How important is belief?  Can unbelief produce bad consequences? Delay or even prevent what God wants for you to have? The children of God never made it to the promised land because of unbelief. God WANTED them to enter, gave them the land, showed them the path, guarded and protected them. Provided for them. All He asked was they BELIEVE Him with a posture of trust and with good attitude. But they didn’t. They didn’t believe.

 15 As it is said,“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:15-19

But exactly WHAT was it they did not believe? This is extremely important to grasp. 

Unbelief is not what many think. They walked with God, saw His miracles, and experienced His supernatural provisions, power, and deliverance. They had a pillar of fire and a cloud that led and guarded them. Manna that fed them, shoes that never wore out. They walked through the parted sea and saw food fall from heaven. Oh, they believed there was a God! They did not have unbelief in His ability, His power, or His Authority.

They had the kind of unbelief that brought on rebellion, and disobedience and created hard hearts.  It was unbelief that caused them to grumble, complain, and murmur against Him and cause Moses fear because the people were turning against him. It was the kind of unbelief that made them want to return back to being slaves. 

It’s an unbelief against the character and nature of God, that He is a loving, good God. 

 The people believed in God, but because they were hungry, tired, and stuck wandering, they did not believe He was good. Did not believe in what He was doing or trust in Who He was. All they could see and believe in was what they were feeling and experiencing. That was bad, so they believed His intentions were bad. They believed a good Father would not let them suffer, so they were so upset with Him and how He was handling their life that they complained against Him to the point of wanting to kill Moses! 

They were blind to see they were the cause of their own misery. What should have been a quick test of 11 days turned into a torment of 40 years because they were trapped in the lies where it’s easier to believe through the filters of rejection, self-pity, and pride rather than fight it and speak the truth. They would rather agree and partner with the lie of what they saw and felt rather than CHOOSE to believe in WHO HE IS!  They reject, rebel, and disobey God and who He is by choice because they are not happy with how He chose to test them. How He chose to allow the storm to rage and the wilderness journey to continue. 

God has given us free will to choose. To make the decision every day to trust Him, even when we don’t feel like it. To choose to believe His Word is true, even when the opposite is happening. Jonah chose to run away because He rejected that God was merciful and would not punish Nineveh. He rejected the ways of God. Chose to not believe in His love and goodness, compassion and mercy. After God accepts Nineveh’s repentance, Jonah confronts Him,

 “Wasn’t this precisely my point when I was back in my own land? This is why I fled to Tarshish earlier! I know that you are a merciful and compassionate God, very patient, full of faithful love, and willing not to destroy.” (4:2)

Jonah knew God, but didn’t like His ways, or love like Him!

During your Stand, you are going to enter into this wilderness place. It’s going to hurt. It’s going to be hard and confusing. It will test every inch of you. It’s going to test what you think, feel and know about God. And over and over it will test your belief in if you WANT to follow God no matter what. Like Job, will you choose to endure and never curse Him? Or will you choose to harden your heart and reject Him because you can’t believe this is all for the best? All for your good?

Standing with you,
 Sheila Hollinger

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