Is belief important?...

Strange question you are probably thinking.
Is belief important?
Yes, it is important.

'Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved...' [Acts 16: 31]
'...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.' [Romans 10: 9 - 10]
Belief is important. It is important that we believe in Jesus. That is God's commandment to us. Amazingly it is His only commandment. It is found in 1 John 3: 23, but that is another post.
This one is about belief.
God has given me a 'POW' moment. You remember the Batman show that we used to watch on TV?
'KAPOW!'
God has 'kapowed' me.
Last Sunday I was sitting at a WTL committee meeting and a friend shared something that was good and I went away from that meeting with that shared thought sitting in the back of my mind.
Then, the next day God came along a sucker-punched me.
In Mark 9 there is a story from the life and ministry of Jesus. It is a true story.
Jesus has just been transfigured. God, Almighty God, has just declared,

"THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, LISTEN TO HIM!" [Mark 9: 7]

As Jesus returns from the mountain he sees the disciples having an argument with some scribes. Jesus asks them what's going on and a father answers. His son has a spirit which causes him a lot of grief and the disciples weren't able to deal with the problem and Jesus gets a bit frustrated. "Oh dear, why do you always continue to try and do stuff yourself? Just bring him to Me!" As soon as the boy arrives the spirit has a fit and the boy goes into an attack.
The father of the boy says to Jesus, "...if You can do anything..."
Jesus' reply is classic.

"'If You can! All things are possible to him who believes." [Mark 9: 23]

The story goes on but let's just sit here awhile, because it was here that God 'kapowed' me.

Now, it's like this. Forever preachers and teachers have taken this verse and made many great sermons telling us we need to believe and not doubt. Much could be said about this but the bottom line is that the result is that many have accepted that our miracle is based, and subject to, our ability to believe.

Now think of the story in Mark 9...who believed the boy would be healed?

Did the boy? Nope! He was busy having a fit!

Did the father? Nope! He was busy telling God 'if You can'.

Did the disciples? Nope! They were saying nothing because they couldn't do anything no matter how hard they tried and they were peeved. They said nothing.

Did the scribes? Nope! They had had plenty of time to help but didn't. Potentially they were telling the father at the synagogue that he should believe more!

Did the spirit? Oh, yes the spirit believed, that's why it was having a fit!

So who believed?

Jesus! He believed!

In that 'kapow' moment I saw it.

This verse has been incorrectly translated in my Bible. 

As I reeled from the 'kapow' I wrote a Facebook post...

'And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can!' All things are possible to him who believes." [Mark 9: 23]This is a direct quote from my Bible. I have written it exactly as it is written in my Bible. I want us to see something really interesting. The way this verse is written in my Bible gives a view that is taught everywhere but is wrong! What? I hear you say! Please read on.This simple thing that I feel to share this morning could be the most liberating, burden-lifting truth that I can share. Received and embraced it will totally change our lives. It is changing mine.We read this verse and we believe and are often taught at great length that Jesus is saying that all things are possible if we can believe. This belief and teaching puts the responsibility for our breakthrough and our miracle on us; on our faith. We believe that 'all things are possible to him who believes.'Now I'm going to quote the verse again but this time correct one thing and totally change our lives. This correction will give us the true translation of what Jesus is saying in this verse. It will Grace fill it.Ready?'And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can!' All things are possible to Him who believes." Can you see the difference? Can you see the capital 'H' on the word 'Him' in the verse?Our miracle, our breakthrough, is not determined by our belief. It is determined by His belief, the belief of Jesus Himself. In the story in Mark 9 the miracle for the little boy was not determined by the boy's belief, or the belief of the boy's father; they didn't believe at all! The miracle was determined by the One who believes!Wow! Can you see it?Let me ask you, do you think Jesus 'believes' for your breakthrough?Do you think Jesus has sufficient faith for your miracle?Do you think that Jesus has your good at heart?I don't think there is any doubt He has our good at heart, He gave an awful lot for our good - HIMSELF!Who do we really think Jesus is?Who do I think He is?He is our Way and that way is not determined by our faith it is determined by our One who never wavers in His faithfulness, never deviates in His belief, never doubts. Never!I'm not surprised Jesus was a bit frustrated with unbelief in Mark 9. He wasn't frustrated with the fact that the people didn't believe, He was frustrated that they had Belief standing in front of them and they didn't receive Him.Belief for our breakthrough, faith for our miracle, is standing in front of us, He is in us.Let's not look at our belief, let's look at our Belief. 'All things are possible to HIM who believes!'Looking at my Belief I will have my breakthrough because I am that breakthrough, He is in me; I am that miracle, He is in me. My belief isn't the issue, I have Jesus and He believes and with belief like His, is anything impossible?

'Jesus said to him, " 'If You can! All things are possible to Him who believes."'

As we seek breakthrough, a miracle, whatever it is that you seek, it does not matter what it is, whose 'belief' is important? But the important belief is not your belief! His is the important belief! I am pointing at Jesus. Why? Because He is our Belief and He came to declare God is good.
Do you think God is good?
Yes. God is good.
Do you really think that for the goodness of God to flow it is important we believe?
Most would answer 'yes' but this focuses our breakthrough on us.

Let me then share this story.
It is found in John chapter 5. There is a crippled man. He has been lying beside a pool called Bethesda for 38 years waiting until an angel stirs up the water because when that happens the first person in gets healed. Thirty-eights years! Long time.
Jesus comes by and sees the man and says to him, "Do you wish to get well?"
Now please note the man's reply. He says, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool..." He obviously doesn't know who Jesus is. He isn't like the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years who had heard about Jesus. The crippled man didn't know Him.
Jesus says to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." The man does.
There is more, he gets collared by the religious dudes who give him a hard time for carrying his bed on the Sabbath and he tells them that he was only doing what he was told to do. They demand, "Who told you?" His answer is astounding! He did not know who it was!
Do you see?
Let me ask you, was the man's miracle based on his believing? No way! It is not possible for he had no idea who Jesus was, it was only later that he found out.

Is the distribution of God's goodness based in our faith? Is our breakthrough, our miracle, based in us? No. No more than it was for the crippled man, or the boy, or his father!

Now don't get me wrong I absolutely endorse trusting in God. I am the first person to encourage you to have faith but don't have faith in your faith. Put your trust in Jesus and His faithfulness. He is our shield of faith. He is the author and perfecter of faith. He is our Belief. Give it to Him.
This blog has got long. I will finish with this. I would like to share another of my Facebook posts.

'And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!" He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.' [Matthew 8: 25 - 26]
The storm was savage; Jesus slept on. That has always amazed me. When a storm rages outside the house at night I, generally, find it hard to sleep.
The disciples were alarmed and came to Jesus, woke Him with the words, "...we are perishing!"
Jesus asks them, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?"
Some say that Jesus is saying, 'why are you bringing this to Me, you can deal with this.' but I cannot agree.
Jesus smiles and says, "You have a little faith but it is enough, don't be afraid, I am here."
You know Law says, 'I can do it!' but we can't; Grace says 'I can't do it, but He can!'
The storm rages, sleep on. Many would encourage you to get up and rebuke the storm yourself but do you have enough faith? I don't know. It doesn't matter because Jesus has enough for us all!
He is our shield of faith and we need to 'take up our shield of faith' (Ephesians 6: 16).
Jesus wants you to look away from yourself and look to Him.
Fix your eyes of Him, He is the author and the perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12: 2). He has perfect faith sufficient for any storm.
So what are we to do?
Believe in Him!
Bring it to Him. Don't be encouraged to test your faith by challenging it yourself, bring it to Him, He will rebuke the winds and the sea and it will be perfectly calm; Peace will reign!
Shalom.

Jesus is the answer. Our faith is not the key. He is the key. I really don't know how many more ways I can say it. Jesus is EVERYTHING.