Hi all,
This installment is about unbelief, what it is, how to get rid of it.
The word ‘unbelief’ is used several times in the New Testament, and is linked to hardness of heart. It is ‘apistian’ and means unfaithfulness and disbelief – unfaithful through disobedience.
Unbelief is NOT little faith. Peter actually walked on water, but he became distracted and began to sink. Jesus asked, “Oh you of little faith: Why did you doubt?” That’s not unbelief, that is being distracted by the wind and waves of life when we take our eyes off the Lord. Mt 14:31
Failure to go where God is leading, failing to grow in Him and as a person
Unbelief is an absence of faith, and involves an element of being unfaithful to the direction the Lord is trying to lead. It is used in Hebrews 3: 19 when speaking of unbelieving and unfaithful Israel when they refused to enter the Promised Land. They failed not through lack of faith, but because of unbelief the verse says.
Familiarity breeds contempt
That is an American phrase and I’m not sure how it translates – thank you and apologies to all the volunteers around the world who translate my Weekly Thoughts into many other languages.
In Mark 6: 1-6 Jesus is back in His hometown. The people marveled at His words and spoke of the claimed ‘mighty works’ they had heard about. Here is where their unbelief surfaces:
“Isn’t this this carpenter? The son of Mary, brother to James, Joses, Jude and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him.”
Here we see Jesus is the eldest of the 5 brothers and at least 2 sisters. They knew Him as carpenter, son of Mary, eldest brother to at least 6 siblings, and they were offended. Being a carpenter in that time it meant he built furniture and household items more than homes. How would you like to have a table made by Jesus in your house? He was known to all, so it is reasonable to assume he had made furniture that was in many homes in town. They all knew him.
If we give Mary 2 years between children, then Jesus at age 30 would have had siblings ages 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18. That ‘his sisters are here with us’ indicates they are not married, so they were teens or younger, at least young enough to still be single in other words. The family was still in the town, known by all, the kids known to all – and that familiarity contributed to their unbelief.
“He could not do many mighty works there, except laying hands on a few sickly folk, and healed them. And He marveled at their unbelief. So He went about the area teaching.”
This is where to check ourselves. Do we have someone lifted up on a pedestal, but once they become familiar to us and we see they are just a normal person, do they fall off that pedestal? We do that of churches. Of a new job. Of a new friend or potential mate. Does familiarity lessen our opinion of them as it did for the people of Jesus’ home town?
They let their history determine their destiny. They couldn’t leave what they knew in the natural to reach up and grasp the eternal.
Failure to believe the risen Lord and what God is doing in your life
Mark 16: 14 of the risen Lord: “He appeared to the eleven as they sat at dinner and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart.”
He expected them to believe the words of the women who had been to the tomb, and what He had previous told them about what would happen.
Summary for unbelief: In the Greek, hardening the heart, not keeping up with the Lord’s direction for personal growth and life. Familiarity or theological disagreement with a person disqualifies them in our mind so we fall into unbelief of God’s working in them. Failure to believe the miracles God has done in your life.
It is an easy check of our heart to see the level of our own unbelief. Israel failed to enter into the Promised Land because of unbelief. Study that. They were intimidated by the hard work ahead, they thought they couldn’t do it when God said they could. Such a one would have to shift focus to bravely go where God is leading even if they don’t have it all figured out, even if it seems impossible.
Jesus’ old neighbors knew Him for 30 years as Mary’s oldest son, trusted carpenter in the community. They let their familiarity cover any faith they might have had like a cloud covers the sun. They would have to grow up, set aside natural knowledge to grasp the Lord’s new work.
The disciples should have been thinking about all they had seen, all they had done, all they had been told, and believed. Instead, they sat in spiritual neutral, ignoring their history with the Lord. The Lord’s rebuke woke them up so to speak, causing them to think, remember, contemplate the future.
Coming full circle
The previous 2 weeks were about faith in the name of Jesus. This final installment is about unbelief. We cannot try to have faith in the name if we are also in spiritual neutral, perhaps because of past hurts in church circles though the Lord’s miracles and provision were seen throughout.
It seems to be a choice. Israel didn’t enter the Promised Land because they chose to believe in their own inadequacies and the work set before them of clearing the Promised Land of enemies. Jesus’ hometown neighbors didn’t see miracles because they knew too much about Him, choosing to know Him as carpenter and Mary’s boy instead of the larger purpose to His life.
It is always our choice to believe in that name above all names. But we must also adjust our heart. Ignore the giants and realize it will be hard work to enter into the call God has for your life. Make the familiarity you have with someone or some church of no consequence, choosing to believe and see and give yourself to the higher things God is doing.
Remember the miracles He has done in the past but don’t live in the past. A whole new world awaits, move on even if you don’t know the future.
Drop the excuses for unbelief. Drop the excuses about someone’s past, yours or someone else. And believe. Focus on that Name. That we have been entrusted to use that name against the devil, to bring healing to others. Focus on the facts laid out in Romans 8: 32 and let it ring in your heart:
“He who did not spare His Son, His only Son, but gave Him up for us all; how shall He not also along with His Son, freely give us all things?”
The Father planned and His Son did the work of the creation of the universe. Then that Son became man and died for us. Now the Father has given us that same Son to live in our hearts by the Father’s Spirit. We have the whole universe and its Creator in our spirit. Do we get that?
We truly can do all things through Christ who lives in us. Truly greater is He in us than he that is in the world. Truly we have been given the privilege to use that Name against demons and to proclaim healing and salvation for all who want it.
And He will confirm His Word with signs following…
New series next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
