Should You Trust God If ... ?

Should one trust God if one isn't strong in faith in an area?

A hypothetical example which often divides Christian opinion is should someone who is weak in faith trust in God for healing? I heard one anecdotal story where a word was given in a prayer meeting, to one gentleman, who had decided in himself not to go for an operation but to trust God for healing and that someone in that prayer meeting allegedly gave him a word that he was not yet strong enough in faith and that God wanted him to put himself in the hands of the doctor. Apparently the operation was a success but it does beg the question: Will God ever tell us to trust in Himself less and a doctor more because of our level of spiritual growth?

[Note: in case this thread gets derailed quickly this is not a question about whether we should go to doctors or not. Just whether its right to trust God for all things we decide to.]
 
It is in areas where we lack perfect faith, that we can trust our perfect Father---THAT IS FAITH! Everyone has weaker faith in some area or another. Trust is faith, and He calls us to it.
 
I am sure to start a hot debate here with this. Faith is not something that go's from a weak, to intermediate, to strong faith. There is no small, medium, jumbo size faith. Faith grows but how we think it does. "Faith does not grow in quality, but in quantity." A man of "great" faith is the man who has faith in all ares of his life. He believes in his salvation, he believes God provides all his needs for godliness, and life. There is no place where he is not having faith in. The man with "little" faith is the man who has faith in his salvation, but has no faith for God to provide the things he needs to carry his mission on earth or housing, clothing, food, ect....
Even though there is only "one faith" but this one faith can do multiple things all at the same time. Jesus said....

Mat 6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Mat 6:31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

Jesus was not telling them there faith was small, only they had little faith, which means they needed to have faith in all of their necessities of life, not just in a few things. When a person has faith it is already at it fullness, it can not get any stronger that what it is now. You either have faith or you don't. You can even have faith and unbelief at the same time.

Mar 9:20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
Mar 9:21 And Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood.
Mar 9:22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."
Mar 9:23 And Jesus said to him, "'If you can'! All things are possible for one who believes."
Mar 9:24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

This guy had faith in believing Jesus was the son of David the messiah, but he had no faith in believing for the healing for his son. If he knew the same faith he had for believing Jesus as the messiah, could also be used to heal his son, but he did not know that.
 
Little faith is little trust or confidence and it is not only qualitative but also quantitative---according to Jesus, who used the phrase more than once.

You can even have faith and unbelief at the same time.

Yes, because we need faith in order to believe.
 
Little faith is little trust or confidence and it is not only qualitative but also quantitative---according to Jesus, who used the phrase more than once.



Yes, because we need faith in order to believe.

Sister, you either have no trust or complete trust in someone, there is no little trust or faith.
 
Sister, you either have no trust or complete trust in someone, there is no little trust or faith.

There is a degree of trust. Jesus spoke to it. You can trust someone in one area and not another. It was the same with the disciples.
 
There is a degree of trust. Jesus spoke to it. You can trust someone in one area and not another. It was the same with the disciples.

That is why I said you can have faith in one area and not in another. But a degree of trust is not possible as you either have trust or you don't. There is no middle ground.
 
That is why I said you can have faith in one area and not in another. But a degree of trust is not possible as you either have trust or you don't. There is no middle ground.

OK, I disagree. Jesus' disciples trusted Him, but in their lack of understanding, revealed that they needed to come up higher in it. Peter was the only one who stepped out of the boat. Thomas needed physical confirmation that Jesus had bodily risen. Martha, His friend, questioned His intent to raise her dear dead brother.

We all can com up higher in the degree to which we trust God. That is why He leads us into areas that test our faith and trust in Him.
 
OK, I disagree. Jesus' disciples trusted Him, but in their lack of understanding, revealed that they needed to come up higher in it. Peter was the only one who stepped out of the boat. Thomas needed physical confirmation that Jesus had bodily risen. Martha, His friend, questioned His intent to raise her dear dead brother.

We all can com up higher in the degree to which we trust God. That is why He leads us into areas that test our faith and trust in Him.

Jesus speaks about faith as being a "mustard seed" A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. In other words the size of faith means nothing, you either have it or you don't. Jesus also talks about faith as being a servant.

Luk 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Luk 17:7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
Luk 17:8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

Faith is a servant to the one who has it. You release your faith by speaking it like Jesus said, "if you had faith you might say...."
Once faith is release it works for you, and when it is finished it brings you what you ask it to do. You do not thank it for doing what you commanded it to do, but once it is finished you feed it and send it out again. The same faith being able to do multiple things.
 
We all can com up higher in the degree to which we trust God. That is why He leads us into areas that test our faith and trust in Him.

How can you come up higher in faith when you already have faith in him. Higher would mean having that same faith you have in your salvation being duplicated in other areas of your life. You can not kinda have faith. Faith is not in degrees but in quantity, the same faith being used in other places.
 
How can you come up higher in faith when you already have faith in him. Higher would mean having that same faith you have in your salvation being duplicated in other areas of your life. You can not kinda have faith. Faith is not in degrees but in quantity, the same faith being used in other places.

Most definitely one can come up higher in the exercise of one's trust in God. That is what happens all through one's life as one's trust grows and where there is hardness, softness and malleability comes, and we grow into spiritual maturity...from glory to glory.
 
Most definitely one can come up higher in the exercise of one's trust in God. That is what happens all through one's life as one's trust grows and where there is hardness, softness and malleability comes, and we grow into spiritual maturity...from glory to glory.

When someone gets saved by grace through faith, and when their faith gets higher, are they more saved than before?
 
Now that is a factious question. What do you think?

The answer would be no. Which means their faith was already in its fullness when they used it to get saved. If that same person wants to have faith in God in other areas of their life all they have to do is use the same faith they had to get saved in other areas of their life.
 
Once we have come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are to embark on a spiritual path where it is cultivated and matures---grows. We do that by getting into God's word regularly, and by implementing what we read there into our lives---taking steps of faith in Him because we learn to trust Him. We test His word and He proves Himself trustworthy to us more and more as we do.
 
Certainly we grow spiritually as we look into the mirror of God's word. When you look in a mirror who do you see? You see your self, but what is it you see in yourself? You see the Glory of God which is Christ dwelling inside his temple. If we continue to look into this mirror we will not forget what manner of man we really are. This is spiritual growth. Is Christ in perfect? Does he need to grow more than he already is in us? Our growth is not in changing who we are, as Christ who is our life is already perfect, but our growth is in our understanding of who we already are, and as we stay looking into that mirror we will never forget who we are.
 
We grow from glory to glory as our faith is increased.

You are correct that faith is connected to spiritual growth, but it is not faith that grows to cause this, it is by the Spirit of the Lord that this change happens.

2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
 
You are correct that faith is connected to spiritual growth, but it is not faith that grows to cause this, it is by the Spirit of the Lord that this change happens.

2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

I can say with certainty that the faith I exercised as a ten-year-old for salvation has grown to something deeper and larger in the last decades.
 
Back
Top