Have you ever had a time when you’ve believed God for something big and then you actually saw His faithfulness manifest right in front of you by His bringing to pass what you believed Him to do? When that happens, the goodness of God and His faithfulness simply overwhelms me. God is so good!
The Annual 6 Gap Century Ride
Recently, a group of friends and I traveled to Dahlonega, Georgia to do the annual 6 Gap century ride. It is called 6 Gap because it involves riding a bike over 6 beautiful Georgia mountain passes for a total of 11,200 ft. of climbing elevation. Now let me tell you the good thing about riding a bike up 11,200 ft. of mountain elevation…what goes up, must come down…and coming down is always better than going up.
We arrived in Dahlonega on the day before the ride to check-in and get our gear ready for the ride. After we checked in, we visited the race expo and we all decided to purchase the official 6 Gap riding jersey which we thought was a great idea. But after I bought the jersey and even more so, while I was actually climbing those huge mountain passes on my bike the next day, this dreadful thought raced through my mind more than a few times. “What if I can’t finish this ride? I will never be able to wear the 6 Gap Jersey…”
Well, the good news is that I did finish the ride and I can now wear the jersey in good conscience as an official finisher of the 6 Gap century ride. However, during the ride when I was faced with each successive imposing mountain pass, I wondered if I had been a little too presumptuous in buying the jersey BEFORE I actually finished the ride. Or was it indeed, an act of faith based upon my training and my belief that God was actually with me through the peaks and the valleys of that ride.
In foresight and even now in hindsight…I know I wasn’t acting from a state of presumption because over the several months leading up to the ride, God had been speaking to my heart about “standing in the gap”. And because of it, I had a strong sense that God was with me for the 6 Gap ride and that He wanted me to experience a great ride with Him.
Standing In The Gap Takes Belief In A BIG God
Since about last summer when I hosted See You At The Office, the annual marketplace prayer campaign, God has been emphasizing to me the importance of “standing in the gap” for our nation; therefore, when my friend told me that he was going to do the 6 Gap ride, I was inspired by him and also by God to do the ride as well. And you know what? I think there is something healthy about attempting a big thing that has the very real possibility of failure. It stretches you. It increases your thinking. It requires you to plan and prepare. And for me, it even builds my relationship with God and my faith in Him – my very BIG, All-Powerful, All-Sufficient, Heavenly Father.
Anytime you step out in faith to do something BIG, there will always be unbelief lurking at every corner in your mind saying that it can’t be done. However, we don’t have to believe words of unbelief, especially when we know God is with us and He is for us. Instead, we should think BIG and believe BIG because God is BIG! It is so unfortunate that many people live lives that are much, much smaller than what God actually has for them because of small thinking and unbelief.
Do You Know That Belief And Unbelief Cannot Reign Equal In Your Heart? The Truth Is That One Will Submit To The Other.
Just imagine that you are Moses leading Israel out of Egyptian slavery and you encounter the Red Sea with the Egyptians fast approaching on horses and chariots. You have nowhere to go and you are the leader. What do you do when God says to part the Red Sea with your staff?
Belief And Unbelief Cannot Reign Equal In Your Heart…One Will Submit To The Other
Just imagine that you are Peter sitting with the other disciples in a boat. It’s dark. It’s in middle of the lake. The wind is blowing. The waves are raging. And you think you see the Lord walking on the water. You yell out, “Lord, is that you?” What do you do when the Lord responds, “Yes Peter, it’s me…get out the boat and come to me.”
Belief And Unbelief Cannot Reign Equal In Your Heart…One Will Submit To The Other
Just imagine that you are Martha and your brother, Lazarus, has died. It’s been four days and Jesus shows up. You tell Him, “Lord, my brother is dead…if only You were here.” What do you do when the Lord responds, “He will rise…roll the stone away.”
Belief And Unbelief Cannot Reign Equal In Your Heart…One Will Submit To The Other
Have you ever been in an impossible situation where belief and unbelief battle for supremacy in your heart? You see, it’s one thing when you are just imagining that you were Moses, Peter, or Martha in their impossible situations. But it’s another whole thing when it’s your real life impossible situation and there is the seeming possibility in the natural that the Lord may fail to move the imposing mountain. When there is the mountain of a personal health issue, or the mountain of a rocky marriage, or the mountain of a prodigal child, or the mountain of a struggling financial situation, make no mistake about it, unbelief will wage war against belief for supremacy in your heart. What do you do then, because belief and unbelief cannot reign equal in your heart…one will submit to the other.
Small Belief In A Big God Can Move Mountains
There is good news for you and I when we find ourselves in these kind of impossible situations because Jesus says that faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. The Bible states in Matthew 17:14-20, “At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.’
Jesus replied, ‘You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.’ Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well. Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, ‘Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?’ ‘You don’t have enough faith,’ Jesus told them. ‘I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.’”
The Battle For Supremacy In Your Heart Between Belief And Unbelief
When we read this story and Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples, we often focus upon the faith of the disciples or lack thereof; but what about the faith of the man who brought his son to Jesus? Even after he brought the boy to the disciples and they couldn’t help him, the man didn’t give up. He still had faith enough to bring his son directly to Jesus for healing. And the striking thing about this story retold by the gospel of Mark is that even though the man struggled with unbelief, he overcame it through belief in Jesus.
The Bible states in Mark 9:21-24, “So He (Jesus) asked his father, ‘How long has this been happening to him (the boy)?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. And often he (the demon) has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’”
The battle for supremacy in this man’s heart between belief and unbelief was raging strong; however, belief as small as a mustard seed in Jesus forcefully overcame unbelief in the natural and the impossible mountain in his life was moved by God. There is no mountain in your life or mine that cannot be moved by the promises of God and faith in His word because God is good, His word is true, and He is faithful!
Stay The Course With Committed Belief
I’ve learned in life that spiritual breakthroughs often come slowly over time as we keep on believing God, walking by faith and not by sight. A little crack in a concrete dam will eventually create a huge crack that will cause the whole dam to fail and the water to breakthrough. In the spiritual realm, God’s word combined with prayer and fasting creates the crack that will eventually bring the spiritual breakthrough and the manifestation of what God has promised. We see this in Daniel’s life and it will happen in our life the same way with prayer and fasting.
I like how the Message Bible paraphrases Hebrews 6:11-16 regarding faith in God and His faithfulness to fulfill His promises. “And now I want each of you to extend that same intensity toward a full-bodied hope, and keep at it till the finish. Don’t drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then get everything promised to them. When God made His promise to Abraham, He backed it to the hilt, putting His own reputation on the line. He said, ‘I promise that I’ll bless you with everything I have — bless and bless and bless!’ Abraham stuck it out and got everything that had been promised to him.”
Four Ways To Make Unbelief Submit To Belief And Have Belief Reign Supreme In Your Heart
On the basis of Hebrews 6:11-16, let me give you four ways to make unbelief submit to belief in your life and have belief reign supreme in your heart.
- Read God’s Word because you must know what He says about the situation in order to believe Him to do something about the situation.
- Believe God’s Word because He will do what He says He will do.
- Pray and fast because breakthrough happens in the supernatural before it happens in the natural.
- Never, ever give up because God is for you and He is with you.
To God’s glory, have a blessed “Make It Happen” day!
Let Belief Reign Copyright 2013, The Make It Happen Learning Institute. You have permission to reprint the leadership article, Let Belief Reign, in its entirety only, and forward to your colleagues and friends, provided the copyright notice remains part of the reprint and transmission. All other rights reserved.
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