Do You Believe?

In Old Testament times, “to believe” meant “to do”. If you believed you should take care of orphans, then in your life activities, you took care of orphans. Today, “to believe” means “to understand”. We have intellectualized the word “believe” and have removed a necessary element of behavior that I believe the Lord expects. For example, we say we believe the Bible. The Bible teaches tithing. So, if we don’t tithe, do we really believe?

If we ask someone today if they believe in Jesus and they say “yes”, what do they really mean? Do they mean that they understand that Jesus is God’s Son and understand the role He played in salvation? Is that the extent of their belief, or, have they demonstrated their belief by action? If we say we believe in Jesus and want to “follow Him”, according to the Scriptures, we are immediately faced with decisions to change our behavior to live like Him and carry out the work He saved us to do. If we fail to make changes in our lives, do we really believe? I sometimes think that we have encouraged a cheap grace with little expectation of people to live differently.

If you read the gospel of John and study the verb “to believe” I think you will come to the understanding that there are several levels of believing. For example, the scripture says that the demons believed in Jesus, but obviously they didn’t follow Him. Read John 2: 23-25. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus said that He would not entrust Himself to those who just “believed”, because He knew what was in their hearts? Could it be that these “believers” had an intellectual belief that did not result in salvation, as with the demons?

Consider the two churches in the other article in this issue. Could it be that the Hispanic people believed in Jesus to the extent that their lives gave proof of their devotion to Him? Could it be that some in the sponsoring church might have just believed intellectually, but did not really have a salvation experience?

It is commonly known from research that 20% of church members give 80% of the church income and the other 80 % of members give the remaining 20% of income. I wonder if the 20% that give the most give out of a personal relationship with Jesus and the other 80% give out of an intellectual understanding of Him?

Recent statistics indicate that only 1% of churches in the USA are growing by conversion growth (people really being saved). Only 4% of Baptist churches support church planting. Surely not, but could it be that many of us have only an intellectual belief in Jesus and have not really had a true conversion experience as evidenced by the action of our lives?

What about you? What about your church? Could it be…….?

I suggest we all get down on our knees and ask some tough questions: Why are our churches not growing? Why are churches having financial problems? Why are we unwilling to reach out to lost people who need Jesus? Why are we unwilling to change things to reach more people? Why aren’t more churches supporting church planting? Why? Are we the problem, because of our insufficient understanding of what it really means to believe?

If we are unable to deal with issues from a spiritual perspective because of our insufficient level of belief, then we are automatically dealing with issues from a fleshly (and self-centered) perspective. No wonder our churches aren’t growing.

I am praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit on our churches that would shake us to the core and cause us to look at ourselves and see the sin and unbelief that is abundant among us.

What do you really believe? Does your life confirm that belief?