O ye of little faith!
Posted by appolus on December 4, 2014
Hi saints. After following Jesus for almost 25 years and having contact with Christians from every kind of background, I realize that all genuine saints have one thing in common, we all want something. Now some are much more blatant in their desires and it seems so crass to so many of us, people like the word of faith or the prosperity movement. We can see their sin, it is obvious for all as they scrape and grasp at all things material while trying to wrap it up in spirituality. I am not too interested in that. Only an encounter with the actual living God could move folks in that world away from their delusion.
No, I am more interested in saint who is bound and determined to follow God in all of his/her ways. There is, it seems to me, a stripping away process. Now this is not a two-week thing, or a test that lasts a month, it is an indeterminate time where God is seems has forgotten us in some way. Situations and circumstances are such that we are taken to the point of despair and often times just left there. Where is God in all of that one may ask? I remember the story of the disciples in the boat. Jesus is sleeping and they find themselves in the midst of an enormous storm. Now, the God that told us to cast all of our cares upon Him is asleep and the disciples, desperate by this point, wake Him up and cry out to Him. Now saints, can you remember Jesus’s reaction? Did He say ” there , there, everything will be okay?” No, He rebuked them. Puzzling is it not? What was He teaching them when He says ” Oh ye of little faith?”
This was not the only time this phrase was used by Jesus. In Matt 6.30 Jesus again says to those who worry about the clothes on their backs and the food on their tables and to those who try to serve God and money ” Oh ye of little faith.” Now, it gets worse. Peter, in Matt 14:31 has stepped out of a boat in the middle of the sea in the midst of a great storm. What marvelous faith. Who amongst us would have gotten out of the boat at any time never mind in the middle of a great storm? And yet, when Peter takes His eyes of Jesus and begins to sink and cries out, again Jesus says “O thou of little faith.” What does Jesus want from us?
Jesus is looking for a group of people who, no matter the circumstances will follow Him and honor Him. Job is probably the best example of the kind of faith that Jesus is looking for. No matter the circumstances, Job refused to curse God. Now, Job certainly was anguished and broken and torn in his heart over all of his losses. We are not told the overall time frame of all of his losses but I am sure it went on and on and on and it must have seemed to Job that it would never stop. Perhaps you find yourself in circumstances that just seem to go on an on, not over a day or a month but seemingly endless seasons. Where is God in the midst of all of that you may ask? “What does God want from me,”may be your cry? Can I tell you saints what God is looking for? He is looking for a Body of people who, no matter if they cannot feel God or His blessings, will follow hard after Him and keep trusting Him. Job says ” Even if He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
In Matt 8 when Jesus rebukes not only the sea but also the disciples for their lack of faith, as soon as they land they are immediately confronted by a man who is filled with a legion of demons. Nothing could control him and not even the authorities could deal with him. Jesus confronts and casts out the great wickedness in this man and sets him free. The Body of Christ must be ready for the great wickedness that is soon to be upon us. There are demonic hordes readying themselves to flood the earth. God must have a Body of saints who can follow Him and trust Him no matter what storm rages around them, no matter what loss they have just suffered. If we are to be a witness to the world then we must be a Body who can say with Job, and mean it with every fiber of our being ” Even if He slays us, yet will we trust Him.” This is the faith that pleases God, the faith that requires nothing of God but worships and follows God because He is God and deserves to be followed and trusted. We must learn to be unyielding in our walk with Him and honor Him in all that we do, even if we loss everything in this world. This is great faith and it pleases God.
A Call To The Remnant 
Allan Halton said
“This is the faith that pleases God, the faith that requires nothing of God but worships and follows God because He is God and deserves to be followed and trusted.”
Amen, Frank. A very timely message. Job, when he had lost all, fell on the ground and worshipped. Why? Because He is God, and for that very reason is worthy to be worshipped. Perhaps there is not too much difference between worship and trust. When we continue to trust Him even when our prayers go unanswered, and He is nowhere in sight, and it seems He has forgotten us, that is the essence of worship. And it’s very precious to Him.
appolus said
“Job, when he had lost all, fell on the ground and worshipped. Why? Because He is God, and for that very reason is worthy to be worshipped.” Yes indeed Allan, that sentiment is the very essence of the post. I think your thought about worship and trust is spot on, can we really worship God and not trust Him, or can we truly be trusting God if we cannot worship Him? …………..bro Frank
KMH said
Could it be this worship as they marched around Jericho that brought down the walls?
The trust/worship/Christ in us today is such a threat to the enemy – he trembles when he sees us on our knees because we can so easily bring down his fortresses (2 Cor 10) through taking every thought captive to Jesus – the one who took they whole system of captivity captive!
Thank you Brothers, for the encouragement/light in this dark time.
appolus said
Good point KMH. Certainly trust and obedience, which leads to action seem to go hand in hand and be the makeup of faith………..bro Frank
elisabeth said
ok, i’m pretty sure i have a good amount of faith, and i keep a good attitude and all, but sometimes it freaks me out when i hear stories like the recent one about the family who hid a dead corpse in the house for six months waiting for God to resurrect him. i mean i do not think i would have the faith to keep a stinking dead rotting corpse in my house for six months. i think i would have enough faith to pray for him to rise from the dead but i mean really how long are you supposed to wait for him to do it? i am not judging the people that did that, for real, i think they must really love God a lot to believe that man would still rise from the dead after the first couple of months. but please help me out i am having trouble with this, because evidently something went wrong there. this kind of stuff disturbs me, because how could you have that kind of faith and still not be able to hear God when he says ok you guys you should go ahead and bury him, it isnt going to happen. because i think God would tell someone who is walking with him closely the truth before it ever went that far. am i wrong about that?
appolus said
Hi Elisabeth, I believe the people that would do that would be self serving and would probably fall into the first category of people that I mentioned in the post, word of faith type of folks who ultimately believe God exists to serve what they want. God is looking for a group of people who want nothing more from Him than Him. It is about seeking the giver not the gift. True faith is trusting and following and praising God no matter what the circumstances are, this is why ultimately Job is a great example of this and why the book of Job is the first book of the Bible to be written. It is fundamental to our understanding of God. Material blessings are no indicator at all of how much a man or woman loves, serves and follows God.
So, in answer to your question Elisabeth, the people that you mentioned did not have faith at all as we have laid out in this post and in the replies from Allan and Steve and KMH. What they had was a great desire to see something come to pass, now this is very human, but has nothing to do with faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Our hope, all of our hope is in Christ and all of our faith must be in Him and in His will. There is freedom when we walk in and according to His will, there is bondage to one degree or another in everything else. When we take delight in the Lord, the Lord and nothing else, when He is the primary object of our lives and all things are secondary, including loved ones dying, then He gives us the desires of our hearts. You see what He places into our hearts He brings to pass. His will is always accomplished, it starts and ends with Jesus which is why all the glory and honor belongs to Him. I hope that helps sister…………………….bro Frank
Elisabeth said
Thank you for your post Brother Frank, I think you are saying to just keep focused on who Jesus is and be grateful. I am grateful, was in the word of faith movement for a couple of years after I first got born again. was really hungry for God and really in my heart just wanted to please him. It confused me for awhile because I saw people doing strange things and it seemed like the more you manifested strange behavior the more popular you were. I never really got into that part of it very much. I laughed one time when there was nothing funny to laugh about, laughed because everyone else was, but felt like a phony and repented. did read my bible and I loved reading the parts about the miracles and would probably still be in that group if I had not heard a teaching by David Wilkerson. I was going to tell you the long story of what happened, it was a long journey I have been on from the word of faith but it is too long to tell. I still get upset when I see people doing stuff like the corpse in the house, but on the other hand I really believe and want those miracles to happen, but I don’t dwell on them much. I have come to the conclusion that I am just going to keep my focus on who Jesus is and what he did for me. I love this website because it is like a calm pIace I can come to and get out of the storm of insanity that is going on in the world right now. I am still growing and maturing in Jesus, and I am just grateful. I will probably still be trying to sort out some of the confusion being in the wrong church’s has done to me but I know God will help with that.
appolus said
Dear sister, what a delight your reply was and how encouraging to other it will be. You said ” I have come to the conclusion that I am just going to keep my focus on who Jesus is and what he did for me.” It does not get any better than that. God has delivered you from the word of faith movement on your journey of faith, praise God for His faithfulness……………..bro Frank
Elisabeth said
Amen Brother, that is not all he delivered me from. there is quite a long list. and each stronghold I had and false religion I stumbled into that he delivered me from, I see as another piece of wood in ark of Jesus that he has been helping me to build. My ark is big enough now that whenever I get frighted or worried, like with the riots going on now, I just go get in it and have peace knowing that if he delivered me from all those things, he will deliver me from what is going to happen in the world one way or another.
Steve said
Brother, thank you for this post. I’ll agree with you and brother Allan; it’s all summed up in “…the faith that pleases God…worships and follows God because He is God and deserves to be followed and trusted.”
Thank you for this great reminder who we are, and Who God IS.
In Jesus, Steve