Help Thou My Unbelief
PSALM 103:1-5
1 ¶ A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; (Notice – he forgives all of our sins, and he heals all of our diseases. So this is dealing with both the spirit and body realm because healing is for these two realms)
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. (We know that it is at this time and under this eagle age anointing that our youth is to be renewed)
MARK 9:23-27
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (He truly believed in his mind, but notice - he needed help to truly believed from his heart which is the subconscious realm)
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. (Resurrection is always associated with the ministry of Jesus)
Help Thou My Unbelief
Last week
Perfect Faith for Healing
Subject - Healing In His Wings
Last week we saw how that the bible showed us that all through the bible what brought healing to the people was when Christ was put into the situation.
- He was the tree that was cut down and cast into the bitter waters of Marah in Exodus 15, and that is when healing came to the waters, and waters represents people.
- Also during the time of the famine in II Kings 4 we find that when meal was added into the pot of pottage that had poison in it, then the meal brought healing to the food because we know that the “meal” represented Christ, and he is the bread of life, and when He is place in the midst of any situation, then he brings healing into that situation because the word is the master of all circumstances.
*So healing comes when we put Christ in the midst of the circumstance - or the person - or the decision that we need to make about something, or whatever the need is.
***Christ in the pot brought healing to the pot, Christ in the vessel brought financial healing to the widow woman, Christ in the vessel brought peace to the storm. Christ in the bitter water brings sweetness to the water. Christ is the answer to all our needs.
EXODUS 15:26
26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Healing comes by diligently harkening to the voice of the Lord, and his voice is the word for the age that we have heard and received, and so we know that we already have the word that can bring healing to us, but we are no different to the disciples of Jesus that are about to perish with Jesus asleep in their ship, it wasn’t that they didn’t have the word in their vessel, but it was just that that word was not activated by faith – it needed awakening.
So the problem why some people don’t receive their healing is not that they haven’t got the word, but it is that the word in them needs to be woken up.
**So if we can see how they did this, and we could approach God in the same way in this age, then he will have to act the same now as he did then.
***So how did they activated the word in their midst then?? – They asked him to help them because they didn’t have the faith themselves – they needed help with their unbelief.
This week..
Help Thou My Unbelief
Subject continue – Perfect Faith for Healing
Opening Scripture:
MARK 9:23-27
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (it wasn’t that all things weren’t possible, but it was dependent upon whether one could believe - if you could only believe then anything is possible to him that believeth, but the problem is that what we are asked to believe is also what seems unreasonable and impossible to the human reasoning, and so that is where the problem is for us because we have actually been raised and educated to think wrong by our first birth so that we operate by reasoning and not by faith.
So why can some believe and not others? – firstly faith comes by the word and not all get to hear the word, and secondly, faith is actually something that God must help you with to bring you into the revelation of it by his grace, it is not something that you work yourself up into by the psychology of positive thinking. Positive thinking is good, but that is not faith, that is just thinking positive)
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (He truly believed in his mind, but he needed the help of the Lord to bring his faith into a deeper level so that he could believed from his heart, which is from the subconscious realm, because faith is in the subconscious realm, it is not in the conscious realm of the thoughts of your mind because there is no faculty for faith in your mind, there is only the faculty of memory and reasoning)
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
Jesus is showing us by example the ability of a man that is constantly living in the realm of perfect faith. Perfect faith masters all circumstances.
JESUS.CHRIST.THE.SAME.YESTERDAY.TODAY.AND.FOREVER_ HARRISONBURG.VA WEDNESDAY_ 58-0312
E-20 Now, there's not a medicine in the world can heal you. Now, remember that. There's no medicine, no doctor, no clinic, ever healed one person. All healing comes from God. Could you hear that? All healing is from God. I believe that God's Word is so infallible that there is not one iota of It that's wrong. Psalms 103:3 said, "I'm the Lord Who heals all your diseases." If there could be anything else heal you besides God, then God told something wrong.
And remember, when the circumstances arise, and the way God acts in that circumstance, He's got to act every time after, the same way that He acted in that time, or He acted wrong when He acted then.
WORKS.IS.FAITH.EXPRESSED_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-1 FRIDAY_ 65-1126
105 Now, faith is "a revelation from God." Now, faith is a revelation. There's where I want to stay, there, just a moment. It's a revelation. He has revealed it to you by His grace. It's nothing you did. You didn't work yourself up into faith. You never have faith; it's give to you by the grace of God. And God reveals it to you, therefore faith is a revelation. And the whole Church of God is built upon the revelation.
But my question is - how does God bring you into a revelation – how does he help you with your unbelief??
***If we are deeper students of the message we will notice that in 1965 God was dealing with brother Branham on a different level of faith because many people had come to rely upon his personal ministry and gift for their healing (“if we can just get to brother Branham and have him to pray for us, then God will do a miracle and we will be healed”).
The people had begun to have faith in him praying for them rather than having faith in the word of God for their healing, and that is still a problem today - people seem to have more faith in the person that is praying for them rather than in the promise of the word.
So God allowed that to happen for a season in the ministry of William Branham, but God knowing that he was soon to take his prophet off the scene, he begins to open up to us a deeper understanding of healing by the example of brother Branham’s own personal healing, especially in the last 6 months of his ministry, because he himself had not been healed of a souring stomach condition that he had suffered from for most of his life simply because he needed help with his own faith.
WORKS.IS.FAITH.EXPRESSED_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-1 FRIDAY_ 65-1126
142 If you try to reason out... What if this man, this woman, or this man setting here, or somebody try to reason, "And I been crippled all these years. The doctor says, 'There's not a possible chance'"? Well, there might not be as far as he knowed, and that's true.
143 But if something can tear away them weeds, if God by His grace; not the preacher, not nobody else. But God to place into your heart a revelation, that, "I'm going to be well," there isn't nothing going to keep you setting there. There's nothing can hold you there, you're going to be well! But until that does happen, you're going to set right where the doctor says you're going to set; until that happens. It has to be revealed. It's the grace of God that reveals it.
MATTHEW 17:19-20
19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Notice again – “IF” you have faith…
WORKS.IS.FAITH.EXPRESSED_ SHREVEPORT.LA V-7 N-1 FRIDAY_ 65-1126
117 In a audience of people, where a prayer line comes through, you'll find some... and they were all good people, we'll say. There's some that's trying hard to believe It, trying to work themselves into It. Some just can't do it at all. And others, it's just by grace, it's just given to them. Now, there is the difference. See? That does it. That's the real revelation, because faith is a revelation from God. It must be revealed first.
As brother Branham got to the end of his ministry he began to realise more and more that it wasn’t that the promise of God wasn’t true concerning healing, it was that the people couldn’t grasp a real faith in the promise in their subconscious realm unless God help them to be able to receive their healing, so he realised more and more that it had to be given to them by God, so then one does not so much need to ask God to heal them because healing is already been given to us to all who can believe, but more than that we need to ask for God to help our unbelief and lead us into a revelation in our hearts for our healing.
ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
191 Now notice. And Mama, she said, "Billy," when I come back, she said, "come here, son, and set down." She said, "I had a strange dream. I dreamed that I seen you a-laying sick, just about to die, with your stomach as usual." How many diets has she cooked me! And she said, "You were building a house upon a hill (that was his house in Tucson at 920 E Vía Velitas road that he had remodelled just before he left the scene)." And said, "I seen six white doves come down from heaven, cooing, in a letter 'S' and they set upon your chest. And you was looking, and the one in front was trying to tell you something." Said, "They was real glossy, white, doves. And they took their little heads and put against your cheek, and going, 'coo, coo, coo.'" And said, "I couldn't understand it." Said, "They just kept going, 'coo, coo, coo.'"
192 I said, "Oh, I see it, praise the Lord!" And said, "They formed their letter 'S' again and went back up into the skies, going 'coo, coo, coo, coo,' going back home."
193 Well, the little animal that I saw was six inches long. The string of doves that Mom saw was six, six is incomplete. I knew that someday I'd see that seventh one. That was man, suffering; so on and on it went.
ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
239 Dear God, I--I don't know no other way of saying these things, Lord. I just know to tell what I know is the Truth, and You're my witness tonight that I am telling the Truth. My faith, Lord, and my own healing in the future; I don't know when, I don't know how, I don't understand it; but I believe It, Lord, that I received the sign from above. That seventh dove finally got here, the seventh inch is soon finished on the animal. It's over!
Look at how God is dealing with brother Branham to bring him into a real faith for his own personal healing – God is showing us by example how he also deals with us to bring us into a perfect faith as well.
MATTHEW 13:53-58
53 ¶ And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.
54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?
55 Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
57 And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.
58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Often a ministry is not accepted very well in his own country or in his own household because of the familiarity element – and this problem can also applies within yourself as a person because often you can doubt your own position as a believer because of your own familiarity with yourself combined with the knowledge of your own humanity.
Self-doubt is a big issue with most of us, and so this hinders our faith when it comes to God’s personal healing power to us.
Brother Branham also suffered from self- doubt.
STANDING.IN.THE.GAP_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0623M
153 And there was three outstanding peaks. He said, "Those three peaks are the first, second, and third pull. The first one was your first part of your ministry, small hill; then your first pull, pretty high." You know, sign in the hand. Then there was a little interval in there, the time that I was taken off from being too tired. Many of you remember it. And then come the discernment, the second pull. Now I've had another, about a few years here of just kind of little peaks, see, back like my ministry wasn't yet, and then come the third one.
154 Three is a number of completion, see, the third one. The next peak was five, number of grace. And the next peak was seven, the number of--of perfection, the end. "Six days shall you labor. The seventh is the Sabbath," the end of the week, the end of time. See? And I stopped and I showed it to Billy. And I looked at them.
155 He said, "That, let that stand. If there is ever a doubt in your mind, remember this place, come back here."
- God was helping his unbelief by showing him a sign connected with his life.
- God helped Gideon’s unbelief by showing him signs in order to bring him into a real faith.
- God helped David killed the lion and the bear in order to bring him into a faith for when Goliath came along.
*So we know by this that God cannot deal with us any different because he must always act the same way as he always acted.
ON.THE.WINGS.OF.A.SNOW.WHITE.DOVE_ SHP.LA V-7 N-5 SUNDAY_ 65-1128E
194 That morning, I got up after seeing this vision; I obeyed the Lord. I took my little boy, Joseph, to school. He's listening to me now, in Tucson. I took him to school, and told Meda I didn't know when I'd be back.
195 And I took off up into Catalina, up into the--the foothills, and--and went up into the place where the Angel of the Lord put the Sword in my hand. Real early; and started climbing up the mountain.
196 Well, instead of going up in the peaks this a-way (which there's a lot snakes, scorpions, you know how Arizona is), I turned to my right; Something said, "Turn to your right." I went way into the peaks; I went around, and I was going around those great huge rocks, many times bigger than this tabernacle, laying up in them tops there where seldom ever a person could get.
197 And along about eleven o'clock, I was going into a little cove, back where some... a little place turned in like this over a little deer trail. And I had my shirt off, my hat in my hand, because I was just lathering with sweat. And so I turned in there, and as I turned into that little cove, I felt the presence of the Lord. I jerked off my hat and looked around. I thought, "He's here somewhere. I know He's here." I thought, "What is it?" I made a few more steps. I said, "Lord, You're here somewhere."
198 And I looked laying on the path, and there laid that little squirrel; had jumped at something and missed it, and it hit a bunch of cholla (that's jumping cactus). It rammed through his head, chest, stomach, and he was dead. That odd-looking little squirrel, he had missed my mouth and hit that cholla. And the Voice of the Lord said, "Your enemy is dead." I stood there, and I trembled. I took my foot and ma-...
199 Usually crows would've eat it up. I killed a snake, couple days later than that, it laid on the road about a half hour. There's always eagles and crows flying through there, and they'll pick it up right now. I killed a coral snake, that's the most dangerous snake we got; laying right beside of me, a few days after that. I started to come back to pick it up to show it, the crows had done got it, the ravens passing over.
200 And that had been laying there ever since I had seen the vision, two days before; I believe it was on Saturday, and I went up there on Monday. So there he was, laying on there dead. I mashed through it with my foot.
201 I went back around, set down again; set there and cried a while, and prayed; looking down over Tucson, miles below me.
202 Turned back around and come back, it still laid there. When I entered that cove the Spirit of God come on me again.
203 I went on around, went down the mountain. Went in and told my wife, I said, "Honey, I don't know how, but I'm going to get over this."
204 Dr. Ravensworth, when he give me the examination, he said, "It's totally impossible for you to be well." He give me a shot of pentothal that was to last me for five minutes, and I slept ten hours. So that stuff, even an aspirin just knocks me out. So they... He give me a shot, put that tube down my throat. When I come to, and he told me the next morning, he said, "Reverend, I hate to tell you this, but" said "your stomach walls are even so hard, they're dried up." I never seen it; he used the name of gastritis, and I went and looked in the dictionary and it said, "something that's withered away." And said, "You can't get over it." He said, "You'll always have it." And I would've been a discouraged boy if it hadn't been for the vision of the Lord.
205 And the next day Something said, "Go back to the mountain."
206 And that day instead of going one way, I was led to go another way. And I was standing there; and looking, setting in the front of me, and there set that seventh little, white dove, looking right at me. I rubbed my eyes, I said, "Surely, it's a vision; surely, it is." I looked, and I said, "Little dove, where do you come from?" Just as pretty and white, could've been a pigeon; whatever it was, away in that wilderness.
207 God Almighty, Who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, Whose servant I am, and His Word laying here, open before me, know that I tell the truth and lie not.
208 There set the dove, setting there looking at me. I walked around, I thought, "Surely, it's a vision." I turned my head, I looked back, and there he set there; them little, white wings, just as snowy as he could be; his little, yellow feet; and little, yellow beak; setting there looking at me. He was watching right straight westward. I walked around him like that, I wouldn't touch him for nothing. I walked on up the trail; looked back, and there he still set watching me.
209 Brother, as a son of Abraham, I consider not what the doctor told me, I'm going to be well, anyhow!
210 The third day I went back, I was climbing up high. And many of you know the vision about the Indian chief riding that little wall to the west. Something attracted me off to a big rock, about noon time, said, "Lay your hands against that and pray." God in Heaven knows this is true.
211 I laid my hands against the rock and looked up towards Heaven and started praying, and I heard a Voice coming out of the top of the rocks there, said, "What are you leaning against, over your heart?" And I raised back like this, my bare shoulders; naked from my waist up, hot. I looked back. And there was wrote in the quartz, in the stone, "White Eagle"; just exactly what the vision said that the next Message would come forth by.
212 I was so excited, I run home; got a camera and come back the next day, and took the picture of it. It was still there, wrote in the rock: "White Eagle." (Dove leading eagle.)
213 Somehow, I--I know. I'll tell you before it happens. The doctor's a good doc-... good doctor, no doubt; I--I think he's a fine man. But I--I know I'm going to be over it. It's done! It's finished, and I'm going to be well!
See how God had to help his faith to bring him into a revelation in his heart. We must look for God to do the same in our own lives. “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief” – he is a very present help in the time of trouble.
The problem is we try hard to believe with the mind, and that is good, but that is not what does it, and that is why we have seen so much failure in the past. We need God to help us by bringing us into a real revelation of his word into our hearts.
Help Thou My Unbelief