What We Believe is Important
“… everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
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Where is the first place we need to look if we’re not experiencing victory?
1 John 5:4 says that ‘our faith’ is the victory that overcomes the world. Obviously, John was talking about our faith in a general sense, as in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation will be the ultimate victory. But the same principle also applies to specific circumstances and specific battles.
The promises of God are not automatically fulfilled in our lives, in this life at least. Think about it: before you knew you were forgiven you didn't have an experience of forgiveness. Likewise, before we knew we had been made righteous, we lived as though we had not been made righteous. We hid from God, ashamed with a sense of sin and unrighteousness. However, after we came to know and believe in forgiveness and righteousness we were able to live in forgiveness and righteousness. The same principle applies to all areas of our Christian walk.
‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge …’ Hosea 4:6
We are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Christians don’t suffer because God is trying to teach them a lesson, they suffer because they don’t know God’s will. Christians don’t suffer because they haven't prayed long enough or hard enough, they suffer because they have not established God’s Word in their heart, so they can not have faith to act on his Word. Christians don’t suffer because their pastor doesn’t have the right ‘anointing’ (ouch), they suffer because they haven’t grown in the knowledge of God, through His Word.
In Mark 6, Jesus came to his hometown. He had just come from performing mighty miracles such as raising the synagogue official’s daughter from the dead. Yet the Bible records that Jesus ‘could do no mighty miracle’ in his own hometown, except laying hands on people with minor ailments and healing them. Not that Jesus WOULD NOT do a mighty miracle. Not that Jesus didn’t WANT TO do mighty miracles, but that he COULD NOT do any mighty miracle!
The one who created the universe, who literally spoke everything into being, could not do any mighty miracle in his hometown. Why?
Surely God is Sovereign! Surely Jesus could have done the miracles! Except God’s Word says Jesus could NOT do any mighty miracles in the lives of people in his own hometown.
Mark 6:6 ‘and he wondered at their unbelief and he was going around the villages teaching’.
There are two things we need to get from Mark 6:1-6. One, what we believe is very important to God. What we believe will limit the degree of victory we have in our lives.
Secondly, the cure for unbelief is good Bible teaching. Verse six tells us that Jesus responded to their unbelief by going ‘around the villages teaching’. Christians are too often looking for a quick fix for their problems., running around trying to find the latest ‘anointing’ or looking for the spectacular.
That wasn’t Jesus’ answer to people not receiving victory in their lives. His response was to change what they believe.
The first place we need to go to for victory is to God’s Word. We need to ask ourselves if what I believe about this situation, lines up with Gods’ Word.