And He (Jesus) could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

        Mark 6:5-6

Well, we now reach the portion of our passage that deals directly with unbelief and how that unbelief can limit the work of God in our lives. Jesus came to His hometown and the people were offended by Him. They were ungrateful and had no idea that the very God, that had created them and that was going to the cross to provide salvation for them, was in their midst. And on top of all of this, the people were unbelieving. In fact, scripture tells us that Jesus “could do no miracle there” because of their unbelief. In order to see this spiritual reality of unbelief hindering the work of God in our lives, let’s look at a passage dealing with the disciples and their lack of faith in encountering a desperate father.

When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

Matthew 17:14-18

A desperate father in a desperate situation is the setting. This man had a demon possessed son and needed the healing power of Jesus. So the man brings the boy to Christ and He heals him. That’s the powerful and redemptive part of the story. But there is more to this. The man had first brought the boy to the disciples, anticipating that they could help his son. But the disciples were unable to drive out the demon from the young man’s life. You might be tempted to say,  “Well the disciples were just men while Jesus is the Savior…so of course they couldn’t do what Jesus did.” But if we were to think that, we would have to completely ignore what had happened just seven (7) chapters previous to this account. Consider the following:

Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

      Matthew 10:1

Jesus had already given the disciples the authority to cast out demons. So if they had the authority yet were unable to do so, what was the problem? The answer is revealed in the conversation that Jesus has with the disciples regarding this encounter:

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

Matthew 17:19-20

Did you catch that? The disciples could not drive the demon out because of “the littleness of their faith.” This is not even the best translation. If we look at the original language, we will find that Jesus is actually saying that they could not drive it out because of their “unbelief.” That’s right! The disciples had the authority, for it had been given to them by Christ, but their unbelief limited their ability to help the desperate father and to see the power of God displayed through their lives. This is a powerful truth for those who can receive it. As Christians, we have been given many promises regarding mountain-moving faith but, as you might suspect, the antithesis of mountain- moving faith is unbelief. Consider Jesus teaching on prayer:

And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” 

      Mark 11:22-24

Once again, faith proclaimed as “mustard seed-sized,” capable of moving mountains, is the norm for followers of Jesus. But to expect the reality that “nothing will be impossible for us” through the power of God’s Spirit within us, we must meet the criteria of actually believing what Jesus says. Some would argue that if God answered prayer like this then He would effectively be handing over the keys to the universe to fallible man. But to think that is to completely miss what Jesus says, not once, but twice. “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.” Being “granted,” or in other translations, “it will be done for you,” puts the power right back in the hands of God and demonstrates that God isn’t putting us in charge rather He is simply honoring the prayers of those who actually believe. Jesus says it again when teaching us about powerful, effective, and God-honoring prayer… “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you” (will be done for you). Jesus is telling us that “all things are possible” for those who believe but unbelief can creep in and limit the activity of God in our lives. If you have ever doubted that, just take another look at Jesus not doing very many miracles in His hometown because of the unbelief of the people. We must ask in faith, without any doubting in our heart, to see God-sized responses. And of course, we are talking about spiritual requests, not selfish ones (James 4:2-3). This should be apparent to anyone who has walked with Christ for any length of time. But the promises remain and are there for those who will take God at His Word. Consider what James says about this same issue:

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 

    James 1:5-8

The passage begins with a request for wisdom but it is quickly apparent that this applies to any request that we make in prayer. This is for those who ask “in faith without any doubting.” The Word of God says that if we should find ourselves doubting, we are like “the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” Scripture also describes the doubting person as “double-minded” (two-souled), being “unstable in all of their ways.” And here is the part that points to all requests: “For that man (the one who doubts) ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.”  

This is serious business. As Christians, we do not always perfectly live out a life of faith. The world can cause us to sometimes doubt in our hearts. But the promises remain. Jesus could have done more in His hometown if it were not for the unbelief of the people. The disciples could have driven out the demon from the boy if not for their unbelief. We can pray expecting results if not for our praying with unbelief in our hearts. We can build our lives on the foundation of God’s Word, ignoring the skeptics, or we can fall into the category of being spiritual “unstable.” The choice is ours! 

In a world that is offended by Christ, ungrateful for what He has done for us, and unbelieving in their very nature, let’s be a people who joyfully receive Christ into our lives, being grateful for all He has and will continue to do, and walking in the power of the Spirit of God, building our lives on His promises!