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INFIRMITY OF UNBELIEF

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

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INFIRMITY OF UNBELIEF

Preface

(unbelief, struggle, preachers)

Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing. . . .”

In my wrestling and struggling in the things of God, I have an infirmity of unbelief in my flesh. My carnal ways cry out against the things of God; there is a war going on!

We say, Yes, God, I am going all the way. I am going to believe you with all my heart. No matter what I see or what I hear from the enemy or from the infirmity of my flesh, I am going to go on for God. Suddenly we feel a little check - Except for in such cases as . . . .

I don’t believe the church is going in the rapture in unbelief or melancholy. She is going with a fresh touch, and in the victory and the joy of the Lord. She is going to translate right on into the kingdom of God.

We are supposed to be doing all we can do as the Lord gives us strength, gifts, and the power to do so to prepare the church for that great day.

We have to obey God. He has called us to do a work, and we have got to go on.

INFIRMITY OF UNBELIEF

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

God is not dead, but very alive, and He still guides and directs everyone that will hear the Word of the Lord.

David was praying out loud in Psalm 77. Verse 1-10 says, “I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.”

Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”

There are three basic phases of a walk in God for a Christian. You begin in the righteousness of Christ. You press on for the victory into holiness which Jesus provided, and then the highest attainment is to godliness in which we can do the same things Jesus did if we stay in Christ. Righteousness, holiness, and godliness – this is the progressive sanctification out of the carnal and worldly ways and into the spiritual things of God.

When someone is first saved, they do not start immediately translating, or laying hands on the sick and healing them. God is gracious and merciful and encourages new comers along the way because their first love is generally the most pure love. As we walk in the Lord and mature through fasting, praying, reading the Word, and obeying the Word, then we come to a maturity level in the Lord that our first love will remain constant and increase unto godliness.

Psalm 77:1-10 and Romans 6:19 are not talking about somebody who is sick or bound by some disease. In these Scriptures it is saying that the flesh itself is an infirmity against the things of God.

1 Corinthians 15:50 says, “. . . flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. . . .” However, many times the church world has tried to get the flesh to inherit the kingdom of God. When you try to do that thing which is of God by a working of the flesh, you are performing witchcraft, rather than doing it by the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

There is an anointing, a rush, a charisma that goes with witchcraft that causes people to continue on in that thing. This is one of the deciding factors between true Pentecost and the charismaticism that has taken the world by stranglehold.

God deals with us in the fashion that He does with similitudes and such (see Hosea 12:10), because we have a problem. We live in the thing, and it wraps around us not only physically, but in our mental aspects. It is called the flesh. God says it is so bad it is like an infirmity. It would be like you had a hand eaten up with cancer with limp pieces of flesh hanging down for a hand, and you try to pick up a dime off of a slick floor. It would be impossible to you, because of the infirmity of your flesh. You would not have the dexterity it takes to get hold of it, neither the strength to hold it, neither the strength to lift up the hand or the arm to pick it up.

This is what we find when we try to walk carnally and naturally and yet perform and see performed the supernatural acts of God. It is impossible, yet we see a form of it going on in the church world. We know it is being done by devil power, but it is a work of the flesh. One of the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:20 is witchcraft. It is assisted by devil power.

I believe our greatest infirmity is an infirmity of unbelief. Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Paul wants you to be sure that you understand what he means. He said, “. . . in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.”

The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak. Your soul may desire to serve God. You can know the Word of God and quote it verbatim. You can preach a great sermon. However, if you can’t do good, you are of no consequence to God.

People promote ministers who can quote the Word and give scriptures pertinent to their situation. Yet they do not have the power to apply it, because they are in the flesh. They are not in the Spirit of God. They have spiritually discerned it, but they have not gone on and spiritually manifested it. They only go so far and then carnally manifest it.

Romans3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We have gone a little ways, but we have stopped short of the glory of God.

It takes the glory of God to break the yoke of the world and the devil. It takes sanctification, consecration, and a word from God. He gives out His gifts by His Spirit to do this last day work for the rapture of the church.

Part of my ministry is to ready the church for the rapture. God has dealt with me in particular to become a preacher of righteousness to those who will become vehicles of rapture translation on a common basis to preach to the world in these last days.

That is my ministry. It is also to impart the anointing of God out of this ministry into other ministers. It is for those who have been in it and never failed, those who have just begun, those who have backslid and come back – to impart to each and every one of them this blessing and anointing that God will use them throughout all the world.

That does not mean they have to move to Africa, but they may appear in Africa from time to time!

The Bible says in Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

I believe what God told me. I wasn’t a religious man when I got saved, when I got called to preach, or when I obeyed the calling. For two years I wrestled the calling of God, saying I was not a religious man. I couldn’t put on the form and the ritual, and I did not want to. I had seen too much, and it stunk to me. I wasn’t going to get like THAT.

God said He wasn’t calling me to THAT. He said, I AM NOT CALLING YOU TO THAT. I AM CALLING YOU TO WHAT I TOLD MY MINISTERS AND PRIESTS OF THE LORD TO DO, AND THEY HAVE NOT DONE IT. I thought some of them were doing pretty good, but He said they were not doing what HE told them to do. He said, I WANT YOU TO GO.

So, what you’ve got is a last resort pastor! I am the best he could come up with, and that is pretty poor, but God knows what He is doing. I ran from the calling, and I still wrestle it. I say, Why me, Lord? I am saved, but the MINISTRY is another thing altogether! Some people backslide after God calls them into the ministry. The ministry is a big load; souls are in your hands. You are responsible to tell them the Word of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. . . .” 1 Corinthians 1:21 says, “. . . it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

The church people tried to give Jesus a hard time on His Holiness and perfection preaching. He told them that they would not hear His words, because they were of their father, the devil!

When you say Jesus Christ is your Savior and Lord, by faith God, the Father becomes your father. You chuck out the old nature and the old father, and begin a walk with God. THEN the battle starts to get you back into the pit. It is a battle to make you seven times worse than you were before.

2 Peter 2:20-22 says, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”

I don’t want to turn away, but in my wrestling and struggling in the things of God, I have an infirmity of unbelief in my flesh. My carnal way and my physical body cry out against the things of God. Romans 8:7 declares, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. . . .” There is a war going on, and you are fighting against God.

You have a choice to join the forces of God and get delivered of that infirmity and start walking in the Spirit instead of the natural. Or you can forsake God and join the old carnal nature again. Satan will be waiting on you when you do, because he will anoint the things of the flesh. He does not savor the things of God, but things of man, of the flesh.

The Psalmist cried out, “This is my infirmity.” In other words, I am having trouble believing God will do what He said He will do. I am having trouble hanging on to what He has already done.

God made me come out to the church last night, because He wanted me to look at something. I told Him, I almost live out there. I’ve been out there a thousand times. He said to go out there, so I jumped in my truck and went out there. I began to pray and walk about the upstairs, down stairs, the old part, and the new part. I was trying to find out the mind of God.

God said, What do you see? I said, God, I see a building. He said, You do not. He said, Son, have you held on to the hem of my garment? I told Him, Yes. He asked the same question again, and I gave Him the same answer. He said, YOU DO NOT. That is not the way He looked at it.

Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

He said, Why don’t you let go and believe me? God began to deal with me about some things He had already told me. If I didn’t believe God, I would not be doing what I am doing. If I did not hang on to the horns of the altar and know that the infirmity of my flesh may wrestle me, yet I am going through for the glory of God, then why even preach?

I believe our church can touch the world, Africa, Canada, France, Madagascar. GOD by His Spirit says, without a vision the people perish. If I did not believe God was going to do more than He has already done, I would not have anything to look forward to and I would perish. You have not arrived until you are looking at Jesus. We shall see Him as He is.

Our infirmity wrestles against us. This old flesh, the carnal mind and the body, craves everything that is crazy. God doesn’t hold us back from pleasures and the blessing of God. He ordained them, but I’m talking about things that we wrestle and they get in the way and even and take the place of the blessings of God.

Unbelief brings forth fear, the first sign of unbelief. Fear says, What if God doesn’t do it? Well, you may die. We put our trust in uncertain riches when we ought to put out trust in God. I’m not talking about not being prudent. I’m not talking about going out and borrowing a million dollars and spending it on something you know good and well you can’t pay for, because it is not the will of God. If God is dealing with you, rest assured you can borrow the million, and God will pay it back, because God is a God of promise. It is God’s will that you be blessed.

I believe God to touch the world through this little church. If my vision is small, then I won’t get any bigger than that. This is not boasting and pride. Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Sometimes God will give you Scripture that you are convinced will help your neighbor. It is probably for YOU and your infirmity of unbelief. Theirs can’t keep you out of heaven, but yours can.

We have believed only so high; it is time we believe higher. Some have believed as high as they can reach, and that is as high as they are going to get. A vision is not for something you already have. Hope is something you don’t see yet. Faith is for something that hasn’t taken place yet.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” They haven’t come to pass yet. By faith we know, and by God’s Word it shall be seen, and it shall have substance.

We have an infirmity of unbelief. We built this church, because we knew God told us to do it. We prayed that God would make this a place for His footstool so we could sit, stand, and praise the Lord at the feet of Jesus. We prayed that He would bless abundantly above all measure where we could ask or think.

God spoke to us to go ahead and build a revival center and believe God for revival in advance of what He is soon going to do. This is what faith is all about. You don’t know, but you are already acting in faith.

Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

Have you begun to believe for God to save all of your household? Tell the devil he is a liar and that God is still on the throne.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” I was in prayer and God showed me a mighty thing I didn’t know. He said, Son, you will be up praying, and believing God, and raising your hands to me and glorifying me, and I will fill thousands with the Holy Ghost at one time! They will look like waves of wheat in a mild breeze. I have to believe it, or I will backslide. If you don’t believe the thing that you have not yet seen in evidence, you will backslide, because you will get cold in your soul. You can’t believe for anything more, and you won’t work for anything more. You will build a house just big enough to fit you, yours, and no more.

God said to build a building and He will bless it. This is the infirmity that we wrestle - Will God do it or not? What if God commands you to give $1,000? Because you don’t know if He will bless it or not, you give $200. You hold on to $800 in case the preacher is wrong, or God decides to quit, or we can’t do anything anymore.

You say, Yes, God, I am going all the way. I am going to believe you with all my heart. No matter what I see or what I hear from the enemy or from the infirmity of my flesh, I am going to go on for God. Suddenly you feel a little check in your heart. Except for in such cases as . . . this happens.

Proverbs 11:21 says, “. . . the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.” If I can’t believe that scripture, I might as well quit preaching. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

We are building on and we already have qualified people to run a soup kitchen. We can feed 300 missionaries from other countries who are sitting under the teaching of someone who is anointed of God to do the work of God and tell them how to preach THIS GOSPEL.

We have qualified people to run computers. We have hundreds of tapes to get into the hands of preachers who need a fire in their life. I believe God to do it. What are you believing God for?

I told the Lord, God bring my household in, and I can go with 100 percent zeal, and I won’t have to worry about them. I can go for God all the way out there for the lost souls in the highways and byways. He said, No you won’t. I said, What do you mean? He said, If I save all of your house right now, you will be contented, and you won’t seek out the other lost. You would be the same way. God knows the heart.

God showed me several men that He has called to preach, and I said, No way! God said, You are right, until they get delivered. One man God called to preach is a vile sinner. One time he bit off the head of a catfish just to show his buddy he could do it. It finned him, and he chewed its head right off. He is NOT a religious man. He uses the name of the Lord the wrong way. God wants to save him and use him to cast out devils and bite the head of the devil off!

We limit our vision to what we see. The flesh wars, but if we ask anything according to God’s will, He will answer YES. The church of the living God is set up to grow. I fought it. I said, Oh, God, no. It is hard enough now (1993). Most people don’t know all the administrative work that a pastor has to do. Thank God for my wife. He has anointed her to do the work she does. Pray for her. We believe God to sanctify us for the ministry.

A church ran properly is the best ran business in the world, because it is Holy Ghost ran. You have to be able to keep up with people, where you are sending things so there is no waste, and deliveries. You have to go places and do things, and that is why we have workers. We have to pray for them that they will come on in Jesus. If somebody drags their feet, we have to come along behind them and pick it up.

I said, NO, and the Lord said, This is all you want? I said, NO way. I want to go to glory. I want to see things happen. I want to see signs, wonders and miracles at the hands of Jesus. I want to see God manifest in the service. He said, Alright. I said, Ok, what do I have to do? He said, Build an addition. I said, That has nothing to do with that. God you show me in the Bible that I have to do such a thing. He started out with what I preached to you today. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish. . . .”

What can you see? 2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” If you don’t have faith vision, you are blind, groping about in the dark, going through form and ritual.

This is not a glory grabbing situation. I said, We have a building, now bring in a pastor. I don’t want this thing. I see too much trouble. I will just get over in the corner and pray and be an intercessor. I am not lying to you.

I can’t repent from my calling. I tried to get God to repent me from my calling. I can’t repent from my calling. I prayed earnestly, and I fasted for it. This isn’t funny. God is my witness. This happened several times in the last two years before the command to go out and expand the church. I said, NO. Number one, they won’t believe me. I am not big enough, tall enough, dark enough and handsome enough.

God said, I will give them faith to believe me. I said, God they don’t have to do that. You can build it yourself. I will start it and you watch; there won’t be money to finish it. This is the truth. This is what has been going on in my prayer closet. It is like Genesis, Chapter 32, with Jacob and the angel, except he was going one way and I was going the other.

Many of you don’t know God has put a blessing in your heart and your life and home. He is making you so miserable, and your family is so mean, and you are fighting the devil, the flesh, and the world so hard. You say, God, why have you cursed me so? All the time God is blessing you, but you have to fight the devil and the flesh to get that blessing!

God’s ways are NOT our ways. I said, God, YOU build it. I was mad. I was storming outside on the sidewalk just outside of my study. I said, You build it. I don’t want to build it. I’m tired. You told me to lay the hammer down and pick up the Bible. Now I’m picking up the hammer and the Bible. My hands are full! That is why Jesus said to pray for laborers in the harvest!

I said, God, you are going to have to do it, and you will do it or else. He said, Prove me and see if I won’t do it. Try to have a vision bigger than I can produce. Try to give more than I can.

Everything belongs to the Lord. What can I give Him back? The one thing that is lacking everywhere is FAITH and praise to God.

God said, Have you ever had anyone come to the church and say they have not felt the presence of the Lord? Every time I come out here to work, even in a bad mood, I can feel God anywhere on this property. I can drive by and look at it and feel the Lord when nothing is going on.

I finally got it; He was talking about being full of the Spirit. He said, Filling the pews is a piece of cake, but getting it full of the anointing of God is another matter. When we finished this building, the Lord spoke to me and said, Now comes the hard part. Now you’ve got to fill it. He was talking about the anointing, blessing, and the power of God.

I thought it was pretty hard, working nearly a year on the building. The original building took nine months. We fought and wrestled and worked, and I said, You mean to tell me we’ve done the easy part?

We started fasting and praying and seeking the Lord. Some people think they have arrived when they get the building done, but if you don’t keep on seeking God to fill it with His Spirit so that His presence will touch souls as they come in the door, what good is it?

He said, Your church is already full, and you are going to believe me for more, and more, and more. I said, Oh, God, not ANOTHER building program? He said, What does it matter to you what fashion I desire for you to manifest your faith?

Faith built this church, bought it, and paid for it. It has been paid for, for years. The borrower is servant to the lender, and we are not in service to the heathen. We are servants of the living God.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” You are not pleasing God if you are not believing Him for revival.

Matthew 24:14 says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

I believe there is a remnant in the earth with the same vision. They are so battered and bruised that they do not know which end is up, but when they hear the TRUTH, they will come running. They will know the Word of God. (The true Word of the Lord has become precious these days.)

Nothing is impossible with God. Jesus said if you are walking with God, nothing shall be impossible to YOU. I don’t believe the church is going in the rapture in unbelief or melancholy. She is going with a fresh touch, and in the victory and the joy of the Lord. She is going to translate right on into the kingdom of God.

We are supposed to be doing all we can do as the Lord gives us strength, gifts, and the power to do so to prepare the church for that great day.

We believe God for some mighty things, yet we can’t seem to get a hold of them. Paul wrestled the same thing. Sometimes we think they had some insight on the flesh we do not have, yet Paul in Romans 7:19 said, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” He got the victory the same way we can get the victory, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Every time I go to fast, I get hungry. I wasn’t hungry before I made the decree that I was going to fast! Now I am twice as hungry like I had worked all day long.

You get down to pray because you feel a calm and a peace in the Lord. Then you fidget, and 16,000 things you forgot to do come in front of you. There is a wrestling that can drive you out of the prayer closet if you let it. Remember, the day you die you will have 17 things you need to do, and they won’t get done, so why don’t you just go on and pray, and seek God, and let Him do the rest?

Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” He said if we will do our part, He will do His. He will bless you in all you put your hand to. Some say they don’t have time, but we have more methods of killing time now than ever before in history. A lot of time is spent in paying for time killers!

God want us delivered from things that hold us back. If we will press on with God, He will redeem the time, not only years, but hours of the day. I have got up first thing in the morning and sought the Lord, and my day was longer. He can make the days longer and more productive than they have ever been. If you don’t seek God first thing you can rush all day long and get nothing done. That is an infirmity of unbelief. It is a fleshly mentality.

We limit God. The Israelites limited the Holy One of Israel and wandered in the wilderness 40 years! God showed them mighty signs, wonders, and miracles. He has promised us far greater.

I have a vision. God has fulfilled His Word, and now I ask to fulfill His word to me. If we obey His word, we are part of that fulfilling. We have to obey him to see it come to pass. God has called us to do a work, and we have got to go on.

John 4:24 says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth!”

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL 62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail

livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord. Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.