How Can I Get Rid of Unbelief?
The “traditional” answer would be that you need to hear more of the Word to drive out unbelief, but the problem with that is that when you look at how the word unbelief is used in Scripture, it denotes having heard the Word but failing to agree with it and act on it. (See What Is the Difference Between Unbelief and Doubt?.) You actually don’t qualify for unbelief until you’ve heard the Word; otherwise, you don’t have anything to unbelieve. (Not even knowing what the Word says is ignorance, not unbelief, and hearing the Word IS the antidote for ignorance.)
So if you’re already in a position where you unbelieve the Word, hearing more of the Word will just give you more Word to unbelieve. Unbelief is more a matter of the will than of knowledge. Will you take God seriously?
I believe that this is part of why Jesus made this simple statement before He talked about moving mountains:
Mark 11:22:
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
(I realize that this is taken by some to mean “Have the faith OF God;” see What Mark 11:22 Really Means for an exposition on this matter.)
You won’t get very far if you don’t trust God. Consider all the Old Testament prophecies that came true. He will never be proved wrong about anything He says. He is the most trustworthy being in the universe. He has exalted His Word above His name (Psalm 138:2). His Word is forever settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89). He hastens His Word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12). He cannot alter the Word that has gone forth from His lips (Psalm 89:34). You can trust God even more than you can trust yourself, and that’s part of the key right there. Are you going to trust what YOU see and what YOU think when they disagree with what GOD says? The issue comes down to which you decide to trust more – a situation that makes it look like God is wrong, or GOD, who is never wrong.
You Can’t Beat the Unbelief out of Yourself
You will not beat unbelief by beating yourself up, calling yourself Me of Little Faith, and criticizing yourself for your unbelief. All you will do if you harangue yourself for not believing is reinforce the image that you walk in unbelief, which is certainly not an image that you want to have of yourself. You don’t beat any bad habit by condemning yourself for it. Condemning yourself is never appropriate because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
How Jesus Taught His Disciples to Beat Unbelief
It would make sense to find out whether Jesus ever taught people to beat unbelief. We find out that He did in Matthew 17:14-21. The disciples were in unbelief when they tried to cast out a certain demon. We know that unbelief was the issue because they asked Jesus why they could not cast it out, and Jesus replied clearly, “Because of your unbelief.”
Then He exhorted them that even a minute amount of faith could hurl a tree into the ocean, and He closed with the statement that “this kind” comes out only by prayer and fasting.
One can now debate whether Jesus meant “this kind” of demon or “this kind” of unbelief. (The other options don’t hold water, as shown in Must We Fast and Pray to Make Certain Demons Leave?.) Either option is tenable though I prefer the former for reasons stated in the answer to the question in the previous sentence. According to Jesus, some demons ARE more wicked than others (Matthew 12:45 and Luke 11:26). Whichever way you take it, it gets you to the same place that there will be certain situations where you will operate in unbelief if you haven’t fasted and prayed. Thus, fasting and prayer is Jesus’ cure for unbelief.
Why would fasting help get rid of unbelief? (Your flesh hates the fact that I just brought up the subject of fasting!) Fasting helps you keep your flesh under. Your flesh will side against the Word because your flesh isn’t spiritual and the Word is spiritual. Your spirit was born again when you got saved, but your flesh did not change one iota. It is as unspiritual as it ever was. Fasting allows your spirit man to dominate your flesh. It tells your flesh who the real boss is – the real you, who was created after God in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24).
If you’re in unbelief, you’re choosing to believe something other than what God said. Your flesh will always look at natural evidence, not at God’s promises. The Israelites’ failure to take the Promised Land did not occur due to lack of knowledge of what God said. They knew full well what He said! But their flesh told them that they couldn’t do it because that’s what sense knowledge would have told anyone. Their unbelief consisted of taking the flesh’s word for things over God’s word.
Why would prayer help get rid of unbelief? When you talk to God and let Him talk to you, you won’t be treating God like He’s a zillion miles away in heaven somewhere instead of IN you. You’ll be more conscious of His presence. That should give you more confidence that He is right there to make His Word good in your life.
Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). What kind of faith do you think He gave you – defective faith that doesn’t work in real life? No, He gave you faith that you can use to move mountains. Your problem is being moved by the flesh to agree with the opposite of what your faith tells you. Thus, the issue is more one of keeping your flesh under than it is of developing huge faith. Your flesh doesn’t want to pray and your flesh doesn’t want to fast, but your spirit man – the real you – does! If you’ll do these things, you won’t be as prone to falling into unbelief.
Stop Hanging Around Unbelief
Finally, it is just plain brain-dead to think you will hang around a church where unbelief is prevalent – and taught from the pulpit – and not have it affect you. I’ve seen this play out too many times. I’ve heard a list of “reasons” for going somewhere where they teach excuses against believing God’s plain Word about healing. “God sent me on a mission to bring revival there.” (That takes the prize for the #1 brain-dead excuse. That NEVER works, by the way.) “The people there are so friendly and nice.” “That’s where my friends and family go.” “I don’t want to drive an hour each way to go to a church that doesn’t teach unbelief.” (I drove an hour or more each way for many, many years and never regretted having that priority.)
The sad part is that people who willingly sit under, promote and subsidize unbelief with their tithes and offerings are convinced that they are “above” this issue and that it won’t affect them. (“That’s OK, I just filter out the unbelief in the messages. I eat the hay and leave the sticks.” Has it occurred to them that they would be better off where it’s all hay and no sticks?) Unfortunately, it is when they face a major health challenge that they suddenly realize that their faith gun doesn’t have the ammunition it used to. Worse, they’re now surrounded by people who will beg God to heal them rather than encouraging them to believe and receive their paid-for healing. If you get really sick, it could be hard for you to pray for yourself, and you will have no elders to call for who can pray the prayer of faith because the elders at your church specialize in the prayer of unbelief, which never raises up any sick people.
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