This message entitled, “Madness of faith” would serve to strengthen the faith of those who have been overtaken by the spirit of doubt.
If as a Christian, nobody has ever accused you of being a fanatic, it means that you are not yet serious with your Christian life. Anyone who is serious with his Christian life operates sometimes in a way that is not logical. If unbelievers call you a fanatic, you should rejoice for it means you are doing well. If the people of the world speak well of you, there is a problem. Jesus says, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).
A long time ago, I was the chairman of a group of people that organized a get-together in my place of work. As the chairman, I was supposed to approve the money for the purchase of food and drinks. But when I noticed that alcohol took a lion’s share of the budget for the programme, I cancelled the whole list they brought to me. And as usual, they called me a fanatic. If you have not got to the level where you are called a fanatic, you have not started your Christian journey. Some sisters keep quiet when they are touched by the opposite sex for fear of being called fanatics. We also have those who would discourage men from coming very close to them by their attitude, call them fanatics, they do not care. To the people of the world, the reaction of the latter is fanatical. Christians who cannot compromise are described as mad. Sometime ago, God told a friend of mine, a fine prophet, to go to the forest and preach about the love of Christ in the early hours of the morning. Initially he was skeptical about the command, but had to obey because he understood very well the consequences of disobeying the voice of God. When he got to his fellowship in the evening, a brother gave a testimony of how he went to the bush with a rope to commit suicide early in the morning that day, and as he was about to hang himself, he heard a voice saying, “God is love, God is love.” He paused, wanting to hear more of the message, and after listening to the message, he decided not to commit suicide. If the brother had refused to go, so that he would not be a fanatic, that brother’s blood would be required from him.
The life of faith goes beyond human logic and common sense. Abraham, the father of faith, would be described as a mad man if one looks at his faithfulness to God with human logic. The problem with most people is that they rely much on their brains and education, contrary to the case of men of God of old who were not as educated, yet they moved mountains for God because they believed His word in totality. When you come to God, you must forget whatever knowledge you have. Brother Smith Wigglesworth accompanied someone to visit a patient in a hospital. The patient was dying of cancer of the liver and had a protruded stomach. When Bro. Wigglesworth got to the sick man, he gave him a heavy punch on his stomach and he fell down from his bed. The doctor raised an alarm. But to his amazement and that of other hospital staff, the man who had been under life support jumped up and started to shout for joy saying, “Doctor, I am healed, I am healed.” Before they knew it, Bro. Wigglesworth was on the third bed dragging another patient. Eventually, he emptied the hospital beds of patients that day. If he were an educated person, he would have thought about what science said about the condition of those patients and would not have been able to move in faith the way he did. So, we should do away with many things if we want to start moving in the ways of God.
The Bible talks about Apostle Paul who preached and ministered in the streets. There was an occasion when he accosted some men preaching in the street, and asked if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed. And they answered, “We have never heard of anything called the Holy Spirit.” They told him that they only received the baptism of John. Paul laid his hands on them and prayed for them and they began to prophesy and speak in tongues right there in the streets. A modern man would find that very difficult. He would ask the preacher to look for a hidden corner to pray.
A friend of mine who went to India to work told me a story of how somebody was bitten by a snake and they brought the person to him because it would take six hours by road to travel to the nearest hospital. But as he was thinking of what to do, a man emerged from where he was cutting grass and commanded the snake poison to come out in the name of Jesus. Immediately, the poison inside the body of the victim started to come out. This miracle changed the life of my friend. If we take a close look at the life of father Abraham, we would agree that faith goes beyond logic. Abraham is regarded as the father of faith in spite of his limitations. He had no Bible or any reference material to read like we have now. The great grandfathers of the writers of the Bibles we have now had not been born during his time, but he held on to the promises of God. Galatians 3:6-9 says of him, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”
If you are Abraham’s seed, you should behave like him. God wants all believers to take after Abraham so that they can inherit his blessings. Abraham asked for a child but was 100 years old before he got one. Eventually, God told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, who was his dearest treasure. Isaac was to be his hope for the future. Yet he did not argue with God. Again when God told him of his intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he interceded for the city but he did not tell anyone, or else they would have said he was mad. He did not even tell his wife, Isaac or any of his servants.
There is nothing like bad news for a Christian. Every bad news is a new challenge to his faith. It would make him to grow spiritually to a level where God can entrust bigger responsibilities to him. As problems multiply, solutions will also come up. It is like the hurdle race. If the hurdles are removed during training the trainee will not be able to train well because the essence of the training is the hurdles. The essence of this message is to challenge the faith of those who put their trust on fellow human beings and those who feel that things can only happen when they are praying in the church. They do not believe that their private prayers at home can work wonders too. Paul the apostle told us in his epistles how to enter the land flowing with milk and honey and how to inherit blessings. Those things he said are still valid today. He told us of how some people through their unfaithful attitude hindered their own blessings and even got executed by God. I Corinthians 10: 5-12 says, “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
The Lord Jesus Christ has made available for us today a land flowing with milk and honey, where there is more than enough for everyone, but certain things are preventing the children of God from enjoying them. A lot of things hinder people from entering into the Promised Land. They include idolatry, fornication, grumbling and murmuring. Hebrews 3:17-19 sums it up this way. “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” This great disease has eaten up the lives of many Christians. They come to the house of God hoping that one day they would ‘hit a jackpot.” My counsel is that you should give God a chance in your life to do something. It is like that popular song that says, “You tried the doctor, the doctor says there is nothing he can do; why not give God a chance. You tried the lawyer, the lawyer says it is a bad case, why not give God a chance...”
I recall the case of a woman who rushed to a man of God to tell him that her only son had been convicted to die. The man of God prayed and told the woman that her son would not die. This was a word of knowledge given three days before the execution. Five minutes before the execution, somebody phoned to confess that he was the one responsible for the crime. He said, “I just framed him up, I will surrender myself to the police.” This news came while the woman was rolling on the floor, crying bitterly that her son was dead. To her amazement, the boy was freed. That is why faith is regarded as madness. We should therefore not become candidates of evil prophecies. The Bible says that some people will see, but cannot perceive, or hear but will not understand because of unbelief. When you refuse to believe what God says, you are making Him a liar. Why should we believe what the devil, the flesh and human beings say, but fail to believe what God says. You must stir up yourself and shake away unbelief from your life. You should stop drinking the wine of doubt, which is capable of killing good things. People of the world regard those who have overcome doubt as mad people. Psalm 78: 22-33 says, “Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven. And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire. They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.” God decided to consume them in vanity and their years in trouble because of unbelief. Verses 60-64 say, “So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men. And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.” All these came upon them because of unbelief. No wonder the Bible warns us not to follow the examples of unbelievers. To this end, I would like you to pray this prayer point aggressively: “Oh Lord, do not deliver my glory into the hands of the enemy, in the name of Jesus.” Unbelief and doubt can make God to deliver the glory of His people into the hands of the enemy.
DOUBT CAN BE FED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS
1. By entertaining thoughts of failure: The moment you sit down and begin to entertain thoughts of failure, the devil gives you many reasons why the thing would not be possible. And as you begin to absorb all these, doubt gets stronger. When we were in secondary school, some students used to award grades to themselves before writing an examination. They would say, English P7, Mathematics F9, Yoruba A1, etc. and when the results came out, they used to be worse than what they awarded themselves.
2. Meditation on the magnitude of the problem: If somebody comes to me and begins to lament about a huge debt, for example, five hundred million naira that he is owing, I will tell him that it is a small amount, because I know that God is greater than that. I have seen a pauper who became a millionaire overnight, a man who could not afford a pair of shoes, suddenly becoming an international figure.
3. When you focus on difficulty instead of solution: A believer who focuses on difficulties would do a lot of damage to his faith. We should understand that this attitude would not augur well for our progress.
4. When you give in to discouragement: When you feel that your colleagues are better than you, and you always say, “How, I wish, I were so and so...” It is nothing but discouragement. This will lead to depression and as a result, doubt would get stronger.
5. When you forget God’s benefits: A hymn writer says, “When upon life bellows you are tempest tossed. When you are discouraged and feel that all is lost, count your many blessings. Name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” So, counting your blessings and benefits would elevate your faith. If you forget those benefits from the Lord, then you are feeding your doubt. No wonder the Psalmist says, “Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all His benefits...”
6. Trying to see before believing: The Bible says, “Believing is seeing.” If you maintain that you can only believe when you see, you are feeding doubt. A certain friend of mine was invited to a crusade where they told him that miracles would happen. As a scientist, he did not believe in miracles. However, he decided to go to the crusade ground to find out what was going to happen. He got there early enough to witness everything. He sat down in the front row and read his novel until the revival began. During the revival, many miracles happened and people were shouting for joy in all directions of the crusade ground. Those who received the touch of God were brought forward. But nothing actually happened where my friend was sitting. He went there again the second day and sat at one of the points where miracles happened the first night. But the miracles shifted to where he sat the previous day. So, he concluded that the whole thing was a phony exercise after all. My friend did not know that God allowed things to happen that way because of his evil motive of coming to that place.
7. Trying the alternative: You do not pray for divine healing and then go home to start looking for herbs. That would mean lack of faith. If you know it is concoction you want to take for your illness, go ahead and drink it. It is better that way than to be deceiving yourself and feeding your doubt.
8. Referring to former failures: When you make reference to your past failures, you are feeding doubt.
9. Referring to other people’s failure: When your heart melts at the thought of people who had the same problem as yours and did not succeed, you are feeding doubt.
10. Being pre-occupied with problems at the expense of God’s service: It is wrong for believers to think that they should not work for God until their problems are solved.
11. Giving up: When a believer comes to the point of giving up and loses all courage to try anything again, the enemy would be happy.
12. Thoughts of suicide: If you are thinking of ending it all because of your ugly situation, the devil would be happy because it means that you have been caught in their net.
13. The spirit of fear: Somebody defines fear thus: “Fake evidence appearing real.” This is true of those who make themselves its victims.
14. The spirit of worry: Worry strengthens doubt.
15. Listening to the conversation of unbelief: Moving with people who talk unbelief and are pessimistic about everything would wreck your faith and strengthen doubt.
16. Carrying out a research on your problem: Burying your head in books in your quest to know more about one sickness or the other would deal a terrible blow on your faith. I once met a pastor in a bookshop. When I asked him what he came there to do, he told me that he was looking for some books on AIDS. “What do you want to do with them?” I asked. He replied that he was only interested in knowing everything about the disease. Medical books are notable for producing bad pictures and as you read them, your mind would begin to visualize horrible things, for example, people whose legs are as big as an elephant, abnormal eyes, wrongly placed body parts, those who have eleven fingers etc. The more you meditate on them, the more the wall of your faith begins to crack to make an avenue for doubt to creep in.
17. Negative confessions: Statements such as, “I am dying of malaria fever,” “I am sure I won’t pass the interview,” “this my poor leg,” etc are all faith-destroying confessions. A believer should say good things to himself even in the midst of great afflictions.
18. Keeping the calendar of evil occurrence: When a person agrees with the devil that something evil would happen to him at a certain period of the year, he is under the captivity of doubt and fear. Such a person makes negative confessions such as, “You know this is September, this my bad cold would soon start.”
19. Failure to forgive yourself after God has forgiven you: Perhaps, you had done something horrible, for example, abortion before you got born again. Definitely, you did it in ignorance and God has forgiven you. There is therefore no need referring to it again as being responsible for your present situation. Doing so will amount to feeding doubt.
20. Living in any known sin: Many people are afraid of dying because they are living in sin. They are afraid when you talk about hell and hades because they know that if they die suddenly in their present state, they are going to perish. It is the same thing with those who are living in sin and are praying to God for one thing or the other. They know in their hearts that God will not answer.
The generation of Noah perished because of unbelief. Peter started sinking at the point he entertained unbelief. Zachariah became dumb when he found it difficult to believe the message from angel Gabriel concerning the birth of John the Baptist. It was unbelief that threw the apostles into confusion concerning what Jesus had told them about His death. One bitter truth is that many of us would not understand and enjoy God if He answers all prayer requests made unto Him, hence He sometimes turns down the request of some of His close friends. Moses and Elijah prayed that God should take away their lives at a time but God did not grant their request. Therefore, it is not the circumstance that matters, neither is it your feelings. What your friend, your doctor, or the devil is saying is not important. What is important is what God says about the situation. I do not know who is speaking fear and discouragement into your mind. I am sure it is not God that is telling you that your case is difficult because He has all powers. Your success depends on the kind of report you believe.
HOW TO MOVE IN THE MADNESS OF FAITH
1. You should know that nothing is as serious as the devil is making it look. The devil merely blows issues out of proportion for you to believe that there is no way out.
2. Realize that God is with you.
3. Realize that obstacles will come. Christianity is not a bed of roses. Anybody preaching otherwise is deceiving you. There is always a cross before a crown. When obstacles come, do not sit down and cry, take up your weapons.
4. Submit your tongue to God, because a wrong use of it will cancel your prayer. Please, make the following confessions: “O Lord, I submit my tongue to you. I invite you to discipline my tongue, my language, my mouth, my words and my speech, in the name of Jesus.
5. Accept God’s promise for your life. No matter how strange it may look, hold on to it. Hold on to the vision that God has given to you, don’t let it slip.
6. Renounce all confidence in man.
7. Rest on God faithfully. Remember that old song that says, “Take your burden to the Lord and leave them there.” After you drop it there, do not pick it up again. Let God work on it.
8. Do not be bound by past memories, because they will cause more problems for you.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Lord, help me to recover everything that doubt has made me to lose, in the name of Jesus.
2. No spirit of Goliath shall be revived, in the name of Jesus.
3. Let breakthrough fill my life, in the name of Jesus.
4. Let the glory of God overshadow my life, in Jesus’ name.
