How Faith Answers Ray's Doubts

Answering Objections About Our Role In Healing

By Bobby G. Bodenhamer, D.Min.
January, 2008

We have been looking at Ray’s struggles with his faith as an indicator of the struggles that we all go through.  After the sermon last Sunday, I realized that I had only scratched the surface of these questions that Ray asked and that we all at sometime have asked. Somehow, I felt that I needed to provide some more information, not about the doubt, but about some of the Biblical “Answers” for the Doubts.

Ray’s Doubts Fall Into Three Categories

I.    Fear

II.   Guilt

III.  Anger

I. Fear

  1. He was fearful that serving God would cost him more than he was willing to pay (#’s 1 & 9).  Ray is fearful that if he were to surrender to God’s will that he wouldn’t own anything.

    Listen, when Jesus is Lord we become business partners with the Owner of the universe. "It don’t get no better than that!" [Forgive my hillbilly idioms :-)]

John 1:1-4, 14 (TMsg.) 

1The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, 2in readiness for God from day one.

3Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing! — came into being without him.

14The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Do you get it?  The “Word” – “Jesus” our Savior and Lord was there at Creation and everything that was made; everything that Hubble sees and will see; everything that the new Observatories built around the world with the software to straighten out the distortions of the atmosphere will see; everything that the biologist will discover; everything that the Quantum Physicists will amaze us with; all the advances made because of the Internet; all of it! 

Everything present, past and future; glory to God, every human being; every body; that precious parent you have; that precious spouse you have; that child loved so unconditionally, all of it, yes, all of it was made by Him. He made it and guess what?  He came to earth and His invitation is, “Come to me and I will make you part owner.  He is One with the Father and we are one with Him therefore we are One with the Father through Him.”

John 14:20 (KJV)

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

  1. He was fearful of being a failure. He was fearful that he has reached mid-life and that he hadn’t accomplished anything.  [This made him angry as well. (# 3).]

Hallelujah, there is absolutely no such thing as being a failure when one takes that fear to the Cross.  I have read that there are 365 “fear nots” or its similarity in the Bible. If true, and it sure is plausible, then there is a “fear not” for you to live by every day of the year. Indeed, the polar opposite of fear is faith.

Luke 12:22-31

22And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

And, a mature faith in God always wins out when one mentally merges faith with fear. Try it. Inside your head think of something that you are fearful about or of. Next, access a thought of your faith in God. Mentally merge those two thoughts together. You may do this by bringing the visuals of each together; bringing together the “feelings” in your body of the fear into the same location of where you feel faith.  Or, if you think primarily with words, then bring the word “fear” to the word “faith” – this is usually a visual process. What happens when you apply the unconditional love of the Lord Jesus to those fears?

  1. He was fearful of surrendering his life to God’s care.  He was fearful that he couldn’t live up to God’s expectations (# 6).

Paul was clear. We don’t live by Law; we live by grace. The entire book of Romans is a treatise on the marvelous grace that we have in Jesus. The old Law of do’s and don’ts is relegated to the past for it was fulfilled at Calvary.  Our good works emanate out of our relationship with Jesus – good works are as natural as breathing.

Romans 5:1-2 (KJV)

1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Romans 5:1-2 (TMsg)

1By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. 2And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

  1. He was fearful of not being good enough (#’s 7 & 8).  Ray exclaimed, “Do I deserve anything (#8)?"

I run into so many people who struggle with this concept. Friday I spoke to a 65 year old lady. Her life had crumbled around her. She lived totally dependent on her husband. She never developed working skills believing that her husband would always be there to take care of her. Then, he died. She fell apart.

But, to her credit, after a year or so of grieving she came to realize that she better get with it if she was to survive physically. She has built her a business but she hasn’t worked it very well. She sold her house She spent and gave away all the money. She purchased a fortune worth of clothes believing dressing well would fix what wasn’t well inside her.  To top that, she followed some guy to the beach. She was sure she had found the answer to her needs. This guy would marry her and take care of her. Well, that isn’t in his plans. He wants her with him. He loves her company but, marriage?  No, way!

Recently she got in a Bible study that has convicted her of how far she has gotten from the Lord. So, after two days of trying, I finally connected with her. I listened as she poured out her heart of how the Lord had revealed to her that she had an “emptiness in her” that had been there since she was a small girl.  She thought a relationship with a man would fix it. Well, her first husband didn’t fix it. This guy hasn’t fixed it but, praise the Lord Friday morning the Lord Jesus fixed it.  He brought healing to all those old limiting beliefs she had received from her mother.

There was a school trip that involved going to the local theater to see some movie. Her and her school friends went to the balcony in a theater and were throwing things on the people below.  They were not supposed to have been up there. Well, they got caught by their teacher and they were disciplined by the school. Her mother thought this was the most horrible thing that could have happened.

A shamed based personality is born.

Her mother grilled her every morning before school. “You ruined our reputation in the town. Don’t you do anything that would embarrass our family?”  She told me, “I didn’t know where to go with it. I just put it inside me and it has eaten a big hole in me.” John Bradshaw termed this well – we have here a “shame based personality”. 

And, all these years of praying, reading her Bible, teaching Sunday School, singing, marrying a godly man, etc did not fix that hole inside her. And, it was the unconscious need to fill that hole that led her to make some really stupid financial decisions trying to “land a man” to take care of her.

Listen, that little girl in her that was standing at the kitchen door wanting to go on to school; hearing mom drill her over and over; and finally leaving to walk to school crying all the way found Jesus; yes she did. She found Jesus Friday morning.  Now, she is “good enough” for her goodness comes from the Lord.

 I John 4:18 (KJV)

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

I John 4:18 (TMsg)

“There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.”

  1. He was fearful that he would not be able to distinguish between God’s voice and his own voice. How is one to know that one has heard God?  How do you distinguish God’s voice from your voice and/or the voice of others in your life (# 10).

II.  Guilt

  1. He felt guilty about putting conditions on God and for not being grateful. (#5). We should feel guilty for putting any conditions on God. He is Lord, period. “Why call me Lord and do not the things I say do.”

 Romans 5:1 (KJV)

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 

  1. What happens to guilt when we repent of it and then take it to the Lord?

III. Anger

  1. He was angry at God. He was angry at the Lord for the things that happen to him as a child (# 2). 

Listen, we can play the blame game but as long as we do, our lives will never improve. Indeed, they will probably get worse. Sure, maybe your parents failed parenting 101. Or, maybe it was worse than that – maybe you were abused by your parents. I had a client this week whose father sexually abused her. As a mature adult, she has now brought charges against him. She told me this week that she knew her father was sick.  But, she said, “It stops with me – this generational sickness.”  She stopped playing the blame game. She took responsibility for her life. Where she didn’t have the resources she needed to deal with the situation, she got help. And, she is doing great.

  1. He is angry at himself for not accomplishing what he believes he should (#3).

This is a typical thing I hear from those in mid-life. Life is going by and they know their producing years are growing shorter and shorter and not too far beyond that is death. They look at themselves and start beating themselves up for not accomplishing more. Thank God for Calvary for when the blood of Jesus is applied to this anger (and guilt), it disappears.

  1. He felt anger at the church due to all the hypocrisy around him – many thanked God all the time rather than doing what they could for themselves (# 4).

The Church is made up of human beings, like you and me. Therefore, the Church will always have hypocrites in it – get over it.

Who died for you?  The hypocrites?  Or Jesus?

Ray stated to us:

"My faith does not rely on anything that has, will, should (As I think) or could happen in this life time. I will only base my faith in what Jesus-God did. He became a human lived a sinless life and died. Doing this He beat sin and won resurrection for all us who decide to follow Him and His teachings. He is now and will be our "advocate" on the day of final judgment."

Ray is finding peace with God, are you?

Sermon #1 - God Cares - We Care  New
Sermon #3 - Ray's Struggle For Faith: Answering Objections about our Role in Healing  New
Sermon #3 - How Faith Answers Ray's Doubts  New

Author:

Bobby G. Bodenhamer, D.Min.
1516 Cecelia Dr.
Gastonia, NC 28054
704.864.3585
bobbybodenhamer@yahoo.com
www.renewingyourmind.com

To read more about who I am go to: http://www.renewingyourmind.com/Biographies.htm