[Lesson Index] [Healing-School Mini-Series Index] [Prev Lesson] [Next Lesson]
Preparing Ourselves For Faith
Mark 9:14-24 records an occasion where Jesus had to give a very strong rebuke to some of His disciples. There was a small child, a young boy that was demonized. The disciples did their best to get this demon out, but nothing was working. After a while, the father got frustrated with the lack of results. So he decided he was going to take the boy to the "big gun," Jesus. He said, "Jesus I took this boy to your disciples, and they couldn't do anything." And then Jesus had these real harsh words to say. He said, "You stubborn, faithless people. How long must I be with you until you believe? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."
I read that and I thought, "Come on, Jesus, cut these guys some slack. Those are some pretty harsh words; that was a stinging rebuke." Now I think the Lord gave those words because the disciples were no longer novices at this time. They were not new to healing and deliverance. These guys were the most trained, experienced, professional healers and deliverers that there were. These guys were doing this type of ministry all of the time. Much of the time that they were with Jesus, they cast out demons, they prayed for the sick. These guys should have known what was going on. And Jesus looked at them and said, "You have a big one here, and you were unable to get this big one out." So He gave them a very stinging harsh rebuke to reveal their heart. And it brought about a great humility in these disciples.
Matt. 17:19 says, "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' And He said to them, 'Because of the littleness of your faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it shall move and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and by fasting.'"
I believe this scripture is describing faith as something that we can grow in. He was telling the disciples that it doesn't take a whole lot to get this thing done, but that they do need to grow in their faith. He was saying, "There needs to be some fasting and prayer to get you ready for this." Obviously they could not do an immediate fast for this. "Oh no, we have a big one, let's go fast for 10 minutes. And then we will get this thing out." In the midst of it, you can't make the decision to fast right then.
I believe that Jesus was telling them that there is a lifestyle that we must have in order to increase the faith of our life. Fasting and prayer is a part of that. Fasting and prayer builds up our authority and our faith so that it can be exercised on the day that you need it. We need to get ready, to get prepared. Some of us are not going to be ready when the big things come, because we have not put in our time preparing ourselves -- fasting and praying, increasing the authority that God has given us to see great things be done.
There is no doubt that as your heart is prepared, there is a greater agreement in your spirit of what God can do. Spending time with God increases your confidence in God, as your spirit is open to Him. Sometimes faith is quenched. Sometimes there are things that dilute and pollute our faith. There are things that keep us from listening to the Spirit. These things keep us from receiving from the Lord. Remember, faith is our capacity to receive from God and to act upon it.
Faith Killers
We spent the last two lessons talking about how important faith is. There are things that interfere with faith, and I would like to take a look at them. This includes
We will look at the "prove it to me" attitude now, and we will look at the other three in our next lesson.
If our capacity to receive is hindered or quenched, then we are not going to receive and then we can't act. And there are things that I call faith killers; things that kill faith, that quench faith, or that bring about unbelief. I am going to give you four that I think are significant in relationship to healing.
A 'PROVE IT TO ME' ATTITUDE
The first of these faith killers is the "prove it to me" attitude. This attitude says, "I am not going to believe it until you prove it to me. Come on, prove to me that you are God. Prove to me that you care."
That's bad. Do any of you like it when your spouse says, "Prove that you love me." Do you like that? Come on. It makes you sick. And God can do this, and may do it in His grace. But then again, God is not about "I have to prove it. For them to have faith, I have to prove it." God is not like that.
When a person has a "prove it to me' attitude I think they are lazy. They are not willing to do the work to open up their spirit. The work is to pursue and hear the Word and then to hang onto the word of God that He speaks. Some people want God to show them a miracle and just give them the faith, to just do the miracle and just prove it to them. In other words, they are trying to take a short-cut. It is an excuse for not listening to the Spirit.
God may choose to do that, but if He does, it is because He is just absolutely gracious. In the Bible, there are a lot of times when God chose not to do the requested miracle. One of those times was when Jesus was hanging on the cross. Those religious people, who saw miracle after miracle after miracle, asked Him for one more miracle. Matt 27:42 records, " 'He saved others,' they scoffed, 'but He can't save Himself. So He is the king of Israel, is He? Let Him come down from the cross and we will believe in Him.'" They were asking Jesus to prove that He was God by coming down from the cross. And He chose not to do that miracle for them.
When they brought Him to Herod, prior to that time, Herod said, "Do one of those miracles for me. Do one of those -- a healing or something. Do a miracle." Herod looked on Jesus almost as if He were some circus, you know, a Barnum and Bailey thing. He's not like that.
Matt. 12:38 gives another example: "One day some of the teachers of the religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and they said, 'Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove that you are from God.'" If Jesus had done what they asked, they still would not have believed it. In fact I did not give you the next verse. In verse 39 He called them "an evil and faithless generation." That is what He calls a people who would ask for a miraculous sign. These same people saw it all the time because Jesus did a lot of miracles. But they couldn't believe it and they couldn't receive it.
Jesus said this in John 4:48, "Unless you people see miracles, miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe." Some people want to see something, and God may be gracious and God may show something. We always ask God to show something. That's a good thing. But if you are going to base your faith on it, you might be waiting a while.
Now I think we are all a little susceptible to this one -- even Jesus' disciples were. They all got a harsh rebuke from the Lord Jesus because they didn't believe. Immediately after He was raised, people came running to the disciples claiming to have seen Jesus alive, and none of them believed their claims. In Mark 16:14, He rebukes all the disciples because He had told them He was going to be raised from the dead and then when it happened, they did not believe it.
But the person who really got the bad marks on this was Thomas. He was one of the guys who wasn't there when everyone else was there. And we always give Thomas the bad rap. I believe that had several of the other guys not been there when Jesus was there, they would have done the same thing. But even one of the Lord's disciples struggled with this area. This is John 20:25-29, "They told Thomas, 'We have seen the Lord!' But He replied, 'I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them and place my hand into the wound in His side' Eight days later the disciples were together again and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but suddenly as before, Jesus was standing among them and He said, 'Peace be with you.' And He said to Thomas," (what do you think Thomas' self talk was? "Busted man, I am busted now. Oh man!") "'Just put your finger here and see My hands. Put your hand in the wound in My side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!' 'My Lord and my God,' Thomas exclaimed." I love Jesus' words on this next part: "You believe, Thomas, because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who haven't seen Me and believe anyway."
And that's us. He is talking about us in that verse, in Matt 20:29. We believe. Faith can't always be contingent upon proof. God may give proof in His grace. But we have to hang in there with the word God spoke into our spirit. Sometimes that is the only thing that carries us on -- the word that is spoken.