When Jesus came into His home town of Nazereth He could not do very much in the way of the supernatural because of their unbelief. Apistia in the Greek. Not a good thing because it limits what will take place in the way of the supernatural. Think about it, here is Almighty God in Christ and He can't do mighty works because of their unbelief? What!?
Apparently there is some sort of a spiritual dynamic that limits God when their is Apistia present. Some sort of agreement of the Holy Trinity to limit actions of the supernatural in the presence of unbelief. There is no where in scripture where we see or learn of this agreement, but it must have taken place because we see evidence that alludes to an agreement...
Matthew 13:58And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
The reason? BECAUSE of THEIR unbelief. Apistia strikes again in the next few verses of Scripture and effects the supernatural-Jesus uses this same word apistia-unbelief.
Matthew 17:19-2119Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?20And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief (Your apistia): for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
So simple to have faith that even a small tiny portion of faith has great affects, in fact nothing shall be impossible to you. I didnt say that, a slick TV personality didnt say that. Jesus Christ said that.
Galatians 5:25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
I have been walking in the Spirit since I was 17 and have had many opportunitys to see the effects of unbelief destroy the ability of supernatural manifestations in our meetings.In the early days of my Christian experience there were miracles in so many of the meetings that I attended. People had faith that God was at work. And He was.Jesus, knowing the negative effects of having unbelief present put those who were in the state of unbelief away from the vicinity where He desired the supernatural manifestation of the bringing back from the dead a little girl.
Mark 5:40And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.41And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.42And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.
Oh this is good stuff, dont you think? Jesus puts out those who laughed him to scorn, those who had unbelief present in their hearts. Those who were negative and full of doubt and laughed Him to scorn as a result of their unbelief. And then, and only then does He bring back from the dead the twelve year old girl.
This is so significant that Matthew, Luke and Mark all make mention of this incident in their Gospel narratives.The people of the New Testament lived in an age which expected miracles. There is a kind of rationalism which kills miracles. When miracles are dead, miraculous things cease to happen. We would receive more miracles, if we stopped insisting that miracles do not happen, and began expecting them to happen.
Our current day world has become so materialistic (Black Friday LOL); we are skeptical of any experiience that cannot be measured, weighed and verified by everyone else. We often assume that only the rational exists. We feel that things need to be understood in order to be real. Our assumptions and preconceived notions about miracles need to be set aside.
Paul the apostle used the same word 'apistia' in Hebrews 3:12."Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief..."Paul says the children of Israel could not enter into God's rest because of their unbelief (Apistia). Hebrews 3:19.Notice that each and every time apistia is mentioned it is personalized? Your unbelief. Their unbelief. It is something we possess positionally. Apostle Paul called it 'an evil heart of unbelief.'As you can see, lack of faith and distrust robs us of God moving in our lives with His miracles and is regarded as evil by Him (Remember Hebrews 3:12).
Perhaps we are not seeing New Testament miracles in this our day and age because of our apistia. We should turn off our cultural limits and biases and be open to the greatness and power of the supreme in all power and authority.The bible is telling the truth when we read about all the miracles that Jesus performed in the Gospels and in the book of Acts. But you would not know that by looking at the church today. We do not seem to allow Jesus to heal and perform miracles in our midst.Jesus has not changed any since the writing of the Bible. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. Then why is He not doing the same today as He did in the Bible days? It has got to be us that are preventing Him.
Why do we not expect miracles? What is preventing us from believing?Start to trust Jesus and believe Him for miracles in your life today.Apistia (unbelief) interferes with faith and the out working of faith. Apistia gets you nowhere.
How many times we have stood in front of people and sensed an atmosphere of unbelief? An unwelcoming atmosphere where unbelief has free course and no agreement of faith is present. O that oppressive atmosphere that grieves the Holy Spirit. Those cold hindering, miracle limiting moments of oppression and judgement where in the spirit you are being 'laughed to scorn.'
The 'Holy Huddle.'Matthew 23:27
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.An extreme case. But none the less we do encounter them. Having a religious spirit and no faith.This is not New Age teaching. This is Kingdom teaching from the Word of God. This is what undermines faith and prevents miracles from happening, undermining God's plans.Christian brother and sister, I know you have faith for miracles.
1 John 2:20 20But you have been anointed by [you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from] the Holy One, and you all know [the Truth] or you know all things.See, you have an inner witness that what I am telling you is the truth. You know that you need to look inward to see if you are possessing 'an evil heart of unbelief' or a heart of faith.When you pray are you expecting results? Are you expecting the Holy Spirit to manifest in your meetings together? Our God is a supernatural God, a spirit.
John 4:24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Today we see the 'Emerging Church.' A church that is emerging from and deserting the authority of Scripture for man's own understanding and comprehension. A church that is fast becoming a dead church totally devoid of the miraculous and supernatural divine intervention.
1 Thessalonians 4:1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
Hebrews 11:6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
See. You have got to have faith! Just...expect it.The disciples asked for miracles and honored God's Word.
Acts 429And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,30By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.32And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul...
Faith and love draws the faithful together, binding them together in Christ as one heart and one soul.
1 John 4:20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Apparently there is some sort of a spiritual dynamic that limits God when their is Apistia present. Some sort of agreement of the Holy Trinity to limit actions of the supernatural in the presence of unbelief. There is no where in scripture where we see or learn of this agreement, but it must have taken place because we see evidence that alludes to an agreement...
Matthew 13:58And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
The reason? BECAUSE of THEIR unbelief. Apistia strikes again in the next few verses of Scripture and effects the supernatural-Jesus uses this same word apistia-unbelief.
Matthew 17:19-2119Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?20And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief (Your apistia): for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
So simple to have faith that even a small tiny portion of faith has great affects, in fact nothing shall be impossible to you. I didnt say that, a slick TV personality didnt say that. Jesus Christ said that.
Galatians 5:25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
I have been walking in the Spirit since I was 17 and have had many opportunitys to see the effects of unbelief destroy the ability of supernatural manifestations in our meetings.In the early days of my Christian experience there were miracles in so many of the meetings that I attended. People had faith that God was at work. And He was.Jesus, knowing the negative effects of having unbelief present put those who were in the state of unbelief away from the vicinity where He desired the supernatural manifestation of the bringing back from the dead a little girl.
Mark 5:40And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.41And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.42And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.
Oh this is good stuff, dont you think? Jesus puts out those who laughed him to scorn, those who had unbelief present in their hearts. Those who were negative and full of doubt and laughed Him to scorn as a result of their unbelief. And then, and only then does He bring back from the dead the twelve year old girl.
This is so significant that Matthew, Luke and Mark all make mention of this incident in their Gospel narratives.The people of the New Testament lived in an age which expected miracles. There is a kind of rationalism which kills miracles. When miracles are dead, miraculous things cease to happen. We would receive more miracles, if we stopped insisting that miracles do not happen, and began expecting them to happen.
Our current day world has become so materialistic (Black Friday LOL); we are skeptical of any experiience that cannot be measured, weighed and verified by everyone else. We often assume that only the rational exists. We feel that things need to be understood in order to be real. Our assumptions and preconceived notions about miracles need to be set aside.
Paul the apostle used the same word 'apistia' in Hebrews 3:12."Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief..."Paul says the children of Israel could not enter into God's rest because of their unbelief (Apistia). Hebrews 3:19.Notice that each and every time apistia is mentioned it is personalized? Your unbelief. Their unbelief. It is something we possess positionally. Apostle Paul called it 'an evil heart of unbelief.'As you can see, lack of faith and distrust robs us of God moving in our lives with His miracles and is regarded as evil by Him (Remember Hebrews 3:12).
Perhaps we are not seeing New Testament miracles in this our day and age because of our apistia. We should turn off our cultural limits and biases and be open to the greatness and power of the supreme in all power and authority.The bible is telling the truth when we read about all the miracles that Jesus performed in the Gospels and in the book of Acts. But you would not know that by looking at the church today. We do not seem to allow Jesus to heal and perform miracles in our midst.Jesus has not changed any since the writing of the Bible. He is the same today, yesterday and forever. Then why is He not doing the same today as He did in the Bible days? It has got to be us that are preventing Him.
Why do we not expect miracles? What is preventing us from believing?Start to trust Jesus and believe Him for miracles in your life today.Apistia (unbelief) interferes with faith and the out working of faith. Apistia gets you nowhere.
How many times we have stood in front of people and sensed an atmosphere of unbelief? An unwelcoming atmosphere where unbelief has free course and no agreement of faith is present. O that oppressive atmosphere that grieves the Holy Spirit. Those cold hindering, miracle limiting moments of oppression and judgement where in the spirit you are being 'laughed to scorn.'
The 'Holy Huddle.'Matthew 23:27
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.An extreme case. But none the less we do encounter them. Having a religious spirit and no faith.This is not New Age teaching. This is Kingdom teaching from the Word of God. This is what undermines faith and prevents miracles from happening, undermining God's plans.Christian brother and sister, I know you have faith for miracles.
1 John 2:20 20But you have been anointed by [you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from] the Holy One, and you all know [the Truth] or you know all things.See, you have an inner witness that what I am telling you is the truth. You know that you need to look inward to see if you are possessing 'an evil heart of unbelief' or a heart of faith.When you pray are you expecting results? Are you expecting the Holy Spirit to manifest in your meetings together? Our God is a supernatural God, a spirit.
John 4:24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Today we see the 'Emerging Church.' A church that is emerging from and deserting the authority of Scripture for man's own understanding and comprehension. A church that is fast becoming a dead church totally devoid of the miraculous and supernatural divine intervention.
1 Thessalonians 4:1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
Hebrews 11:6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
See. You have got to have faith! Just...expect it.The disciples asked for miracles and honored God's Word.
Acts 429And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,30By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.32And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul...
Faith and love draws the faithful together, binding them together in Christ as one heart and one soul.
1 John 4:20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
1 John 4:21And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
1 John 4:7Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1 John 4:8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.Faith and love are always present when we are balanced and pleasing to God.
1 John 4:12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
2 John 1:5And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
2 John 1:6And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
David Sloane
David Sloane
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