Did you miss out on the first part of this series? Read here: Believe Bigger: Is unbelief holding you back from God? In the first part, we discussed unbelief and three things to know about what unbelief does. In this concluding part, we will discuss on:
How to stop unbelief from stealing from you
1. Study and Acknowledge what God said about Himself
Jackie Hill Perry wrote, “Not many people would dare call God a liar out loud, lest they be guilty of blasphemy and kept from forgiveness. What the mouth doesn’t say, though, the heart still reveals. How we live is the evidence of what we believe about God.”
To have an understanding of who God is means seeing the need to wholeheartedly believe in Him and acknowledge that not doing so is a grave crime. The experiences of Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, etc, demonstrate how their faith in God became more resilient as they gained an understanding of His identity and how He made Himself known to them.
In Exodus 3:14, God revealed himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM”, indicating His eternal and unchanging nature. A self-existent and self-sufficient God, without a beginning or end. In Exodus 34:6-7 God reveals His character traits of compassion, grace, patience, love, faithfulness, and forgiveness. It highlights His incredible capacity for mercy and His desire to extend grace to His people. In Psalms 89:14 God highlights His righteousness and justice as the very foundation of His throne. His judgments are based on perfect righteousness and fairness.
So knowing the personality of God will give you the perspective you need to understand who you are dealing with. This will foster your relationship with Him.
2. Study and Accept what God has said about You
When A. W. Tozer said “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”, I couldn’t agree more. If we have no knowledge and experience of who God is or what He said about Himself, then we know nothing of who we are and what God has said about us. And isn’t that why Identity crisis is a prevalent struggle in this generation? We answer names God never called us by and accept prophecies that aren’t ours to inherit.
Jackie Hill Perry wrote, “The inevitable consequence of not believing what God has said about Himself is to take what God has made and call it Lord.” It is for this reason that we have given our faith and allegiance to sexual identity, sex, autonomy, intellect, relationships, money, marriage, legalism, politics, power, ethnicity, food, social media, children, or whatever other made thing that we have made idols of.
This same unbelief has made us identify as our struggles, making gods of the parts of ourselves that we refused to surrender or crucify. This subtle unbelief will make us believe Jesus can raise the dead but won’t be able to change our homosexual/immoral desires so we can honour Him with our bodies. We go ahead to adopt terms like “Gay Christian, Christian Baddie” etc, just to justify the perception of God we’ve created in our minds, forgetting the essence of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
What did God say concerning us?
- We are loved by God: Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.
- We are forgiven of our sins: 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
- We are children of God: 1 John 3:1 – “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
- We are chosen and called by God: 1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
- We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus: Ephesians 1:7 – “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
- We are new creations in Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
- We have been given the Holy Spirit: 1 Corinthians 3:16 – “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”
- We have been set free from sin: Romans 6:18 – “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
- We have been given eternal life: John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
- We have been called to fulfil God’s purpose: Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
With this knowledge, we shouldn’t let unbelief steal our identity. By knowing who God is, we know who and whose we are. We are loved, forgiven, redeemed, renewed, called and chosen, joint heirs, given the Holy Spirit and eternal life, made to give pleasure and glory to no one else but God.
3. Living a daily Victorious Christian Life
The battle against unbelief is continuous, one that consistently requires building faith. Because the devil will always look for loopholes and opportunities to attack our Christian life, we need to be steady and ready.
In Ephesians 6:16, the Bible called faith a shield that quenches the fiery darts of the enemy. That means faith is a defence for the attack that is bound to come, so if we want to defeat unbelief, we must strengthen our faith by doing the following:
- Listening to the Word of God: The Bible says in Romans 10:17 (KJV) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This stresses the need to avail ourselves of the unfiltered word of God to grow in faith, knowing that this same word is Spirit and Life, hence it’ll make us build a living faith.
- Praying frequently: The scripture says in Philippians 4:6-7 (KJV)”Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” To live a victorious Christian life, we must build an efficient communication channel between us and God. Through prayers, we establish a relationship through faith. One that puts us in a place of absolute trust and peace with the Maker of the galaxies.
- Being part of a community of believers: The Bible said in Hebrews 10:23-25 (KJV)”Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
This highlights the importance of being part of a community or family of believers, where you can get encouragement and inspiration from the testimonies and lives of those who are on the same faith journey as us. The devil knows faith thrives in community, so he tries to isolate us from other believers so that on days when we feel low or weary, there’ll be no one around to pull us up with encouraging words. So if you intend to defeat unbelief, you must surround yourself with believers.
- By walking in the Spirit: The Bible said in Galatians 5:16-17 (KJV) This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Since the fall of Adam, we have been conceived in sin. For this reason, man in his natural state walks in the flesh, hence, we’re prone to sin at every chance we get because that’s all we know. The good news is that once saved and we have the Holy Spirit present in us, we can display the qualities of those who walk in the Spirit. Unbelief is a sin that is conversant with those that walk. in the flesh because it fosters other sins. But if we’re to walk in righteousness of faith, we need the help of the Holy Spirit.
Though unbelief is a thief, with faith, we can recover and take back everything that has been stolen from us. The battle has been won already, Jesus has given us the victory, we just need to believe and walk in it. Previously we have walked in the sin of unbelief, but as it was to Abraham in Genesis 15:6 KJV “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Now we walk in righteousness of faith.
