Dealing with Doubt
Below is an important word from David Wilkerson, former pastor of Times Square Church, New York City. This message was sent to me by Ken Fletcher and I felt it was something I wanted to share with you.
-- Pastor Mike
DEALING WITH DOUBT
By David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 - April 27, 2011]
If you do not deal with your doubts, you will be given over to a spirit of murmuring and complaining. You will live that way and die that way. Your doubts cannot simply be suppressed, they must be pulled out by the roots.
Look at Israel just three days after their deliverance from Egypt. They had been singing, shaking their tambourines and testifying to the power and strength of a mighty God, boasting that He was leading and protecting them. Then they arrived at Marah, which means "waters of bitterness." This was to be testing place for them.
God just keeps allowing crisis after crisis until we finally get the lesson. If we keep refusing to learn it, a time comes when He gives us over to our own bitterness and murmuring. "And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. . . . And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?" (Exodus 15:22, 24).
On Sunday, the Israelites were having a great time—singing, dancing and praising. Then Wednesday came and they were in trouble. Another crisis— and they were falling apart!
How could a people lose their confidence so quickly? Because they never had any. They never had that foundation built under them. So again they failed the test. They had learned absolutely nothing from their previous crisis and again they missed an opportunity to shine forth the greatness of their God.
From that day on, Israel was beyond learning anything from God. They even began to take His goodness for granted. They had no food, so He sent them manna from heaven. He dropped quails out of the sky, piling them three feet high outside the camp. But not a word of thanksgiving was heard! Instead, the people turned to greed, hoarding all that God gave them. Israel became stiff-necked!
Oh, what a shame it is to go from crisis to crisis and learn nothing in the process. It carries with it a curse that you will be given over to a spirit of murmuring.
(A few personal reflections I would like to add)...
Pastor David really dealtwith a root issue here... unbelief. And unbelief is so directly related to the absence of prayer that characterizes so many. As James says, "You desire but do not have... you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel... You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives..."
(James 4:2-3)
How I thank God for prayer! How much I need Him every day! How much I need is help... His guidance... His love... His empowering! I am so unable without Him to walk in godliness or to live passionately as His witness! These things cannot come from ourselves. We do not have them in us. They are not learned, developed things like one learns algebra or table manners. They are the fruit of the Holy Spirit brought down upon our hearts by fervent and faithful prayer!
To get to where we are happy and blessed in our prayer life, we must persevere. Learning to pray, to wait on the Lord, to really seek Him and meet Him in the Spirit, to lay hold of Him and to trust His promises... this is a thing that can only become real to us by persisting in prayer. Please don't give up! Some of you made a good start in being seekers of God, but have not stayed the course. Come back to your prayer closet. Come back to connecting with a prayer partner every week and truly praying. Come back to prayer meetings! This is where we will develop that kind of faith that does not waver and is not moved by changing circumstances of life! We do not have the capacity to be that steadfast in our natural self! But we HAVE THAT CAPACITY... IN CHRIST JESUS, who's very Spirit lives in our very heart! He will impart to us the faith to overcome and not to murmur and complain! He will impart to us the power to be His witness in this world with love, joy, peace and passion! All these things are waiting to be released in our very hearts by the Holy Spirit!
PRAY ON, CALVARY CHAPEL! PRAY, AND DO NOT FAINT! OH, LEARN TO BE A PERSON OF PRAYER!!! HUMBLE YOUR HEART AND PRAY!!!
'til we finish the race,
Pastor Mike