The Lack of Faith Error

In past posts, I've explained how charismatic Christians have hurt me by assuming I didn't have enough faith to be healed. In fact, many disabled folks have been slandered by hard-hearted churchgoers who had zero understanding of God's sovereignty.

One verse thrown at me many times was Matthew 17:20 (KJV) which reads, "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.'"

What those teachers, and many of them today, don't understand is that Christ was using hyperbole. He wasn't saying they could literally cause a mountain to be moved. Christ meant that they should trust in him implicitly.

Jesus rebuked his disciples many times for not trusting in him. For example, he fell asleep in the stern of the boat when a storm came up. Matthew 8:26 (KJV) quotes his chiding. "And he saith unto them,  'Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?' Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm."


Another time, Peter was actually walking on the water with Jesus. Then he got worried about the violent waves and winds. In Matthew 14:31 (KJV), we see what Christ did next. "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'"

Charismatic Christians make the mistake of believing that faith is some sort of magical power. Without understanding the purposes of God in doing miracles through his Son and his immediate disciples, they assume they can also do marvellous works. That's like an uneducated person putting on glasses and wondering why he or she can't read books.

I hope to write much more about this subject in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? The whole purpose of what we go through in this life is to build trust in the Lord, not to wield God's power. Sadly, Jesus himself said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that many will say they did all sorts of miracles in his name. But the Lord will say, "I never knew you."

I'll be writing in my next post about how some charismatic believers exaggerate Satan's abilities.

Saturday Song: Berlin, "Take My Breath Away"

Whenever I hear this song, it brings back all the feelings and experiences to mind from August of 1986. I went to a hospital in the town of Stony Plain to have an operation on my right eye.

What made this operation frightening for me was that it was the only eye I could use to see. My left eye went blind in 1974 so I felt great trepidation about this one also losing sight.

Hear Berlin's song here.

At the time, I attended a house church which insisted that people with enough faith could be healed. Since my eyes never improved during the many prayer sessions, the elders assumed I lacked the faith to receive such a gift from God Almighty.

Consequently, I felt petrified. What if God let me go blind? What would I do for work because my job involved a lot of reading? These and other worries hounded me day and night.

Worse yet, a bubble formed on my retina but the doctor didn't explain what caused it. I feared that my distorted vision would be permanent.

When the doctor told me a week later that the bubble was dissolving, I felt chagrinned. All that worry was for nothing. My eye recovered and I was employed for another nine years at my job.

In all the years at that church, nobody explained about God's providence to me. No matter what happens, our heavenly Father does everything for our eventual good and his glory. That's why Scripture says in 1 Peter 5:7 (KJV)  "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

Did you like the song and what I wrote? Please tell me in the box below. But if you'd rather not comment, have a wonderful weekend anyway.

Why no Miracles Today?

 This used to be my number one question. I've written about it in my previous post but I'll now elaborate on why we don't see miracles today.

A miracle is an event which has no natural explanation. The Bible contains accounts of many such inexplicable occurrences which could only be explained by God's intervention. But why isn't the Lord intervening today?

Preachers claim to be faith healers, yet folks such as myself are turned away from healing crusades. I also prayed ernestly for my eyes to be healed but nothing ever happened. In fact, I suffered a hemorrhage in my left eye which caused me to reject God. Because many people told me I had a lack of faith, hidden sin, lust for sight, and ancestral sins blocking my healing, I assumed God was stingy and uncaring.

 Nothing could be further from the truth. I'd been misled by charismatic leaders to believe that I had to have faith the size of a mustard seed in order to get a miracle from God. As I pointed out in my previous post, those who did see real miracles still refused to believe. That was their lack of faith, not some sort of spiritual energy strong enough to trigger God's power.

"What about all those reports of miracles by Christians?" some ask. I don't doubt that the Lord does miraculous deeds on occasion. What I do question is assertions of miracles by well-paid preachers. From what I know of the Bible, miracles are God's way of validating his message. Furthermore, he sovereignly decides if or when they should happen.


How I Was Razed is my testimony regarding my spiritual journey to the proper relationship with the heavenly Father. Please click that link and discover how wonderful being providentially led out of error is.


"But how can we believe the Bible?" some might ask. I'll deal with that question in the next post.