Is God Limited By Our Unbelief? LIVE Q&A for February 6, 2025

Is God Limited by Our Unbelief?

Margaret asked…

Is God limited by our unbelief? Matthew 13:58

Matthew 13:57-58 (Parallel: Mark 6:1-6)

So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

1. So they were offended at Him: When we think of how strongly Jesus is identified with Nazareth (see at Matthew 2:23), it is even more surprising to note that the people of Nazareth did not appreciate it. The success and glory of Jesus seemed only to make them more resentful towards Him.
2. A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, and in his own house: We often have wrong ideas about what it means to be spiritual. We often think that spiritual people will be much more strange than normal. Therefore, those closest to truly spiritual people see just how normal they are and sometimes think that they aren’t spiritual because they are normal.
3. He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief: It is truly remarkable that Jesus was, in some manner, limited by their unbelief. As long as God chooses to work in concert with human agency, developing our ability to partner with Him, our unbelief can and may hinder the work of God.
4. He could do no mighty work: His work was limited in this climate of unbelief. In this sense, Jesus’ power was limited by the unbelief of His countrymen.
5. This was in respect to God’s principle of partnership with man. God may work with no belief, but not with unbelief.
6. The old Puritan commentator John Trapp here remarked that unbelief was “A sin of that venomous nature, that it transfuseth, as it were, a dead palsy into the hands of omnipotency.”

Does God always test people before He blesses them, like He did with Abraham?

No, God doesn’t always test people before He blesses them. Sometimes God just blesses people. Our relationship with God is under the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant where the focus was on earning and deserving. In the New Covenant, the emphasis is on believing and receiving. If God tests us before a blessing, and we hypothetically respond well to that test, it doesn’t mean that we’ve earned it. We need to be careful of the idea that we can somehow earn or deserve the blessing of God.

The blessing of God is given freely to His people in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Under the Old Covenant, the keys to blessing were earning and deserving. Under the New Covenant, the key to the blessing of God is believing and receiving. Does God sometimes work a test or something like that in the lives of people for blessing? Sure, certainly God does that sometimes, but it is by no means something that God does all the time.

What should I do when unanswered prayers make me feel like God is mad at me?

I constantly think that God is mad at me because of unanswered prayer, and my having grown up in an abusive house. How do I fix this? I know the truth, but living it is so hard.

I genuinely feel sorry that you’re going through this, and for your upbringing in an abusive home. That’s a bad way to grow up. I feel sorry that you’re burdened by this idea that God is perpetually angry with you. Because you’re watching this program, I’m assuming that you have put your faith in Jesus, and you care about God.

I think it’s very important for you to remember that you stand in His grace. God sees you in terms of favor, but not because you’re so wonderful. It seems likely that you believe God’s estimation of you is dependent upon your performance. No wonder you get sad a lot. No wonder you think God is mad at you. You may think that God is like a child plucking the petals of a flower saying, “He loves me, He loves me not. Today, I was good. I guess God loves me today. I wasn’t so good today, so I guess God doesn’t love me.” No, no, no.

God loves you. God cares about you. I know you’re burdened by your unanswered prayer. I think you should talk to God about your unanswered prayer and ask Him to guide you into the knowledge to understand why some prayers are unanswered now. Maybe it’s just a matter of time. There are amazing, wonderful stories of people of faith and prayer like George Mueller, who prayed for people or for things for decades before seeing the answer. Maybe that’s your situation. Or maybe in some way that you can’t perceive right now, you’re asking amiss, or asking for something that is not in tune with the heart of God on a particular matter, and God wants to show you. God wants to lead you into having a His perspective about this as well. Because of the marvelous, matchless grace of God and His unmerited favor, He sees you in terms of favor and beauty and love and so many other things.

For someone whose faith was shaken, and is struggling to trust God as before, can they do anything to have greater faith now? What are practical ways to increase our faith, or is it all voluntary?

Spiritually speaking, the way to increase your faith is to read and meditate on the Word of God. Romans 10:17 – So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So, if faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, read it. Read it out loud if you need to. Read and study the Word of God. Become more and more familiar with who God is, how He works, and what His promises are. That is a spiritual way to build up faith.

I will also give you a practical way to build up faith. You increase faith by using it, by learning that God can be trusted. Really, that’s what we’re simply learning. God has given us promises. The promises aren’t that God would do everything exactly how we would imagine. The promises isn’t that He would do everything just as we would want. No, that’s not God’s promise. God’s promise is that He will keep His promises and work out His eternal will. Our job is to get in the flow of that will.

So how do you increase faith? Be in the Word of God, not just reading it. I like reading it out loud. I like memorizing it. I like meditating on it. Read the Word of God. That’s a spiritual way, but then a practical way is put faith into practice and let God build your faith from that.

I’ll give you one more way to practically increase your faith. Read missionary biographies. Do you know what I’m talking about? Examples would be the missionary biography of William Taylor, “The Story of My Life,” or “Something Happened” by Mildred Cable and Francesca French, about their work in Mongolia. Here’s a missionary biography about John Patton, missionary to the New Hebrides islands. Reading missionary biographies is a tremendous way to build up your faith. As you see God doing great things in the lives of other people, you come to rightly understand and believe that He can do great things in your life.

Could you please explain what the Kingdom Now/Dominion teaching is?

Here’s my understanding of “Kingdom Now” or Dominion teaching. It comes from the charismatic world and basically believes that God wants believers to gain dominion over all the institutions of the world (political, economic, academic, media, entertainment, family, and religion) and basically rule the world this way. Now, there is nothing wrong or bad about Christians trying to exert Christian influence wherever God puts them, or to pursue that influence and govern.

But I think that oftentimes the Kingdom Now or Dominion theology is based on an understanding of the end times or eschatology about which I would disagree. That view is called post-millennialism, which teaches the idea that it is the duty and the function of the Church to institute the Millennial Kingdom of God on the earth, to Christianize the entire earth, and then Jesus Christ will return. I don’t believe that the correct understanding of what the Scriptures say.

There has been a fair amount of weirdness associated with Kingdom Now or Dominion teaching. I can think of situations where a pastor at a meeting or a big rally proclaims God’s dominion over the entire city. You know, let’s say Los Angeles. He’ll say things like, “God’s dominion is over this entire city. Every spiritual foe is bound, and every adversary is defeated. I proclaim dominion over the whole city.” And look, to be honest, nothing happens. Friends, if God takes and exercises full dominion over a culture and society, you’ll know it. Things will be different.

Now I’m not trying to say for a moment that God doesn’t have dominion already in one sense. Of course, He does. But as we discussed in the lead question, not only does God exercise dominion now in a sense, but there’s also an ultimate sense in which the kingdom of God will be manifest. There’s an ultimate sense in which His dominion will be clear. And I don’t think it happens just by people proclaiming or declaring it. It happens as believers work through and are faithful in the particular places where God has placed them. That’s the way to advance God’s Kingdom.