God Cannot Lie: Do You Believe Him?

Over the past few days, I have been watching a sermon series by Pastor Mike McClure, Jr. (PMJ) of Rock City Church called B!G. And the timing on it is definitely not a coincidence.

One of the main things God has been teaching me about recently is believing Him. Not believing in Him… believing Him. Meaning, believe He is who He says He is, believe I am who He says I am and believe He can (and will) do what He says He can (and will) do.

And that’s exactly what PMJ started his sermon with - God wants us to believe Him.

It sounds simple on the surface, but really, it’s something that the majority of us struggle with. Even as believers.

We may believe in Him… that Jesus is the Son of God, that He was crucified for our sins, died, was buried and rose again. That we have salvation and eternal life with the Father through faith in Jesus and not by our works. But, then beyond that, things get a little… murky.

Not on God’s end. His words are pretty clear and straightforward.

For some reason, beyond salvation, our ability to believe God’s promises gets a little shaky.

Even though He’s the same God that rose Jesus Christ from the dead, not to mention, delivered the Israelites from slavery, parted the Red Sea, made manna fall from the sky and a host of other miracles… we still struggle to believe that He’ll give us provision for our car payment or put food on our dinner table.

Sounds a little ridiculous when you hear it like that (believe me, I know), but it’s the case for many of us nonetheless.

So, in the crazy faith journey that the Lord has had me on, He started to reduce everything down to one simple word - BELIEVE.

Yes, I needed to be obedient, repent, trust Him, be generous, follow Him and all the other things He had been teaching me. But, what He began to show me was that all those things would happen easily once I got the “big one” - to BELIEVE HIM.

Thankfully, by this time, I had spent enough time in His Word and in His presence, that I knew His character. I knew that He wouldn’t lie. Actually, not just that He wouldn’t. But, that He couldn’t.

I knew the verse in Numbers 23 and quoted it a lot… “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

But, it is one thing to know something intellectually in your head. And a whole other thing to know something in your heart.

It’s like knowing that a safety net will catch a tightrope walker vs. knowing that net will catch you when you’re the one on the rope.

And that’s exactly how it feels when you go out on a limb and trust God on nothing but His Word - like walking on a tightrope.

I imagine it’s how Peter felt when he got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward Jesus. The winds were blowing around him, the rain was probably stinging in his eyes and the waves were raging at his feet. But, he had to avoid looking at any of that and just focus on Jesus.

The first time Jesus ever asked me to trust Him like this was last fall, with my dog. (This just goes to show two things - 1) God does care about everything, even the “little” things and 2) He is so patient and kind that He’ll start with something “small” first.)

At the time, my dog had just gotten into not one… but TWO fights in one day with my roommate’s dog. The fight in and of itself was odd since they had already lived together for nearly five years. But, there had been some changes to the household recently and my roommate’s dog was having difficulty adjusting. So, long story short, they had gotten into a fight twice, with the second one actually leaving my dog a little bloodied up.

Now, for anyone that knows me personally, you know how much I LOVE not just my dogs, but all animals. So needless to say, it shook me up pretty bad.

My initial reaction was to hide out in my bedroom with both of my dogs behind a closed door. Although I eventually convinced myself it was okay to leave everyone loose together while I ran out and did one of my pet sit visits (after praying over both my dog and her dog individually!), by the time I got home… I was nervous again because of how they kept looking at each other and at the fact that it was almost dinnertime and both scuffles had been over food/treats.

Before long, I found myself closed in my room again with both of my dogs, feeding them their dinner in there and hiding out in “safety.” Almost immediately, I felt the Holy Spirit convicting me that hiding in any way was the opposite of trusting Him. But honestly, I didn’t want to hear it. Cuz I was not in the mood to trust Him by letting my dog get attacked again!

Because when it came down to it, that’s what I thought it was going to be about. And I admitted as much when I finally got into prayer with Him.

I felt Him beckoning me and I knew I couldn’t stay hidden away like that for the next 48 hours (until me and my dogs left for a week-long pet sit), so I finally gave in and started talking to Him about it. Turns out, there was some old wounds that needed to be dealt with first (shocker) about a dog fight I had witnessed and about the loss of two of my surrogate (pet-sitting) fur babies that had passed away in the past year.

But, once we got through that, I realized this was about something else. I admitted to Him that I thought by me coming out of the bedroom, I was saying okay, I will let my dog get attacked again and trust that you won’t let her die. (Pretty extreme, huh? But, hey! That’s how I felt!)

Thank God (literally) that Jesus is so patient, because His response simply was, “Does that sound like my nature?”

Of course, I said no. But, to me, it seemed like those were the only two options - stay in the bedroom for two days and be safe. Or let her out and know that she was going to get in more fights and just pray that He wouldn’t let them be too bad.

But then, He offered a third option.

“What if I promised you that I wouldn’t let her touch her again? Would you believe me?” Jesus asked.

I answered honestly and said yes, I would believe Him. But, I wouldn’t believe that He had really said it and probably would’ve just thought I had imagined it to make myself feel better.

To which He replied, “What if I gave you a sign of My promise?”

Being the rather ridiculous “oh, you don’t have to do that” kind of person that I am, I started to say just that - “Oh, You don’t have to do that…”

When He said, “I’m offering.”

So, I relented and said, “Well yes. IF You promised that You wouldn’t let her touch her again AND You gave me a sign… well, then I’d have to believe You. Because I know You do not lie.”

And I meant it. I knew if God told me something outright, then I could trust Him that it was true. It usually was the question of “did He really say that?” that always got me in trouble.

So, right after I said yes, I would believe Him. I heard “look at your phone.”

Again, I thought I had just imagined it or said it to myself. When I felt the urging of the Holy Spirit… look at your phone.

So, I went over and picked up my phone, having no idea what I was supposed to be looking at, when I realized what was staring me back in the face.

The background on my phone was one of my favorite Bible verses, but it had been so long since I put it on there and I had gotten so used to it, that I had forgotten what it said:

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.

{Insert heart-eyed emoji here.}

Sometimes, Jesus is so freakin’ cool, y’all.

With that, I knew I had to believe Him. Cuz the thing is… I did believe Him when He gave me a word. I did truly believe in my heart that when God/Jesus said something to me, He meant it. So it had to be.

So, now that I had a promise from Him (and a sign!), I knew what I had to do. I asked Him one last question before I got up… “Do I have to be free of fear when I open the door?”

To which, He responded with “What do you think?” (I love how as you mature in your relationship with Him, He doesn’t always just give you the answers, as much as “coach” you toward them.)

I said, “No, I think that’s the point - that it takes faith to move even in spite of being afraid.” His response? “Good answer.” :)

So, I did it. I opened the bedroom door and came out with my dog… a nervous wreck, but relying on God’s promise to me. There is NO way they can get in a fight now because He promised me, I kept repeating to myself. And God doesn’t lie.

There were a couple moments where I was SO nervous - including one where my dog actually growled right in my friend’s dog’s face (awesome.) and wouldn’t you know it, her dog just sniffed her and walked away.

THANK YOU JESUS.

Of course, we made it through the next 48 hours with no worries, no more incidents and no logical explanation as to why they suddenly were fine with each other, other than because JESUS SAID SO.

It was a huge lesson for me because He was teaching me to do things on nothing but His Word.

It was a new level of faith. And I definitely felt like I was out there in the middle of the tightrope. Over the Grand Canyon, no less.

But as it always is with God, He had bigger things in store. Moving from “glory to glory”…

And when February of this year rolled around, He had a BIG test in mind to see just how much I trusted Him and BELIEVED Him.

I had been wanting to go to the Grand Opening celebration at Transformation Church in Tulsa and had been praying and asking for God to make a way for months. As the weeks went on, my prayers changed from asking Him to declaring that He was making a way and thanking Him for it in advance.

In fact, as I continued to mature in my relationship with Him and my understanding of His love and provision for me, it would make absolutely no sense for Him NOT to provide. He had already told me that the season of wilderness/testing/lack was over. He is my provider, He gives me the desires of my heart and He rewards faith.

So, why wouldn’t He “let” me go?

The only problem was, I was still looking for evidence of His provision in the natural.

I kept checking my email and PayPal account everyday looking for the money for stuff - airfare or gas, food, hotel, etc. I figured that would be how I would know if He was making a way for me to go… I would see it!

Except, if I had stopped to think about that for a second, I would’ve realized all He had been teaching me was to NOT go by what I see. Or what I feel or what I think. But, to only go by what I KNOW.

So, by the time the morning rolled around that I would need to leave and get on the road - I again, knew what I had to do. The Holy Spirit had been speaking to me loud and clear. If I wanted things to be different, I needed to do something different.

I needed to GO and trust that He would meet me on the way. When He put it this way - the only reason you WOULDN’T go is if you don’t trust me - that was it.

He said “MOVE and trust that I won’t fail you.” So, that was my word. And I was going to go stand on it.

So, I left for a cross-country trip of over 1,000 miles each way with nothing but 83 cents in my account and 15 miles in my gas tank! Crazy? Yes. (You can watch the video testimony of the whole trip here.) But, it was also one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done. Because I knew that my life was never going to be the same after the trip.

For one, because God told me so. But also, because I knew that by me leaving, I was declaring to the enemy that I didn’t believe his lies anymore. That it didn’t matter what he threw at me (like no money and a tornado), I was choosing to believe God. Period.

And wouldn’t you know it… He showed up in the most miraculous ways the entire trip! It was AMAZING from start to finish and besides being a powerful breakthrough for me, was a huge encouragement to everyone that heard about it afterward.

All because I chose to BELIEVE God.

Again, you would think it was a simple concept. But unfortunately, as a whole, we’ve wandered so far away from it. We’ve become jaded, disappointed and disillusioned.

But, the Lord is saying now is the time to get our hopes up again. Now is the time to take Him at His word again. Now is the time to stand on His word again.

Now is the time to BELIEVE Him again.

God is not a man. He does not change His mind or lie. He is the One person you can depend on, rely on, put your trust in and believe not to fail you or forsake you.

And once you realize that… once you really, truly get that… well, that’s when things start to get exciting. Because that’s when you can start to move without fear or worry and walk in the confidence, power and authority you were made to walk in.

If you’re having trouble believing what God will do for you, do what PMJ said in his sermon - focus on what you know He won’t do… LIE. Remember, that once He says something (in a personal word to you AND in His written Word), it is as good as done. Because He wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t.

So, even if it sounds like the craziest thing in the world (ya know, like a baby when you’re 90 years old or building a boat when it’s never rained before), you can trust that it will happen simply because God said it would.

Because… like my other favorite Pastor Mike (Todd) says… remember, it’s only crazy til it happens.

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