LIVING DOUBT FREE!

LIVING DOUBT FREE...
By Mary Ann Wray

"Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14: 19-23

I believe one application within this passage can also be taken as anything we partake or participate in that breeds doubt in ourselves or another is sin. It involves every aspect of life where ‘conscience’ is involved.  When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, one of the things He told them to say was, "Give us this day our daily BREAD." He wasn't just speaking of sustenance only; He was speaking of Words of Life that bring hope and faith. When He was tempted by Satan in the Wilderness, Jesus said to the devil, "Man shall not live by BREAD alone, but by EVERY WORD (rhema) that proceeds out of the MOUTH of the FATHER." (Matthew 4: 4)

Words are VERY IMPORTANT saints! They carry a spirit with them; either good or evil. They either breed life and faith or death and doubt!  Proverbs 18: 21 says, "Life and death are in the power of the tongue." James 3 goes into much detail about the proper use of the tongue. In verses 5-6 he says, “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” In verse 11 James says "Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?"

Any thought, word spoken and any act done that creates doubt in the mind and heart of a believer, whether it be within himself/ herself or towards another, you can rest assured is NOT from the FATHER of LIGHTS (Romans 14: 23 & James 1: 17). Jesus’ words edify, comfort, exhort, at times correct, but ALWAYS produce FAITH in the HEARTS AND MINDS of His people through a Spirit of Revelation. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesy: the thing that is revealed by Jesus Himself. (Revelations 19: 10). That’s why a Spirit of Jezebel fights the prophetic so much. This Anti-Christ Spirit knows that when the people of God receive any kind of revelation from the mouth of Jesus through His servants the prophets, people become dangerous to the Kingdom of Darkness! (1 Kings 19: 2).

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10: 17). Likewise, Satan the great copy-cat uses the same principle…”Doubt comes by hearing and hearing by the words of the god of this age”. We must truly learn to discern! We are living in an era of great deception and the enemy will speak and use any of us who have wrong theology and unresolved matters of the heart to keep us in fear, bondage and sabotage destiny and purpose. Faulty theology and/ or past inner wounds which have caused us to create inner vows that have not been resolved are 'faults' in our foundation that the enemy uses to create a snare for us and at times others around us too. His ultimate MO is to keep us out of the Kingdom of God on the earth and the Kingdom of Heaven where the Lord is seated right now (Ephesians 2: 4-7).

One perfect example of how the enemy works to distract and destroy our faith is when Jesus was having dialogue with His disciples. He asked them, “Who do men say I am?” Some went on to say that there were people that thought He was Elijah returned from the dead or John the Baptist reincarnate, some say one of the prophets. This was ridiculous thinking because they all knew from Torah and Jewish Theology there was no such thing as reincarnation. (Mark 8: 27-28). 

In fact Isaiah predicted an ‘incarnation” not ‘re-incarnation’ about 700 years before Christ’s birth. He prophesied that a Son would be born and the government (dominion) would be upon His shoulders (Isaiah 9: 6).  He also predicted in Isaiah 7: 14 that a Virgin would conceive and bear a son. His name will be called Immanuel literally meaning, “God with us”. This first prediction came through the mouth of God to the serpent (Satan) about the woman…”I will put enmity between your seed and her seed. You shall bruise His heal, but HE shall crush your head!” Genesis 3: 15

The Angel of the Lord who appeared to Joseph in Matthew 1: 23 reiterated that same prophesy to remove all doubt from Joseph’s mind that his betrothed was with child by the Power of the Holy Spirit’s Seed-not another. You remember that Joseph was ready to put her away, but God intervened by a dream thus fulfilling His word and vindicating Mary.

Getting back to Mark 8….Jesus listened to the disciples and what they were repeating from others with His discerning ear and asked, “Who do YOU say that I am?” Why did He ask them that question? I propose that it was not only because He wanted to reveal Himself to them by the Spirit of Revelation but first to put to rest any doubt they had in their minds about His divinity. It always takes a revelation (rhema) to dispel doubt in a matter! They had seen His mighty acts. They saw and felt His love and charismas in action. But there remained some seeds of doubt in their minds as to His Divinity. Otherwise, they would have reported back to Jesus something like this…“Master, they said these things about you but we told them, “NO!”, He IS the Son of God!” 

Jesus knew what was in their hearts. Therefore, He asked them a question to get their minds and hearts open for a revelation which really wasn’t new at all. It dated back to the Garden of Eden and repeated at least 44 times. It was just ‘new’ to them. Some scholars place Messianic Prophecies in the hundreds. This revelation was just going to be “new” to them. The question, “Who do men say I am?” opened the pathway for new thought. Peter said, “You are the CHRIST, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus replied, “You have answered correctly Peter. Flesh and blood has NOT revealed this to you, but my FATHER in Heaven.” It was then that Jesus told them to tell NO one who He was. That was His job to reveal Himself to man by ‘rhema’ revelation before His death, burial and resurrection. After His ascension, He gave power to the Church to declare His Divinity; but only after He gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to the Church on the day of Pentecost. Until that time, the church/ believers would not and could not impart such truth without the actual impregnation, if you will, of the same Spirit’s seed that went into Mary to Birth the Christ. 1 Peter 1: 23 says that we are born again of the imperishable seed of God! Therefore, we receive the power carry out His Great Commission through the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead that now dwells in us! (John 15: 26;  Acts 1: 8; Romans 8: 11).

In verses 30 and 31 of Mark 9, Jesus then began to teach them that He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days to rise again. He spoke plainly, but Peter began to rebuke him. Three sentences after Peter’s revelation of the Christ, Satan showed up and sowed doubt into Peter’s mind causing Him to repeat a lie and rebuke the Very One who revealed the truth of His Majesty to him! The enemy’s ways are the same now as they were then, my friends. He tries to get us into bi-polar thinking i.e., double mindedness thus creating instability in our faith walk in any and every area he can from giving, church attendance, witnessing, fasting, prayer et al! (James 1: 8)

You see, Peter could easily receive the revelation of Jesus’ deity without question; but the revelation concerning suffering and death was not something he wanted to hear. Peter still had self-will and self-preservation in his heart. This was exposed later when he denied the Christ three times after Jesus’ death (Luke 22: 34, 54-62).  Fear and the self-preservation it creates will sabotage the Spirit of Revelation’s effect in our lives every time it is not dealt with. The enemy knows that Jesus’ words carry life and power. To sabotage the truth in a believer’s mind leaves us powerless to combat the enemy.

What must we do then? We must CAST down VAIN imaginations and EVERYTHING that EXALTS ITSELF (people, places, things, ideas, concepts, 'revelations') against the KNOWLEDGE of CHRIST! (2 Cor 10: 5). When you are in an Assembly and the Word is being preached with power and revelation is flowing from the lips of God’s servants, rest assured the enemy will come and sow seeds of doubt in your mind as to the veracity of those words; if not immediately, later on. The enemy will cause you to ‘meditate’ in a negative way on the words of life spoken in the sermons you hear and cause you to begin to question the Word of the Lord just as he did with Eve. It’s the same MO!

Therefore, we MUST become thoroughly familiar with scriptures enough so that when we hear a word or message through prophesy, tongues and interpretation, music, sermons, teachings et al, we can identify truth from error. Through the Church’s own lethargy to become students of the scripture by personal discipline and discipleship, the enemy has sown tares in many people’s hearts. The evidence is seen in the candy coated carnality that is being preached from pulpits and received by church members all across America and into the rest of the world, under the guise of “Grace” -calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5: 20). For example, “Homosexuals will go to Heaven because God loves everybody.” This is a half-truth which is nothing more than a lie. God does in fact love everyone, but if Homosexuals who haven’t repented of their sins go to Heaven, God will have to allow EVERYONE to go to Heaven and apologize to every martyr who lost their heads for preaching repentance from dead works and adherence to the Lordship of Jesus Christ alone!

This ‘other gospel theology’ is ridiculous, because if this were the case, The Father would NOT have needed to send His Only Beloved Son into the World to BECOME sin for US who knew no sin so that we ‘MIGHT BECOME’ the Righteousness of God in Christ.(2 Cor 5: 21). The word might become is ‘ginomai’ which carries with it the connotation of possibility. Mark 9: 23 says, “All things are possible to those who believe.” The question remains then, “Believes what?” The answer being, “Believes trusts and adheres to with one’s whole personality, upon the Only Begotten Son of God-The Lord Jesus Christ!” (John 3: 18)

We MUST return to the Lord with ALL our hearts and listen to HIM! You’ve heard of selective hearing? Well, it’s time for us to be selective on what we hear! "Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them." Luke 8: 18