LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

In general, I believe we suffer from a massive level of unbelief. Jesus addressed it with the disciples when they asked Him to show them the Father. Jesus confronts the validity of the question by asking them how they could even ask such a thing. “Isn’t it obvious that you already know the Father because you know me? Or do you not believe what I have previously told you, that I and the Father are one?”

Jesus cut right to the heart of the issue. It’s not that the Father hasn’t been revealed to you: the issue is your unbelief in me.

John 14:10-11 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Jesus patiently reiterates the truth that the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Everything Jesus has said and done is the perfect expression of the Father. Jesus says that He and the Father are completely identical while maintaining their individuality. Belief in that truth was the disciple’s problem.

We suffer from the same unbelief today. We acknowledge intellectually that Jesus is the Son of God. We give intellectual assent to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yet we go on day after day in a battle against unresolved sin and emotional bondage from our past.

“If only I could see the Father. If only Jesus would release me from this bondage. If only there was a way to gain victory over sin.”

The problem is unbelief. Remember the words of Jesus?

• “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”(John 16:7) 
  • Do you fully, unconditionally, and unreservedly believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in you and is your constant Helper?
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”(John 14:12-14)
  • Do you fully, unconditionally, and unreservedly believe that in the power of the Holy Spirit we will do the work of Jesus, and even more than He did?
  • Do you fully, unconditionally, and unreservedly believe that when we ask for anything that glorifies the Father, Jesus will do it?
• “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”  (John 17:21-23)
  • Do you fully, unconditionally, and unreservedly believe that we are one with each other in the Body of Christ because Jesus is in us?

We do not suffer because God has not promised, but because we have not believed.

The victory over sin and bondage we long for is not lacking because of God’s weakness but because of our unbelief.

The peace and unity we strive for in the church would be realized if we would only believe that the same Savior that dwells in me dwells equally in others who have trusted Jesus for salvation from sin.

I believe we suffer from a massive level of unbelief. May we begin today to take Jesus at His Word and act upon it.

Pastor John