I’d like to bend the spiritual ear of those that have been waiting on the Lord to do something in their lives for a long time. It’s those individuals for whom a few very important requests have been the central theme of their prayers, but the manifestation of results has not yet come through. You might have been told that you don’t have enough faith, or that the thing you’re seeking from God isn’t in His Will for your life. Someone might have said something that discouraged you, and now you’re not sure whether you should even continue praying the same prayers. You might feel like you’re in sort of a limbo situation, not knowing whether to continue to press or just let it go altogether.

For the born-again believer, John 10:10 will always be the standard of right believing. Jesus Christ tells us that he came so that we could have a more than abundant life. Now we know that not all Christians take hold of the promise. We struggle amidst a systemic pattern of wrong believing that goes back generations, and remnants of it has crept in the psyche and prayer lives of many of us living today. It is the belief that we cannot possess spiritual maturity, prosperity and material abundance, good health, and quality relationships, all at the same time. We absolutely can, but if we have an underlying negative belief that lurks beneath our consciousness, it’s going to affect our ability to focus our faith.

Romans 10:17(NLT) tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” This verse allows us to know beyond a shadow of doubt that faith will not come from hearing or believing something that isn’t true. If the information we believe is not based on the truth of God’s Word, then it is not going to be information that strengthens our faith. Quite the contrary, it will weaken our efforts to walk in faith.

Faith does not require that we are perfect in every way before it produces the results we seek, but it does require that we believe that Christ is perfect and that God does not fail, will never leave us, and will never forsake us. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to the earth and gave his life as a sacrifice so that you and I could live a life that is more than abundant. If you do not believe that you can have what he suffered and died to make available to you, that’s a problem. This is why the spirit of discouragement is such an assassin, because it seeks to undermine your faith subtly, by getting you to believe something that doesn’t force the truth to be confronted, embraced, and believed.

Forgive me for a lack of eloquence and not being able to articulate this in a better way than I’m going to. But a continued season of maturation or brewing time should suggest to you that there is a gap between what you believe currently and the truth you haven’t yet confronted. Not only is the gap filled with doubt, but potentially it holds all the other stuff that comes with doubt like inflexibility, a lack of vision, discontentment, unfulfillment, loneliness, and lack. Our mission should be to put the squeeze on this gap by filling our hearts and minds with God’s Word. As we do this, we can swell our believing to such a degree that doubt and unbelief have no room to breathe.

When doubt and unbelief lose breeding ground in our hearts and minds, limitations are eliminated, and the truth has invitation to bring with it the living and delicious fruit of exceedingly abundance.

Jesus Christ said in Mark 11:24(NKJV), “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Jesus tells us to be deliberate in our ASK by believing that we have what we’ve requested even though it hasn’t manifested in the natural yet. We are to see ourselves in the spirit of our minds as having taken possession. This isn’t an imagination trick. God is telling us to be cognizant of our spiritual abundance in the natural realm before the transfer has occurred.

Faith is the vehicle of transport, Jesus is the driver, and you’re the passenger. Your job is to believe, and the enemy’s job is to keep you from believing rightly. Our purpose in the Will of God requires our allegiance to stand firm in the conviction of our faith. Do not allow a spirit of discouragement to assassinate it. God is faithful to bring His Word to pass in your life. It may feel like you’re in limbo, but really He’s allowing you time to get firmly anchored in the reality that He’s faithful to restore what has been stolen, repair what has been broken, and bring newness and healing wherever there’s a need.■

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Dealing with a Spirit of Discouragement” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.