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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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A SUBTLE KIND OF UNBELIEF

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So I began a search to find out what kind of unbelief

Jesus was referring to. I discovered that it’s a subtle

kind of unbelief a person may not even know he has

until his life is over. If the disciples knew why they

couldn’t cast the devil out, why would they have

bothered to ask Jesus? They didn’t know, so they asked

Him.

This subtle unbelief puts a ceiling on your life that

defies you to pull yourself out of the mess your life is in

or to accomplish the thing God wants you to

accomplish. As long as that ceiling is there, one year

will be like the next, until one day you’ll realize five

years have passed, and your anointing hasn’t changed;

in fact, nothing has changed. You’re just the same now

as you were five years ago. Why?

Because you keep operating under an invisible ceiling

that hangs over your life, and you don’t even know it’s

there. And even if you did know, you couldn’t break

through that ceiling in your own strength.

Let me explain a little more with this hypothetical

situation. Suppose five little crippled,deformed

children in wheelchairs are brought to my meeting,

their arms and legs twisted and their heads leaning

over to one side. I come in, and as I begin to preach, I

see these five little children.

Now, I can’t blame the fact that the children aren’t

healed on their faith. They aren’t required to have any.

I also can’t say it isn’t God’s will to heal them, because

even though the disciples couldn’t cast that devil out,

Jesus revealed His will when He cast it out.

So I walk over and lay hands on the children. I reach

down on the inside of me and pull out every ounce of

faith I have. I milk every cell, every fiber of my being

for faith to pour out on these kids — but still they don’t

get healed.

Suddenly Jesus in His glorified body walks in the room.

I say, “Jesus, I’d like to ask You a question.”

Jesus says, “Hold on just a minute, Brother Roberson.”

Then He walks over and heals everyone of those

children, just like that! He comes back to me and asks,

“Do you have a question?”“Yes, I do. Why didn’t You

heal those kids when I prayed for them?”

Now, do you think Jesus is going to tell me anything

different than He told His disciples?No, He looks at me

and says the same thing: “They didn’t come out of their

wheelchairs healed because of your unbelief, Mr.

Roberson.”

I protest, “Jesus, that’s impossible! If there was any way

to have more faith, I would have had it. I turned my

being inside out; I pulled on every fiber within me. How

can You say they didn’t get healed because of my

unbelief?”

“Because there’s a subtle kind of unbelief in you that

you don’t know about, Brother Roberson.”

But this one thing I have discovered about Jesus, my

Teacher. He never outlines a problem like this without

going on to give me an answer before the teaching is

over. It’s not enough to outline a problem; I need an

answer. There must be some way I can deal with that

kind of subtle unbelief on purpose so that absolutely

nothing is impossible unto me.

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Fasting Helps Move Mountains

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In my search, somehow I knew my answer lay in what

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew17. I found that

answer in verse 21: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but

by prayer and fasting.

Jesus analyzed the whole situation in one word:

“howbeit.” “Howbeit” is an analytical word meaning

nevertheless or however this particular situation may

be. Jesus was in effect saying that even though

mountains can be moved with faith the size of a tiny

mustard seed, we will encounter some situations that

require prayer and fasting to overcome.

Jesus was talking about a lifestyle of prayer and fasting

here. Most deliverance preachers in the old days taught

about and encouraged that kind of lifestyle. Today we

don’t teach or emphasize its importance nearly as

much. The result? Although we live in a time of Church

history when teaching the Word has risen to the

forefront, many are unequipped to do the Word, which

includes casting out demons and moving mountains of

all kinds.

Often we associate fasting only with deliverance from

demonic influence because of Jesus’s statement here

that a certain kind of demon can be cast out only by

prayer and fasting. But Jesus also told His disciples that

the reason this devil wouldn’t come out was their own

unbelief (v. 20).

So Jesus didn’t just associate fasting with demonic

deliverance; He also associated it with moving your

mountain. He said, “If you had faith as a grain of

mustard seed, you could speak to the mountain and it

would be removed, and absolutely nothing would be

impossible to you.”

Right after saying that, Jesus made the statement about

prayer and fasting. This indicates to me that these two

things have something to do with bringing me from a

place of unbelief —where my mountains refuse to

move, where everything is impossible to me — to a

place where nothing is impossible to me.

Therefore, my fasting doesn’t move God; He isn’t the

One stuck underneath an invisible ceiling. My fasting

also doesn’t move the devil; he isn’t the one with my

problem. Somehow fasting deals with my unbelief.

But my question to God for so many years was this:

“What in the world does fasting have to do with

unbelief?” Of all the places to find that answer, I found

it back in Romans 8:

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;

but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.— Romans

8:10

If Christ lives in you, you qualify for the rest of this

verse, namely, that your spirit is life. It has entered into

the zoe, seated-in-heavenly-places-with-Christ, God-

kind of life.

But notice, the same verse that says my spirit is life also

declares my body to be dead. Well,I know my body isn’t

physically dead because I’m still wearing it. So what

kind of “dead” is Paul referring to? To understand this

passage in Romans 8, we must refer back to something

Paul said in Romans 6:6:

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,

that the BODY OF SIN might be destroyed, that

henceforth we should not serve sin.

What is this “body of sin”? It is no less than the old

nature inherited from the first man Adam before we

were born again. This is the “sin nature,” the

unregenerate spirit within us all before our spirit

passes from death to life in the new birth. It was that

sin nature that used to energize the lusts of the flesh,

such as self-exaltation and the love of money.

So if Christ be in you, then positionally God has

declared the sin nature, the “body of sin,”to be dead

and your reborn human spirit alive unto Him.

We understand positional truth pertaining to our spirit.

For instance, we know that Jesus was made to be sin for

us and that we were made the righteousness of God in

Christ (2 Cor.5:21). We are now seated in heavenly

places with Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). We are above and

not beneath (Deut. 28:13).

However, we may know very little about positional

truth pertaining to our flesh. The essence of that truth

is this: The moment we were born again, God declared

the “body of sin”— the sin nature or the “old man” — to

be dead. Positionally, the flesh has lost its “power

source” to commit sin. It lost its right to dominate and

rule over us any longer.

So when you pray in the Holy Ghost, worship God, and

confess His Word, you are enforcing the positional

truth that your spirit is seated in heavenly places with

Christ Jesus. The more you pray in the Holy Ghost, the

more you execute that position of grace. On the other

hand,…………………… when you fast, you

are enforcing the positional truth that

the “body of sin” was crucified with

Christ and your flesh no longer has the

power to rule over the operation of your

spirit.

Thus, when you begin to fast and pray, you execute two

positional truths in the realm of the Spirit. That’s why

prayer and fasting are the power twins.

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Until next time

LARRY