Supernatural Transformation: Change Your Heart Into God’s Heart (19 page)

Due to their hardheartedness, rebellious people decide of their own free will not to believe God but to doubt and reject His promises and provisions, including salvation, protection, healing, and deliverance. Their hardheartedness is often a result of their having experienced rejection, betrayal, abuse, or some other difficulty or suffering at the hands of another person or persons. For example, when the Israelites were delivered by God from slavery in Egypt, they witnessed His miracles, signs, and wonders in the desert. The Lord fed them every day with supernatural bread called
“manna.”
(See Exodus 16:14–15, 31.) Twice, when the people had no water, God quenched their thirst by causing water to pour from a rock. (See Exodus 17:5–6; Numbers 20:8–11.) Their clothes and sandals never wore out. (See Deuteronomy 29:5.) The Lord’s presence was with them during the day in a
“pillar of cloud”
that led the way and also protected them from the heat of the sun, as well as during the night in a
“pillar of fire”
that provided light for them to travel and protected them from the nighttime cold. (See Exodus 13:21–22.) And God did many other miracles on their behalf.

Yet, even with all the demonstrations of God’s provision, protection, and care, the Israelites frequently chose, in open acts of rebellion, not to believe Him. Consequently, the generation that was delivered from Egypt never entered into the Promised Land—only their descendants did, with the exception of faithful Joshua and Caleb. I believe the reason is that the hearts of the people had been hardened by the slavery they had suffered under all their lives, and they did not release that hardness of heart to the Lord so that He could heal it.

Similarly, many Christians today refuse to believe God, even though He has shown them His love and grace. The Lord has been extraordinarily good to us! He has saved us eternally through His Son Jesus Christ; and He has loved us, provided for us, protected us, and healed us. Many of us have seen Him perform remarkable works in our own life, in the lives of our family members, among the people in our church, and in our community. We have seen, heard, and experienced His supernatural power—yet we still doubt! Such unbelief in the midst of God’s goodness may be a sign of a rebellious heart. As we discussed in an earlier chapter, when an individual chooses not to believe in what God has promised, he is, in essence, calling God a liar. Calling someone a liar is one of the worst of insults. How do you think God feels when we disrespect Him by refusing to believe Him?

Rebellion is a decision not to believe in God or trust in His Word.

A heart of unbelief can take over a person’s life.
“For as
[a person]
thinks in his heart, so is he”
(Proverbs 23:7). An unbelieving heart paves its own way. It relies on its own judgment, while rejecting God’s wisdom. Each decision we make in our own strength and ability alone is a sign of our faithlessness and our independence from God. Generally, I have found that when an individual lives independently of God, he ends in failure. If he eventually seeks God, it is when life turns against him and he reaches rock bottom, having lost everything he once valued.

When a person has a hard heart of unbelief, God will sometimes allow certain adverse situations to take place in his life—situations that go beyond his control, leaving him powerless to fix them—because that is the only way to break down his hardheartedness, prompting the individual to humble himself and to surrender to the Lord so that he may be saved and delivered.

Any lack of faith toward God produces negative consequences—sometimes terrible ones—in a person’s life. Some people think they can continue to live in rebellion against God and His Word without suffering any consequences, but the Scriptures are clear that those who persist in unbelief will ultimately be punished. Living in rebellion has a price in this life and in the one to come—eternal separation from God in hell:
“But the cowardly,
unbelieving
, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”
(Revelation 21:8). Carefully review the above list of those who will keep the
“unbelieving”
company in eternity. God judges unbelief as harshly as idolatry, sorcery, and murder!

If God has been speaking to you through a family member, friend, coworker, fellow student, or someone else about being reconciled to Him and receiving Christ, don’t harden your heart! Surrender it to God now and renounce your unbelief, so you won’t end up in that place of torment.

Born-again children of God cannot remain indifferent to unbelief in their heart, either. Nothing in our life or in our relationship with Christ will have value if we don’t conduct ourselves according to faith. (See Hebrews 11:6.) Be free of unbelief! Paul wrote,
“
We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Without faith, we will live only by sight, which often causes us to fear the future. So, stop questioning God, His Word, and His promises. Decide to believe Him now, and He will fulfill what He has promised.

A man named Roberto shared the following testimony about his long-term physical infirmity and what happened when he took a step of faith:

“When I was six years old, the needle of a syringe pierced my left eye, causing it to hemorrhage greatly. I was taken to the emergency room, where I was operated on immediately. To save my eyeball, doctors cut the optical vein, leaving me blind in that eye.

“I spent thirty-seven years blind in the left eye, and I had grown used to it. All I could see out of the eye was a dark shadow, so I often bumped into things when I walked. When I went to get my driver’s license in order to drive an eighteen-wheeler, I was given a restricted license that permitted me to drive only during the day. This limited my opportunities at my job.

“Though I believed in the power of God, I had simply accepted my disability. But, one day, my friends invited me to a service at King Jesus church. At some point, a call for healing was made. I didn’t want to go forward, but my friends insisted. Finally, I decided to go, and, once I was at the front, I closed my eyes and heard Pastor Maldonado declare, ‘Blind eyes, see!’ I then felt my hands go directly to my eyes, and, instantly, I felt ‘fire’ burning me, and I fell to the floor under the power of God. Suddenly, within me, I heard a voice that said,
You will see again
. When I got up and opened my eyes, my vision was clear and perfect. My left eye, through which I had been able to see only a dark shadow, now registered the splendor of light, people, and objects around me.

“Emotional, I shared my testimony with deep gratefulness to God. I had stopped believing that God could heal me. I had grown used to the idea of living semi-blind. Today, I feel like a new man, and I know that God is the only One who could have healed me because, according to medical science, regaining my eyesight was impossible.”

Unbelief is the highest expression of disrespect and dishonor toward God, because when we refuse to believe Him, we essentially
call Him a liar.

3. Unbelief Caused by a Wicked Spirit

The third type of unbelief is, effectively, an extension of the previous one. Some people have practiced unbelief for so long that they have opened the door for a demonic spirit of unbelief—a wicked spirit from Satan—to corrupt their heart and take control of them. When Jesus was asked by some religious leaders if He was the Messiah, He confirmed that He was the Son of God and said,
“I and my Father are one”
(John 10:30). The leaders protested, claiming that Jesus’ words were blasphemy. In their stubbornness of heart, they missed the signs that Jesus was indeed the true Messiah—and that He was God in human form.

God the Father had audibly testified from heaven that Jesus was His beloved Son (see, for example, Matthew 3:16–17), but these religious leaders refused to believe it, and they became God’s enemies. Similarly, today, many church leaders and other Christians don’t fully acknowledge what it means for Christ to be the Messiah, and they don’t believe that He still does miracles for God’s people, putting them at odds with the purposes and works of God.

Unbelief plagues the human race, and Satan would like to keep it that way. When humanity disobeyed God in the garden, it was as if the spirit of unbelief eagerly purchased shares in hell’s stock market. When the Messiah came to earth to redeem humanity, and the religious leaders and the people rejected Him and cried out,
“
Crucify Him, crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21; John 19:6), it was as if those shares went through the roof. However, when Jesus was gloriously raised from the dead, the value of those shares plummeted as Jesus
“led captivity captive”
(Ephesians 4:8), freeing humanity from the grip of sin and unbelief. Those who thought they had finally triumphed over Jesus were defeated, being spiritually bankrupt.

If you invest your heart in disbelieving God and His Son Jesus, you will lose your soul, because Jesus is the eternal Conqueror. Yet, if you realize that a wicked spirit of unbelief has been controlling your life, you can repent, renounce your unbelief, receive Christ as your Savior and Lord, and then bind and cast out the spirit of unbelief in the name of Jesus, so that you can be delivered. Don’t risk your soul over unbelief!

We Have Been Taught Unbelief

Unbelief is a consequence of the fall that afflicts every human being. Yet we are also taught—directly and indirectly—to disbelieve God through the influence of our society, our schools, and a number of our churches.

Our Cultural Mind-set Elevates Reason Above God

Generally, the Western mind-set attempts to explain life through reason, logic, and science. In and of themselves, these faculties are inadequate to deal with the whole man, which consists of spirit, soul, and body. We are trained to doubt whatever doesn’t fit neatly into the framework of the material world—and that includes God, the spiritual realm, and God’s supernatural power. In some cases, false spiritual and supernatural beliefs are accepted, while the Bible and its teachings about Jesus are frequently considered suspect.

In general, modern science has detached itself from faith in God, so that it often dismisses whatever cannot be explained through facts based on natural evidence alone. It may not accept the reality of the spiritual world, so that it discards the idea of it or classifies it as myth. Accordingly, it doubts any spiritual phenomenon that cannot be understood through the intellect; or, it considers that phenomenon to be irrelevant to science, beyond the parameters of its inquiry.

Many people have made reason their god.

Furthermore, much of our modern educational system is designed to train students’ intellect alone, teaching them mere facts and information, and essentially ignoring their spirit. Facts and information can be useful for living in a physical world; for example, they enable us to function effectively under the various laws and principles governing the natural realm, by which our physical planet operates. And, education itself is good—it is beneficial to learn how to analyze and to create, to acquire information and facts, to prepare for a career, and to gain skills that will enable us to prosper in life.

Yet, again, most of what is taught is meant only for the mind, not the heart, even though spiritual and emotional subjects and various creative functions cannot be addressed by the intellect and reason alone. Regardless of the subject matter and the realm to which it belongs—mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual—our educational process usually filters concepts solely through the intellect, thereby restricting the extent to which the student can apply the teaching to his life and, most important, limiting the student’s understanding of that subject matter in relation to his Creator. Thus, many students live without a concept of God, so that the modern educational system has birthed “educated unbelief.”

Therefore, the mind-set of our culture and our educational system has played a part in robbing us of the knowledge of God and His supernatural revelation and power. The result is that the hearts of many people have been corrupted by a lack of faith or have even become controlled by unbelief. Knowing this, those who are parents of school-age and college-age children should exercise wisdom and prepare their sons and daughters for attending school in such an environment, so their children can learn to receive what is
good
in their education and reject what is contrary to the Word of God. I want to reemphasize that I am not saying that education itself is bad. However, the spirit that operates behind most education today is, in effect, anti-God.

The modern educational system has birthed “educated unbelief.”

Some Denominations, Churches, and Pastors Deny
the Supernatural

In addition to being influenced by the scientific mind-set of our culture and our reason-based educational system, believers are often influenced to doubt God by the church itself—by ministers, churches, and denominations within the body of Christ. For example, a pastor may teach the doctrine of a particular denomination that attests that supernatural miracles were for the time of Jesus and His disciples alone and are not available to us today. He does not affirm Jesus’ statement,
“He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father”
(John 14:12). Another pastor may teach that the miracles recorded in the Bible did not really happen but are “illustrations” of spiritual truths. The implication of these pastors’ positions is that God “won’t” or “can’t” intervene with His grace and power in our contemporary world.