Believing God

One of the great truths I have come to discover is the power of believing God. Not believing IN God, but believing God. Believing what He says. Like if you tell me you're going to call me later today, I believe you that you are going to do it. That kind of believing. Really, it's simple believing...yet so hard to do!

Every person has strongholds of sin or personal failings that they have to deal with. What I have found consistently throughout my life is that every stronghold at the root of it boiled down to believing God. We usually don't have any idea this has caused a stronghold until we work through the layers of emotions, thought patterns, and damaging behaviors that result from it.

I have thought about why it is so hard for us as humans to believe God. It is not easy to pinpoint. After all, isn't it just the opposite? Don't we have to believe God to be living as devoted Christians? Well, it's not all or nothing. We may believe God easily in some areas, while in other areas, such as where there is a past hurt or failing, we may have much difficulty believing God. So yes, it is possible to believe God and still not believe God.

My personal opinion is that it is so hard to fully believe God in every single area of our lives because our hearts and minds would have to live in a different reality than our body does. We would have to make a conscience choice not to dwell where our eyes can see, but in the realm where Christ dwells. We would have to deliberately get a new set of spiritual glasses so that we see everything differently than what it naturally appears.

Here's an example: you get fired from your job. Everything was going well, you were the best worker they had, you had no major failings in your work, your boss thought highly of you. It comes as a sudden and complete shock. In the natural sense, the one that tends to disbelieve God, which leads to strongholds, you might think, "What good is it to work hard? It never pays off." or "God must not care about me." or "I guess I can never trust anyone again!" There are so many toxic thoughts like these that actually appear to be quite true based on what your eyes can see.

Now, let's put on our spiritual glasses and take another look. "God has always provided for me, I know He will make a new way for me." or "I knew I did everything I could; therefore, this was out of my hands and I know God has a perfect plan." or "God has turned every failure and shortcoming of mine for His glory and to take me one step higher. I know His plans for me are good." or "God is in control of all things. He could have allowed me to advance in this position or to remove me from it. I cannot hold anything against the people I work with or conclude that no one is trustworthy. Instead, I choose to see that when things don't make sense to my human understanding, God is at work." or "Maybe God just had me here for a season so that I could touch the people I worked with. I know the place He brings me to next will be blessed just as much."

It is amazing what a difference believing God can make. The tricky thing about believing God is that when we are tempted to believe what our eyes see, it definitely appears to be true! Therefore, believing God has to be a conscience effort and one in which we live in a different reality. The sad thing is that the more we disbelieve God and act on what we see in the natural, the more we will create behaviors that will affirm our fears.

Here is an example: Using the example above of getting fired~ if I choose to believe that I got fired because God doesn't care about me, then I may begin to relax spiritually and not try as hard to please God. The more I do this, the more tempted I will be to sin and do things which displease God. The more that happens, the more distanced I will be from God. Then when I see just how distanced I have become from God, then I will again affirm my original fear that God doesn't care about me.

What a viscious, deadly cycle this can be! People, we MUST believe God! Our lives depend on it like nothing else in this world!

Let me point out something to you that is really eye-opening. Genesis 3:1-6: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.' " But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Do you see what I see?!?! Let's break this down.
1- "Now the serpent was more CRAFTY than ANY other beast of the field that the Lord God had made." Need I say more? This is where the verse "be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves" comes in! Your mind is your sharpest tool! Use it!
2-See how the serpent made her disbelieve God?
3-See how the serpent made her think God was witholding His goodness from her?
4-See how what the serpent said appeared to be true in the natural?
5-Most importantly, see how the woman does not put forth ANY effort to combat the serpent's lies? We have to FIGHT to be victorious!!

The wonderful thing about living a life believing God is that He empowers us to do things we wouldn't normally do. He gives us a mega-dose of spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical strength. In believing God, we end up confirming what we once thought was impossible. This is in contrast to the example above, where believing the natural confirms our fears.

People, I invite you to believe God with me. Let's examine our hearts and minds. Let's take an honest look at our lives and invite the Holy Spirit to bring to the forefront any areas of our lives when we have disbelieved God and believed the enemy instead. The Scriptures say that "in his presence there is fullness of joy; at his right hand are pleasures forever more." I don't know about you, but I'll take that over a life in defeat any day! :)