Focusing on Problems Is Dangerous

By Donna L. Watkins

I was reading The Power of Life and Death is in the Tongue and stopped to ponder a question asked: "Do we 'believers' actually believe God's Word?" Some folks would say, "Well, it could have been misinterpreted." And how do we decide what part is actually true and what part is wrong? It would certainly make doubting your salvation a real event.

Others would say, "I know that's what the Bible says, but our church doesn't believe that."  People have been asked to leave a church when they had an experience with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues.  Yet this is what Paul says in I Cor. 14:37-39 (KJV)

"If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues."

So there are a lot of people who don't let what the Bible says interfere with what they believe. Holding to the traditions of men seems to be more important.  We need to get in and study the Word ourselves.  Use a Greek and Hebrew Concordance to look up what the actual words meant.  We shouldn't take anybody's interpretation of the Bible.  That's the problem, many Christians have sat under teaching that doesn't agree with the Word and that has been programmed into our hearts and taken away so many of our blessings and promises.

 
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Doubt is the tool that Satan and even our own minds use to keep us from walking in victory that we've been given through the Cross. That was the tactic Satan used when talking with Adam and Eve. He wanted them to doubt what God had said. If he can get us to doubt God's Word, then he's taken our spiritual armor and we have no victory over him. Many churches and individuals don't even acknowledge that we have an Enemy. Ignorance is not bliss!

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12).

How many times have I asked God for wisdom or discernment on an issue so I could make a decision, and find the airwaves silent. I have at times recognized before I'm even finished asking, that I am already doubting I can hear the answer. Why do so many Christians have such a hard time believing they can hear God? James 1:5-8 is a direct strike against doubting.

Here's the Amplified Bible version:
"If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything from the Lord, [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides]."

Speaking less than what God has said begins with unbelief (or ignorance) in our hearts of what God has already told us He will do. And out of the overflow of our hearts, our mouths speak and reveal what we are truly thinking. Instead of believing and walking in faith, many Christians would rather sit and rehearse the problem. Stating all the circumstances until our minds are assured and reassured that nothing is going to change. We are giving the devil glory when we do this. We end up with fear, hopelessness and despair.

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If we spoke what God's Word says about the problem, we could walk in peace and victory looking and knowing the situation will change because faith is the connection to receiving all the promises. If you have finance problems, do you meditate on and proclaim with your mouth God's promises for provision ... or do you use your mind and mouth to declare the problem so everybody thinks and believes that the devil is more powerful than God's Word. It's up to us to keep our mouth under control.

It's not that God doesn't want to bless us .. it's just that's how the law of the universe is set up .. kinda like rain always coming down rather than flowing up. There are laws that God has placed on this planet and He isn't going to violate them by messing with our free will and free thoughts. That's not what the phrase "sovereignty of God means." He works through us, as Ephesians 3:20 shows, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."

I like the way Kris Vallotton says it in his book, The Supernatural Ways of Royalty (Discovering your rights and privileges of being a son or daughter of God):

"The entire spirit world operates by faith, not just God's world. For instance, fear is the manifestation that we have faith in the wrong kingdom. When we believe something is going to go wrong, we have given our faith to the enemy. By doing this we have just empowered the one that Jesus disarmed at the Cross. When we believe in God, we empower the Holy Spirit and the angels to bring about His will."

Pretty strong statements, but certainly true.

I have meditated on this verse below for a very long time and it has brought me into a much closer relationship with the Lord. I always thought I trusted the Lord, but as I pondered this verse I began realizing that I never really trusted any one but myself.  What a revelation!  [Read: Do You Really Trust God?]

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).


 You won't find it easy to go against the "old tapes" in your mind ... but the more you do it, like any new thing, it will become more natural to you and with every step you are pushing back the darkness in your life.

Don't stay in the same place you've been for so long. You may find a bit of comfort in sharing your problems with those around you, but you'll never find the life that Jesus died to give you.

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