We believe in miracles. In fact, I have a strong disbelief in unbelief. Many people have so much confidence in their unbelief; they are so convinced that they are doubters, that they are fearful, that they are unbelieving. They are already convinced in their minds; defeated before they ever get into the battle. This comes from a deep-rooted confidence in unbelief.
The boxer got into the ring and his trainer said, “Now just keep saying to yourself, ‘I can beat him, I can beat him, I can beat him.” “He got in there, and one, two, three, he hit the canvas. They revived him in the dressing room and asked, “Why didn’t you keep saying, “I can beat him?” “Oh, I kept saying that, but the trouble is, I know what a liar I am.” Isn’t that about it? We keep saying it, but sometimes way down deep, we doubt it. That is where your doubt and unbelief abide.
Being a believer isn’t too difficult, you have to constantly take everything and turn it around. If you are a skeptic, don’t turn your skepticism on God, turn it on the devil and on everything he says; turn it on unbelief, turn it on all the things that challenge the word of God—turn your skepticism the other way.
Are you rebellious? Don’t aim your rebellion against God, but against every limitation not divinely imposed upon you. Rebel against every circumstance that God says has to go. Rebel against the conditions that people normally accept. They rebel against the Lord, because they have accepted conditions God did not want them to accept! Accept God, but don’t accept the situations that you can change. There is an old saying that great wisdom is when you submit to the things you have to submit to; change the things that you can change; and God would give you the wisdom to know the difference between the two. I don’t think there is anyone who really knows the difference.
Believe to see change, and expect an answer from the Lord, because there is a divine responsibility. Don’t sit back with resignation, waiting a lifetime for an answer; say, “Lord, I’m listening, what is the answer?” He will answer you. Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. Matthew 7:7. Keep reaching in for an answer, keep saying, “Lord, I’m still waiting for an answer.” He may say wait a while; He may say yes, He may say no; He may say there is something you have to work out first. But God gives us the answer. Keep listening, it is not audible; but if you keep listening, you will discover what God is trying to tell you.
I’m a great believer in repetition. I’ve been out of it for a while, but I’m anxious to get back into weight-lifting. There are many Scriptural principles involved in weight-lifting. When you press at something and can’t get it up, get an isometric rack. You shove the rack, knowing that it can’t be moved; you are getting ready to hit a weight that you cannot lift. The isometric principle is this: your muscles may develop strength three or four times faster than in other forms of exercise. Isometrics deals entirely with strength, not endurance. Strength develops by continually pressing against an immovable object. You can’t lift the weight, but you shove at it for ten seconds and you have completely activated a muscle.
The principle of a work-out is exercise, where you tear the muscle down and then take a day or two for it to come back up again. Isometrics works differently. You strain at it, never tearing the muscle down—you completely activate it. It doesn’t have to grow back again after having been torn down. It retains the same size, but proceeds to develop more. In a short period of time, by struggling against things that you can’t move, you will grow faster, and develop more strength than if you quit moving.
Remember, great growth doesn’t come by what you can do or by what you are determined to do but cannot achieve at the moment. Did you grasp the principle? This is how you will grow spiritually. Have faith, tackle it—with repetition! Do you want an answer? Ask the Lord for it with all your heart. You didn’t get it? That is all right. It will make your faith grow. Tomorrow you will ask again. Soon you will get the answer you are looking for; soon the Lord will speak to you. I am giving you good guidelines on the way to live, walking with God. I assure you it will really work.
Do you find that your discouragement is unreasonable? Discouragement is what you want to rebel against. Protest against it! Do you know which way to send your rebellion? What the Devil uses with people is the idea behind the Chinese or Japanese martial arts like Ju-jitsu, which has wrestling, holds, etc. Have you ever had anyone use it on you? There would be no doubt in your mind, if anyone ever had. Their favorite trick is to use your own strength against you. When you make a lunge, they help you; when you are going by, they shove you; if you make a certain move, they twist it, causing you to use your own strength against yourself. This is what the Devil tries to do. He tries to use your own strength against you. He succeeds when he takes the old nature and activates it in the direction of unbelief. We don’t have to succumb. We can change our conditioning by the grace of God. Every time the Devil comes in, we can react differently. That is what the Lord wants you to do.
Now, if someone just came up and slapped you, would you turn the other cheek? If someone said terrible things about you and persecuted you, what would you do? Human nature flares right back, but the Scriptures say you are to train your spirit (Proverbs 16:32). Rejoice, be exceedingly glad (Matthew 5:12). When your reaction to everything is right then you can war against your unbelief. You minimize everything of the old nature because it is crucified in Christ.
Exalt everything that God is bringing forth, have faith in your faith! Begin to have great doubts about your unbelief; question its validity. Satan is a liar and he exaggerates and interprets every circumstance and situation wrongly. He feeds that interpretation to the old nature, and like a computer it comes up registering unbelief. You don’t want that. You want everything to cause you to rejoice. You can have such expectant faith that you anticipate what is going to happen next. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18.
I want to be a believer; I mean an absolute believer! I don’t want to be a doubter. It is easy to be a skeptic. Somebody comes along and they think they are a “smarty-pants” because they doubt everything. I don’t believe in that kind of intelligence.
Snakeroot when chewed is a great pacifier. A pharmaceutical company decided that a million Indians couldn’t be wrong, so they dug up some snakeroot and found the basis of tranquilizers. When people go back to reexamine ways that have been rejected for years, they come up with solutions. The snakeroot is a good example. About the time we reject everything, saying, “Oh, it’s an old superstition,” someone comes along, digs it up and finds out there was something to it after all.
The skeptic says, “I don’t understand that.”
“There were at least a hundred things in the sermon, and one thing you didn’t understand?”
“Well, I’m leaving! I don’t want to go to that church, I don’t understand that one thing.”
If they understood ninety-nine things, then they walk out with a responsibility.
It isn’t what I don’t understand that bothers me as much as what I already understand. It is what God makes real to me. I have so much to believe in, so much that I know, so many things that are right. I have many promises that God is speaking to my spirit, and I will believe and walk in them!