Home with Havilah

the podcast

Day 10: Weapon of Doubt and Unbelief

DOING HARD THINGS will be one of the hardest things you will ever face, but doing them while struggling with unbelief will make it nearly impossible. Without a believing heart, it’s impossible to understand why our struggles happen in the first place, why God would allow them, and how they will work for our good. One of the strongest weapons the enemy uses against us is unbelief. Unbelief is deadly to a Christian and deadly to your heart.

In fact, Revelation 21:8 says that eternal security is not given to the unbelieving. Wow! It’s that serious. It means that if we do not recognize and deal with unbelief and doubt, we may suffer eternal consequences. So today, we are going to take a look at this weapon called “unbelief” and begin to deal with it swiftly. I believe doubt and unbelief have to be dealt with quickly before they take root and grow into a weed that chokes out God’s life in us. (Matthew 13:7)

The word doubt means to waiver and hesitate, to fluctuate in opinion. One of the dangers of doubt is that we believe what’s being said or seen over the Word of God. Doubt gives us reason to waiver, hesitate, and fluctuate with common opinion or conventional wisdom. It’s a dangerous place to be. It means whomever you hang out with, listen to, or whatever you allow to dominate your life changes your belief system and values. Eventually, it changes your attitudes and personality to believe or disbelieve the truth.

Doubt is a sin that leads us away from God. It causes us to walk away from believing what He is saying  because we can’t see it. Remember, as Hebrews 11 so clearly teaches: faith is the evidence of things not yet seen, and yet still believing. This is the danger of doubt. Doubt tells us that if we can’t see it, touch it, taste it, or feel it, then it’s not real. It is deadly and we must recognize and deal with it  quickly.

Another aspect of unbelief I want to talk about today is the tormenting spirit of confusion. It’s a spirit I believe the enemy uses to keep us from reaching clarity. Clarity is a gift given to those who believe and have faith in God. Clarity gives us a clean mind; that sees things clearly and is not caught up in confusion, wavering, and doubt, leading us away from God. It can cause us to search out clarity in places other than the Bible and His Spirit’s voice. This is why it is so important that we know the Word and the Word knows us. The Word of God is the only thing that can give us God Himself here on Earth.

I love the phrase, “There is a man between the pages.” I believe the Word of God speaks to us, reads us, and gives us discernment in our heart, mind, and motives. It allows us to clearly see what needs to be seen. Confusion is a lying spirit; it says, “You’ll never know. You are doomed to live in doubt.” God is not the author of doubt. He is not the author of confusion, or even hesitation. He knows what He wants, when He wants it, and how He’s going to do it. God has placed His spirit within us to help us receive that very thing we’ve been promised. You’ve been promised clarity! It’s God’s gift to you.

1 Corinthians 14:33 explicitly states that God is not the author of confusion. If God has not authored confusion, we can clearly know where it comes from: the devil! He uses confusion as a weapon to keep us from believing and receiving all we’ve been promised.