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Do you think Jesus ever doubted?
Think about it for a moment. Do you think Jesus ever looked at a sick person and thought, "Gee, I'd like to heal this person, but I'm not sure it'll work"? Can you picture Jesus laying His hands on someone and saying, "Well, here goes nothing!"?
Ludicrous, isn't it?
Then why do we, who are supposedly the Body of Christ, think those very thoughts? It is supposedly not we who live, but Christ through us. Our acts are supposed to be His acts, our deeds His deeds. When Jesus said we'd do what He did and greater, He meant it. Oh, I know some of you have theology to explain that away. "What He really meant was this, what He really meant was that." Bologna! How can you read this book and think Jesus is a man who minces His words!
We look at ourselves and can't imagine doing even half of what Jesus did, let alone greater. Right there are the key issues.
First, we're looking at ourselves, rather than He Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. When God looks at us, He doesn't see us, He sees Jesus. When God the Father looks at you is He asking, "Why aren't you doing anything? I commissioned you to do a work. I sent you to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, return sight to the blind, set free the bruised, and preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Whom I call I enable. Why do you doubt? Why do you just sit there? How can you just sit there while all around you people are in agony and dying?" We need to, as Marilyn Hickey says, "lift up our eyes" and get God's perspective. We need to realize as far as God, Jesus, and this world are concerned, we are Jesus. As Jesse Duplantis says, "I'm the only Jesus most people will ever see."
Second, we can't imagine doing it. We don't believe it. We are filled with doubts. God set up His Kingdom to react not on the Missourian's "Show me" but on a You'll See It When You Believe It basis. We need to put aside our feelings of inferiority, our ideas that somehow we must do it, and begin trusting in the awesome power of God. We must realize that what He has said He will do. We must believe Jesus meant what He said, God meant what He said. We claim we doubt ourselves, but ultimately it is God we doubt. If you can't trust God on these issues, what makes Him trustworthy regarding your salvation? If you trust God regarding eternity you'd better start trusting the rest of what He said. If He lied about any of it, then He's not to be trusted in any of it, and you are in trouble. You must once and for all settle this one question for yourself: Can God be trusted?
Imagine what we would accomplish if we believed as Jesus believed, nothing doubting, nothing wavering, full of confidence even when we saw no immediate results, because we took it on faith as done, solely because God promised. Let me rephrase that: Imagine what will happen when we do believe as He believes (for He is alive, still and evermore)
It will happen. Note how often the Gospels say, "This was done so the words of the prophets would be fulfilled." Jesus was the last of the Old Testament prophets. It will be done so that the words of this prophet, Jesus, will be fulfilled, regardless of your "what He really meant" theology. Do you really think God would do all those marvelous miracles so the prophets' words would be fulfilled, then not fulfill Jesus' own words?
Start eliminating your doubts today. When a doubt about God's promises enters your head, ignore it or cast it aside. Don't even answer it. Such an insult to God doesn't deserve an answer. Don't even waste a sharp rebuke on the slimy thing. "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." That doubt is nothing more than a little fool, dunce cap tilted to one side, claiming there is no God.
Start believing the promises of God today. Focus on them, concentrate on them, believe them as if they were true even if you have problems with them. Get the mental image of yourself as Jesus. When you look in the mirror, plaster an image of Jesus over your face. When you reach out to hand a dollar to a homeless person or comfort a distressed child, picture Jesus' hand reaching out. When you speak to a lost person about the love of God, speak as though Jesus were talking to him about His own loving Father.
Do this till those doubts crumble. Do this till you begin to believe. It may not be easy at first, but it will come. Pray to God to strengthen and lead you in it. This isn't a dab'll-do-you proposition. This isn't a one day project. This requires an ongoing, concentrated effort, and the rewards will far surpass any effort you now put in, making the effort look minuscule by comparison.
Lay on hands, pray, cast out demons all with the absolute certainty God is backing it up, despite what you may think, feel, or see. To act as Jesus would all you need do is look on the world with compassion and go where that compassion leads.
(Romans 10:9, John 3:17, John 5:24, John 1:12)
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