Creflo Dollar - How To Deal With Unbelief - Part 3
Let's go to Matthew 17, verse 14 through 21. Whoo, we going somewhere. Matthew 17, verse 14, 21. Excuse me, I'm so excited, Matthew 17, verses 14 through 21. All right, now watch this. "And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him, a certain man, kneeling down to him saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: he's a lunatic, and sore vexed: oftentimes he falleth into the fire, often time into the water," he's demon controlled, "And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him".
Alright now, I got a problem with this. What do you mean? Why could they not cure him? They had the ability to do it. Hold your place there. Look at Matthew 10 and then Mark 6:13. Matthew 10 and 1 and Mark 6:13. They couldn't cure, this is the second time we see, they couldn't? What do you mean they couldn't? Look at verse 1. "And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease". So, it's not like they didn't have the power to do it, but yet they couldn't. All right, go to Mark. Go to Mark because have they ever done it before? Was this, like, new? The first time? Mark 6 and 13? "And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and they healed them".
What's up? I don't know, I don't get it. I'm lost. They got power to do it, Jesus gave it to them. They've done it many other times. Why were they not able to do it this time? And you can look at your life. What is it about your life when you pray and you got the answer and you did this and it worked? Then you saw what happened, it's not like you hadn't done it before. It's not like you don't have the power. Huh. Y'all ready for this? Go back to Matthew 17. He said, "'I brought him out to your disciples and they could not cure him when they had the power to do it.' Then Jesus answered and said, 'O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring the boy here.' And Jesus rebuked the devil".
And they had the same power to do it and you do, too. "And he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour". I'm telling you what, we getting ready to go. I ain't gonna be at the house. I ain't gonna be at the hospital, but you guys will. And, man, after you hear this today, you ain't gonna sit there and tolerate what somebody tell you. Hallelujah. You gonna lay hands on the sick, you gonna cast out devils, you gonna do it because he gave you the power. Y'all better get ready world changes. We getting ready to change some world, we getting ready to make a mark that ain't never be erased and it ain't called, you gotta call me at 3 o'clock in the morning. "Pastor, can you come pray"? You got the same power, the same Holy Ghost, the same promise.
"Then came the disciples to Jesus," after Jesus had did it. Then they waited until they kinda shield that guy away from everybody. "Jesus. Psst, let us, we want, we need to holla at you for a minute, come on". And they said, "Why could not we cast him out"? I really thought Jesus was gonna respond and say, "Oh, no, you had the power and you've done it before. Tell me," but now he's teaching them something we need to get. "And Jesus said unto them," listen, you remember the question, right? How come we didn't cast him out? What was the answer? Because of your? Because of your?
Alright, now. Question. What is the subject, now? Get your English, now. You got a call in there so that we're still gonna be maintaining unbelief as the issue. "Because of your unbelief," he said, "For verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible to you". What he said was, "I don't know why", he says, "I don't know why y'all had issue because all you need is a mustard seed faith. But it looked like y'all had too much unbelief". Now watch this, watch this. Then he said, "Howbeit, then, howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting".
Question. What was he referring to when he said this kind? He was referring to unbelief because that was the subject. What has the church declared that he was referring to? The demon. So, we spent time in fantasy saying we got to go fast and pray so we can deal with the devil and you don't need to fast and pray to deal with the devil because he gave you power to deal with the devil. He said, "What you need to fast and pray about is the unbelief," praise God, "it's the unbelief that's counteracting your faith. It's the unbelief that's stopping you from doing what I said you could do. It's the unbelief". It's the unbelief. You can have faith and unbelief at the same time.
Look what this guy said. The guy said, "Lord," his father said, "Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief," and notice Jesus didn't rebuke him for saying that because sometimes you have faith and unbelief at the same time. The problem is you have so much more unbelief than you do faith. So, go on a fast and pray until you drive that unbelief out of your thinking. Go on a fast and pray until you drive that unbelief out of your spirit. Go and fast and pray until you don't see nothing but what God promised and it shall be done and it shall be done and it shall be done. He didn't say something was wrong with your faith. He said you had too much unbelief and look at where we are tonight.
We get a daily dose of unbelief from the news, from the paper, from people, from doctors, from everybody. We just feed ourselves unbelief that we got so much unbelief in us and then we see the Word, "Well, you know, I ain't talking about that right now. I'm talking about something real. I need some money right now. I was talking about you need some money right now," but you don't believe that you can trust God with your seed. And so, you refuse to sow because you don't trust God. So, he sent us a helper. How do you know we gonna need some help? Thank God for fasting and praying, but where does the Holy Ghost come in? Go to Saint John 16 and 8. Hey, ha! Boy, that devil, he ain't got a shot if you just, if you do, man, if y'all walk out here today, I almost feel sorry for the devil this week. Because now that you know that you know, and something happen you say, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not today, not now, devil".
You done mess with the wrong person. I'm Collipark. You done mess with the wrong person today. I know what you're trying to do, but I'm not moved by what I see. I'm not moved by what I hear. I'm not moved by the reports of the doctor. I'm not moved by how much money I got in my bank. I trust God Almighty. Don't make me go on a fast and a praying time. Don't make me miss breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Don't make me go in my closet. You don't want to mess with me today. All right, now watch this. "When he," the Spirit of truth has come, "he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment." Verse 9.
He's gonna reprove the world of sin, why? "Because they believe not on me". The Holy Spirit says, "I'm gonna convict, convince, and reprove those who don't believe on me". So, the Holy Spirit... this is heavy, hear what I'm saying. The Holy Spirit doesn't convict people of things they do that are wrong. We've been taught the Holy Ghost convicts you for doing wrong. The Holy Spirit does not convict people of things they do that are wrong, but of the fact that they are not believing on Jesus. All of your wrongdoing comes as a result of your foundation of unbelief. So, he's convicting that you don't believe in Jesus. Let me give you an illustration. The Holy Spirit will not convict us about a lack of giving, but he'll convict us about a lack of trusting in Jesus with our money, because your lack of giving is a result of your lack of trust and unbelief with your money.
That's where that comes from. He goes to the root of the issue. Adam and Eve's sin. It wasn't the eating of the fruit, but refusing to believe in the goodness of God. Genesis 3 and 5. We keep saying that sin came because they ate the fruit and then we call it a apple. What you gonna call it, watermelon, after a while? We keep just adding more fantasy to it. But that's not what happened. The sin wasn't the eating of the fruit. The sin was refusing all of the other trees that God said was yours and you refused to believe the goodness of God and zeroed in on a one fruit tree when you had every tree in the garden. And the same thing is true today, you zero in on one little traditional legalistic thing when God says, "All my goodness is yours. All my glory is yours. I give you my name. I give you my Son, I give you my Spirit. I give you every promise," and you focus in on that sin that you did 20 years ago.
Why is it that God doesn't want you to steal? Because that action reveals a lack of trust in God to be your source. You're thinking the sin is stealing. The sin is, "I don't believe that God can take care of me and because I don't believe God can take care of me, I'm gonna steal". It is a reflex of your unbelief. Sin is a reflex of unbelief. What I don't believe about Jesus, I will now, through my self-effort, try to do something to make up for it. So, you steal. When he says don't commit adultery, it's because you don't really believe what he told you about marriage. You don't believe that everything you need is right there with that one woman. Mm-hm. You think cause she got long hair that somehow she can provide better?
But marriage is an ordination that came from God and within it is everything you need. Your maturity, your growth, your companionship, your love, get your freak on, all that's in marriage, all that's in marriage. You ain't got to go somewhere to get your freak on. You, like, ten steps from the bedroom. All that is in marriage, but because you don't believe it, somehow you've accepted that, "I can't believe that, so I gotta go and do this". "Oh, I have a fantasy of being with three women". You can't handle the one you got. The one you got, "Where you at, bro"? She tear your tail up, you understand what I'm saying? And you talking about some three women, you better wake up. Y'all, pray my strength in the Lord. I got a few more minutes.
Go to Hebrews 4:15. This is very, very, very interesting here. I am telling you, you can get rid of that big list of all the things you're supposed to be fighting and if you just fight this area of unbelief? Alright, watch this. Hebrews 4:15. "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but Jesus was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin". So, I thought, well, the Bible says... we love to do that. We love to say. "But the Bible says. My Bibles tell me", you just got out of the pool, you're still dripping water, just been baptized and you're gonna talk about what the Bible tells, you gotta learn how to read.
So, I thought when it said Jesus was in all points tempted as we are, I'm, like, so was Jesus tempted to smoke weed? Was Jesus tempted to cuss some of his disciples out? Was Jesus tempted with sex? That's what we thought. And so I says, well... and I'm telling you, no. So what was he tempted with which is like what we are tempted with? See, legalism brought us to that way of thinking and it's very clearly stated. Matthew 3:17 and Matthew 4:3. "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son," what did he say? "In whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased". Matthew chapter 4 and 3: "And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread," stop.
Now, God said, "This is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased". Satan said, "If you are, turn the stone into bread". Here's the temptation. I'm tempted to turn this stone into bread to show you that I am who he said I am. But if I do that, I will be demonstrating that I didn't believe him when he said that I am the Son of God. Therefore, this temptation, why, I want you to know how powerful I am. I can't turn these stone into bread because he already said that I am the beloved Son of God in whom he is well pleased. Therefore, I ain't got to prove nothing to you because I believe God. I ain't got to prove nothing to you because I believe his promise and you and I ain't got to prove nothing to the devil.
When he shows up, I am the righteousness of God. When he shows up, I am redeemed. When he shows up, I am exactly who he said I am. Do you see this? When we asked the question: is Jesus enough for our salvation? Every issue was an issue of belief or unbelief. Blasphemy was the issue of belief or unbelief. Now it makes sense. Lord, what do you want me to do? Only believe. Don't let unbelief be the culprit to show up and stop things from working. And now you go back to the law, trying to accomplish through your self-effort because you wouldn't believe what he said. This, the Spirit of God said to me, is the number one issue that Satan is going to try to amplify as we get closer to the return of the Lord. All the things he has to do.
If some preacher that you love falls into sin and now that's an issue for you to operate in unbelief. Well, that's your fault. You should know he just a man just like you or a woman just like you and your first deal ought to be, well, I'm gonna pray for him and I'm gonna keep going because, listen, listen, you received grace from the pulpit, but wasn't no grace coming from the congregation. Isn't that amazing, how grace comes from the pulpit, but it don't ever seem to make it from the congregation to the pulpit? It's getting ready to get heavy. So, if you're recognizing unbelief in your life, get with the Holy Ghost in prayer and fasting. You ain't got to go on no 45 day fast. I want my unbelief to be gone by lunch.