Hi there,
So I wanted to talk a little briefly about faith and the past. The thing we know about faith, is that it is incredibly, incredibly strong. If I have faith, I can move a mountain, as Jesus said. On the other hand, we learn that God can harden the heart of people without faith. Take Pharoah; his heart was hardened against Israel and he made a massive blunder thinking he could snatch back the children of Israel. There are other examples, King David's children rebelling against him, Samson giving away his secret, Saul taking plunder - these are just examples that I can think of off the top of my head. What's interesting is that just as God hardens those without faith, so He can soften the faith of people who have faith. King David when he looked out at Jerusalem, was softened and he looked at Bathsheba with lust. Adam when he was faced with Eve's temptation, was softened and he joined her in her sin. These are just a couple of examples.
So it is not that people's faith is failing them; rather, people are struggling to reach a level of faith they find suits them, and God in His Sovereignty challenges them to do more with faith, than they otherwise would have. Just as hardening the heart of King Nebuchadnezzar made him mad like an animal, so softening our hearts in the faith makes us open to new doctrines or adventures or crosses. There is a parting chance to be delivered of this world, without faith getting in the way and saying "no! you must do it by faith!". If God had not enclosed Moses in the rock, Moses never would have been able to gaze upon God - this was a softening of Moses' gaze. If Moses had been too softened, he might not have lived - we must be mindful of this. There will be things that we see in Heaven, if we were not softened, would destroy us.
But what about when the softening, or anything else, is in the past? The truth is that God could harden us against remembering the past, some people have a condition where they only remember so much of the past, indeed we all struggle to remember what we experienced as a baby. But what does God do? He blocks the connection. God when He returns Elijah to the world, does not give Elijah a memory of everything that Elijah did. The record may be there, but Elijah does not trigger a memory by looking at that (record). You yourself, if God grants you another life, will not gain access to everything of the past, that you have now. This is not meant to hurt you, but to make it possible for you to focus. If you remembered everything that you did in a past life, you might struggle to have faith, more than you think. Interestingly, it's not clear that you will remember how your past faith was softened. Without better judgment, it is likely that you will assume you always had the faith you have now. (This is our connection with God, in the beginning - He guarantees we will not lose faith in the past, or expect the one faith of the future, for that matter).
I'm not sure this message will help you a lot, if you haven't developed a gift for determining who you were in a past life (if you were anyone!) or indeed, if you have a degree of unforgiveness that prevents you from understanding that God does not simply want you to have faith for faith's sake. The truth is these things are worked out in eternity, we do not need to lose sleep over them. I am not saying everything here, it would no be right to call people out on their faith or mock their being blocked from the past in various ways - we just have to understand that these limits are there. God does not want to abandon or forget us, but there is a point at which expecting more and more from God is too much - as God says "I will not always strive with Man" (OT, from memory). If there is wisdom in this, let us grasp it together!
I hope this has been of some encouragement.
God bless.
So I wanted to talk a little briefly about faith and the past. The thing we know about faith, is that it is incredibly, incredibly strong. If I have faith, I can move a mountain, as Jesus said. On the other hand, we learn that God can harden the heart of people without faith. Take Pharoah; his heart was hardened against Israel and he made a massive blunder thinking he could snatch back the children of Israel. There are other examples, King David's children rebelling against him, Samson giving away his secret, Saul taking plunder - these are just examples that I can think of off the top of my head. What's interesting is that just as God hardens those without faith, so He can soften the faith of people who have faith. King David when he looked out at Jerusalem, was softened and he looked at Bathsheba with lust. Adam when he was faced with Eve's temptation, was softened and he joined her in her sin. These are just a couple of examples.
So it is not that people's faith is failing them; rather, people are struggling to reach a level of faith they find suits them, and God in His Sovereignty challenges them to do more with faith, than they otherwise would have. Just as hardening the heart of King Nebuchadnezzar made him mad like an animal, so softening our hearts in the faith makes us open to new doctrines or adventures or crosses. There is a parting chance to be delivered of this world, without faith getting in the way and saying "no! you must do it by faith!". If God had not enclosed Moses in the rock, Moses never would have been able to gaze upon God - this was a softening of Moses' gaze. If Moses had been too softened, he might not have lived - we must be mindful of this. There will be things that we see in Heaven, if we were not softened, would destroy us.
But what about when the softening, or anything else, is in the past? The truth is that God could harden us against remembering the past, some people have a condition where they only remember so much of the past, indeed we all struggle to remember what we experienced as a baby. But what does God do? He blocks the connection. God when He returns Elijah to the world, does not give Elijah a memory of everything that Elijah did. The record may be there, but Elijah does not trigger a memory by looking at that (record). You yourself, if God grants you another life, will not gain access to everything of the past, that you have now. This is not meant to hurt you, but to make it possible for you to focus. If you remembered everything that you did in a past life, you might struggle to have faith, more than you think. Interestingly, it's not clear that you will remember how your past faith was softened. Without better judgment, it is likely that you will assume you always had the faith you have now. (This is our connection with God, in the beginning - He guarantees we will not lose faith in the past, or expect the one faith of the future, for that matter).
I'm not sure this message will help you a lot, if you haven't developed a gift for determining who you were in a past life (if you were anyone!) or indeed, if you have a degree of unforgiveness that prevents you from understanding that God does not simply want you to have faith for faith's sake. The truth is these things are worked out in eternity, we do not need to lose sleep over them. I am not saying everything here, it would no be right to call people out on their faith or mock their being blocked from the past in various ways - we just have to understand that these limits are there. God does not want to abandon or forget us, but there is a point at which expecting more and more from God is too much - as God says "I will not always strive with Man" (OT, from memory). If there is wisdom in this, let us grasp it together!
I hope this has been of some encouragement.
God bless.
