Pastor Bayo Adewuyi
When God is at work anything can happen! If only you can see His works, your life will be changed forever. At a time, Jesus accused His disciples of their inability to cast out demons despite the times they have spent with Him. He actually called them a faithless generation. Jesus emphasized our need to believe God completely because all things are possible to whoever believes.
Mar 9:14-27
14 And coming to His disciples, He saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.
15 And immediately all the crowd, seeing Him, were greatly amazed, and they were running to Him to greet Him.
16 And He asked the scribes, What are you discussing with them?
17 And one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I have brought my son who has a dumb spirit to You.
18 And wherever he seizes him, he dashes him. And he foams and gnashes his teeth and pines away. And I spoke to Your disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not.
19 He answered him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me!
20 And they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, the spirit immediately convulsed him. And he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming.
21 And He asked his father, How long ago has it been since this came to him? And he said, From childhood.
22 And oftentimes it has cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
23 Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
24 And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
25 And seeing that a crowd is running together, Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter no more into him!
26 And the spirit cried out, throwing him into convulsions, and came out of him. And he was like one dead, so that many said, He is dead.
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
The word ‘if’ is a conditional statement—0ne on which an action hinges. As a matter of fact, we should not have this word in the Christian diction because our faith is not conditioned. The problem with the disciples’ inability to cast out the demons was the belief system (the TV systems).
What Is A System?
A system is an ordered and comprehensive assemblage of fact, principles and doctrines, the like in a particular field of knowledge or thought. A system is an integration or combination of many things. In a typical TV system, there are different components: the television set, antenna, decoder, et al.
Over the years, we’ve had evolution in the types, look and designs of television sets. Some were referred as black and white, some colour and others flat panel. Sincerely, some Christians are like the black and white television. That is, their belief system is black and white. From this perspective they view life, forgetting that life is full colour. This means that there are all kinds of things that play a role in our lives besides God and you.
To have a black and white perception is to view things from two angles. It is like accusing yourself or God on one hand; or yourself or the devil on the other for your condition. Just like Job and his other friends who felt he was been punished by God. Truly God chastises, but He doesn’t do so with sicknesses, diseases and poverty. No, He does not chastise with evil. Job 4:7-14
7 Remember, please, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off?
8 As I have seen, the ones who plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same.
9 By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils they are destroyed.
10 The roar of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the strong lion’s cubs are scattered abroad.
12 And a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a little of it.
13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men,
14 fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, their fury is drinking my spirit; the terrors of God are set against me.
Job 9:12 Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?
Job 9:13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
Job 33:8-13
8 Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words.
9 You said, I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and no iniquity is in me;
10 behold, He finds reasons to be against me, He counts me for His enemy;
11 He puts my feet in the stocks; He marks all my paths.
12 Behold, in this you are not right; I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
13 Why do you fight against Him? For He does not give account for any of His matters.
Elihu, the fifth man in the scene had a different understanding of God. He made some frank statements about God which geared Him into the scene. These words changed Job’s belief system from a black and white television to a colour television.
Job 34:10 Therefore listen to me, O man of heart; far be it from God to commit iniquity; and from the Almighty, to do wrong.
Job 36:26 Behold, God is great, and we do not know; the number of His years cannot be searched out.
Job 37:23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
The TV is our heart and if it does not understand God, He cannot help us. God considers the heart, not the number of times you come to church, because your heart is the place of believing God and any other thing in life. Elihu has same heart like any other person but he added a decoder to it so he can receive inspiration from God.
Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
The decoder is the word of God. Physically, the decoder connects with the airwave to receive signals from different TV channels. If you don’t connect with the Word and able to understand it, then you cannot be fruitful as God expects you. The bible said in Pro 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
So, if your thinking is not right, it is black and white television, even if you come to church and quote the scripture regularly. The component making up the black and white television is unsuited for a coloured output. Same goes for your heart, what makes it up will determine the fruit it bears. As long as your heart does not have all the components God designed for it you cannot have all God expects you. You might get some (the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table), but you can’t have a full colour.
Connect with the decoder, see God as a loving father and don’t give Him conditions to bless you. Don’t give Him an ‘if’ because ‘if’ is a conditional statement; with God all things are possible. After you connect with God, you heart must be big enough to receive all He has for you. It toke Job nine months to catch this revelation that God is not wicked. It took the effort of Elihu to format his base mind towards God. Our God is loving. If your mind takes the semblance of the black and white television, then you need a mind formatting. If you still question the possibility of God doing all things then you need a mind formatting. Believe God totally because all things are possible to him that believes.
God bless you.
