No Doubt about It!

When You Start to Waver in Faith

By Ron Auch

I felt like the prophet Habakkuk when he queried, “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Hab. 1:2). I was praying something similar to that one night after the church service was over. We had been called to prayer, and I was determined to stay at the altar, praying until I got an answer.

After some time I felt the Lord speak to me with the same kind of answer the prophet received: “Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (Hab. 2:3).

That was not the answer I was looking for.

Wait for it? I felt I had waited long enough already.

The next night I went back to prayer and asked, “Why must I wait? Couldn’t You quite easily bring this trial to an end?”

When I said that, the Lord spoke clearly to my heart and said, “I could answer your prayer instantly, but if I do, you will never become the man you will if you learn to wait for Me.”

That is when I began to realize that prayer is not only about getting answers; it is also about character development.

Don’t Be Tossed

The first eight verses of the Book of James speak to this issue. However, his advice is not much different from the way God spoke to the prophet Habakkuk.

James tells us we must go through trials to complete the process God has planned for us. James actually challenges us to rejoice in trials and to consider them pure joy. But as we read on, we find that it’s not the trials we rejoice in but rather the potential spiritual maturity (faith) that comes from them. In verse 3 James tells us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance.

The word perseverance is the Greek word hupomone. It indicates an endurance and constancy that comes through waiting. But it’s not just waiting in a generic sense. Rather, it is waiting on Christ. He is the One we pray to and He is the One we look to for the answer.

The context of these verses suggests that perseverance is a fortitude that comes from communion with Christ. We need fortitude so that we are not tossed like the waves of the sea, blown by the wind. We need to come to a place where after we have prayed, we have the ability to stand against all adversities and remain steadfast in our belief until we see the answer. James 1:4 begins with the little word let: “Let perseverance finish its work.” The word let simply means that it will happen if we don’t prevent it. Let perseverance, endurance, patience, or steadfastness happen.

Trials and tests will result in these qualities naturally unless we prevent them from developing within us.

Watch the Double-talk

So we must ask the question: In what ways might we be preventing perseverance in our lives? The answer: double-talk.

James 1:7 says there is a person who “should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”  Who is that person? The person who prays one thing while thinking another thing. James 1:8 refers to him as a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. Double-mindedness (double-talk) is what keeps us from receiving anything from the Lord.

Take, for example, one’s finances. Most people have prayed about finances at one time or another. And if we’re double-minded, we might pray something like this: “God, I need Your direction in this matter. I don’t want to make a decision without knowing what You would have me do.”

While praying those very words, in the back of our minds, we are figuring out what we will do if God does not answer us. So as we are praying, “God, I need Your direction,” in the back of our minds we are saying, “But I could take out a loan. I could call my rich uncle. I have some options.”   That is being double-minded. James says that kind of person can’t expect to receive anything from the Lord. To be double-minded is to be of two minds—not changing our mind but having two minds at the same time.

The Greek word for double-minded is dipsuchos, which means two spirited, i.e. vacillating (in opinion or purpose). It is derived from two other words: dis, which means twice, and psuche, which means breath or spirit. “Two breaths” basically means the person praying is saying two different things at the same time. He is saying one thing to God, and simultaneously saying another thing to himself. Without a constant, consistent mindset a person is prone to be swayed, tossed to and fro by every wind.

If a person has prayed, “God, I need Your direction in this matter,” one example of perseverance would be to do nothing until God speaks. We cannot be of two minds and expect God to give us any direction. God might even say, “Go talk to a banker, or go to your rich uncle.” That’s all up to Him. But the point is, God is the One who gives us direction because He is the One we turned to for help. We need to wait upon Him.

Where’s Your Confidence?

The Apostle John tells us we need confidence in who God is in order to wait for Him.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).

I remember a time, shortly after I first started driving, when my car ran out of gas. I pulled off to the side of the road, called my dad, and asked for help. He was busy at the time, but he said, “Wait, and I’ll be there.”

I had confidence in my dad. I made the request, and I knew he heard me because I talked with him. My only option was to wait until he came. I knew he would come eventually. I was his son and I had a need. So I waited until he came.

People of faith, single-minded people, wait for God in the same way, and they know the answer will come. But double-minded people start looking for other ways to get out of their dilemma, not having enough confidence in the One they asked for help. They can’t wait. James said that the double-minded person does not receive anything from God.

Lacking the confidence to wait for Him does not mean we can’t handle some of our situations in other ways. It means that what we end up with is not from God. I could have called another friend after asking my dad for help. Could he have helped me? Yes. Would I have received anything from my father? No!

This is part of the problem of living in a self-sufficient society. We don’t have to wait for God for most of the things we need. We can simply take steps to solve our problem, and then call those steps faith. Many people pray about an issue for a few minutes—get up from prayer—and answer the request themselves. They call that taking a step of faith. Faith may have had nothing to do with their actions. In fact, sometimes our actions result from our inability to wait on God.

When God first started dealing with me about my prayer life, I found myself praying an hour or two each day without fail. My wife and I were still newly married, and I was a seminary student. We didn’t have enough money to pay our bills, but to prove my faith I wrote out checks for all our bills and mailed them. I really wanted to be a man of faith, so I considered this a true step of faith. After a few days I started receiving overdraft notices from the bank. Every one of those checks bounced.

Why didn’t God honor my faith?

1. Because my actions were not faith. God didn’t tell me to write all those checks—even though I really hoped He would. I tried to get Him to tell me to do it.
2. Because my actions did not come from faith. They came from fear. I was afraid of what might happen if we didn’t pay the bills. When I had prayed and asked God to help us financially, I was double-minded, still tossed to and fro, carried about by every point of pressure. I didn’t have the same faith in my heavenly Father that I had in my earthly father when I ran out of gas. When I called my earthly father and told him I needed help, I knew he would come to my aid. It was just a matter of waiting.

God Always Proves Faithful

Why is it important for us to be single-minded rather than double-minded?  Look at how the writer of Hebrews puts it: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6–9).

Those who come to God must believe that He is. Believe He is what? Believe He is God. Why is this important? Because without being able to believe God, without having confidence in who God is, our lives will never please God.

During our financially challenging seminary days, God was calling my wife and me to a life of faith—a traveling ministry in which we didn’t charge for our conferences and had no health insurance. We lived that way for 20 years, never knowing what was going to come in financially each month.

In the beginning, I think I put my confidence more in money than in God. We once drove our VW from Wisconsin to Utah—with two nights on the road to get there. When we got to our destination for the scheduled meetings, I contacted the pastor and made sure everything was set up for the all-day Saturday seminar. Saturday came, but only five people showed up for the seminar. Two of them were my wife and me. I taught a six-hour conference to three people.

As I walked to my car after the seminar, I looked at the small amount of the check the church gave me (they had taken a love offering for us). “Lord,” I said, “I was so depending on a large check.” As soon as I said that, the Lord spoke to me and said, “I was so hoping that you were depending on Me!”

God taught me much about trusting Him and waiting on Him in those first few years. This was difficult for me because I don’t like to wait. I want to be doing something. But I learned to quit being anxious about my finances. God brought me to a place where I knew I never had to pray about money. In fact, for me to pray about money would have been a lack of faith. Praying about money would have proven that I didn’t believe God is the rewarder of those who seek Him.

This transition didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of many hours in the presence of God, many miles on the road, many instances of God proving Himself faithful to us one conference after another.  Single-mindedness indicates faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. And pleasing God is the secret to this whole issue of faith.

Many people make faith an object of prayer. They pray about their level of faith. But I believe faith is something that happens naturally as a result of being with God, whether that’s in prayer or His Word. Being with Him results in a constancy in our lives.  And steadfastness develops automatically because of who God is.

If we only have God in theory but not in practice, then we might not have God at all. We might only have theology. Living out our theology proves that we believe who God is and that He rewards those who seek Him.

And we can wait.

RON AUCH is president and founder of Pray-Tell Ministries. He teaches conferences in churches in a variety of denominations. He has published books and articles on prayer and marriage, and is a member of America’s National Prayer Committee.

How Extraordinary Are You?

By John Edmiston

Christians can do extraordinary miracles through faith-filled prayer! As a missionary among tribal peoples in Papua New Guinea in the 1980s, I saw great answers to the prayers of tribes who at that time had little or no access to deeper biblical knowledge. Yet they loved the Lord with their whole heart. Faith was all they had, and faith was all that was required of them.

James gives us assurance that godly faith is all we need in order to experience the miraculous:

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit (James 5:15–18, NKJV).

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” Prayer warriors are normal men and women who pray with faith. Let’s look at seven aspects of this kind of faith that moves mountains and heals the sick, most of them in Hebrews 11:

1. Faith believes in the creative power of God. Faith realizes that God exists as the One who is far more powerful than nature. He controls time and space, and He answers the prayers of those who pray in faith (v. 13).

2. Faith believes in the invisible attributes of God. The person of faith sees the invisible God of mercy, justice, truth, and holiness. The person of faith is deeply loyal to the loving Covenant-Maker who speaks within our conscience but cannot be seen with the naked eye (vv. 1, 3).

3. Faith believes that God rewards those who seek Him. When life becomes uncomfortable, many grumblers cry out, “What good is God?” And they end up in the wilderness. The person of faith endures for the reward, knowing that God is faithful to His beloved (v. 6).

4. Faith believes what God says—particularly His promises. At its most basic level, faith means simply believing what God says. Unbelief is refusing to believe what God has plainly stated. Rebellion is doing the exact opposite of what God has said. Those who pray in faith latch onto God’s words, believe them, and let those words dwell richly within them (vv. 8–12).

5. Faith believes that God is holy; therefore faith refuses to sin. True faith is spiritually sensitive and full of integrity. It is alert to God’s disfavor and to personal defilement. True faith flees from sin (vv. 24–25).

6. Faith waits patiently for the fulfillment. As a farmer waits patiently for the harvest, and as Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac to be born, so faith endures patiently, waiting for the reward (Heb. 6:12–15; Luke 18:1).

7. Faith is sensitive to God’s agenda. When God called, Abraham obeyed, even to the extreme of packing up his family and going to unknown places. In Hebrews 11 we find a list of people who trusted the plans of the Invisible God and followed them. Those with a living faith totally trust God’s plans and long to participate in them (vv. 17–19).

Effective faith flows out of a heart connection with the Almighty. But purely mental faith will never take a large risk. By contrast, those who walk in godly faith—true faith—are absolutely sure that God is good and that He will never lead them out to die in the desert.

Faith is a deep reaction of the human spirit to the profound, absolute love of God. Only when God’s love “clicks into place” in the prayerful soul can effective miracle-working faith arise.

JOHN EDMISTON is the CEO of Cybermissions and can be contacted at johned@cybermissions.org.