Overcoming Contradictions to God s Promises

Transcription

1 Overcoming Contradictions to God s Promises 2015 Dr. Don G. Pickney God s Word makes seemingly incredible promises. However, we look around and see the experiences of the vast majority of believers standing in stark contradiction. It often has a profound impact on the faith of many believers. Why? Because it looks like God is not faithful to his Word or promises. Some respond to the resulting unbelief by buying into doctrines that attempt to rationalize that, in fact, God does not always answer His promises with a Yes. They explain that sometimes in His great wisdom, because He sees what is best for us, He often says No, or possibly He is putting us on hold, requiring that we wait in order to learn the art of waiting a process often referenced as God is teaching me patience. This is an erroneous faith posture by some because the alternative would be that God is indeed unfaithful to His Word to us. They do not realize that there is one other important explanation. That is: God s promises are uniquely connected to our faith to our believing. But again, many in leadership do not want to take a chance of offending by suggesting a person s faith might be in question. Jesus, however, with regularity and apparently with ease, was quick to suggest, where is your faith, wherefore did you doubt? On one occasion, when asked to explain their failure, He responded, Because of your unbelief. This brings us to an important point. Paul wrote: What you see happening around you in the faith community must not be a consideration in your personal believing. Romans 3:3 AMP What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]? Faith does not, because it must not, count anything in the sense knowledge realm as a consideration of our believing. Apostle Paul literally defies (above) the notion that if faith is not working, it is a reflection upon God. He literally says, If no one in the whole world believes a promise from God, it does not preempt the promise; that If you are looking at the statistics of Christians relative to receiving answers from God, you will be led into a place of paralysis of your faith. You may be deceived into it appearing to you that God does not always answer with 1

2 a Yes to His promised Word. What you see may cause you to question God s willingness to fulfill His promises exactly as offered in the scriptures. Growing up spiritually in your faith-walk requires you to own your unbelief. God s word instructs us, believe you receive it when you pray and you shall have it. If you pray, therefore, and it is not physically manifested, something in your faith is lacking. The best thing you can do for your faith, is to own your disbelief to explore where you might have doubted. There simply is no other explanation to the fulfillment of that particular promise. God does not give us His specific promise in certain words, but plan to make them good in other words. God always says what He means, and He backs each and every word (Jesus said even a jot or tittle within its meaning) exactly as he said it. But it is vital to know that He also enjoins our faith to the fulfillment of His promises. He makes our faith the actual connective of His power. No faith, no connection to the power within His promise. Getting God s faithfulness straight is vital to our faith by concentrating on His faithfulness, we strengthen our faith. Paul left no room for doubt about this important issue: 2Corinthians 1:17-20 MSG Are you now going to accuse me of being flip with my promises because it didn't work out? Do you think I talk out of both sides of my mouth-- a glib yes one moment, a glib no the next? (18) Well, you're wrong. I try to be as true to my word as God is to his. Our word to you wasn't a careless yes canceled by an indifferent no. How could it be? (19) When Silas and Timothy and I proclaimed the Son of God among you, did you pick up on any yes-and-no, on-again, off-again waffling? Wasn't it a clean, strong Yes? (20) Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God's Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. Making a quality decision to own and deal with whatever pattern of unbelief you find in examining your own spiritual walk, is paramount to any positive movement forward in your faith. God s action to give you the reward of your faith has already, on His part, been completed and is waiting on your part. Hebrews 4:1-3 AMP THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it. (2) For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones 2

3 [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe). (3) For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those [who did not believe] should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although [His] works had been completed and prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world. [Ps. 95:11.] Understanding the meaning of God s rest is vital to your faith walk. In the above Hebrews passage, we find diametric evidence against the concept that God is somehow behind the delay in your faith-manifestation. In the above chapter we learn that entering into God s rest is equivalent to accepting that what we desire from God has already been completed (on His part), and is prepared, finished and waiting for us when we approach it in faith. Much like your television, once it has been completed by the manufacture, it sits in the electronic store waiting for someone to take it home, plug it in, and turn it on. There is no need to connect it to the manufacturer for it to begin working. The manufacture, relative to your TV is now in a state of rest related to your set. It is now your responsibility to get it set up correctly, and hooked up to the program provider. Once the electrical and broadband is hooked up, you find that you may control the TV at your desire. Doubt is a multiplex of variables Not as simple as the word might suggest. In the Greek biblical language, the word doubt is diakrino. It is found translated into many different word-forms throughout the New Testament. To identify doubt in your personal walk of faith, it is vital that you understand each shape diakrino may take as the enemy of your faith. Jesus identified it as a faith obstacle. Matthew 21:21 LITV And answering, Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do the miracle of the fig tree, but even if you should say to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will be so. Mark 11:23-24 LITV For truly I say to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and be thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be to him, whatever he says. (24) Therefore I say to you, All things, whatever you ask, praying, believe that you will receive, and it will be to you. 3

4 Understanding doubt requires understanding what it look like in its many variables. Doubt (Greek) Διακρι νω diakrino (dee-ak-ree'-no) (literally and reflexively) to withdraw from (draw back); oppose; hesitate; differ; stagger; waver. Each of the above characteristics of doubt reveals a symptom of the failure of faith throughout the New Testament. Relative to our actions of faith in God s promises they are: 1. Withdraw from m (to draw back) This is one of the classic failures of faith resulting from fear of others, intimidation. It is referenced in Hebrews 10:38: Hebrews 10:38 AMP But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him. [Hab. 2:3, 4.] It is addressed by its Greek equivalent υ ποστε λλω hupostello (hoop-os-tel'-lo) to withhold under (out of sight), that is, (reflexively) to cower or shrink, to conceal (reserve): - draw (keep) back, shun, withdraw. It is a very common manifestation of doubt. As it takes hold of the believer the believer shrinks back into the safety of darkness, away from the possible mocking or scorning of our peers, e.g. the world around us, including family, friends, social acquaintances, fellow workers, etc. It is why some our timid about praying in public, witnessing to others, and sharing with others the unique examples of the goodness of Christ in our lives. 2. Oppose (be openly against) This is a more direct blatant form of doubt, seen in those who rebelliously refuse the gospel. Their doubt manifests in persecution and fighting against biblical truth. 3. Hesitate (to pause in indecision) We see this form of doubt in Peter when he walked on the water at Jesus instruction, Come. He boldly climbed over the edge of the boat, went down onto the water, and began walking towards Jesus. But when he saw the winds boisterous, he began to sink. It only took a moment of hesitation for faith to disappear as failure manifested. 4. Differ (to contradict in speaking or unwillingness to conform in agreement) This is a more subtle form of doubt. It is described in scripture as the word, deny. It takes two forms in the Greek depending on the depth or strength of denial. The first is often seen in the apparent confession of a Christian believer as he/she speaks in a manner that contradicts God s word they are attempting to believe. It may range in intensity from a 4

5 mere speaking in conversation contrary to what God s promise declares, to a more direct denial of God s truth. A. α ρνε ομαι arneomai (ar-neh'-om-ahee) - to contradict, that is, disavow, reject, abnegate: - deny, refuse. B. α παρνε ομαι aparneomai (ap-ar-neh'-om-ahee) - to deny utterly, that is, disown. (Interestingly, we are actually called upon to deny (aparneomai) ourselves in favor of what God s word offers us in Christ. When our senses attempt to tell us that God s Word is untrue, we deny or contradict our own selves, instead we say what God s word says. 5. Stagger (to lose forward motion) We see diakrino translated this way in the Paul s testimony of Abraham s faith: Romans 4:19-21 KJV And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: (20) He staggered (diakrino) not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; (21) And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 6. Waver (to vacillate; two-minded) This form of diakrino is defined as being a form of instability or doubleminded, as seen here: James 1:6-8 KJV But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (diakrino). For he that wavereth (diakrino) is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. (8) A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 5