The Dictionary definition of the verb “Believe” is: to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so:

     Most Christians today live powerless lives of dependency on the world, allowing the world to change them, instead of becoming empowered by God to change the world. I, myself, lived this way for years and still do in some aspects of my life. All Christians do, but the difference with me is that I am changing for the better while most Christians I know are "stuck like Chuck" in the same mindset they have had for years. One primary reason for becoming stuck is the indoctrination of false beliefs within the Christian community. Satan is very subtle in the way he promotes these false beliefs, sometimes taking years to load us down with these lies. He is good at manipulating the world around us to make us think these lies are really the truth, because it can look, to a naive mind, like these lies are working for a while. Here is just one example. 

     A very famous Evangelist who was and is respected by millions of Christians wrote a book about Paul. A friend gave me a copy of this book a while back. I am always very careful when I read anything besides the King James Bible. In the introduction of this book about Paul, this Evangelist and author said the following. "The only way we can overcome the world, and I mean the only way, is by placing our faith exclusively in the cross of Christ and keeping it there." On the surface, this statement sounds pretty good. However, I don't agree with it, because it says something that the Bible doesn't say. However, I am sure many Christians will ask, "What's the big deal, Wayne?", even if they, themselves, do not fully agree with it either. Yet, it is a big deal to misinterpret the word of God.

      A little false doctrine, from an eternal perspective, can be more deadly than a little arsenic in a large glass of milk. (Mat. 16:12) In this example, the author's statement starts out assuming a lie. He assumes that we, ourselves, need to overcome the world. However, the Bible says nothing of the sort. What does the Bible and Jesus say? In John 16:33 Jesus said we can have peace, although we experience tribulations in the world, because He has already overcome the world for us. This author, however, puts the word "we" in place of the word "Christ" and the words "can overcome" in place of "already overcome", thus sprinkling a little arsenic in our spiritual norishment. If we consume these poison words, as truth, then we will find ourselves in big trouble. Now, instead of believing the truth we are believing in a couple big lies. The first lie is to think that we need to do what Christ has already done, and the second one is to think that we must put our faith in the cross or anything else for that matter other than Christ Jesus. Why am I so adamant about what I am saying here? Here's why. Once we Christians accept this writer's lying premises we have just put one more major obstacle between us and the truth. We now become poised to enter into self-works to try and get God to do something which He has already done. How insane is that? As we throw ourselves into the mindset of self-works, instead of getting on board with God, it now becomes only natural for us to try to get God to get on board with us, (like Martha did with Jesus). We usually do this by doing all the religious stuff that Christians do, while begging God over and over to respond to what we are doing by responding in the way we think He should respond. How crazy is that? Secondly, and even more ridiculous, the writer tells us to put our faith in a dead piece of wood, the cross, instead of the resurrected Christ. I wonder how many tired Christians there are in this world, who have bought into the lies in this guy's book. I know at least one. He is the man who gave me a copy of the book.

      Our actions are the result of our beliefs. If we believe something to be true then we will act accordingly, and if we believe the truth than those actions will make us winners in life. If we believe a lie than we will lose in life no matter whether we gain the whole world or not. Its just that simple. This rule is true for all human beings, capable of accountability. Grace covers those who are not. Its important to note here that truth is not relative. People change but the truth doesn't. The Bible is truth and if we believe what it actually says then we will have a successful life. If we don't, we won't. Here-in lies the problem. A huge hindrance in believing what the Bible is really saying, is rooted in preconceived false beliefs about what it says. We humans allow other humans, parents, teachers and others whom we may perceive to be more wise than us to influence our beliefs about Bible truth, when they, themselves, don't know what it is really saying. (1 John 2:27) These errors then become huge road blocks to keep us from knowing the truth. Most Christians today are in big trouble but don't realize that they are in trouble. Why? Because, while they believe enough of the truth to be become born of the spirit, they don't know what the Bible really says about living life after that happens. Since they have very little working knowledge of the real truth, how can they then be expected to become lighthouses for all the non-Christians in the world. (Mat. 5:14)  The number one road block for Christians is believing false doctrines. To dispel these road blocks, we need to develop more than just a "hand shake" relationship (we need to abide in Him) with the Holy Spirit. We do this by first receiving His anointing, and then allowing Him to consistently interpret the word of God for us, so we don't fall into error. Truth is, God is "all knowing" which means He has known about all our problems since before the beginning of time and has, according to Jesus, already made a way for us to overcome each individual problem we Christians will ever face. He overcame the world for us over two thousand years ago. Now we must do our part. However, we will never find out what our part is for each individual problem we face through the course of our lives, unless we first understand what the bible has to say about our problems in general, as interpreted by the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who can discern truth in general terms and then shrink that understanding down, as it applies to us, for a particular circumstance, at a particular moment in time. Yes, truth never changes, but human perception of that truth can and does. That's why Christians need the leading of the Holy Spirit so we can become empowered to stay on course. You see, to gain real power to live a successful life, the truths of the Bible must become our own personal revelations and that goes beyond head knowledge or just blindly excepting what others say it says, including me. Christians must take ownership of the truth. We start doing this by first making the blanket choice to believe every word the Bible says, all of it, whether we understand it or not. Secondly, we Christians must then allow the Holy Spirit to interpret that general truth, for us, personally, each jot and tittle at a time. Only He can do that. Our part is to meditate on the "Word" night and day, while asking for His extra help, when we get stuck, and yes, we will get stuck a lot. We should be routinely doing this long before problems arise. (Psalms 119:15, 23, 48, 78, 148) As our core beliefs start lining up with Bible truth, then we will start seeing more and more positive results happen to and through us in the natural world we live in. These positive results coincide with our increased ability to hear the directions of the Holy Spirit throughout the day, day after day, week after week and year after year. Physical changes always follow after spiritual changes and take more time, but they will happen. Emotions, while just starting down this road can be "all over the map" and many times they are not our friend. I personally, have found that as I have accumulated more and more positive results by listening day in and day out to the voice of the Holy Spirit, not only is His voice easier to hear, but I also find that I get incredibly better results, while having to deal with fewer and fewer negative emotions. I also no longer find myself begging God for help getting out of a situation which shouldn't have fallen into in the first place. Yes, learning to listen to the Holy Spirit is a process and it gets easier tomorrow than it is today as we learn to persevere. Its an ongoing process which will work for every situation we Christians face in life, whether we are faced with finding the best way to navigate a traffic jam or with being healed of some incurable liver disease like I was. However, this journey, this process, is sorely hindered or may never be started in the first place if we hold on to false doctrines. Its a beautiful thing for me to watch when I see other Christians enter into this victorious way of living with me and a very painful thing to watch when I see my Christian friends slowly sinking into a dismal swamp of defeat, as they stubbornly refuse to let go of false doctrines. Its your choice my Christian friend. I sincerely hope that you decide to come with me as I continue to explore the real truth of the Bible as it is revealed to us by my ever deepening relationship with the Holy Spirit.   

      Remember, carnal thinking is nothing more than using our own mental intellect to chart a course of action and it always leads us into error and with error comes defeat. This terrible self-works error has plagued the church's theological thinking since its beginning. Sadly, Church leadership have taken taken many of God's saints with them into this destructive web of deceit, leading followers of Christ down a dark path. Paul warns us about this trying to do that. (Rom. 3:19-20) We cannot please Christ who dwells in our spirit by doing more works for Him using the carnal understanding of our minds. That 's letting the natural run the spiritual. That's what a carnal Christian does. Show me a Christian who is working themselves to death with minimal results and I will show you a carnal Christian. This type of Christian usually lives a life which is filled with religious actions. They regularly read their bible but do not allow the Holy Spirit to show them how to rightly divide the truth which is in it. Instead, they rely heavily on what they have been taught by respected teachers in their life, seeking favor from man more than God, and thus falling victim to lies. They may fast and they probably pray more than the rest of us but their prayers are all too often motivated by a self-righteous spirit and not by the Holy Spirit. They also regularly pat themselves on the back for not being like "ole Joe" down the street who gets drunk every weekend. Its true. Faith without action is dead. (James 2:17) However, carnal Christians chose actions motivated by self works instead of asking and receiving the Holy Spirit's help in charting a battle plan through a foundation of what He as already taught them through the revelation in God's word. This famous evangelist is old now but he is still telling his followers the wrong way to overcome their problems which means he is still remaining a slave to his own lies. How sad is that? The scriptures do not corroborate what he is saying. That tells me all I need to know about him. Yet, I do believe that this man is trying his best to serve God at this point in his life, but in his own strength. His spiritual pride will not let him do what he needs to do. As a consequence, he will have to be satisfied with spiritual crumbs from our Lord's table, lacking the spiritual strength to sit upright at that table, like the son he really is. It was him that our Lord was referring to when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven".

     The law of faith says we already have everything we will need in Christ to make it through this life as well as the life to come. Yes, we do have a part to play in all that, but that part is not to fight the battles of life through our own carnal understanding. (Pro. 3:5) Our part is to believe Christ when He said He has already overcome the world. Our part is to believe Christ when he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. It is easy to use what you already have, but it is impossible to use something if you don't know you have it. Suppose the richest person in the world deposited a billion dollars in my bank account but I never check my statement to know that it is there. This is exactly what many Christians do. They either never read the Bible which is the statement detailing what they are entitled to, or worse yet, they read it but don't believe it. One of the reasons for this is because we are so much more wealthy than we believe we should be according to what we believe we are entitled to as measured by the amount of work we have done. we say to ourselves, "None of my Christian friends have nearly as much who have been serving God a lot more and a lot longer than I, so my spiritual bank statement must be wrong. (Eph. 1:3) Its true, the richness I am describing here is not material wealth. However, as we are able to believe what the bible says about our spiritual wealth in Christ, that spiritual wealth starts to manifest itself in this natural realm, allowing us the means to become enriched not only in our finances but also with family, friends, coworkers, associates, business partnerships, wives, husbands, children and health just to name a few. I know my writings are tedious for many readers. However, let me just wind things up by saying this. We always act on what we believe to be true, whether it is true or not. Getting in motion is not the problem for most humans because we are naturally on the move, doing things. Look at our busy freeways. Having our mental GPS programmed correctly is the problem. To reprogram our GPS, so that we are headed in the right direction we must open our spiritual ears to be able to hear what the scriptures below are telling us. Faith is not a big problem either. We already have the faith of Christ. It doesn't get any better than that. False beliefs and unbelief is our problem.

     To reprogram our GPS, we can't start with a better scripture than Gal. 2:20 - "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me".

      Make these words from Gal. 2:20 the foundation for everything you believe, by meditating on them over and over for as long as it takes, asking the Holy Spirit to give you a revelation of the truth in them so you can actually know beyond a shadow of a doubt what they mean. Then do the same with each scripture below. You may ask, how will I know that I actually believe what they say? You will know because you will stop having to make excuses for loosing in life because you will start winning and winning and winning and as you begin to trust God more with every victory, your life will become more peaceful. Other people will notice the change, usually before you do. Some will find the change disturbing. Others will like the change. But most important, you will be able see more clearly how to proceed in life and have more and more peace than you ever imagined was possible.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

Mark 11:24 “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

John 11:26 “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 17:21 "However, this kind (unbelief) does not go out except by prayer and fasting." 

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent

John 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

John 19:35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Acts 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Acts 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Acts 19:4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Romans 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

1 Cor 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

2 Cor 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

1 Th 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

1 Ti 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

1 Pe 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Wayne Wade
Minister and Teacher with "The Fellowship"
10-20-15