The 2 Kinds of Faith

"Unanswered prayer stands between the individual and a faith life."

That is the opening sentence of a booklet by E.W. Kenyon titled The 2 Kinds of Faith.

I have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on that supposition. How many, I wonder, are involved enough in their Christian walk to have this kind of thought rise to the surface of their consciousness? In our society today there is such an excess of plenty that one can obtain an acceptable level of living purely by osmosis. It is easy then to say, "Praise the Lord!" because it is obvious it came from Him and, after all, they DID pray for it.

There is a division at that point in life, however. On the one hand there are those as above who get what they are satisfied with in a reasonable amount of time and simply go on living as always. These are the same people that populate the "Success" seminars and make all the positive thinking preachers (religious or secular) rich.

The other side of the split is those who do not obtain what they want or need. Out of the many, many books dealing with the subject of unanswered prayer the overwhelming majority present the solution as some form of sin correction rather than dealing with the root of prayer- faith.

This booklet provides one of those light bulb moments in understanding the workings of faith. In it is presented the contrast between mere "Mental Assent" and "Faith."

The most basic point of relevance regarding these two reveals itself in the Bible teaching about Jesus. How many people give mental assent to the truths regarding Jesus, yet never truly exercise faith in Him for their personal salvation?

Such a person will always be separated from God-

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "but the righteous man shall live by faith." (Rom 1:16-17)

A Mustard Seed

Sometimes it seems that I think about things other people just pass over. I am not always sure if I just missed the point, or if everyone else didn't know there was a point.

"Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Matt 17:20)

How big is a mustard seed?

And move a mountain ?!!!?

I remember a time when I was praying for the faith to move my truck when it broke down! (It didn't budge.) Obviously I have nothing remotely close to "size of a mustard seed" faith.

So is faith big and small, or great and little?

Either way, how do I get more faith?!!! I don't really care to move mountains, but gee, everyday things are really wearing me out.

Here I will go back to my opening, this is where I seem to veer off away from other people. That is because this really bothers me. I just don't understand this, and I seriously want to.

How am I going to get my obviously microscopic faith larger?

I see people who offer up or attempt various methods:

Some people pray. And they pray really hard, too. I can tell because of how loud and how serious their voices get.

They call that faith, but it just looks like they have finally convinced themselves- and whatever happens is fine with them.

Pray harder + think harder → more faith.

Other people talk. By that I mean they are convinced that "the power of death and life are in the tongue" (Prov 18:21) These people end up either like the Positive Thinking teachers whose only ccomplishment is making money selling books to people desperate to be "successful." Or they end up like the "white" witches, casting spells with their words to get what they want.

It doesn't seem to me like either of these have anything to do with God.

Jesus said to "Have faith in God." (Mark 11:21) God, not words, or any other thing I can imagine or work hard at.

Here I come to the end of this post.

What? you thought I had some quick, smart answer to give you?

No. This is way too important for something I can just come up with. (Even though I have not just started to think on this. Thirty years and enough books on prayer and faith to fill a library have gone into my desperate pursuit of faith.) Plus, I said in the beginning, this bothers me. A lot. Because I really don't have the answer to faith that "will move mountains."

I do promise though to add some later posts with very serious, and helpful, information and ideas for you to aid you in your pursuit of "faith the size of a mustard seed."

Wretched Man That I Am

Many people relate to the teaching on prayer from Luke 18 where the publican "standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:13)

Mistakenly taking the teaching of Jesus regarding the publican and the Pharisee, "I tell you, this man [the publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18:14) They add to this the teaching of Paul "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24)

Why do I say mistakenly? Isn't that what both Paul and Jesus intended us to feel?

In a word, NO!

So many Christians are stuck at Romans 7:24, unable to move on to Romans 7:25! How is it this horrible, condemning verse is so well known, and the next verse is forgotten? For it says,

"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

What of this next verse? And how could that be "thanks be to God"?

Unfortunately, a long time ago verse and chapter numbers were added to the Bible. (Unfortunate only in the fact that some divisions occur where they disrupt a thought.)

Thus Romans chapter 8 begins (as we all know) "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!" (Rom.8:1) (We all know this verse, but we have learned it in isolation, not relating it to the two verse right before it.)

Why do we condemn ourselves when God has said there is now no condemnation? The better question would be, "Why have we been taught to condemn ouselves?"

There is now no condemnation.

How can anyone call themselves "wretched" when they know this truth: ^"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21)?

Righteous or Wretched? What has God said?

What then about, "standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven" (Luke 18:13)?

Please! "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:19-22)

Yes! Draw near to God with confidence! Having faith in the rightousness bestowed upon us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

^"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Consider this my attempt to "provoke" (literal translation) you to love and good deeds, and especially assembling together in fulll assurance of our righteousness in Christ and our standing before God with no thought of condemnation.

What God has declared righteous, who are we to call "wretched"?

Be Still

(The next in a series of posts on Prayer, so get ready to think.)

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 KJV

This verse has been widely used as a prooftext for teachings on prayer and meditation. As in all proper Bible study,we must look at the context of a verse, and the original meaning of the words to make sure we are correctly applying it. In the case of Psalm 46, a psalm of only 11 verses, not looking at the context is inexcusable. What does "Be still" mean in the original language? Does it mean to be quiet? To "center" oneself in preparation for hearing from the LORD? (Who is apparently unable to speak loud enough to penetrate your normal, noisy, preoccupied state.)

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

9He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. (Psalm 46:1-11 KJV)

be still: STRONGS H7503 raphah: to slacken, abate, cease, consume, fail, (be) faint, be (wax) feeble, forsake, idle, leave, let alone (go, down), (be) slack, stay, be still, be slothful, (be) weak (-en).

The Keil & Delitsch Commentary tells us:

"Cease, cries He (Psa 46:10) to the nations, from making war upon my people, and know that I am God, the invincible One..." Continuing, they compare it to Psalm 21: 1-12 about which they comment, "A similar inferential admonition closes Psa 2:1-12. With this admonition, which is both warning and threatening at the same time, the nations are dismissed; but the church yet once more boasts that Jehovah Sabaoth is its God and its stronghold."

It is apparent from reading Psalm 46 and from the statements of Keil and Delitsch that "Be Still" has nothing whatsoever to do with some inner condition preparing for spiritual activity. At the conclusion of a psalm describing the vain warring of the nations against the people of God, Jehovah God commands the nations to cease their warring, and to know that He is God. He will be exulted among the heathen and He is with "us," His people. The reality then is that this is not a call to God's people to quiet themselves in order to know that He is God, but it is in fact a command issued to those who are NOT His people to stop waging war against Him and His people.

As the New American Standard translation puts it "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. (Ps. 46:10,11)

CONCLUSION

We have seen that a true interpretation of Psalm 46:10 proves it to have no relationship to prayer or meditation, but instead to war. With that knowledge, let us move on to other verses which actually do pertain to prayer to establish a scriptural foundation upon which to build our prayer life. Additionally, we must push back against the incursion of Eastern meditation practices into the church. True Christian meditation has nothing to do with "being still" or "quiet." It is always an active process. It is in fact, work.

I hate CATS

In this post I begin a series on Prayer. I hope to challenge you in your complacency and your misconceptions about this most important part of the Christian life. What you may initially think I mean in the title of this post is probably one of the things you find least "offensive" in the following series, -or, hopefully, not.

The problem with prayer is that people have learned everything they know about it from the wrong places. They have either read a book or heard a message on prayer. While that in itself is not bad, it becomes bad when it is not backed up by Scriptural truth.

Wait, it gets worse. In the worst offenses against "truth in prayer" the Bible itself is used as the starting point for the teaching. "How could that be bad?" you ask. It is bad because while they may start with the Word, instead of going into the truth of the text, they launch out into fantasy. These false teachings are repeated over and over until they eventually become doctrine.

To begin again,
I don't hate cats--the furry little vermin--although my attitude towards them is in fair approximation to their obvious disdain for me.

I hate CATS.
The dreaded teaching that "Prayer is Confession, Adoration, Thanksgiving and Supplication."

It is obvious but not certainly trite to say, words have meanings. Each one of these words have a meaning, their own individual meaning.

Confession is not thanksgiving, adoration is not supplication. Go through all of the permutations and you end up with:
Prayer is NOT Confession, Adoration, Thanksgiving or Supplication.

What is prayer? - Prayer is ASKING.
By mixing in the activities which go along with prayer the most important (from our perspective) fact concerning prayer is obfuscated- the answer to prayer is RECEIVING.

With that understanding clear in our minds we can move on to an effectual prayer life and avoid all of the pseudo-spiritual maneuverings and Oprah book of the month plans and search out the true teaching and meaning of prayer from the source- God's Word.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints Ephesians 6:18