Placebo Faith – The Real Thing - Part 3
Scriptures: Hebrews 11:1, 6; Proverbs 23:7a; Numbers 14:20-30
Introduction
This message will conclude my series on “Placebo Faith – The Real Thing” and also introduce my next series which I will start next week titled, “Recognizing Satan’s Tactics.” In order for us to walk in faith, we must understand how our faith is tested by our enemy so it seemed appropriate to follow this message with a message on understanding how that enemy operates. This is the last Sunday and last day of 2017. All of us expect to see 2018 and the fact that we are looking forward to tomorrow gives us hope for a new day, even though it is not guaranteed that we will see it. I mention this because many Christians live their life as if tomorrow is promised to them and the things they should be doing today can wait for tomorrow. I hope that we will make the change in 2018 that we will no longer wait for tomorrow because every day another soul enters hell and a separation for God for all eternity. We must be steadfast because in 2018 we will begin to understand more fully how the world is changing around us.
This morning I want to close out this series by reminding you of why the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years. As a reminder of what I have shared previously about placebo treatment from a medical perspective, it is when patients receive their healing just because they believe that the pill or treatment they receive is supposed to heal them. In these circumstances, their belief brings into reality what really should not exist. This, my friends, is faith! Our faith is exercised and powered through our beliefs. Because what we believe puts our faith into motion we cannot separate our beliefs from our faith. I want you to see this clearly, what you believe will give evidence of your faith regardless of what you may say to others to convince them of your faith. Our beliefs will always demonstrate our faith or lack thereof! Our foundational Scriptures for this series is found in Hebrews 11:1, 6 and Proverbs 23:7a.
Hebrews 11:1,6 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen….And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Proverbs 23:7a says, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he.”
Think about the relevance of these two Scriptures as we review the moment the Children of Israel refused to enter the Promised Land. The Children of Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness because of their mindset and the fear that they allowed to overshadow their faith in God. When the Children of Israel arrived to the land that God had promised them, Moses sent twelve men (each a leader of their tribe) to spy out the land. The men went into the city and examined the land and the fruit thereof. When they returned to Moses, they confessed that the land was everything that God had promised them. However, ten of the men were afraid to enter. It was only Joshua and Caleb who stated that they were ready, willing and able to go up immediately and take the land. The people, when hearing the negative report from the ten men who were afraid to enter, sided with those ten men against Joshua and Caleb. So what caused these ten men and ultimately the rest of the people to be afraid? The men focused on the people instead of God who brought them out of Egypt. They used the excuse initially that the people were strong and the city was secure which made it impossible for them to take it. Although these were the reasons they gave, I believe these reasons were an excuse to cover up the real reason. If you read the story closely you will discover that the real reason for their fear rested with how they saw themselves, not necessarily how strong the inhabitants were. How they viewed themselves destroyed their faith in the most powerful God who was on their side. Turn with me Numbers 13:31-33.
“But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.’ So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ‘The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:31-33) I want you to see how fear made these men contradict themselves. In verse twenty-seven when they first started giving their report they said of the land itself, “….it certainly does flow with milk and honey and this is its fruit.” They confirmed that the land was everything God promised. Now as their fear rose within them as they tried to explain why they “believed” they could not take the land, they said in verse thirty-two that the land “devours its inhabitants.” These two references of the land are contradictory. Most scholars believe that what the ten spies were trying to convey was that because of the environment it would be hard for the people to live there – that many would die. In their hearts, after spending years in bondage in Egypt, their confidence in themselves was lost. You see, according to their report, on the one hand the land flowed with milk and honey (meaning prosperity) and then on the other they said the environment was so harsh that it consumed (killed) the inhabitants living in it and only the strongest survived. It appears that they were seeking any excuse possible to make their case to not go up and take the land. As you read further, their final argument shows what really motivated them their personal fear (false expectations appearing real.) In verse thirty-three they said, “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” They said that they became grasshopper in their own sight! In other words they looked at the people of the land and then compared those people to themselves and they believed within their hearts that they were lesser – in strength, power and ability to overtake the city. Because they believed they could not take the city their focus now was on staying alive. Imagine for a moment what would have happened if they had tried to take the city with this mindset. Imagine how scared they would have fought because in their minds the battle was already lost. God did not force them to take the city. He allowed them to make their decision which led to their walking away from the Promised Land and entering the wilderness.
Our faith will lead us to our Promised Land or it will cause us to walk in our wilderness. Many Christians who have chosen to walk in their wilderness will die in their wilderness just as those of the Children of Israel who were twenty years old and upward at the time they refused to enter the Promised Land died in their wilderness. Whenever we are not where God wants us we are in a wilderness. Our wilderness is represented as that place “in-between.” We have not arrived at the place God is taking us but we are on our way. When this Church was meeting in the schools, we were in our wilderness – we were on our way and making provisions to arrive at this place. Some of you are in your wilderness this morning, some by choice and some by design. If it is by choice it means that you have chosen not to follow God. If it is by design you are on your way to where God is taking you. The wilderness experience by design is totally different from the wilderness by choice!!! With one you’re exercising your faith in God and the other you are not. Our wilderness experience is where our faith is tested – it’s the place we must go through to get to our Promised Land. The wilderness is where a lot of Christians die because their faith is based solely on the moment behind them where God has already acted on their behalf. Their faith exists in the past tense – looking back for the proof that God did it versus looking forward to what God will do. Placebo faith believes in nothing as if it was something!!! Through faith the nothing becomes something! You have no proof but yet you believe which becomes the proof! When we believe without the proof, the proof reveals itself. The Children of Israel refused to enter the Promised Land because all they could see was how they looked compared to the inhabitants of the land. When the people refused to go in and take the land, Moses cried out to God asking that He would pardon them for this sin. Look at Numbers 14:20-30.
“So the LORD said, ‘I have pardoned them according to your word; but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.’ The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ‘How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.” (Numbers 14:20-30)
God honored Moses’ request and pardoned the people. In doing so, He also gave the people exactly what they asked for; they did not want to enter so He allowed them to not go in. However, since they refused to go into the Promised Land, God said that they would wander in the wilderness until every adult from twenty years and upward died. Their faith cause them to die in their wilderness just like our faith can cause us to die in our wilderness. Our faith can destroy us (like the person believing they are sick and actually does get sick) just as it can bring life to us (our responding to a placebo treatment.) It all depends on what we are putting our faith in. It takes faith to believe that someone is better and stronger than me just as it takes faith to believe that I am stronger and capable. If my faith is fueled by a belief that I am weaker, then surely I will be weaker. If my faith is being fueled by a belief that I am stronger, then surely I will be stronger. Regardless of how we believe here is the one thing that will not change based on our belief: God’s plan for what He wants done! God does not change because we put our faith in the wrong things. God’s plan does not change because we choose not to believe! When you read this story, you will find that God did not give them a new Promised Land that would be more suitable for those who doubted. He did not create or send them to a different land which would be easier for them. No, God sent them to the wilderness to wander around in circles until all the adults who doubted died with the exceptions being Joshua and Caleb and their families. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness because they did not believe what God said. They did not put their faith in God’s word. New Light, if we do not change, some of us will die in our wilderness for the exact same reason.
Remember when I started this series I told you about the woman who believed that she was pregnant to the point that her body began to show evidence of her being pregnant? Although she was not pregnant her body aligned itself to her beliefs. Her mind overrode the natural functions of the body and created the scenario that she already believed in. If our minds can do this with our physical body, imagine the power that lies within it when we combine it with God’s word and believing it with everything that is within us. Imagine the healings that will take place when we believe God’s word more than what the doctors or our bodies say. Imagine the deliverance that will take place when we believe God’s word versus what the world tell us to accept. It is a fact that we will remain in our wilderness until we start fully believing what God says.
Turn with me to Hebrews 10:19-25; 35-39. Let’s begin reading at verse nineteen.
“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near……..Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:19-25; 35-39)
As I close this morning I want you to take verses thirty-five and thirty-six and sow them into your hearts for 2018. As you think about your faith walk and your wilderness experiences as your approach the place God has prepared for you, remember these two verses. “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” The Amplified Bibles reads this way: “Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full, what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36, Amp.)
Remember the negative report from the ten spies? They had cast aside their confidence in themselves and more importantly, in the God who had delivered them out of Egypt. This is an example of what is captured in verse thirty-five where the writer says that we should not throw away our confidence. If we actively throw it away that is a choice. This is not something that we cannot control – it’s a choice. Our confidence is aligned to our belief so if your belief is skewed so will your confidence be skewed. The easiest way to cast aside your confidence is to believe what the world tell you versus what God has and is saying to you. When we belief something that is contrary to what the Bible says it opens the door for everything the Bible says to be questioned. Maybe Adam and Even did not eat of the forbidden tree. Maybe Noah never entered the ark – I mean could he really have taken two of every kind (male and female) into a boat. Maybe Jesus died on the cross and maybe He didn’t. Maybe there is sin and maybe it’s just what it is, people living out their wishes. Maybe God exists and maybe He does not! Are you seeing the picture? Once we start with the questions it will never end. This is one of the strongest resources that our enemy uses against us to attack our faith. He does not always have to use demonic spirits and sickness to attack us; his most effective weapon is attacks how we think. If he can influence that, the hardest part of his job is done. This is why we need to understand what we believe and why Satan attacks those beliefs.
Proverbs 23:7a says, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he.” This is our battlefield – our minds. Our minds is where our battles are being fought and we must strengthen our understanding of the Word of God which will change how we think which will change what we believe. When our beliefs change the world around us will change. Happy New Year and I wish the best for you in 2018.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
