1 Corinthians 2:5 “that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
As believers, we are instructed by the Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture that our faith should only be in the power of God and nothing else. And so if we want to be included in that group of individuals that will have whatever they say, then the first principle that we have to apply is to recognize that our faith can only be in God our Father and in His power.
Mark 11:22-23 “So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. (23) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
The second principle revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture is that we must not doubt in our hearts. As mentioned earlier, depending on the context of the passage, the heart can refer to either the spirit or the mind of the believer. In the context of our Lord’s teaching He is referring to the mind, for we have already established that faith is of the spirit and doubt is of the mind. And so the principle that our Lord revealed is that we must have no doubt in our minds, for if we have any doubt then we can be fully assured that our faith will not work (James 1:6-7). If we want our faith to work for us then we must first become fully convinced in our minds as to the truth and reality of God’s word on the subject in question. Earlier we discussed the steps that believers must take to overcome doubt in their minds, i.e. renewing their minds through meditation and controlling their thinking to fall in line with the word of God. We also said that part of that process is to confess God’s word over our lives until we become fully convinced in our minds as to the truth and reality of God’s word on the subject. In the same teaching where our Lord taught us not to doubt in our hearts, He went on to say that we must believe, thus implying that we must believe in our hearts. We have already established that we doubt in our minds and believe in our spirits. And so our Lord was teaching us not to doubt in our minds but believe in our spirits. We have already established earlier that every saint believes in their spirits because every saint has received the gift of faith, and because their spirits cannot sin, neither can their spirits doubt.
Michael E.B. Maher
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