We have been on a journey together exploring the promises of God and how to obtain them. Yesterday I introduced the subject of double-mindedness and how it will always sink our faith. Today I want to give you three practical keys to overcoming double-mindedness and more importantly to becoming single-minded in your faith.
Understanding Double-Mindedness
As it is written in James 1:6-8: “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James covers it really well where he says let him ask in faith without wavering. Notice this: often the same language is used in Romans 4 where it says Abraham did not waver. What does it mean to waver? It means to hesitate. God will; God will not. He hesitates. He is like the wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think he will receive anything from the Lord.
Can you help me? I am not receiving from the Lord. Yes, I can help you. You are double-minded. How dare you call me double-minded. Well, I love you, but we are all double-minded at times. This is counterintuitive in a way, but it would help us at times to not be in a rush to try to receive from God. In fact, it would actually help us to redefine the game. It would help us to change the terms of reference. For most of us when we pray a prayer or we are trying to obtain one of God’s promises, we see the endgame. We see the goal; we see the result. We see the thing we will judge whether this is successful or not as in obtaining the thing.
Imagine I am praying for a Bible. For most of us what we are looking for—we will know our criteria for judging if this endeavor is successful or not—is did I receive a Bible? Did I find a husband or wife? Did I get a new car? Did I get healed? Did this person get saved? We are looking for the thing and that is our goal in the game we are playing. I know this is not a game. Follow my language if you will. My point is this: I think if we would redefine the terms of the game we would win the game. I think our goal should not be to see, smell, feel, taste, touch a Bible—somebody say the result. I think the goal should be to have fully persuaded faith. I think our goal should be to get to that place where we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we know that we have by faith what God has promised based on His promise alone—not based on the fact we have seen it.
Remember in Mark 11 Jesus curses a fig tree and then twenty-four hours later nothing seems to happen. They are coming back twenty-four hours later and the tree is dead—frazzled, dead. If you would have gone to Jesus—imagine you went to Him in the evening. In the morning He curses the fig tree; you come to Him in the evening. Maybe you walked past the fig tree. The fig tree seems to be doing really well. I think if you would have gone to Jesus I am utterly convinced Jesus would have said to you I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that the tree is dead. He would not have been trying to work I believe. Hallelujah; let us confess that. He would have been no—I really do believe that tree is dead.
If you would have live-streamed FaceTime—zoomed the tree in front of Jesus—Jesus would have said I believe what I am seeing is a truthful representation of what is going on but I do not believe it. It is subject to change. I believe God’s Word. That I see can change. This cannot change. Jesus was fully persuaded. I think if the goal of our faith was to get our hearts to the place we are fully persuaded then I think our faith life would take on a whole new dimension.
My testimony—my truthful testimony to you—is I have never once been in a place in my life where I was truly in faith—truly fully persuaded—and the thing did not happen. Not once. This will upset some of you but I will say it anyway. My testimony to you is I have never seen anybody who was truly fully persuaded in the heart of something and it did not happen. There are circumstances like the people of the Old Testament—they died in faith not having yet seen the Messiah come. That was a timing thing but even then they were fully persuaded and they saw it. Jesus said Abraham saw My day and rejoiced. Hallelujah.
Our goal should not be to get a thing. Our goal should actually be to get to that place of being fully persuaded. It is interesting but I learned this years ago. This is the reason many people get half healed. This is the reason many people lose the healing. Imagine somebody who is in pain. I prayed for a person in pain the other day and I said what level is your pain at one to ten? I think they said eight or nine out of ten which is pretty high. Imagine your pain level is ten out of ten. If you think the goal of the prayer is to get rid of the pain then it is actually not.
I have done this many times where I pray for somebody. Let us say the pain level is ten. We pray; we minister; we speak to the disease—the pain—whatever. I tell it to go. Suddenly the pain level goes down to four. If you have been sitting in ten out of ten pain and you are now in four out of ten pain you are a really happy person. You think it is great? Usually you are like oh I can live with this. That is just background noise. That is a little blip compared to what it was. What has happened? What happens is a lot of people stay at that level of healing. Why? Because here is what happens. If we come to the Lord and our goal is to get rid of pain in our body that will happen but we believe that has happened because we feel it has happened—not because of the Word of God.
If we come and we tell the pain to go one hundred percent and we believe it based on the Word—not based on our current experience—even our good current experience. The danger is at times we start off in faith and then when we get a good experience we shift from believing it is done because we feel it is done rather than believing it is done because the Word of God says it is done. It is very subtle but it is why people get half healed. Also why people lose the healing because you pray; they get healed. Great. The pain is one hundred percent gone. Hallelujah. I know I am healed. Well they are really saying is I know I am healed because I feel I am healed. Then they wake up two days later—ooh a little pain comes back—and they are like oh I guess I am not healed. They believe they are not healed because they feel they are not healed rather than coming back to the Word.
Key One: Be Honest with the Lord
As it is written in Psalm 139:23: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties.” The first one most of us do not like. I hinted at it yesterday but it is actually being honest with the Lord. Search my heart and know me. Lord show me the state of my heart. The Bible says examine yourself to see whether you be in faith. I think it is really hard to solve a problem you do not have. So I think it is a great thing. Sometimes rather than pray in a prayer and then trying to figure out all of the mess after—why did it not work whatever—sometimes before we ever pray the prayer say Lord show me my heart. Show me the current place and my faith. Show me the unbelief—the doubt—the baggage I am carrying with me. Lord work in me that which pleases You. Show me what is actually going on here and let me deal with that before I then pray that prayer.
I think if we are double-minded—knowing it and owning it and actually embracing the journey—say Lord I might go on a little journey and it might be a day. It might be a week; it might be a year. But either way I know the journey is not to change You. The journey is to change me. I am the Lord. I change not—Malachi 3 verse 6. God does not need to be changed. Graham needs to be changed. You need to be changed. If we will actually own that process and say I am not waiting for God to do something. I believe it is already done. I am waiting on the Lord that He would work on my heart. So in a way part of repentance is being honest about where we are truly at. I am not saying it is intrinsically sin to be double-minded but I am saying we need to repent. We need to do a U-turn. We need to allow God to lead us in another direction.
Key Two: Allow the Lord to Speak the Word to You
As it is written in Matthew 4:4: “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”’” Key number two is this: to truly allow the Lord to speak that word to you—to take that what some people would call a logos word—a kind of general yes part of the Bible—and make it a rhema word to you. Have your faith based on a word that you know God has spoken to you—not simply a word that you know God spoke to somebody else and they had a great testimony. A lot of us are running on a second-hand word. Now is it the Word of God? Yes it is but it is going to be God-breathed to you. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God—every rhema. We have actually got to get to the place where God’s word proceeds from the mouth of God into our own heart. That is what faith comes by—hearing the rhema of God.
What do you do if you have just got a logos—a kind of general word? That is not bad. What you do is you take that word that you got in the book—the conference—or even reading your Bible and you say Holy Spirit write this on the tablet of my heart. Make the word my word. Breathe that word in me until my faith is anchored on that word. Man shall not live by bread alone. Let me ask you a question. What do you do with bread? Do you put it on your freezer door? Do you put it in the back page of your Bible? No you put it in your mouth and you chew it. So often God has given us a word and we are going okay well God said it; it will happen and it is time. What we have got to do is put that bread in our mouth and chew it. God said this. God has said this. God has said to me this and sort of chew and ingest and engage with that word.
Key Three: Have a Single Eye
As it is written in Luke 11:34: “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” This is going to seem counterintuitive. Because what happens when we are double-minded is we have two things to look at. We have the Word of God; we have the wind and the waves. We have the Word of God; we have the pain. We have the Word of God; we have the debts. We have got two sources of information. The Bible says in Luke 11 that when your eye is single your whole body is full of light. What we need to learn to do—and this is the third key—is to have a single eye: to learn to keep our eyes upon the Word of God and not get distracted.
Do you remember Elijah when he said to Elisha? Elisha said I want your anointing. Elijah said you can have it—if when I get taken to heaven you keep your eye on me. Not the chariots; not the angels; not the fire; not the prophets; not the peripheral thing. Keep your eye fixed on me. When your eye is single your whole body is full of light. Hebrews 11 lists all these great heroes of faith and the amazing things they did. Then it flows into Hebrews 12 verse one—three amazing words: looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith. It is our turn; our chance; our role. We are carrying the baton of faith now. You get faith by not trying to ignore your problems but by looking unto Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face. The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
This simple shift—from chasing the manifestation to pursuing fully persuaded faith—transforms how we approach God’s promises. When we overcome double-mindedness through honesty, a personal rhema word, and a single eye, we position ourselves to receive without wavering.
Selah.
Scriptures for Study
James 1:6-8, Romans 4:20, Mark 11:22-24, Malachi 3:6, Luke 11:34, Hebrews 12:2, John 8:56, Psalm 139:23-24, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Matthew 4:4, Proverbs 4:23, Hebrews 11:1, Romans 10:17, 2 Kings 2:9-10, James 1:5, Ephesians 6:16, Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:11, Isaiah 26:3, Colossians 3:2, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Peter 1:13, Psalm 27:1, Matthew 6:22-23
10 Questions for Reflection
- Where in your life have you experienced double-mindedness in pursuing God’s promises?
- How might redefining your goal from obtaining the thing to becoming fully persuaded change your approach to prayer?
- What does it look like for you to be honest with the Lord about the state of your heart?
- Have you ever shifted from faith in the Word to faith in your experience during a partial breakthrough?
- How can you allow the Holy Spirit to turn a general logos word into a personal rhema for you?
- What word from God do you need to chew on and ingest more deeply?
- In what areas do you have two sources of information competing for your attention?
- How can keeping a single eye on Jesus help you navigate current trials?
- What peripheral distractions pull your focus away from the Word?
- If your goal became fully persuaded faith, what journey might that require in your heart?
