Exposing doubt and unbelief
Let us stop here for a moment and expose two thieves who's names are boubt and unbelief.
If doubt or unbelief are lurking in your life, miracles simply can not get past them.
It's good to understand where most doubts and unbelief come from?
They come from our past.
They come from the things that had happened to us and the things we have been through.
The challenge is that too many times we get cought up in operating our lives from our past history.
We need to learn how to stop living our lives out of the rear view mirror.
We need to learn how to keep both hands on the wheel and look through the windshield of possibilities and push the gas pedal.
We all have gone through some things in our lives that are both good and bad.
But the problem is through time we create habits and beliefs that limit us and completely stop us from the things that we want most.
Let me give you 2 examples.
This story is about a man some years back that had a large fish he would kept in a large aquarium.
He would feed the big fish by throwing small minnows in the aquarium and he would easily catch them and eat them.
The man was curious and wanted to do an experiment on the fish.
So the man put a large sheet of clear plastic in the middle of the aquarium to separate it into two different areas.
He put the big fish in one side and then put the little minnows that the big fish ate on the other side.
The big fish would dart after the minnows time after time and hit the clear divider that separated him from his food over and over again.
Then slowly the big fish would make fewer attempts to catch his food that swim in the other side of the aquarium.
After the big fish stopped trying all together the man then pulled out the clear divider out and let the minnows swim freely into the area where the big fish could easily eat them.
To the man surprise the big fish would not try and eat his food.
The big fish no longer believed that he had access to the minnows that were now swimming freely all around him.
Because he previously could not reach them (or in other words his past history) he believed it was impossible and no longer tried.
The big fish gave up all together and eventually died of starvation.
The big fish died because he did NOT BELIEVE that he could eat the food that was now swimming all around him.
How many of us are just like this big fish.
Because of things that had happened in our past we believe that we do not have access the miracles that are sitting there just waiting for us to reach out and grab.
The rich beggar
This second story is of a poor beggar that lived on the side of the road that spent all his time sitting on the ground while asking others for food and spare change. One day the king learned about this poor man and sent him a treasure chest full of gold.
The beggar was very excited to receive it. The beggar misunderstanding the gift was very grateful that he now had something to sit on rather than the cold dirty ground. So as the beggar did what he had always done he went back to begging once more.
He asked the next person walking down the road for some food or spare change.
The pedestrian stopped and stirred at the beggar sitting on such a magnificent treasure chest. The pedestrian then asked the beggar what was in the treasure chest he was sitting on.
The beggar looked a little perplexed as he said that he really didn't know.
He told the pedestrian that It was a gift from the king so that he no longer had to sit on the cold dirty ground.
Then pedestrian told the beggar "why don't you open it up and have
a look inside?
The beggar had never thought of that and agreed that it was a good idea. As he stood up and started to unlatch the lid when all of a sudden giant ran up and shouted at him to stop opening the chest. The giants name was doubt.
Giant doubt proclaimed "I doubt that you should but opening that chest. It is not to be opened. That is why there are latches on the lid. I doubt that the king would favor such a beggar like yourself.
Just be thankful that you now have something to sit on and stop with this nonsense that there is something more to what the king gave you than a nice chest to sit on.
The beggar then was ashamed of himself for thinking such selfish thoughts and once again sat on the chest that the king had given to him.
The pedestrian then said, did not the king give this to you and is he not known for giving the absolute very good gifts?
Don't listen to giant doubt and go ahead and open it.
So the beggar started to open the treasure chest once more.
At that very moment, giant unbelief yield out "stop what you are doing!"
I do not believe you have the authority to open the chest. If the king wanted you to open the chest he would have given you a key to open it with.
The beggar thought about it for a moment then said: yes you are right.
I also believe I should not open the lid without first having a key.
The pedestrian Then said: look here, it doesn't have a key hole any place whatsoever on the chest . There is no lock on this lid. Go ahead and open it. It was given to you as a gift to open.
Just then one more giant that's name is giant fear yelled "do not open the lid. You have no idea what kind of things that are in there and you have no idea of what you are getting yourself into.
So the beggar said, thank you to the three giants for helping him out and the pedestrian then shrugged his shoulders and went on his way while the beggar went back to begging until his dying day.
The beggar died sitting on a treasure chest full of gold.
Many of us still live with these giants in our lives and have a hard time getting rid of them.
Giant doubt, Giant unbelief and Giant fear.
The fact is, until we get rid of these giants in our lives we are going to have a very hard time reaching our miracles that are sitting there waiting for us.
If doubt or unbelief are lurking in your life, miracles simply can not get past them.
It's good to understand where most doubts and unbelief come from?
They come from our past.
They come from the things that had happened to us and the things we have been through.
The challenge is that too many times we get cought up in operating our lives from our past history.
We need to learn how to stop living our lives out of the rear view mirror.
We need to learn how to keep both hands on the wheel and look through the windshield of possibilities and push the gas pedal.
We all have gone through some things in our lives that are both good and bad.
But the problem is through time we create habits and beliefs that limit us and completely stop us from the things that we want most.
Let me give you 2 examples.
This story is about a man some years back that had a large fish he would kept in a large aquarium.
He would feed the big fish by throwing small minnows in the aquarium and he would easily catch them and eat them.
The man was curious and wanted to do an experiment on the fish.
So the man put a large sheet of clear plastic in the middle of the aquarium to separate it into two different areas.
He put the big fish in one side and then put the little minnows that the big fish ate on the other side.
The big fish would dart after the minnows time after time and hit the clear divider that separated him from his food over and over again.
Then slowly the big fish would make fewer attempts to catch his food that swim in the other side of the aquarium.
After the big fish stopped trying all together the man then pulled out the clear divider out and let the minnows swim freely into the area where the big fish could easily eat them.
To the man surprise the big fish would not try and eat his food.
The big fish no longer believed that he had access to the minnows that were now swimming freely all around him.
Because he previously could not reach them (or in other words his past history) he believed it was impossible and no longer tried.
The big fish gave up all together and eventually died of starvation.
The big fish died because he did NOT BELIEVE that he could eat the food that was now swimming all around him.
How many of us are just like this big fish.
Because of things that had happened in our past we believe that we do not have access the miracles that are sitting there just waiting for us to reach out and grab.
The rich beggar
This second story is of a poor beggar that lived on the side of the road that spent all his time sitting on the ground while asking others for food and spare change. One day the king learned about this poor man and sent him a treasure chest full of gold.
The beggar was very excited to receive it. The beggar misunderstanding the gift was very grateful that he now had something to sit on rather than the cold dirty ground. So as the beggar did what he had always done he went back to begging once more.
He asked the next person walking down the road for some food or spare change.
The pedestrian stopped and stirred at the beggar sitting on such a magnificent treasure chest. The pedestrian then asked the beggar what was in the treasure chest he was sitting on.
The beggar looked a little perplexed as he said that he really didn't know.
He told the pedestrian that It was a gift from the king so that he no longer had to sit on the cold dirty ground.
Then pedestrian told the beggar "why don't you open it up and have
a look inside?
The beggar had never thought of that and agreed that it was a good idea. As he stood up and started to unlatch the lid when all of a sudden giant ran up and shouted at him to stop opening the chest. The giants name was doubt.
Giant doubt proclaimed "I doubt that you should but opening that chest. It is not to be opened. That is why there are latches on the lid. I doubt that the king would favor such a beggar like yourself.
Just be thankful that you now have something to sit on and stop with this nonsense that there is something more to what the king gave you than a nice chest to sit on.
The beggar then was ashamed of himself for thinking such selfish thoughts and once again sat on the chest that the king had given to him.
The pedestrian then said, did not the king give this to you and is he not known for giving the absolute very good gifts?
Don't listen to giant doubt and go ahead and open it.
So the beggar started to open the treasure chest once more.
At that very moment, giant unbelief yield out "stop what you are doing!"
I do not believe you have the authority to open the chest. If the king wanted you to open the chest he would have given you a key to open it with.
The beggar thought about it for a moment then said: yes you are right.
I also believe I should not open the lid without first having a key.
The pedestrian Then said: look here, it doesn't have a key hole any place whatsoever on the chest . There is no lock on this lid. Go ahead and open it. It was given to you as a gift to open.
Just then one more giant that's name is giant fear yelled "do not open the lid. You have no idea what kind of things that are in there and you have no idea of what you are getting yourself into.
So the beggar said, thank you to the three giants for helping him out and the pedestrian then shrugged his shoulders and went on his way while the beggar went back to begging until his dying day.
The beggar died sitting on a treasure chest full of gold.
Many of us still live with these giants in our lives and have a hard time getting rid of them.
Giant doubt, Giant unbelief and Giant fear.
The fact is, until we get rid of these giants in our lives we are going to have a very hard time reaching our miracles that are sitting there waiting for us.