Lord Help Our Unbelief

“the greatest title for the professing church of God today, in my judgement, is ‘unbelieving
Believers’.” – Leonard Ravenhill

1. Unbelief as it pertains to the nature of God or who we believe God to be and what that
means for our identity in Christ
2. Unbelief as it pertains to the baptism of the holy spirit and the spiritual gifts God wants
to give us, his church, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ with signs and wonders
to the world.

Luke 4:16-30
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of
the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it
was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the
eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to
them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of
him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they
said, “Is not this Joseph's son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me
this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do
here in your hometown as well.’” 24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is
acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a
great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to
Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many
lepers [a] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but
only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were
filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to

the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the
cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.
In Matthew 13:58 “And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.”

Be honest with yourself and answer these questions:
1. What do I fear?
2. What am I anxious about?
3. What hurts am I holding onto?

As you write these things down, ask God to help you by asking him:
What unbelief is behind each of these things?

What pre-conceived or pre-conditioned ideas are creating a heart of unbelief in our hearts?

How do we expect to be used by God if we have unchecked unbelief in our hearts?

What we believe about who God is and who He calls us determines the level at which God can
use us.

James Goll in his book ‘Releasing the spiritual gifts’ writes, “it is impossible to have a glorious,
fully functioning body of Christ apart from the gifts of the holy spirit. Without supernatural
endowments, the church cannot presume to preach the gospel to the whole world and to reap
the great harvest prior to the coming of the Lord. Another way of saying it is that the gospel is
not fully being preached unless it is “with signs following”.
Matthew 10:1-15
10 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of
the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his
brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew;

Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and
Thaddaeus; [a]   4 Simon the Zealot, [b] and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and
enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ [c]   8 Heal the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, [d] cast out demons. You received without paying;
give without pay. 9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your
journey, or two tunics [e] or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. 11 And
whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you
depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace
come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not
receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave
that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
In 1Cor 2:2-5 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech
and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men [c] but in the power of God.
1 Cor 14:1 “Pursue love and desire the gifts earnestly!”
We only have a problem with the gifts we have been taught to have a problem with the gifts!