There is a war going on in the heavenlies. When our baby grandson, Lion, woke up in the night screaming with pain and fever, there was a war in the heavenlies. When Tiz felt pain in her abdomen while we were in Israel, there was a war going on in the heavenlies.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Now, what does that mean? That means there’s a real devil and he knows that he can’t stop you from going to heaven because you are God’s child. So, his tactic is to steal, kill, and destroy everything that’s already ours through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes people think that if you have faith, you don’t go through battles. Faith does not mean there are no battles. Faith means that no matter what battle you face, you win. You and I have faith in some measure. The problem is, too many of us have negative faith.
Two blind men approached Jesus one day and cried out for mercy. They followed Jesus, and the Bible says that Jesus kept walking until He went inside a house. Let’s read what happened next. And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” And their eyes were opened. Matthew 9:28–30
Notice that the Lord said, “According to your faith let it be to you.” I wish it meant that if you have positive faith then all good things will happen, but if you have negative faith nothing will happen. But that’s not what it means. God is no respecter of per- sons. If He’ll bless one, He’ll bless another. But when God gives a promise, there is our part of having faith in that promise. As Tiz always says “There is God’s part, and there is our part.”
Negative Faith or Positive Faith?
If you recall, God told Moses to send out twelve spies to look over the land God promised to His people. Moses was very specific about what he wanted to know in their report. Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.
—Numbers 13:17–20
The twelve spies returned, and they all agreed that the land flowed with milk and honey. However, ten of the spies sent a ripple of fear throughout the Israelite camp with their negative faith. Let’s look at the report from those ten spies. The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Numbers 13:32–33
Their report is a picture of negative faith. Caleb quieted the people down and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” Caleb and Joshua were the only two who saw God as larger than the giants in the land. Caleb and Joshua had faith to take the land and conquer the giants. The ten spies went out and said, “We can see the land but”— and there’s the problem right there. That word but is a signal that negative faith is coming God’s way. “We see the land. It’s just like God said, but… But the economy, but this, but that.” God never said there weren’t going to be any giants. He just said, “I am a giant killer.”
A Measure of Faith
Romans 12:3 says that God has dealt to each one of us a measure of faith, and we are not to be proud of our measure, but humble. God will not bless a proud person, and it’s important to stay humble before Him and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.
To every one of us He’s given a measure of faith. You may visualize this as someone handing out cards around the table during a family card game. When we are conceived, God says here’s faith, here’s faith, here’s faith, here’s faith, here’s faith, here’s faith, here’s faith, here’s faith. He gives everybody in His family a measure of faith. But if we don’t use the measure of faith God gave us, it atrophies. As a matter of fact, it’s worse than that. Our faith can actually go in the opposite direction. Instead of having faith in God and all His promises, we start having faith in the economy and faith in what we see, feel, and smell. Then we become strong in negative faith.
Don’t Limit What God Can Do
We do not want to limit what God can do. I love living a life where the natural cannot limit us. We live with a supernatural God. He is above and beyond the natural. When God says He’s going to do something, He will. Believe it and receive it!
