faith” and you’re healed.
“Also, when Jesus healed many He said to them, as you have believed let it be, or according to your faith let it be etc… how then is this so, truly I believe God placed these people in each situation so that He would be Glorified, but as you say all have a will and choice, yet all these chose to be healed and were…”
I think you’re mixing up my statement on the free will of man and healing. I’m not really clear on why you are bringing in will and choice.
It does appear you are saying that all those people chose to be healed and were, leaving the implication that anyone who choses to be healed will be. And I don’t know of anyone (especially those who are sick) that would support that idea. That leads right into the problem I’m addressing – those people who “chose” to be healed and weren’t would feel like maybe they just didn’t chose hard enough, maybe they didn’t “really” chose.
Please clarify what you’re saying, because I don’t think this is exactly what you’re saying.
Thanks for your comments!
December 21st, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Richard, what I was attempting to say was that these people, by there free will, chose to seek out Jesus because the believed that they would be healed, Faith.
And that I am wonder how this had any impact on them being healed. If what you are saying is that having faith is more or less irrelevant to being healed why would Jesus then tell them that it’s according to their faith that they are healed…
sorry if I tend to jump around, just let me know if I am not making sense again.
As to your explanation of James 5:13, I could understand that, but that doesn’t explain why it says that the elders would pray and the prayer of faith (vow) would heal the sick, as the elders cannot make a vow for a man between him and God… other wise that would bring your other example to question about praying for a backslider…
thanks for your response.
Travis
December 21st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
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Richard, what I was attempting to say was that these people, by there free will, chose to seek out Jesus because the believed that they would be healed, Faith.
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What I’m attempting to say is their belief alone couldn’t just conjure up healing. They couldn’t just say “I’m going to believe” and they were healed. They had to have something from God prior to their belief to cause them to have real “Faith” in order to be healed. People can’t just “name it ‘n claim it” and make it so just because “I have faith it will happen.” Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. If all it takes is someone just believing they will be healed and it would be so, then there would be no sickness today because no one would willingness chose to not just “believe the sickness away.” But we see the opposite – there are many people who “believe” they will be healed and they aren’t. Many die from their sickness, believing all the way to the grave they will be healed. So it’s not just believing alone that does the healing. This is the main point I’m trying to make with this article. I’ve ran into a lot of people who “just believe” when God never said a word on what they are believing and they end up faith-sick, and they end up making others faith-sick. They get discouraged when it doesn’t happen and they either fall away or they think “I have to believe harder”, not realizing that it’s not their belief that is the problem – the problem is they are believing in what their own mind made up – they are believing in their own will – what they want, and not really seeking what God wants.
I’m not saying their faith didn’t play a part. I’m saying that Faith is only Faith after you’ve received something from the Lord. Until we receive something from God all we can have is hope.
That is one aspect, here is another.
When Lazarus was raised, how much faith did that dead man have to be raised? He came back to life without believing it could be done. What about Tabith who Paul raised? Or the widow’s only son that Jesus raised? None of these were in any condition to have any form of faith, yet they were raised. You can say it was Jesus’ faith or Paul’s faith but we don’t see it said in the scripture “You were healed by my faith.” It was always the individual who was the recipient who’s faith “healed them”. So for these who were not in a position to have faith, being dead, we can see that faith itself didn’t take part – it was something else.
I’m not sure why you’re making a point to talk about their free will and that they chose. Where I am talking about free will and choice is not related to this part of the discussion. My point with free will is there are some who say “I know God will bring so-and-so back to church.” And God never said it, nor will he just reach into their mind and overpower their will and make them come. If they don’t want to he’s not going to make them.
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And that I am wonder how this had any impact on them being healed. If what you are saying is that having faith is more or less irrelevant to being healed why would Jesus then tell them that it’s according to their faith that they are healed…
sorry if I tend to jump around, just let me know if I am not making sense again.
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On the part about their faith being irrelevant – I’m not really meaning to make that point exactly like that. I’m just saying if God has said he is going to do something, it doesn’t take anyone believing it will happen for him to still do what he said he would do. For example, if God says he will heal someone in the church and EVERYONE in the church thinks he won’t do it (including the person that is sick), will he then say “well, since no one believes I’m not going to keep my word.”?? Of course not. If he said he will do something you can believe it or not believe it – it’s still going to be done. In this sense it doesn’t take our faith to make it happen. No one could believe what God will do, he will still do what he said he will do.
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As to your explanation of James 5:13, I could understand that, but that doesn’t explain why it says that the elders would pray and the prayer of faith (vow) would heal the sick, as the elders cannot make a vow for a man between him and God… other wise that would bring your other example to question about praying for a backslider…
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It appears there are two prayers – the one the elders do and the one the sick person does. It doesn’t say the elders would pray a vow over him. Note the wording “and *the* prayer of a vow will save the sick” it doesn’t say “and *their* prayer of a vow will save the sick”. You explain in your reasoning how excellently it *can’t* be the elders, so therefore it has to be the one who is sick that prays the vow. And when he “prays this vow” / “makes his commitment” / ect, this is correcting the sinful tendency in his life and so he is healed – the sickness worked it’s part in his life.
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thanks for your response.
Travis
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Thank you for your part in the discussion – this is really what it’s all about!
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Quote from Bro. Richard
“He may bring about circumstances that are very difficult for the individual (I tend to think these are more consequences of breaking spiritual laws than God “actively” making life hard on someone – take for example gravity, if you jump off a building did he “push” you to the ground? No – he created a law from the beginning and the consequence of your action (jumping off the roof) submits you to the law and therefore to the fall.)”
It makes even more sense when I read your comment and Galatians 5:22-23 together!
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
There are laws for sinning, but there are no laws when living by the fruit of the spirit of God.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Ralph, awesome addition to the post. Thanks for participating!