Not Really Possible
And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Mark 9:23-24 NASB
Unbelief – What is “unbelief”? Is it some sort of doubting? Or maybe not having the right answers like failing an examination? Or maybe it’s just the inability to make the leap to the seemingly impossible, not really doubting that it could happen but rather just not seeing how anything like it could happen? Maybe it’s just the apparent absence of God, you know, when things are falling apart and you desperately want them to get fixed but no one, especially God, shows up to help. Is that “unbelief”?
The Greek text uses the word apistía. I suppose we could go into a long investigation of the negation of pístis (that’s what the added a does to the word), pointing out that the Greek idea is mostly cognitive while the Hebrew concept of belief is mostly active, but we’ve done all that. If the Greek apistía is the proper translation of the man’s Hebrew response, then his reply is about unfaithfulness, not doubt. The Hebrew idea of faith is reliability, not right answers. So this man is really proclaiming that, in spite of his desire, he is unable to act. Perhaps what he is really saying is that he anticipated Yeshua’s disciples could do what Yeshua could do, but when he discovered that they couldn’t, he lost heart. He found himself at his wits’ end, not knowing what else to do to heal his son. It isn’t doubt that flattens his hope. It’s discouragement. He starts at the wrong place and ends up at the wrong place.
Heschel give us some insight here: “Wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge. Doubt comes in the wake of knowledge as a state of vacillation between two contrary or contradictory views; as a state in which a belief we had embraced begins to totter. . . . In other words, the business of doubt is one of auditing the mind’s accounts about reality rather than a concern with reality itself; it deals with the content of perception rather than with perception itself. Doubt is not applied to what we have an immediate awareness of. We do not doubt that we exist or that we see, we merely question whether we know what we see or whether that which we see is a true reflection of what exists in reality. Doubt, then, is an interdepartmental activity of the mind.”[1]
This man came to Yeshua and his disciples because he wanted his son to be well. He came because he either heard or saw others healed. He didn’t doubt it, but when it came to his son, he tottered. He knew healing was available, but the wonder of it all escaped his desire. Wonder evaporated in personal depression. “Why couldn’t it be for me—for us?” rather than, “Praise YHVH for caring for any of us at all.” He didn’t remain faithful to his conviction, the conviction that brought him to Yeshua in the first place. He sank into the waters because he didn’t see the wonder of stepping out of the boat. I suppose we don’t either—most of the time.
Topical Index: unbelief, faithlessness, apistía, wonder, doubt, Mark 9:23-24
[1]Abraham Heschel, Mas Is Not Alone, pp. 11-12.
So according to Heschel, doubt is actually a questioning of our own perceptions: we start wondering if we just made up the whole thing in the first place. I think the flesh has to make up the WHY of what it does because, in the flesh, we have no real access to the larger purpose of life so we just grab whatever fig leaves are closest at hand to cover ourselves (from ourselves) with. At any point it doesn’t ‘work out’, we start questioning our intentions because we are aware that we were having to make them up anyway.
Lack of purpose may be the source of our deepest terror: I know addicts will grab anything to keep from admitting that their lives lack a purpose (proper motivation). Because the flesh cannot see the things of the spirit (1Cor. 2:15), it lacks the ability to discern true motivations, which are spiritual additives to our gas tanks. If we are not motivated correctly (Skip describes this as “starting from the wrong place”) we lack the right spirit in which to follow through: that motive is going to fail us at some critical juncture. Only true love has the power to get us to the other side of ourselves, but who among us has access to that? Sin blocks us from that love. To trade in incorrect motives for love, however, we need to confess (hand over) the impurities of our hearts first.
I think the man may have seen that, even though he loved his child, that love was not what he was using to motivate his desire for healing. His impure motive was failing him in the middle of the creek. Because it was not faith generated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, love was not carrying the day. Perhaps the child had even gotten sick in the first place because of the father’s shortcoming in some area and the father needed to clear up that sin first. Perhaps the father did not even know how out of line he was until he came face to face with the shift it was going to take to solve the problem. Our sins affect others: it is never just about us (which is why they are called “trespasses”). My firm take on children and animals is that it is never their fault. Perhaps the child’s illness was the father’s fault, or at least the father’s sin was preventing the child from getting well?
I know I have been shocked time and time again when I THOUGHT I was doing things out of love at the real reasons I was being motivated to go to all that trouble. I can identify with this parent. I know I have used my love for my children (which is real; somewhere down deep in there, covered over, usually, with my stuff) as an excuse to do things that were really being motivated by selfishness of some sort, or even desperation. In the end, my love did not translate over: they did not feel my love; nor did it help them. At those points, I have realized that I need help more: I need to put my own oxygen mask on first. (Now, where did I put that thing?)
As I pondered the title, I also read the post the thought went deeper, CS Lewis surprised by Joy. The concept of being an atheist happy in his current life. I noted the word surprised. It was something different, something new something unexplained. The title not really possible could note?
We tend to make our faith weaken in tough
situations because we put “our knowing” in
place of His being.
That’s why faith is worth fighting for.
Real faith, as Skip points out, is having full
reliability on what ONLY God can do. That’s
not always easy to do. We must fight for it.
Real faith doesn’t just happen. It’s a trade off.
It grows as “our knowing” fades . . . and His being
begins to expand within us. It’s this relationship of
son to Father that transforms reliance on ourselves
to full reliance on Him.
It’s not easy as Yeshua’s life showed: “Although he
was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”
There are no short cuts. Every bloody second has His being
in it. The more we realize this, and live this, the more we’ll
see the impossible happen.
Reading over the comments again, I came upon what you said Rich, when you said, something in regard to His being. Indulge me for a minute as I try to process this. So we have knowing, doing and being . Not necessarily in that order, at least I don’t think. I think a lot of this falls in the category of “looking through a glass darkly“. Also, Paul says, who has known the mind of the Lord that he should be his counselor and then he goes on to say but we have the mind of Christ. I always assumed the mind of Christ would be the word of God. The living word. I know, I’m sort of rambling so forgive me. Yesterday as I was waking the world came to me, “for you are not your own, therefore glorify God in your body”. The weight of that statement hit me, “you are not your own, you are bought with a price “. We have always been told we have a choice but the choice is it in whether or not this statement is true, the choice is whether we will come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Coming into alignment in truth. Accepting that I am not my own, I belong to him. No wonder Paul called himself a servant of God, even a slave of God. I think we have spent so much time making it all about accepting Jesus Christ as our savior when really it’s all about saying yes to God or coming into alignment with Truth.
Thanks for enduring me as I ramble and try to process some thoughts. It’s interesting when you think about Jesus Christ as our savior and yet people never get past that instead of coming into the truth of we belong to him and seeking to walk as disciples with our Lord and Master. Totally different picture. But everything within me of the self nature resist this Lordship. Matthew 23:24. We strain at a gnat but swallow a camel …. it must have made more sense back then. Thanks for listening, or not ! Larry
Whoops, I forgot the rest of the verse says, “YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN, you are bought with a price “. Now that’s a sentence worth thinking about!
I know where your comments about His being are coming from, Larry.
Allow me to elaborate. God’s divine plan is for the being of His Son’s life
to be born into each of us. This is a real, actual and spiritual birthing process
that takes time, is usually painful and dramatic. as our innate natural self is
pridefully adamant about keeping and remaining itself in the number one position.
We naturally claw to hang on. It’s not easy to loose your self reliance.
BUT, our desperate need to be ourselves is not as deep and demanding as our need
for a Savior. God knows this need intimately as He created us . . . and watched us fall
away into ourselves.
The good news is Yeshua willfully lived and died, and rose again, for the sole purpose
of being the Only Way for us to re-receive God’s being. It happens through our gift of faith
and it’s usually quite a struggle as we all can attest. God’s will is that His Son’s being and
nature is formed in us . . . and our natural will pushes back. That’s the contractions of the
birthing process. Fortunately God has infinite patience. And His grace lovingly waits for
our faith’s willingness to come around for the inevitable: the eternal child of His is finally
birthed into your mortal life!
So, you’re right. “You are not your own.” You’re His! And as His Son actually commences
to live in you, it won’t take long before you realize your true Oneness with the Father.
Then you’ll be doing here on earth what Yeshua was doing here on earth.
That’s why we were born.
To be born again!
Thank you Rich. Helpful. As I think about it I realize how performance driven I am. Had a crazy alcoholic father who I wanted to please so badly but was never able. Of course, he’s gone now but I have transferred my performance into my walk with God and it’s very difficult to daily receive the free gift of grace. So it’s easy to get consumed in works or better said, being good for God without the fear of His rejection or……loss of interest! Sick, I know, but true, nevertheless. Thanks for your reply, greatly appreciated.
Just starting to re-read romans chapters 4 -8. Abraham believed God and it was counted on to him for righteousness….. not of works, lest any man should boast !
So insightful! Thank you, Skip! <3
Thank you Skip. I really needed this today, at least, at first, I thought I did and then I when I began to think about what you were saying I realized that all of my knowing that I get excited about is really empty without the engagement of doing. It seems apparent at this moment that I need both, knowing and doing. Isn’t this right where Paul found himself in Romans 7, especially verse 24 ?!?
At a point, in his exasperation, knowing and doing weren’t even enough. It’s actually an entering into what has already been accomplished through Christ. Oh how difficult this appears to be when confronted with our own need to know and do. In essence so many times we say “oh there, I’ve got it now, 2+2 is four” and somehow it’s supposed to make everything good, but alas, it’s not enough. I guess I’m being vulnerable here. I’m frustrated. Knowing isn’t enough and how does one “do” when one seems to be pre-programmed to behave contrary?
How does a person go from verse 24 to verse 25, not in the head only, but in the heart ?!
There, all those words didn’t make me feel a lot better but my sight is a bit clearer, I think. So, do I send out this gibberish? Oh hell, why not, I only have 22 days left to blog on this site anyhow, might as well make the most of it.
Shalom.
13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If[f] anyone has ears to hear, let him hear! Tradition culture peer influence unbelief all those things that have
crept into our lives we’ve been soaked in baptized in reinforced over and over and over again and when we meet Yashua face-to-face or one of his representatives one of his children then we’re confused we need something we want some thing but we don’t know how to get it Yeshua said that many things like this the Pharisees did it was the Pharisees that said to Yeshua why don’t your disciples follow the elders? I find that most the time when there is revelation as it has been with TW that it calls for an about face a change if my heart is soft and sensitive it’s not that difficult but when I’m confronted with doubt or I have no idea how YA is going to go about doing something I do believe I do believe it’s the unbelief That I stumble over …yes we only have 22 days left how are we going to continue to encourage one another if we don’t blog Larita Larry Skip seeker Michael and ladies !what shall we do???
Hi, Baruch: for what it’s worth I really like to communicate with people and we can, like Skip has pointed out, still do that with email and phone, too. I can’t speak for anybody else on your list, but anybody who wants to can send me an email and I will respond back. I really treasure friends and encouragement, too! My email is hayeslaurita @ gmail dot com.
Baruch all that we can do is say
Thank you, Skip, for accommodating us through the years. May God guide you and restore your health, relationships and resources to remain in trading with your wonderful talent.
My email is
protegeipc@gmail.com
For all you like digging deeper into the mine of God’s depths.
My life’ philosophy is living a life humbling to being mentored (protégé) for it is the intelligent person’s choice (IPC).
I have no Hebraic background but truly believe that staying in Bethlehem (house of bread) Jerusalem (double peace) prevails until Called and tasked by God. From dead works into a living example that saves.
May God guide all towards His salvation through anointment….
Sorry but I am still last with saying someone who lived 2000 years ago saves all. I believe it is the teachings unto salvation that guides us to be anointed and it is this principle that saves. Then again I am only one lost soul seeking humbly for the Job intervention to experience the fullness of the anointment.
O and yes only through this anointment are we able to guide others prior to this we should live humbly in the breaking of bread going from one house (source of knowledge) to another. Thanking God for this rich source of His wisdom and power the anointing for Jew, Greek, slave and free person…