CHAPTER THREE
How to Overcome Doubt by Faith
Have you often wondered why it is that your prayers are so seldom answered? Or why you were not healed although you thought you prayed in faith? Or why there is so much defeat, worry and frustration in your life instead of the joy, peace and victory which a Christian is supposed to have? Have you wondered why your faith is so weak and inadequate? Do trials cause your faith to languish and grow faint rather than strong and mature?
The Word of God will give you the reason. It is doubt. The temptation to doubt what God has promised us in His Word is one of Satan's most effective weapons to rob the Christian of peace of mind, healing, joy, material provision of his needs, spiritual power, strong faith, blessings and victory. The spiritual principle set forth in James 1:5-7 is applicable to any situation or promise God has made us in His Word which is to be appropriated by faith.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and is shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing DOUBTING (Greek). For he that doubteth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Although we may at first ask in faith for an answer to our needs, if we later begin to doubt, Satan will rob us of the answer, for it will not come. God, says that a doubter is like a wave of the sea; he wavers between faith and unbelief and therefore is unprepared to receive the very thing he seeks. He is like a wind tossed wave or billow of the sea, rising first with hope, then sinking down out of sight into the depths of doubt.
Whatever God has promised in His Word can only be received by faith. doubt is a disease that eats away your faith like a cancer. Doubt is the Devil's handmaid whom he sends to seduce your faith and rob you of God's blessings. Faith is from God; doubt is from Satan. He who begins to doubt can go only one way -- down!
HOW CAN YOU OVERCOME THE TEMPTATION TO DOUBT?
Is doubt a sin? It is one of the greatest! God's Word declares: "but without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Again, "for whatsoever is not faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Did Jesus die for all your sins? Then he also died for your doubts, for the Word of God plainly states that doubt is a sin and displeases God. Cast your doubts on the Lord and He will surely remove them (I Peter 5:7).
So much prayer goes unanswered because Christians do not really take God's integrity seriously enough to expect an answer each time they pray. They hope that occasionally their "turn" will come and God will give them what they ask. But God is interested in answering prayers and fulfilling His promises to us -- this is why He made them. The only requirement is, however, that me must ask in faith, nothing doubting. When we pray we are to expect an answer for Jesus said:
What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24).
If ye have faith, and doubt not...all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive (Matthew 21:21-22).
This is where your defeat always begins -- in the mind. Satan suggests such doubts to your mind as to whether or not God is willing to answer your particular request, or whether you are worthy, or have asked properly. He tells you your problem is too difficult, or your disease too far advanced for any hope of cure. Here is where most people are defeated. They allow thoughts of doubt to enter their mind; they entertain the doubt; they examine its merits; or they try to reason with the problem instead of resting of God's promise. Then when they try to get rid of the doubts and exercise faith, they find that the doubts refuse to leave! Entertain doubt for a minute and it will require and hour to get rid of it; listen to Satan's doubts for an hour and it will require a week to gain back the ground lost and recover your faith! Do not ever entertain doubt about that for which you have prayed for one moment -- stop it at the door! You need never doubt again about anything. You can overcome all doubt and transform your entire Christian life. You alone hold the key to complete victory. Simply refuse to accept a single doubtful thought which Satan suggests to your mind. "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you."
This is one of the most effective weapons against the Enemy the believer possesses. There is nothing that will banish Satan with his lies and doubts more quickly than praise and song. The Devil will flee if you command him, but he will also flee if you praise God! He refuses to stay around the Christian who continually offers praises unto God. If we would praise God more we would have to command the Devil less. Why? Praise covers you with a protective garment which the spirit of depression, doubt, and heaviness cannot penetrate. The spirit of joy and praise is one of the benefits Christ purchased for us at Calvary, for the Lord declares in Isaiah 61:1-3: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion..the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Israel once overcame her enemies with song and praise unto the Lord without a weapon being used and without a fight. so can you! Read II Chronicles 20.
God desires praise more than material offerings (Psalms 69:30-31), for "whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Psalms 50:23). Doubts will vanish like the morning mist before the rising sun in the life of one who offers up songs of praise unto the Lord continually (Psalms 34:1; 35:28; Hebrews 13:15).
Always confess what God's Word says and hold fast to this in the face of all circumstance which appear to the contrary, for you will receive what you confess. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). Admitting doubt even in a small way will paralyze and withhold God's blessings from you (James 1:6-7). Absolutely refuse to confess doubt, defeat, unbelief, or anything of a negative nature. The reason for this is clear, for "a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken" (Proverbs 15:13). Confessing doubt invites a spirit of depression and defeat. Satan attacks the mind with thoughts of doubt and unbelief seeking thereby to destroy your peace and joy in the Lord for he knows that "...the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).
One of the greatest sources of weakness, failure, unanswered prayer, and defeat is your own tongue. The confession of doubt is your own admission that you are defeated and Satan is victor! Truly "death and life are in the power of the tongue." adopt the "vocabulary" of faith. Never allow yourself to use negative or doubtful express-ions of speech.
Listening to the doubts, disbelief, skepticism, and uncertainty of others can undermine and weaken your faith. Never discuss the problems which you have committed to the Lord, or God's promises which you have claimed by faith, with those who do not believe God positively answers every prayer of faith based upon His Word. For example, if, by faith, you have claimed bodily healing, Satan often uses the unbelief and skepticism of others to implant doubts in your heart. Many of his tares are sown just this way and the seed of God's Word is choked and becomes unfruitful.
It is possible also to forfeit healing once obtained by faith if we allow doubt to affect our faith. A man healed of cancer of the hip by faith was later stricken with cancer of the stomach and died because he listened to the doubts of his fellow church members who denied the validity of divine healing for today! answer doubt with faith. But do not linger arguing with doubters, for it is Satan speaking through them seeking to overthrow your faith.
The most effective remedy for doubt is a close walk with God. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). "...desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2). Prayer is the means of "...building up yourselves on your most holy faith" (Jude 20).
Finally, therefore, resist doubts like you would any other temptation to sin. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). Never open the door to doubt, and faith will take its place. The two never exist together -- if one is present the other is absent. The choice is yours. Which will it be? Faith or doubt?