Just Believe

“Just believe and I will increase your faith.”

Those were the words the Lord spoke to me in my sleep. It wasn’t in the context of a dream. Just the words as clear as crystal. It’s not uncommon. I hear from the Lord in my sleep. Sometimes in the context of dreams, other times just words. It makes sense because during the day the chatter and distractions of our lives make it hard, if not impossible, to hear from the Lord. But at night our souls are at rest and quiet.

Let me back up and provide some context to “Just believe and I will increase your faith.” I am cynical. It’s in the Brady DNA. I have seen the mighty hand of God in my life perform miracles and directly answer prayers for provision. If ever a person lived who should never doubt God, it’s me. But I do sometimes. The Enemy gets in my head tossing these little darts of doubt flaming my natural cynicism. A couple of weeks ago in church in the middle of a worship song these darts of doubt started piercing me. I immediately rebuked them in the name of Jesus out loud(just under the volume of the music and singing). I commanded these demons of doubt and unbelief to leave. Then at the end of this song our worship leader, Rick spoke. He said that at times he struggles with you guessed it, unbelief. He said the Lord directed him to Mark 9:24 which says, “Lord, I do believe, help my unbelief.” See, I told you that the Lord speaks to me.

So, that became my prayer. Lord, I do believe, help my unbelief. I would pray that in my quiet times and throughout the day. It’s a powerful weapon to pray the Scriptures. Then last Wednesday night in my sleep, God told me, “Just believe and I will increase your faith.” I woke up knowing that He wanted me to step into this with childlike obedience and I decided to take that step.

But for the next week I kept praying the Mark 9 prayer, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Then one morning this week I felt a conviction down deep into my bones. If I am just believing as the Lord told me to, then why am I still praying that He help my unbelief? What unbelief? I’ve chosen to believe. There’s no unbelief to help.

But the Lord is a good, good Father and didn’t want to leave any room for doubt. A couple of nights ago I was speaking to my close friend, Arthur and without knowing this story he shared an experience with me. He faced an opportunity to doubt a while back, but the Lord spoke to him…just believe. Same words. The Lord wanted to make sure I understood that “Just believe and I will increase your faith” was definitely from Him.

One thing I’ve omitted from my story is that all of this happened in the last half of a 21 day Daniel fast. Not a coincidence. Prayer and fasting are powerful. Jesus told the disciples that a certain type of demon could only be driven out of someone by prayer and fasting.

I got breakthroughs. If you need them, try fasting.

And just believe.