You Believe In God, But You Don't Trust Him

By Jacobs Obamedo

Do you know that without faith, your existence has no place in God? Doubt's desire is to void your destiny with God. Until your faith is the same under all circumstances, there will still be room for doubt and anxiety in your life. How are you with His Word?

Are you still wrestling with doubt, fear, anxiety, or unbelief?

You need to urgently break the backbone of doubt and unbelief in your walk of faith. Doubt is a thief of your blessings and an enemy of your destiny. Doubt and worry are offensive to God and spiritually oppressive to His children. The only way to change a person is to change the way he thinks and eats. Think on the Word and learn to eat His Word.

About the Author

Dr. Jacobs Obamedo is a graduate from the University of Nigeria-Nsukka with a bachelor of science degree in economics/sociology. He attended Hampstead Bible School-London and was pastor of Hither Green Gospel Assembly Lewisham in London, England.

He holds a master's degree in theology from Lighthouse Christian College in Beebe, Arkansas, and a doctoral degree in theology from Christian Outreach Bible Institute College Seminary in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He is married to Felicia with four adult sprit-filled children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886854299

Book preview

cover.jpg

You Believe In God, But You Don't Trust Him

Jacobs Obamedo

ISBN 979-8-88685-428-2 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-429-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Jacobs Obamedo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

People Are Becoming Anxious

Chapter 1

A vital question

What is faith?

How is your faith?

Get back to biblical faith

Tests, crises, and pandemics are temporary

Pray about your faith

Fight the good fight of faith

Chapter 2

Some categories of doubts

Do spiritual surgery

Spirit-versus-spirit warfare

Declare God's Word over yourself/your household

The faith crisis is real, so deal with it and advance in faith

Chapter 3

What are doubt and unbelief?

Derivatives of doubt

Doubt needs addressing

Walk out your faith

Other categories of doubt

Doubters are welcome

Ants in the pants of faith

Change your world with the Word

Enclosure your heart

Chapter 4

Unbelief

Sources of unbelief

When does doubt become unbelief?

Dig into the Word for answers

Do you know God, or do you just know about him?

Rearview mirror mentality

Partial surrender

All things are possible

Chapter 5

The worry phenomenon

The pessimist: the worrier

Can worry be defined?

What the Bible says about worry

Worry is founded on uncertainty

Your focus can cause uneasiness

What are your fusses?

Losing sleep!

Chapter 6

How worry affects your body

Chapter 7

Plead the blood of Jesus over your worries

Whom are you serving?

Change your focus and devotion

Do not worry

Bring your worry and uncertainty to Him

Surrender

Submission in brokenness

What is your focus when you pray?

You can overcome worry

Nightly brain cleanse

Renewing of the mind

Chapter 8

The human spirit—God's light bulb

We were made in God's likeness

Spiritual light and revelation

Make God's Word your home page

Take charge

Take control of your emotions

Adjust your viewpoint

Acknowledgments

Chapter 9

The human heart is most deceitful

Do I certainly believe in God? God is not a man

God is Spirit, and His Word is Spirit too

Man's conception of God

What angle of life are you seeing God from?

Why do you hesitate and doubt?

Chapter 10

What must we do?

What about faith and reason?

Build your house on solid rock

Faith: uncertainties and certainties

What is behind hope?

Hopeful

The foundation of your faith is critical

Chapter 11

Divine call to righteousness

Pleasing God is worth contending for

Why contend for your faith?

Decide to love

Satan: the god of this world?

Contend and become immoveable

What does it mean to contend for the faith?

Make needed changes

Chapter 12

Guard your heart

Elijah was scared

Get help from the right source

Know God's plans

God answers prayer in amazing styles

Return to Him in absolute confidence

Negative whistle, thought, and voice

Maintain your life with God

My prayer for you

Chapter 13

Peter walked on water

Faith lesson

Keep your eyes on Jesus

The Word keeps doubt away

Don't miss God's best

Doubt and unbelief of others

Doubt and unbelief are the thieves of your faith

Can you answer this question?

Chapter 14

Test and temptation

What is the difference between God testing you and Satan tempting you?

Faith reasoning is reasoning with God's Word

Chapter 15

God fills heaven and earth—abandoned

Unfolding the mystery of abandonment

Fearing is a sin

Ask for help

The way of the righteous

The end of the ungodly

Chapter 16

Feeling abandoned

Miracle starts in the tomb

Things must end

Submit your abandonment

Resist the enemy

You need to persevere

The case of Elijah

Christ had a feeling of abandonment

You are not abandoned by God

Stop doubting Him

Chapter 17

Take the limit off yourself

Is God in absolute control of everything happening on earth?

How not to pray

You have all it takes to win

Change the way you think

Chapter 18

Too much noise around you

God's Word is a lamp; it will enlighten the darkness

Meditating on God's Word and praying in the Spirit

Innermost thoughts

Womb of revelation

Take ownership of God's Word

Paint a picture of your answer

The role of meditation in overcoming failure

The way of the Spirit is to walk in His power

Experience God's totality

Treasure the Word

Chapter 19

There is a need to adopt a new mindset

Visualize with your mind

The negotiating curves of life

Develop spiritual and mental toughness

Stop walking backward

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Exactly how?

Relearn your faith

We All Need to Refuel And Oil Change

Microwave mentality

Chapter 20

Remember His goodness

Stop sniffing Satan's sewage

Humility cures worldliness

Imagination is spiritual womb

Imagination sees the answer

Change your imaginations

Divine creative ability

Are you struggling?

Everything is touch and go

God's Word is superior over all things

What are you saying on the inside?

What do we do?

Chapter 21

What is the DNA of faith?

Faith's DNA is in the seed—God's Word

Spiritual pregnancy

Words are powerful

Looking unto Jesus

The power of word

The power of word

Mary conceived God's Word in her heart

Chapter 22

Become what you believe

What you perceive is what you believe

Your inner man

Deprogram your past

Twenty-first-century church

Jesus is the way

Jesus is the truth

Your identity

Popular (pop) culture

Chapter 23

Hearts of weed

If you don't change, things won't change

Become one with the seed

Words are powerful

Plant enough seed daily

Chapter 24

The seed is in itself

Authority and influence of His Word

Producing requires planting

Fig tree emaciated

Believe, doubt not

Importance of forgiveness and prayer

Declare the written Word against Satan

Angels will minister to you

Petition with the written Word

God wants to hear Himself in your prayer

Personalize scriptures when you pray

Chapter 25

Pray off doubt, fear, hopelessness, and disbelief

Praying in tongues: prophesying your future into manifestation

The devil attacks what he is afraid of

Feed your faith, pray in tongues

Faith and love casts out fear and doubt

Agape love (God's kind of love) destroys doubt and fear

Which is greater, faith, hope, or love?

Chapter 26

Daily declarations against the workers of darkness in your circumstances

Daily declaration against witchcraft spirit

Acknowledgments

Chapter 27

Earnest prayer

Earnest prayer does not give in to distraction

Chapter 28

Tongues, the ultimate prayer power

Some manifest reward of praying in tongues

Authentic prayer: praying the way that God must answer

We do not know what we should pray for as we ought

The heart is a garden

Chapter 29

What is God's kind of prayer?

Biblical examples of prayer

Praying in tongues is ultimate

Some noticeable reward of praying in tongues

Pray in compliance and God must hear

Scrutinize your life

Commit to walking in the Spirit

Chapter 30

Accurate teaching and prayer

Tongues originate in our spirit by the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit's edification

Gifts of the Spirit is for church edification

Quality time in prayer

Confessing and declaring the Word

Reconstruct your thought process

What is meditation?

Meditation: praying in tongues

The highest form of meditation: confess, declare, and affirm God's Word

Chapter 31

Evidence doesn't produce faith

How do we get faith?

It takes time

Imagination, hope, and faith

Emotion and depression

Chapter 32

We need to pray

Why pray?

Just ask him

What do you need?

Prayerlessness

The Bible and prayerlessness

Chapter 33

Holiness

Holiness is remedy for your faith

Rejuvenate your faith

Dwell and meditate on the Word night and day

Reason by the Word

You need patience

Protect your heart

The battle of the mind

Remove the tares in your life

What are tares?

How do you do this?

You need the wisdom of God

Use your spiritual tool

You have a Helper

Daily declarations against the workers of darkness in your circumstances

Daily declaration against witchcraft spirit

About the Author

Acknowledgments

My absolute thanks go to the Holy Spirit and His angels for helping me with this book. It was a tough one to write. It took five years. I started and abandoned it, not knowing how to continue. Thank God for sending His angels to prompt me to continue, declaring, The greatest thing on earth is to do the will of God.

My unwavering appreciation goes to Mrs. Helen Ogioba, who tirelessly did the initial editing amidst her hectic schedule, and my bosom friend Pastor Ize Ighodaro, who critiqued and provided theological balance and coherency.

I thank my dearest friend, counselor, helper, and wife, Felicia (I call her Mama), who keeps urging me on, and my godly and precious daughter, who patiently listened as I read it to her. She said, Whoooom, Dad, I need a copy.

I can't say I wrote this book based solely on my walk of faith even though I have been walking with the Lord for fifty years this year and lived on three continents. It's a culmination of life experiences of watching others excise faith; overcome doubts, fears, worries, anxieties; and overcome the spirit of unbelief. This book is their experience and can be yours also.

How can I forget the countless authors whose materials helped to shape and reshape my thoughts? Writing this book was like being alone in a crowd, but thanks to the Holy Spirit, who is ever present to help us.

Introduction

This manuscript is written in desperation to break the backbone of doubt and unbelief in your walk of faith. Doubt is a thief of your blessings and an enemy of your destiny. Doubt and worry are offensive to God and spiritually oppressive to His children. Doubt, fear, anxiety, worry, and unbelief are ants in the pants of faith. This book will provide a permanent solution to what may be spiritual pests and defects challenging your fruitful walk with the Lord. As you yield your will to the Word and the Holy Spirit, you will be able to get rid of these spiritual bugs and begin to walk with God and please Him. Whoever comes near God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Faith is a priority in your walk with God. Without faith, your existence has no place in Him. Doubt's desire is to make you void with God. Until your faith is the same under all circumstances, there will still be room for doubt and anxiety.

If you persist in uncertainty, you've paved the way for unbelief.

Faithlessness or disbelief, doubt, fear, weak or little faith—when these uncertainties persist, they will make anyone walk backward spiritually.

Until you are the same under all circumstances, your faith will always need help. We all need help, like the father whose son was possessed by a deaf and dumb spirit. Jesus said to him that all things were possible to those who believed and to trust in Him. Immediately the boy's father cried out in desperation, I do believe; help my unbelief. You can also cry to Lord today; He is always willing to help.

Yes, you can make the needed change to your mind by transforming it. How? Renew your mind with the Word of God by His Spirit. The only way to change a person is to change the way he thinks. You are what you think and eat. Reliance on the Word of God and praying in tongues will stimulate your faith (Jude 20) so you can make direct contact with God by yourself (1 Corinthians 14:2). No one can please Him without a diligent walk of faith. Christ, His Word, and His Spirit are vital parts of our lives as blood-washed children of God. Has the Word of God affected your life positively and to the maximum? Do you understand His purposes and what He is working out in your life and family?

People Are Becoming Anxious

The overwhelming evidence from Scripture and contemporary life experience portrays man as doubt-riddled. We can't see the truth of God's intent except by His Spirit. More people are becoming anxious, doubtful, and worry-consumed because of world events that are out of control. They have leaky and doubt-damaged faith and have become disturbed and perplexed, some with weak faith and others with little or no faith.

Some have given the spirit of offense extra room in their walk of faith and have slipped into anxiety, worry, and outright unbelief. Jesus experienced the same doubt syndrome in His days, particularly in His hometown, and couldn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58).

On several occasions, Jesus rebuked Peter and His other disciples for their doubt and having little or lack of faith. Doubt is in every man to some level.

This book is written and positioned in desperation to provide a solution to bugging faith challenges. When you play your part, you commit to God's integrity to perform. This write-up will assist you with submission to the Word and the Holy Spirit, enabling you to get rid of spiritual bugs (doubt, worry, anxiety, and unbelief) in your faith system. The force of faith generated from hearing and complying with the Word of God will decontaminate your faith so you can please God.

This book has four volumes.

You Believe in God, but You Don't Trust Him

Volume 1: Journey from Passive to Active Faith

Chapter 1

Faith Forged by Fire

Every faith must be tried and tested. Untried faith cannot be trusted; either in the valley of affliction or in the unavoidable battles with powers of darkness.

How is your faith in crisis? That is, when the affairs of life turn on its heat, challenging your most precious faith, will you fall apart or like gold, get rid of the dross, and come out refined? When unexplainable things happen to you when life falls apart when nothing seems to be working, or when it seems prayer is not working; what do you do? Do you become doubtful, fearful, and anxious or wallow in disbelief? These are thoughts.

A vital question

I ask you this vital question: Why are you a follower of Christ? Most believers in the twenty-first-century church seem to have a faith that is focused on only getting good things from God—that bless me, bless my kind of faith. What happens to the faith of such believers when the unexpected happens or when things go contrary to expectation?

When such happens, some people simply stop following God and murmur, believing that God has failed them and that things are not working out. However, the big opportunity for a child of God is that the outcome of crisis, tragedy, or a pandemic can be both positive and powerful; it all depends on your perception.

When related to accurately, a crisis can be an opportunity to go back to biblical faith, but when taken otherwise, it can drive the believer far from the Lord. In which case, though you believe in the Lord, you find it difficult to trust Him.

What is faith?

What is faith? Simply put, faith is belief. The Greek word písti is translated as faith. It also means conviction, belief, trust, and loyalty.

True faith is not some kind of manipulation tool to make God do something good for you. Rather, faith is to agree with God in total trust and loyalty.

Some find it easy to talk faith when everything is going well. However, the true test of faith is in a moment of crisis.

How is your faith?

Child of God, how is your faith? Your faith is only as strong as the tests and trials it survives. No matter how much trust or faith you think you have, tests and crises will reveal their quality and size.

In crises, God reduces us by stripping us to Himself. Even in a global crisis (like the COVID-19 pandemic, experienced at the time of writing this stuff), it's not all negative. It's an opportunity to point people to Christ and for those sitting on the back seat to blow the dust off their faith.

In crises, God strips a man of confidence in the flesh and brings him to a place of faith in Him only. That is, for every striving Christian, a crisis is an opportunity to respond to God's frantic call to remove everything in your life that is not of trust and faith so He can refurbish your faith. You can now come and please Him, for without faith, no one can reach or please the Lord (Hebrews 11:6).

Again, in crises, every responsible person wises up (believers and nonbelievers). It's a moment in time to reflect on your personal life, know what's needful and what's not, and decide which battles of life to fight and which not to. As earlier stated, God uses crises to bring a believer back to Himself and not just to Himself but also faith in Him only.

Get back to biblical faith

True biblical faith goes beyond the microwave mentality. That is, it goes beyond the mentality of I want it now or blessings only.

What happened to Daniel? Did he have faith, or was something wrong with his faith when he was thrown into the lion's den (Daniel 6:16)? Was he in sin? No, in his time, the lion's den was the greatest act of God's power to prove Daniel's faith.

It's necessary in these times of global uncertainties to pray and teach the church, our family, and others to act and pray like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. They told the king that our God could deliver us from his fiery furnace. However, the aspect of the prayer we need to learn is even if He doesn't.

We know that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). However, what happens when it seems as if God is doing nothing or silent?

Will you still believe in Him or allow the spirit of doubt, fear, anxiety, and uncertainty take over? The three Hebrew boys had faith on both sides of the coin (i.e., What if? and What if not?). We all acknowledge that God is able. What if He doesn't? Will you still believe in Him and trust Him?

I want to encourage you. No matter what you've experienced or are passing through now—the loss of a job, a business falling apart, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foreclosure of your house, etc.—whatever it may be, don't allow that touch your belief in God. Why? Because there is life after the trials, tests, crises, pandemics, and rumbling of evil storms. God remains the same, and you will remain also if your faith survives the storm. So continue to have trust in Him.

Tests, crises, and pandemics are temporary

True faith believes that tests, crises, or pandemics are always temporary. Faith and trust are locked together; basically, they are the same. When you trust in God, it doesn't matter what happens thereafter. However, the most powerful defense against crises, tests, or pandemics is faith in God through Christ and faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Faith tells crises that you are temporary. Faith tells every trial and crisis that they cannot outlast your belief in the Lord Jesus. This is why we have to rediscover biblical faith. Faith enables you to handle situations that reasoning and imagination cannot figure out.

Pray about your faith

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. (Luke 22:31–32)

Jesus told Peter something very important and worthy of note. He said that Satan wanted to go through his faith and examine it with a fine-tooth comb. He told Peter that he was going to go through a crisis.

Jesus didn't tell Peter, I am going to pray for you to get blessed or get out of the test. Rather, Jesus said, "I have prayed that your faith fails not and when you have overcome, strengthen your brethren" (Luke 22:31–32). In brief, Jesus will keep you forever if you remain focused on Him (Hebrews 12:2).

Though Satan may demand to sift you, Christ has overcome for you (John 16:33)! The enemy may lie in wait like a roaring lion seeking whose faith to devour, but the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered Satan and his cohorts, who may attempt to destroy you.

Remain in prayer in the Word of God and in tune with the Holy Spirit, and Satan cannot consume your faith. It's your faith that he is after.

Fight the good fight of faith

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)

Paul said we must fight the good fight of faith. To fight the good fight of faith involves praying in tongues, fasting (as needed), meditating in God's Word, and standing steadfastly anchored in His promises. Reckon yourself dead to your feelings, emotions, and human reasoning. Don't allow sin to rule over you; denounce the spirit of lust (Romans 8:8). Furthermore, tear down doubts, fears, uncertainties, anxieties, and the derivatives that work against faith (2 Corinthians 10:3–5).

What is the purpose of the fight? The fight is to keep your belief and hope even when all seems lost. No matter what you are going through today, your hope and faith must outlast it because your hope and faith are the key to victory. Are there things we can do in times of blessings to strengthen our faith for the times of crisis?

Late Myles Munroe, in one of his interviews with a CBN correspondent, asked Corrie Ten Boom the question What would you tell a young man who wants to know God better? She said, Believe in the dark what God told you in the light. Sometimes we only believe in the light or believe in the light. But can you still believe God when it's all dark? Remember, after every moment darkness, the dawn is on its way. After the storm follows the calmness of peace. Jesus never changes. He came to give life and give it to you more abundantly (John 10:10).

Chapter 2

Genuine Faith in the Crisis of Doubt

Jesus asked, When I come back, will I find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8). There seems to be a greater crisis of doubt now than ever, particularly in the younger generations. This is probably because of the emergence of having no absolutes in their foundation.

In real life, there isn't any Christian who has never experienced twinges of doubt in this race for eternity.

I agree with Ray in his sermon If I Believe, Why Do I Doubt? He said, I don't know how a person can be a Christian and not have doubts sometimes. Do not let a few bad days and experiences or some awful notion cause you to doubt the ability of God and His Word in your life. Don't allow encounters to be the sole determinant of your faith.

Encounters can strengthen or weaken faith. It depends on how we relate to the context. I think one of the most powerful things we all have to battle in life is learning not to fear, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). He who perpetually doubts himself in God cannot receive much from Him (James 1:5–8).

Doubt and fear are both sides of the same negative coin. They cause faith to be unsteady (James 1:5–8). As earlier stated, every genuinely faithful Christian experiences occasional doubt. The faith that is not tested cannot be trusted. Abraham believed in God, and his faith in God was tried.

And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." (Genesis 22:12)

Doubt in the word of God is the anchor that can minimize a believer's faith and hinder him from sailing and soaring. Doubt or uncertainty itself is not necessarily a fraud on our faith, but may just mean that we need to update our knowledge about the issue.

Doubts, fear, and disbelief may sometimes be considered as the ants in the underclothing of faith, but when positively channeled, it can be an element of growth and encouragement.

Some categories of doubts

Rational/logical doubts. These are doubts most often raised by some unbelievers. It manifests in questions such as Is there a God? If there is a God, where did He come from? Where is God in all the global disasters like the coronavirus global pandemic? If God is that good, why did I lose my mom the time I needed her the most? Is the Bible God's Word? If Jesus is God's Son, who and where is God's wife? How come Jesus was without sin and yet human? Is the resurrection true? How can a dead man's name do wonders? and How can you be healed by the stripes Jesus received over two thousand years ago?

These and many more are some of the doubts/uncertainties and controversies in the minds and thoughts of an average unbeliever (Romans 8:6–9). A nonbeliever once texted me, saying that the part of the Bible that is the most fun to him is when someone quotes what God said when there was no one there when God said it. This is clear unbelief.

Inner uncertainty of the committed Christian. This category of doubt is often experienced by genuine believers. It is also known as momentary doubt. It involves questions like Who am I in Christ? Am I born again? I am born again, but I do not feel different. Will I make it to heaven? Why crises, and yet I am in Christ? Do I believe in God or His Word? Why is the Christian lifestyle so controversial? The Christian life is like going on the other side of the road. Why? Why is it sometimes so hard to pray? Whose voice am I hearing? When I pray, why are there delays or no answers at times? I am still sick even though I have been prayed for. Why? "I have forgiven him/her, so why do I