Mine Unbelief

Good morning, this morning let's finish the lesson we started yesterday. We are going to be back in Mark ch 9 starting at verse 23. "Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (vs24) And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, LORD I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Then of course, Jesus cast out the demon. Then later on the disciples in verse 28 asked why they could not cast out the demon, and verse 29 again, "This kind can come forth by nothing, buy by prayer and fasting". In other words the disciples had not been doing what they were supposed to be doing, and their faith had gotten weak, and they did not ask for God to help their unbelief.
What I am about to tell you is probably going to cause some controversy, but that's ok. I always hear about how in order to have God's power in our lives we have to believe that He is going to be there, and He is going to work in some way. But, I don't believe that, I believe that if you go to God, and you tell Him that you are trying to believe, but because you are human, you are having trouble understanding, which is causing you trouble in believing, and that you want Him to help you believe, you want Him to increase your belief, you want Him to give you a desire to believe, then I really believe that He will do just that. Then despite your unbelief, He will bless you, and answer your prayer so that you are able to believe. You see I don't think it's so much our ability to believe that God rewards as it is our desire to believe. We are human after all, it is not humanly possible for us to believe everything that is possible with God. We have a finite mind, His is infinite. His abilities are infinite, everything about Him is infinite, and yet we are still finite. It is not possible for us to believe everything He is able to do. But, if we express to Him a desire to understand, and believe that something is possible with Him, He will honor that desire, and He will give us the ability to believe. Sometimes we get the ability before He acts, sometimes after everything is over, but He will honor our desire, and give us what our heart desires.
Turn over to Eph. 2:8 for a moment, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yoursleves; it is the gift of God". Let's read that again, "Because you believe, you are saved", NO, "For by your belief in everything possible with God" NO, it say's, "For by GRACE,...IT IS THE GIFT of God". Turn back to Jn 6:44 "No man can come to me, except the Father draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day". "No man can come to me, except by his humanness he believe?" No, it says that "except the Father draw him", translation, except the Father give him a desire to believe.
Look on over at verse 63 "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing...(vs64)But there are some of you that believe not...(vs65) Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father". Help mine unbelief, help me to understand the things that are spiritual and not of the flesh, help me to believe, give me a desire to understand and believe, send your Spirit to quicken my dead heart so that it may believe.
We all need to pray daily, that God will give us that desire to believe, and that He will help our unbelief. If you want to see God work in your life, just ask Him to help your unbelief, and you will see Him work in ways that you never could have imagined. Without prayer we have no power, without prayer we have no relationship with God, how can we expect to have any standing in His court if we are a stranger to Him. Think about your job, who has the most pull with the boss, the person who comes to work and goes to their station and stays there all day, never speaking to anyone, or the person that spends as much time talking to the boss as they do working? It's the same with God, we need to spend as much time in prayer as we do in everything else in our life. That way when we say help mine unbelief, He knows that our desire is to believe, and He will help us. Remember the old saying, "God helps those who help them self", praying is helping our self.
Looking at one more verse, Eph. 6:18 "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,". Praying always, in the Spirit. Well, one more verse Mt 21:22 "And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive". When you pray, you have to believe for it to be answered, but how shall you believe unless God give you the ability because of your desire?