The Cure for Unbelief

By Brother R. Michel Lankford
 
I was on Facebook recently, (I know, hard to believe, right?), when a member of a group to which I belong, wrote this comment:
“The only thing that Yeshua couldn’t heal was the condition of unbelief! ....just saying....”

I understand that there are many Scriptures one could use to validate this point, but I honestly take a different point of view, based on a different view of the Scriptures. I post my reply in this blog, because sooner or later every believer would be confronted with a lack of faith, and the effective disciple must know how to respond correctly, or it can devastate them. So in the interest of taking advantage of a teachable moment, here was my reply to this sister in the faith:
“Actually... He even heals unbelief too! (Mark 9:14-29; John 20:25-28).
When you think about it, it makes sense. Yeshua the Messiah is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Now when an author begins to write a masterpiece, by necessity, does he begin to write on a full page or an empty page? Of course, the author begins his masterpiece on an empty page.
Therefore I contend that since Yeshua is the author of our faith, the only thing that one needs to do is to admit their lack of faith and ask the Divine Author, Messiah, to write faith into our hearts for our current situation. No, I believe rather that we deal with lack of faith in exactly the same manner that you would confront any other sin (Romans 14:23; 1 John 1:8-9). The difficulty is that many times we attribute our difficulties to something else.
Oftentimes we do not recognize that we are suffering from lack of faith when we truly are, so our problems go unresolved.”
I believe a good physical parallel to this would be a heart attack. Many people die when it could be prevented because they attribute their symptoms and discomfort to something other than what it is, and so the symptoms of a heart attack overtakes them because they did not seek medical attention if they did not realize that they were in fact having a heart attack.
I believe the same general principle applies with the problem of unbelief. Oftentimes people do not call on The Great Physician to heal their unbelief, because they do not truly see that this in fact is their problem. They attribute it to something else. The problem is we cannot confess what we do not recognize.
Thomas the disciple is often criticized for his lack of faith, but in reality he is to be congratulated for being so self aware, and so honest. Can you imagine for a moment what Yahweh might have done if when Israel was in the wilderness they actually recognized their own fear and lack of faith as being the problem, instead of grumbling against Moses or against God's provisions? This is nothing more than interesting speculation, of course, but in light of Yeshua, the living Torah, I sincerely believe that Israel's history, and their relationship with Yahweh would have been remarkably different. Anyway, it's food for thought.
Brother R. Michel Lankford

A Practical Model Illustration of Obedience

By brother Michel Lankford
 
Sometimes having a picture of a biblical concept in your mind can be immensely helpful. For example, most of us as believers agree that obeying God's word is a terrific idea. However, if were very honest about it, sometimes the idea of obeying God's word seems awfully abstract. Sometimes is difficult to wrap your mind around whether you've actually obeyed God were not. I was praying and meditating on God's word during my devotional time one morning, and I believe that God gave me a picture of obedience, which I literally drew in my diary. I found it helpful for myself, so I decided to pass it on to you. I hope it solidifies the concept for you as it did for me. If it doesn't, remember that we all learn differently, so put it on the shelf in case some friend or neighbor may need it. God be with you.
 




The idea behind this model is that there are some key aspects to solid Biblical Obedience. They involve the following:
The Written Word: That is the Bible; the rightly divided correctly interpreted written Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
The Incarnate Word: that is Jesus Christ; What He said, His mindset and values, His teachings and His deeds or actions (1 John 2:6).
The Breathed Word: that's the Holy Spirit working the word into us, through us and then out of us into other people's lives or our external situation. Trying to obey God's Word without the coinciding work of the Holy Spirit is dead works, but trying to obey the Holy Spirit without respecting both the written and incarnate Word along with it is equally deadly because it leads to deception. You could easily start out thinking you're following the Holy Spirit, and wind up following an imitation or counterfeit without realizing it, unless you are regularly comparing what you believe you're hearing with God's written Word and precepts, and matching it with Christ's examples.
 
Obedience: True godly and Biblical obedience therefore is that point where my life properly intersects with the three lines of the Written Scriptures, the life and teachings of Jesus who is God's word made flesh, and the Holy Spirit, who breathed the Word in the first place. Whenever my thoughts, desires, motives, attitudes, words, and behaviors properly intersect with those other three lines, that's what it looks like to be obedient as God defines the term Biblically. True biblical obedience than is hearing and respecting the whole written word, and obeying it as it was exemplified in modeled by Jesus Christ, and doing it all under the power of the Holy Spirit. When my life properly intersects with those three , then I am truly obedient.
May Almighty God be with you and bless you , amen .
Brother Michel Lankford