When God Disappears

"For he that comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those that deligently seek Him" para-phrased
You can't come to him except you believe that He exists or maybe you are willing to hazard this. But His existence is hinged on belief. That is, His existence to you.
The first thing (therefore) the scripture above shows is that God exists (to you) or does not exist (to you) when you either believe or do not believe.
God disappears when you stop believing. But there is a dynamic to this disappearance. He disappears when you come with a request that you do not see or get answers to.
This does not just happen immediately in most cases but it is something that gradually ebbs at the heart of belief when they repeatedly "ask without receiving". We are not looking at WHY they are not receiving but we are looking at how unbelief sets in.
Unbelief means God has stopped existing to the person that falls into it. Unbelief is a product of disappointment on the part of the person that falls into it. This is why unbelief tends to have real meaning to those who have already been exposed to the gospel rather than any other set of people. Look at the background of a man who has unbelief in God and there is every chance that you would find a time in that man's life when there was belief. But along the way, God stopped existing to that person and unbelief set in.
Therefore the effective weapon that can break the wall of unbelief is the coming alive of God in that person's life again. It is not God coming alive in their environment or in the life of someone around them but coming alive to them. Unbelief set in because of what they came to see as the silence of God. It crept in because of what they came to see as His unresponsiveness to them. Once the reverse of this silence or unresponsiveness begins to happen the hold of unbelief is broken.
Praying with Understanding
God breaking His silence or coming alive to them may not necessarily be on a matter of their own choosing or in something they had previously requested of Him. It may be just like in the case of Jonah when God made a plant to sprout one moment and then killed it and it triggered something in Jonah that opened the door for God to break through his heart. He did not break through his heart by destroying that city which was something Jonah had been requesting for.
If you know of someone being dragged into the bowels of unbelief your prayer of intercession should be that God should come alive again to that person. He should start existing again to that person. Once God does this, the hold of unbelief weakens and it can't but let go.
"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick"
Sick with what you might ask? Sick with unbelief is one of the replies. You might think that unbelief is "all on the person". That is, they brought it upon themselves and are the ones that control it as if unbelief is a human emotion or force. Well think again; unbelief is of the devil and when he speaks, he talks and sows unbelief.
"Did God say..."
"He was a ...from the beginning and when he speaks.."
Unbelief is ushered in and takes its place in the heart by the one who stands against all things godly. This is why unbelief usually takes to the heart of someone who had experienced belief at one time or the other.
The unheard cry of one bound to the chains of unbelief is that God might come alive. You can play a part in that with this understanding. God Bless.
One Word -emmanuel iweha

Your wallet; your confidence

This is just a thought that we hope will add some degree of value to the reader.

It is no gainsying that the degree of our confidence has a "mysterious" link to the size of our wallet. We may not notice this when the wallet is always full. But it suddenly comes into reckoning when we experience a depletion of the size of our wallet.
But on closer inspection, we can see that it is not really the size of our wallet that is the issue but the source. That is, even when our wallet is to our own standards, rather on the thin or skinny side, we may still have a degree of confidence that goes beyond the size.

This is because our confidence may not link to the size but the source.
If you have just a hundred of what ever currency unit and no credit card, and to your eyes that is really small, your confidence will definitely still be strong if there is a hundred thousand somewhere. That is, if the source of that wallet that only has a hundred in it is a hundred thousand somewhere, you will still walk and talk and be as confident as someone that has a hundred thousand.

It is the source that gives you confidence and not the size.

Your pocket and your wallet may even be without a dime but if you have a million somewhere, it will reflect in the way you are talking or handling an issue that is somehow connected to money. This is interesting.

"In quietness and confidence shall your strenght be"

This is really interesting because what this behaviour is saying in effect is that if we can get to know the source i.e. what we have in our 'account', it will have a direct impact on our confidence and will show in how we relate and handle things.

It is not what you have at hand that is the issue but what you have coming. It is not the amount in the wallet but what you know is coming into that wallet that gives you the confidence.
This is why someone might have a considerably fat wallet but because they know that the source has just been cut off maybe through job loss, they are still really not as confident as their wallet would suggest they should be.

Saul was king and ruled as king but he knew he had been cut off from the source and his confidence was very low even though he was king. It is not what you are now that is the issue but whether the connection is still there. It is not the size of your wallet that counts but the security of the connection you have.

"He waketh me up morning by morning.."

The connection is the key to one's confidence. It is not even what happened yesterday or past glories but your connection presently. Imagine if we can look beyond the size of our purse/wallet and know the amount in our accounts? Imagine if we can actually walk with this as it has to do with its spiritual implication? Imagine.
One Word -emmanuel iweha