Reasoning away your faith

 
    I was reminded recently of how people reason away their faith. It sounds like this, "Rev. Famous wasn't baptized with the Spirit and didn't speak in tongues, why should I be?"  Or, this one, "Speaking in tongues bothers some members, so surely God doesn't mean for us to do this in church".   This is much like another reasoning "Sister So and So didn't get healed and she had faith so therefore God doesn't heal", or, "Mr. Doodad didn't profess to be a Christian but he was a good man.  You can't tell me he wasn't saved".  This is how people so easily reason away their faith in God's Word.  The reasoning in such statements sounds logical but it really is not, not for a Christian.  What it does is equate human experience with the Word of God, and the two are not the same.  Something is true, something is good, something is right and necessary because God said it, not because human experience, human reasoning confirms or denies it.  God's word is true, whether it seems to work for you are not.  For it to work, you have to accept that fact.  If you don't, you almost insure that it ultimately will not work for you.  You have reasoned away your faith.

   When we began to accept this line of thinking, deciding what is right by human reasoning, what you hear or say may sound logical at first and may get approval from fellow reasoners. However, this approach is like rust.  You don't notice it at first but just let it go uncared for and soon it weakens and eats away at the fiber of your faith.  Soon reasoning becomes doubt legitimized.   Take it another step:  "God would be unjust if all good people were not taken to heaven".  Or, "I've been good, surely I will make it". Or this sad one "if there was a God, why did my loved one die in that accident".  All such reasonings are the testimonies of doubt, not faith.  Or, "We don't want the gifts, the demonstrations of the Spirit in the church, it bothers some people and after all, getting more people in the church is more important than the gifts or manifestations of the Spirit"

   So, Rev. Famous didn't speak in tongues.  What does that have to do with the Word of God in which God expressed a desire for us all to speak in tongues?  NOTHING.  So, Sister didn't get healed?  What has that go to do with the Word?  Nothing!  So, some folks are uncomfortable with speaking in tongues or the manifestations of the Spirit?  What has that got to do with what God says?  Nooooothing!  Once you see the magnitude of what such reasoning has done to the church, across the world, you will see that rust is eating away and has destroyed much already.   It is the corruption of humanism, eating away at our faith.

   To defeat such reasonings, it is important to know the Word and commit to believing and doing it, no matter what.  You should know you have a new and better covenant and therefore be able to say "God said" and know He said it to you, in you covenant.  Then, you can take this position, "If God said it (to me) I believe it and will act on it." Your commitment to the Word should sound like this "Even if God doesn't deliver me, we will not bend nor bow".  Or this, "If God doesn't heal me, I will go to my grave believing in divine healing".  The natural mind rebels against this, but your faith has to been in God's word and God who is true to His word, not matter what you personal experience is.