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Believe to receive
He also says the double minded man should not expect to receive anything.
Then He heals the son of the man who asked Him to help his unbelief.
He says each is given a measure of faith and faith as small as a mustard seed could move mountains.
And we're told to pray that He will increase our faith.
There's been so often I've had doubt about things turning out any better. I've had the first two often thrown at me. Well here's what I've taken from them and if I'm missing something please show scripture to help me understand.
I researched double minded including the original Greek. And there's another scripture says return ye double minded from your backsliding. Choose who you will worship God or Baal. I concluded double minded is to waffle between belief in God not as to whether He would do a thing or not.
So in pondering one must believe and believe He rewards, I've not had questions as to His existing. There's so much to point to Him AND demonic forces. And where demons exist then that is proof God does also. I also have seen He rewards. Where I've often been hung up is what His will is in my own life and whether I'm truly right with Him. So the doubt has not been whether He CAN do a thing but whether He WILL. This verse bothered me terribly because of how it's often approached that you have to believe you'll get it without ever examining" believe what"? I do believe He is. I do believe He's a rewarder. I've had trouble believing in ME. And that verse doesn't talk about what I think about myself.
As well I've been told I have to have faith or made to feel my faith isn't good enough as if I should do something about it. And I do... exactly as told, I pray He will increase my faith. I can't do anything. So to think I can increase my own faith doesn't sound right to me.
I'm thinking these verses are too often used out of context and often people don't understand what people actually are doubting. I've pondered and studied them and can come to no other conclusion.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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I have seen those in my own denomination who believe we receive by speaking it. They often claim it lines up with the Word, that God will heal us (when the Bible says God is our healer - not that all will be healed since we're in perishable bodies. And it says that WE are to go out and perform the same miracles of Christ, healing the sick, etc., not that the sick will all be healed without us performing those healings through Christ). They claim God wants us prosperous (meaning rich), or that He wants us to have abundance (rich), or doesn't want us to suffer (face trials), etc. etc.
And there's also another belief that if you speak any doubt about a thing (not about God, but about what you think He may or may not do for you), that you've tied His hands, that He now will do nothing because you doubted a specific thing rather than doubted God Himself. They take the "doubt" and apply it to doubt of anything. IE: If you doubt God hears you or anything is going to get better in your life, or your prayers will work, or that you're doing the right thing, that your heart is truly right, that you were truly repentant, etc.....that it's doubt, period. And then they start quoting that you're double minded and won't receive anything.
When someone said this to me as I was expressing what all had been going on in my life...I wasn't actually saying I had doubts, but that I didn't understand why all this kept happening...I was STILL receiving things from God. I received revelations, tongues, bonuses, checks in the mail that I didn't expect, gifts from church family out of the blue, etc. So I WAS receiving from the Lord...which may the double-minded man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord quote stand out to me and I began to study it. If I was double-minded, why was I receiving these things?
And sorry JB but this goes to what you said above as well. That you believe Richard still missed the mark and is lead to misinterpretation of the Word.
Many believe that double-minded means if you speak negative or doubt God will do a thing, that He will do nothing for you. Yet I was SEEING Him do for me, in many ways, WHILE doubting He was going to help me out of the trials I was facing. So were they misinterpreting? Am I misinterpreting what I see is the true meaning of double-minded. Each of us have the same Spirit of Christ and each of us are at different levels in our faith. Each of us have differing viewpoints on the minor matters...which cause the dissensions and quarrels among us. What the Spirit may say to one may be what THEY need to grow their faith or to mature them. But as long as each is believing the Gospel of Christ (not the minor matters of what double-minded truly means or whether tongues is still given today, etc.), the Spirit will guide us (each of us) into all truth eventually. But He may use a different path to take us each there. ;-)
The path He chose for me was to show me that I did not doubt Him, but I did doubt ME and my own heart. That I could trust Him since my trust was shattered at a very early age. That He would (and in fact was) helping me, despite doubts about what He would do in my own life. He chose to show me that He was there, He was hearing my prayers, but that all was in His time.
I have wrestled often with the story of Abraham. Here was a man we're told did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God and it was accredited to him as righteousness. So I kept asking myself, why did he take Hagar? And not just Abraham, but "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."
So Sarah herself had faith and judged God faithful, and yet she laughed when God told Abraham they would have a son. Yet she talked him into taking Hagar as his wife.
So how could it be that they were righteous and did not waiver or doubt?
Perhaps because our definition of doubt has been skewed.
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Permalink Reply by ScribeD on
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I think you are spot on. If you consider the story about Hagar and Abraham actually has to do with God's promise of redemption, you may come to the same conclusion I suggested above.
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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Broch, Sr. on
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Hi Group,
Char, Take a deep breath.......exhale....and praise God.
He loves you, and the saints on this site love you, and I'm sure they are praying for you.
I definitely agree with Scribe D."s statement - I'm very wary of preachers who seem to promise unicorns and rainbows for everyone who "has faith".
What did Jesus tell His prospective apostles? "Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17, N.K.J.V.).
We know that the twelve never were worldly prosperous.........and only one, that we know of, died of old age.
And Paul........I don't have time to list all his pains, problems, and pit-falls. Yet, they were all faithful through it all.
Sometimes in this life, anyone of us goes "through it all"........but remains faithful.
That's all for tonight.
Over and out............
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S' ok Richard. I'm breathing. Now if at 5 am you'd have said open your eyes, we'd have a problem. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Hi Group,
Time for a pictureograph..............
Once upon a time, a young lady named Clarisa answered the salvation invitation at her church, and came forward to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.
She made a public confession......then was "buried with Him through baptism.........For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (From Romans 6, N.A.S.B.).
Clarisa was full of joy in her new life as the days passed. She imagined the new relationship with her Lord as Him reaching His hand down, and clasping her up-stretched hand in an eternal Father-daughter togetherness that was above the world.
They were in a relationship for sure, but He was up above.....and she was still in the world. ("I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one." John 17:15, N.A.S.B.). And this became evident very soon...........
James 1:2-3," Consider it all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."(N.A.S.B.). After all, the Holy Spirit led the newly baptized Jesus out into the wilderness to be tested of the devil (See Matthew 4:1-11). So who is Clarisa that she shouldn't be tested?............
Remember, Clarisa is still in the world.........also don't forget who the temporary proprietor of this earth is.........Satan. And he has a plethora of demons, agents, and followers ready to do his bidding. Plus don't forget all the sickness, greed, wars, theft,cheating, etc.,etc. playing regularly at a theater near you...........Clarisa began to be tested.
She was allowed to be led into a season of stress, anxiety, and depression (SAD). It began right in her own family......her mother was demanding ridiculous favors and expectations......her sister made fun of her regularly....... the love of her life took up other interests........ Clarisa was lonesome and forlorn.......her hand-grasp with Jesus was somewhat looser - on her part, not His. She prayed.....but her petitions lacked warmth and a spark. Her prayers were watered down by what was going on in her life. She still had faith in the Lord......."But why, God, what's (ah-choo!) happening here?!?!
Ephesians 2:10," For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (N.A.S.B.). Clarisa realized that the image of Christ was being formed in her. During this sanctification period, it was sometimes difficult for her to formulate an effective prayer pattern to heaven. But, she began to overcome the darkness of the world. She remembered the promises of a continuous rose garden..... on the primrose path of her life....... as miracles were poured down on her......Duh....
Clarisa started studying God's Word. She realized there wouldn't always be a rose garden, but there'd always be thorns.
The primrose path turned out to be a narrow path through the strait gate......that few found. She read Jesus's words in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."(N.A.S.B.).
And this sweet hand maiden of the Lord rejoiced when she read Revelation 3:21, "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (N.A.S.B.).
Overcomes who, what, where??? ............Answer = HE WHO OVERCOMES THE WORLD OF SATAN!!!
Clarisa came to an understanding as she was becoming the Lord's masterpiece.............As Ephesians 6:12, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."
As Clarisa prepared for bedtime, she was praying to God that she knew He can do.......and that she would continue to ask if He will do her requests.
Amen.
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