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Troy Day | PentecostalTheology.com
Does unbelief limit the works of God?
Jeffry Woolston Jesus went into a certain city and did not many Miracles there because of their unbelief.
Ed Brewer You’re assertion is based on a logical fallacy – God’s omnipotence is not subjugated to his omniscience or vice versa – to attribute such impulsive vicissitude to the ultimate unmoved mover is to diminish one transcendent attribute in favor of another – to even intimate the nuance of effected vacillation upon the sovereign almighty is to forget the lesson of Shinar’s plain from 4300 years ago concerning the comparative abilities of creature and creature. Bottom line….the reason people struggle with God’s ability to be both omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and a whole list of other ‘Omni’s’ is not that they don’t think He’s big enough – they suggest He’s not smart enough! He knows the answer to every question before it’s posited, and every thought of man is fully evident to His unlimited intellect. Our Hebrew brothers grasp this when they call Him the ‘self-existent’ one – He alone chooses, limits, and dictates by His own sovereign will.
Gary Stacey I love all the great theological terminology. Perhaps I am not thinking correctly (faulty logic). I readily confess God is smarter than me. No doubt His plans and His ways are beyond my understanding. Perhaps not your’s. However, the distance between lofty idealism and painful experience sometimes seems a gulf too far to bridge. Why would I deny God’s superiority? And yet, we find quick quotes that eliminate God’s astonishing involvement in ordinary lives.
Diana Kay Miller Sheek
It limits for the person with the unbelief.
David Lewayne Porter
It did for Israel,
Psalms 78:40-41
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
2 Chronicles 20:20
And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Walter Polasik
Troy Day: At the outset of considering such a question we should first keep in mind that God IS sovereign. God does what He wants to, when He wants to, how He wants to . . .because He’s GOD. On the pages of the Bible there are all too many instances where God did the miraculous, where He intervened, not in response to (say, Israel’s) faith but sometimes very much IN SPITE of it. In Mark 2:1-5 Jesus didn’t heal the paralytic because of HIS (the paralytic’s) faith but because of the faith if his friends who brought him. Similarly, when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and provided an object-lesson in God’s love to the Pharisees there gathered by healing the man with the withered hand, He didn’t ask if the man had faith to be healed or not (as He did with some). (Matthew 12:10) He just healed him. . . .
Lawrence Boylen
All depends on the goodness of the heart, not a belief. Lets not forget Catholic Inquisition.
Walter Polasik
But then there are those times (equally numerous) when Jesus DID ask people if they had faith in Him or, after a request was made He would say, “According to your faith be it unto you”. To the woman with the issue of blood He replied, “Thy faith has made thee whole.” And, conversely, not a few times He would upbraid His disciples for their lack of faith or “little faith”. Hmmm.
Melvin Harter
Yes
Louise Cummings
I had it on I tunes listening to the Prophecy about Trump. It piped off.
Louise Cummings
How can I get it back.
A.J. Bible
“And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Matthew 13:58
Tendo Steven
Yes
Varnel Watson
Walter Polasik Does God IS sovereign mean our unbelief does affect Him at all? What does your Bible say about it?
Walter Polasik
Troy Day: It means God looks at our hearts and responds accordingly. (Ps. 18:26 Look it up). ?
Joseph D. Absher
Going to have to follow this one. The Pentecostals maybe willing to stand for this one. The universalist have already piped up.
Put me with Dr. Harter on this one.
Yes. God is limited by unbelief. And also ignorance of his holy Bible. And not just the ignorance but the wilful ignorance.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…”
– Hosea 4:6a
Having said that God is very kind and you may get something by his gifts and the prayers of others but at some point you must come to God yourself, bow down, and give him.your heart and soul.and life and obey Him by faith in Jesus Christ
Joseph D. Absher
If God did what ever he wanted all men would be saved. But he is limited in that he will not save unrepentant proud rebellious men. Men that hoard their sins and deal lightly with God’s mercy and grace and willingness to forgive and ignore the many warnings and severe threats and curses.
Revelation 21:8 NKJV — “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Danny Byrd
Surely,.. unbelief is Evil.
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Louise Cummings
Yes. God can do anything. But if you don’t believe He can do it. Then He doesn’t do It in unbelief. He told us in His Word. We must believe. He said in one place in the Bible. He couldn’t do many wonderful works , because of their unbelief. I didn’t look up where it’s found. But I will if you didn’t know that was in the Bible.
A.J. Bible
I know an example where God is limited by doubt everytime- Salvation. Mark 16:16, Romans 10:9.
Scotty Searan
Yes it can, if we pray and have no belief in what we are praying for, should we pray at all. Isn’t this just vain repetitions?
Varnel Watson
Bible is God really limited OR we limit ourselves of experiencing His favor when in doubt?
Gary Stacey
According to the Bible, “They limited the Holy One of Israel.”
Joseph D. Absher
Matthew 6:24 NKJV — “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Varnel Watson
Gary Stacey So says KJV Other translations more properly translate PROVOKED which seems more appropriate
Scotty Searan
God won’t force himself on no one
Jeanette Elizondo
YES !!
Joseph D. Absher
The prayer of faith is not the only type of prayer. The prayer of faith does require a knowledge of the known will of God. Most often Bible verses. But the prayer of faith is not the only prayer.
I will concede the very act of prayer to the unseen God does require some type of “faith” or believing. However faith for salvation that is in Jesus Christ is more than a general superstition or vague assent.
Unbelief is the enemy of God and man and has robbed many a soul of God’s blessings in this life and eternal life in the next.
Joseph D. Absher
Oftentimes folks just quit. prayer can be like a jackhammer. You can punch a hundred holes through the concrete and then you get that one and you know you got it. It’s loose. It’s yours by faith in Jesus Christ.
You may have stick with it for awhile though. Keep a song in your heart. Call on Jesus. And give God the glory in everything!
Varnel Watson
Nay I say unto thee Ricky Grimsley
Ricky Grimsley
The Bible says yes unto me.