This is except from part of a chapter from my latest book, The Unforgiving Heart.
Did you notice that as you were reading this chapter that Pharaoh was in unbelief? Unbelief is a hardness of heart towards the Lord. Many will say that that they believe, but if you really believe God, then you would live what you believe. Do you see the evidence of what you believe in your life?
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Romans 1:8
This might seem surprising to you, but did you know that the apostles where given authority to heal and yet couldn’t heal because of their unbelief?
Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Luke 9:1-2
Let’s take a look further into the chapter to find out what happens when someone brings a person to get healed by the disciples. Did this person get healed even though they were under Jesus’ authority?
Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, “Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father. Luke 9:37-42
We see that you can have the authority of Jesus and yet still not get the results you want if you have doubt and unbelief. If you don’t have a heart toward God then how can you turn to Him and be healed? If you accuse Him of anything, then how can you expect anything from Him?
So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” Luke 10:27
So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying,
‘Go to this people and say:
“Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;
And seeing you will see, and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.” ’
“Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” Acts 28:25-28 / Isaiah 6:9-10
Even after Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples still didn’t believe. That might surprise some, but if you just skim through the scriptures you might miss this important point.
Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mark 16:14
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Luke 24:25
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” John 20:24-25
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Matthew 28:16-17
The start of softening our hearts towards the Lord is to begin to believe what He has said. It’s not just about confessing from your mouth, but believing in your heart.
I am the Lord your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
But My people would not heed My voice,
And Israel would have none of Me.
So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart,
To walk in their own counsels.
Oh, that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways! Psalm 81:10-13
And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? WAS IT NOT THOSE WHO SINNED, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:5-19
