Knowing the Father’s Heart Removes Doubt and Unbelief (362) - August 8 2026

It is the Lord’s desire, His Will, that you would experience what He has already promised you in His Word. That you would experience Him, to come to Know Him, to remain in divine health, to have your soul prospering amongst other promises. 
 
 God didn’t give us all an equal measure of faith just so that we could believe in His Son and receive eternal life. He gave us faith to use in everyday life, for ourselves and for others who don’t know how to use the faith in a God, that for now they chose to reject. 
 
 We are going to look at how we can be more confident in our faith that God’s Word will come to pass. Not just by being in prayer, memorizing and speaking His Word over situations, but to know His nature and His heart.
 
 This program covers the following Scriptures from the Amplified Classic version (AMPC):  Exodus 33:12-13; Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 3:9; Mark 11:23; Genesis 3:6; Genesis 6:5-7; Hebrews 1:3; John 14:8-9; Matthew 8:1-3.

Transcript

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And a very good day to you. This is Pastor Marc Whelan with Touch of God. It is the Lord's desire, His will, that you would experience what He has already promised you in His Word. That's His desire, that you would experience Him, to come to know Him, to remain in divine health, for example, have your soul prospering, to realize that if you are a believer, if you are a Christian who has received Jesus as Lord, to realize and understand your sonship, who you are now in Christ. God didn't give us all an equal measure of faith just so that we could believe in His Son and receive eternal life. Obviously, that is a key necessity of faith, to be able to believe that God is and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, to receive His Son Jesus by faith and receive eternal life. But He also gave us faith to use in everyday life for ourselves and for others who don't know how to use faith in a God that for now they choose to reject. Today we are going to look at how we can be more confident in our faith that God's Word will come to pass, not just by being in prayer and memorizing and speaking His Word over situations. All of us can memorize a scripture, but it is to know His nature, His heart behind things. You can only truly trust a person once you get to know them. We are used to being cautious with strangers and somewhat with other believers as well, but we should not place God in the same lineup as people. We should not put God on trial like we put people on trial, because the truth is He has never failed us like fallen humanity has time and time again. We can sometimes have a tendency to write our own scriptures based on our daily experiences. In other words, we want to write our own version of the Bible based on what we experience every day and believe that more than what God already inspired through the writers of the Word. This is leaning on our own understanding instead of God's understanding in His Word. And that is exactly what Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 warns us against, which says, Do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. So our paths will not be directed correctly if we keep on leaning on our own understanding and writing our own version of the Bible based on our daily experiences. In other words, disbelieving or rejecting the truth of the Word of God. So it is one thing to be able to memorize scripture, to remember someone saying it once in church, but has knowing the Word of God caused us to know Him more? That's the key question. Has knowing the Word of God, has knowing scripture or reading scripture caused us to know Him more? Have we sought out of the scriptures His ways, His heart on things? Because there are many topics in scripture, but have we spent time focusing our mind and our heart on His heart across the Bible where we see the Lord mentioned, whether it be the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit? Have we concentrated and focused in order to understand God's nature, God's heart, God's love, God's mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, His justice, all these things? Because we can read a story about Saul, but are we spending enough time to understand the Lord in the story of Saul? Abraham was known as a friend of God. Moses had a desire to know God's ways. Exodus chapter 33 verse 12 to 13. Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Verse 13. Now therefore I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, show me now your way. This is Moses speaking to the Lord. Show me now your way, that I may know you, progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with you, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and clearly, and that I may find favor in your sight. And Lord, do consider that this nation is your people. Now this is the Amplified Classic Edition of the Bible, and you will see some words in here inside those square brackets. And what it means to know the Lord, it is to progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and clearly. So are we desiring that depth of understanding, becoming acquainted with him, and understanding more strongly and clearly his ways? It should be a desire, not just because it will allow us to believe more firmly by faith in the promises of the Lord for ourselves and for others, but because it is a joy to come to know the living God that we serve and who we were created by. So it's key that we understand more and more intimately his nature, his heart. Once we know his heart, we know the intentions, his inclinations towards things. This can help us believe more firmly in an outcome that his word promises for us, such as being healed. Because you see, if we know him more and more, and we know the word, we know the scriptures that show that by the stripes of Jesus we were healed. But we know the nature of the Lord, we know his heart, and we know the Father's heart is the same as the Lord Jesus' heart. And we'll go through those verses later on here. Then we will have more confidence that we will see the miracle, because our faith will have no doubt or unbelief mixed in with it. It will be pure faith. And when you have pure faith for something with the Lord's word spoken, and the Lord's word believed, and the Lord's nature understood, you will see that miracle, that manifestation of God's glory and his will become manifested in front of you, in yourself or in the other person's life that you're praying for. Romans 12 verse 3 says that God has given each of us a measure of faith. So how can we really use this faith so very effectively, without any doubt or unbelief creeping in, so that we will see the manifestation of what the word says is supposed to happen? How can we use this faith to believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, to believe his word? How can we use this faith more effectively? Well, we can memorize scripture, we can quote it, but when we quote it, are we doing it with a confident assurance of its result? So think about it, when you're praying for someone, and let's say you quote a scripture, and you think you believe, does your heart truly know the heart of Jesus, or the heart of the Father behind that verse, its ability to come to pass when you speak it? That is the question. 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 9 says that we are fellow workmen, joint promoters, laborers together with and for God. So think about this for a moment. Imagine you are standing side by side with God, knowing that as his word is spoken from your vocal cords, he will watch over his word that we speak in faith, not doubting, and then he will perform it, he will establish it. The Lord can establish things on the earth through you when you don't doubt, when there is no unbelief in your heart, when you speak something in a prayer to him or over a situation using his word or not using his word. The Lord will establish it because you speak it by faith, pure faith with no unbelief and no doubt. Jesus said in Mark 11 verse 23 that the mountain that you speak to without doubting will be moved for you, it will be done for you, the word says. He didn't say you would move it yourself, but he also didn't say that he would speak to it. This is a partnership as a joint heir with Christ. So we speak to the mountain and when there is pure faith, the mountain will move for us because God will do the moving. So our faith can be stronger when we trust in the one who inspired this word, when we don't just know the word and what to quote, but we know the one who is the word, Jesus himself. We know the Father, God Almighty, our Heavenly Father. So the word of God helps us understand the nature of the Lord's heart, but we also shouldn't forego and forget the importance that not just only reading and studying and contemplating the word of God, which is critical in our daily walk, in our daily lives, but also spending time with the Lord even with the Bible closed, just spending time with him in a secret place, just opening your heart to him, getting to know him, conversing with him, because you need a relationship with the Lord and you can't get that exclusively just by reading words on a page even though those words are alive and active according to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. So the word of God helps us understand the nature of the Lord's heart. For example, let's just take his limitless mercy and grace for a moment. Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, where grace is the act of endowing unmerited favor. We often talk about mercy and grace, but they have two different meanings. They don't mean the same thing. Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, and grace is the act of endowing unmerited favor. When we begin to see and experience circumstances in our daily lives that only could have happened because God arranged it, that is where you now have the tangible evidence of God's nature in your personal life in combination with your understanding about God from his word. The biggest mistake of mankind as recorded in one verse, Genesis chapter 3 verse 6, And when the woman saw that the tree was good, suitable, pleasant for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate. This was at the moment, of course, that the serpent, Satan, who was inside the serpent, spoke through the serpent, spoke to Eve, and he had deceived her, and she ended up eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the very tree that God says, Do not touch, for in the day that you do eat of that fruit, you will surely die. God punished both Adam and Eve as well as the serpent, but he could have finished humanity at that moment, but because of his patience, his long-suffering, and his love, he allowed humanity to continue on even though it was now in a fallen fragmented state. Of course, we know that eventually the sin of mankind had spread so far on the earth that it even caused God to grieve in his heart that he had even made man. Genesis chapter 6 verses 5 to 7, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually, and the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved at heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind whom I have created from the face of the ground, not only man but the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for it grieves me and makes me regretful that I have made them. Of course, we know that God's eyes were roaming to and fro upon the earth, and he found Noah, a man after his heart, and arranged for the flood of the earth and a massive reset button was pushed. So God is like us. We are created in his image. He has emotions. We have emotions. We grieve. He grieves. His Spirit grieves when we do things unbecoming of us as sons of God. So you can see here that God has a huge heart. He has emotions, and it gives you an idea on how he feels about different things. And these are the types of things that I'm trying to explain today, that it's important to know him, to know his nature, to know how he acts in certain situations, and how he even grieves and regrets things. Jesus represents an image of God's nature. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, it says that he, Jesus, is the sole expression of the glory of God the Father, the light being, the out-raying, or radiance of the divine, and he is the perfect imprint and very image of God's nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by his mighty word of power. When he had by offering himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and redness of guilt, he sat down at the right hand of the divine majesty on high. So reading this verse out, a couple of verses out to you to show you that Jesus represents the nature of the Father. So today if you have this misunderstanding or you're not quite sure about the nature of the Father compared to the nature of Jesus, this verse, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 and John chapter 14 verse 8 and 9, which we're about to read, explains and shows that if we look to Jesus and we see how he is with people on the earth and he heals everyone who comes to him, then this is the same nature as the Father. The Father is no different to the Son, they are two different persons of the Trinity, however they have the same nature. John chapter 14 verse 8 and 9, it says, Philip said to him, which is Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, cause us to see the Father, that is all we ask, then we shall be satisfied. Verse 9, Jesus replied, have I been with all of you for so long a time and do you not recognize and know me yet, Philip? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say then, show us the Father? So for example, when we see the scores of people that Jesus healed and set free when he was walking the earth, we know that this was the Father's will also. Jesus even said he came not to do his own will, but he came to do the will of he who sent him. Jesus also said that it is the Father that does the works through him. It wasn't even Jesus' own works. When we look at another example of trying to see the Lord's nature in order to help our faith when we pray for the sick, when we believe for healing for ourselves, when we help to get a greater understanding of the Lord's nature behind his word, this is one example that will help our faith and help us be assured of one of God's promises coming to pass without any doubt or unbelief. Matthew chapter 8, verses 1 to 3, and again this is in the Amplified Classic Edition. Verse 1, it says, when Jesus came down from the mountain, great throngs followed him. And behold, a leper came up to him, and prostrating himself, worshipped him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you are able to cleanse me by curing me. And he, Jesus, reached out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed by being cured. And instantly his leprosy was cured and cleansed. Now, I want you to focus on the words there from Jesus when he responded to the leper. He said, I am willing. Now, if someone says those three words to you, but you don't really know them, maybe you met them for the first time, you're going off of those words that they speak, but could there be an element of doubt and unbelief that they may actually be telling you how they really feel, that they really are willing? So, the word of God, of course, is true. And you can read these words in the Amplified Classic Edition. I am willing. But what I find, personally, is if I understand the nature of the Lord more and his heart, then it gives me more confidence to be in faith for a healing to occur without any doubt or unbelief creeping in, mixing in with that faith, and therefore canceling out that miracle or that healing. And so there is a Wiest translation of the New Testament by a gentleman called Wiest, W-U-E-S-T. He is a Greek scholar, and he has translated all of the New Testament from Greek into English, bringing out the true meaning of what was said at the time. And so there are many more words for each verse, but that is the whole point. It's bringing out the deeper meaning and the deeper understanding of what was in the hearts of the people who said what they said. And so let's look at Wiest's translation of this part of the passage when we talk about the leper and the cleansing of the leper by the Lord Jesus. Verse 1 says, And having come down from the mountain, great crowds followed with him. And behold, a leper, having come, fell on his knees and touched the ground with his forehead with an expression of profound reverence before him, saying, Master, in the event that you may be having a heartfelt desire, you are able to cleanse me. And having stretched out his hand, he touched him, saying, I am desiring it from all my heart. Be cleansed at once. And immediately his leprosy was cured by being cleansed away. So you see here the difference in the understanding of the Lord's heart with the translation straight from Greek to English compared to the traditional verses in your own version that you might know. In the traditional versions you're seeing the Lord saying, I am willing, I will. But in the greater definition of this verse, we understand the depth of the Lord's heart behind his passion for seeing the leper healed. I am desiring it from all my heart, Jesus said, from the Greek translation into English. So if we know that this is how the Lord feels in his heart, that he desires this so much for us all to be healed, then it helps our faith because now we have less doubt, hopefully zero doubt, zero unbelief, that when we pray for the sick, that when we pray for each other, when we understand the nature of the Lord's heart and the passion that the Lord has behind wanting to see that person set free from that cancer, that sickness, that disease right in front of us or over the phone or whatever it may be or in our own body, that then we shall see the manifestation of the Lord's promise for that healing because there is only faith at play. When we only use faith and there is no doubt or unbelief, that is when you see the Lord being able to move through you in power. So I want to encourage you today to have a more in-depth understanding of God's nature in the word. When we know his nature, when we know his heart, we will find that he wants to reconcile us back to the way we should be, spirit, soul and body. So let me pray over you today with confidence that whatever sickness you have, because I know the Lord's nature and his word, together we can understand and believe that you shall be healed. So in the name of Jesus, whatsoever sickness you have today, precious soul, I have the authority of the name of Jesus to use upon that sickness. So I command you, sickness, be gone from their body. Whatsoever illness or ailment or sickness or lack is going on in this person's body, I command all of that gone. And I thank you, Lord Jesus, for your life in their body, completely restoring it, completely healing it, making both legs the same length, recreating a body part that might have been lost, recreating the eyes of people who are blind. I thank you, Lord, that they shall now hear with perfect hearing in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord, for their organs being restored. Thank you, Lord. Cancer, you are no longer alive in the bodies of these people. Cancer, you are dead. I curse you at the root in the name of Jesus. You will shrivel up like the fig tree in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord, for your life that you gave today so that these precious souls would have and inherit that life in their physical bodies, but also eternal life as they receive you as their Lord, confess you as their Lord. We bless you, Lord, today. We believe that God raised you from the dead. We give you the glory for all these healings that are manifested today when we trusted in your nature and your word with no doubt, pure faith. In Jesus' name, amen. If you would like to partner with us, our website is tog.world, touchofgod.world. You can also send a prayer request through the website as well. But until next week, you have a blessed week. Amen.