The message that’s to follow began in my heart nearly twenty years ago when The Lord said to me “Have You Imprisoned the Spirit of God?” The title “The Dark Side of Faith” rose up inside me during my time of fellowship with Him Wednesday morning, August 2, 2023 (which is the same way the first question came to me early in 2004).
The Bible teaches that “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Pro 16:18). Then two chapters later Solomon wrote: “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, And before honor is humility” (Pro 18:12). I said that because some of the things I’m about to write are very humbling for me to unveil. [I’m not going to go into great detail, but enough will be said for the Holy Spirit to help the readers’ mind to travel their own road of revelation and come to know what He and I are saying.]
God, the Father of lights, the Lord Jehovah, is such a patient Father! I’m about to complete my fortieth year of walking with Him – I’ve come to realize length of time doesn’t mean anything in the Kingdom of God. In other words one might say ‘Well, he should have had the victory over that by now’ and the like. I say that because I grew up with that thought-pattern, thinking certain levels of life somehow just happen automatically because one had reached a certain age while making no effort to develop in an area (things like financial status, marriage, child rearing). I somehow thought these things simply happened because I had reached a certain age.
I remember, as a youngster, walking along the sidewalk and thinking to myself ‘I know everything I need to know. I don’t have to go to college, or gain any further teaching of _______.’ So I never applied myself to learn. I’m not sure what my grade average was, but the C’s and D’s were enough to skate me into the next grade. Around the third grade the bullying was thrust into high gear. Then to make matters worse, my third grade teacher called me a “stupid idiot” in front of the entire class! My home-life didn’t give me any backbone. My mother always used to say “That’s alright, if you don’t want to ______, then you don’t have to.” Which made me a world-class quitter. When that teacher said that to me, and the whole class laughed at me, I closed-up and became a ‘wall-flower’ (someone who didn’t interact at all with anybody else).
This is when the imagery of complete failure began within my inner-man. It’s just now dawning on me (as I’m writing this) that that is why it has taken almost 40 years for the Lord to be able to bring about deliverance in many areas of my life. I would read the Scripture that says “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col 1:13). The Amplified Bible classic edition says it like this: “…has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us …” There were bondages that controlled my life that I couldn’t break free of, no matter how much I quoted/confessed the Word regarding them. We’ve heard it said the Lord got Israel out of Egypt, but He needed to get Egypt out of them. That’s what was going on with me.
Within the first two weeks in my walk with the Lord my mother gave me a set of teaching tapes by Kenneth Copeland called “The Authority of the Believer.” Hearing him talk about Kenneth E. Hagin and RHEMA Bible Training Center I ended up going to RHEMA in the mid-eighties. One would think after such saturation and training that I would have become a completely new man. In many ways I did, but there was still a lot of work to be done. Here’s a little side-note: just because one attends a premiere ‘faith-school’ like RHEMA doesn’t make them a faith giant. Sure, a lot of foundation was laid, but knowledge only “puffs up” [or inflates, or exaggerates] (1Cor. 8:1). In my case I was deceived to believe that the knowledge I had was enough. But, year after year I found myself dealing with the same garbage that I grew up with.
I started gaining insight into the missing pieces of the life of faith I suffered from after reading Dr. David (Paul) Yonggi Cho’s book called “The Fourth Dimension.” I had heard many of the ministers I feed off of mention that book and how it affected their lives. I finally got hold of a copy and read it. WOW! I found out what they were talking about, and it began the journey I’m writing about now. The devil knows how the laws that govern this life work, and he’s been robbing from mankind since the Garden getting us to function in them with his influence – which is to steal, kill and destroy! Here’s an example: “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself” (Prov. 11:25). Expound better.
So, what does he get man to do? Hoard and only take care of ‘us four, and no more.’ [On a side-note the book of Proverbs is full of revelation regarding the laws that govern life.] I’ll not belabor this thought because I want to get to the crux of revelation that has dawned on me regarding the life of faith. From Dr. Cho’s book we learn that faith requires an inner-imagery to bring to pass what we desire. [Put your stones down, I know Brother Copeland has taught that for years. I simply didn’t ‘hear’ it, which tells me I just wasn’t ready.] Where I got the idea of “The Dark Side of Faith” from is in the understanding that all of mankind operates in faith (bringing forth the image inside them). Leave those stones where they are, I know the Scripture says that not all have faith (2Thes.3:2) – Paul was talking about God’s faith which we all receive at the new birth. Notice, Jesus said “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matt. 12:35). This ‘bringing forth’ could be rendered: ‘bring about,’ or ‘cause to be.’
Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen.1:26). God is a faith God, and man has always been a ‘faith-being.’ We started out with God’s faith, but it became corrupted when Adam bowed his knee to the devil – and that decision passed on to all of mankind: “for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12, KJV). Not that we have sinned after the similitude of Adam, but because he was our parent his disobedience passed on to us all. Jesus reversed that ungodly decision and freely gives God’s life (which includes His faith) to everyone who receives Him! Now, that’s Good News!
I said all that to say that mankind (male and female alike) are all faith-beings, and the devil knows it. [Now listen carefully; this is the primary reason for this teaching. I learned these things the hard way! – But, I’ve also learned that we can live a life of victory ON PURPOSE!!] The two primary ingredients that function in the life of faith are the imagination (inner-imagery) and the words of our mouth. We could say it this way: our imagination is the canvas of our heart (inner-man, spirit), which the Scripture calls “hope.” “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1Cor.13:13). Couple that with Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Bible faith is filled with and energized by the Life of God and has God as its Source. Natural human faith is limited to only what the flesh can produce, and God calls that environment “cursed.” “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD” (Jer. 17:5). Notice, this latter ‘trust’ is in what man can do apart from the Lord being influenced by the devil. All of mankind has been created to be influenced (energized, swayed) by the unseen realm – which is the Fourth Dimension (or, the realm of the spirit). Christianity (Body of Christ) has the upper-hand because we can learn these things and operate in them for our own good; the world has the influence of the devil who fills their mouth (and heart) with death. He uses media, social media and so forth to ‘program’ people to live in the flow of death and destruction. I’m convinced that COVID-19 would not have spread like it did without the ‘help’ of newscasters and social media. We were hearing – from ‘voices’ we were supposed to trust – that it was necessary to get vaccinated and practice social distancing. Notice I said it came from ‘voices we were supposed to trust’? Part of the faith-mechanism is believing a thing. That opens our heart to have instruction written on it, which will affect our future; especially if we say it! The Word of God teaches us that we have what we say. I can hear the ‘light-switches’ flipping in many of you. You’re starting to realize that you have been paving your life by believing in your heart and saying with your mouth certain things!
I’m going to paraphrase Mark 11:23 here in a way that will bring home what we have been talking about. ‘Whosoever (that’s anybody) shall say…and believe in his (or her) heart (spirit-man, inner-man, hidden man of the heart) what they say shall come to pass, they shall have whatsoever they say.’ – Did you catch that? The part that got me was ‘believing what you (I) say shall come to pass.’ Having been bullied in school I developed a defense mechanism – I became a ‘class-clown’ which resulted in the practice of, what the Bible calls, foolish-jesting. I would say things to get people to laugh (which, I thought it would deflect what I perceived as their hatred for me); things that weren’t true. This developed a mistrust in my spirit (heart) to not believe most of what I said. [See how crafty the devil is?] So, what was the result? I began to believe I was always going to be a nobody; a misfit, a reject – unimportant! You can envision how this image hindered my spiritual walk unto victory.
These death-filled attitudes kept me bound so badly that I had no vision – at all! No aspirations for any kind of success in life! I’m not trying to be a bummer here. I told you this writing would be a humbling of myself. But, my hope is that somebody will read this, grab their life by the horns (so-to-speak) and get a spring in their step to press forward and forsake the imagery of defeat that has dogged them their entire life and manifest the Glory of God! Allow the Word of God – who you are IN CHRIST – to paint what cost Jesus His Blood to purchase for you and me and shove it in the devil’s face!!
Can you see how this ‘dark side of faith’ has propagated the agenda of hell throughout the history of the human race? The darkness has so blinded our hearts and minds to the point of hopelessness in many cases. Suicide is at an all-time high because people cannot see themselves as being in the image of God. The devil has convinced many to be confused about their sexuality when a simple – honest – examination of their body will tell them whether they are male or female. I’m not trying to be disparaging here, I know the mental attacks of the enemy are real and hurtful! I believe the Body of Christ needs to rise up and shine the Light of Love into this darkened world and show that there is hope for all who come to Jesus!
God’s Word is full of words that create imagery, which results in faith – the God kind of faith. God’s faith will heal your body – OF ANYTHING! God’s faith will cause peace to unite a family, a village, a nation and obliterate war. The dark side of faith will keep people bound to sickness and disease, and every other disaster imaginable. Isaiah prophesied “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isa 60:1-3). [For a pick-me-up writing about that read my article called Arise to a New Life.]
Once, I was complaining to the Lord about the hideous activity going on in the world and He said to me “What did you think the ‘gross darkness’ [KJV] was going to look like?” So, come on Body of Christ, Jesus said that we are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14). Let’s get busy shining forth God’s glory and dispel the darkness! [I just heard this: “Make way, for the King is coming!”]
Discussing these things with a friend, who I trust, via text messages I had an image go off in my heart. I saw Jesus reaching His hand through the muck that’s clouding this planet (overwhelming circumstances) to pull up through it those who would take hold of Him. I wrote: “He’s reaching into the waters of despair the devil thought he was drowning us in, and we’re coming out stronger than ever!” The darkness is covering the planet, without a doubt. But, we are not without help! The Word of God – you know, that Book that’s collecting dust, that we drag with us on a Sunday morning (if we can find it) – is full of exceeding great and precious promises which will enable us to be a partaker of God’s divine nature (see 2Peter 1:2-4). His Word is a shield about us (Psalm 3:3, 5:12, 18:2). And, faith in it will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one! Jesus is the Word that became flesh (John 1:14). John 3:34 tells us Jesus has the Spirit without measure. The revelation came to me that The Word of God has the same measure (which is immeasurable). Romans 10:17 says that (God’s) faith comes by hearing His Word.
I further wrote: “The whole election-integrity thing; the trans stuff. What our enemy meant for our destruction (communism), God is using for our Awakening! We need to remain sharp in the Spirit and soar above these things! The Body of Christ MUST shake off everything of the flesh: carnality, prejudice (which is not simply black vs. white. It’s division of religious camps – ‘word of faith’ vs. Baptist, etc.).”
In conclusion: all of mankind has a belief-system – we call it ‘faith’. It’s designed to shape our world. The infusion of death (darkness) into the heart (spirit) of man corrupted this system which resulted in the propagation of hell’s agenda. Jesus paid the awesome price for our redemption by shedding His Blood and destroying that darkened system. However, it’s not automatic. It requires a purposeful study of the Word of God and intentional application of it (being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only [James 1:22])! I’ve called this teaching ‘The Dark Side of Faith’ for the purpose of exposing the devil’s devices, which we are not ignorant of (2Cor. 2:11) and illuminating God’s path of life for whosoever will!
