I read something the other day that has stayed on my mind. It said ‘a defilement of your faith has come because of the trials, tribulations, hardships, disappointments and failures that you have endured.’
Defiled means to make impure, to soil, or to taint. It is vital, especially in the times we are living in, that our faith does not become impure. If our faith becomes tainted or soiled, it will not produce what we want it to.
I believe that many people experience a defiled faith without even knowing that it is happening. Perhaps you are going along, serving God, praying for breakthrough in some areas, then God will prompt you to believe for something and you will begin to believe for that thing, without warning, thoughts begin to come to your mind. Thoughts like ‘I believed this would happen last time’ or ‘I trusted that this was already taken care of but it wasn’t.’ Thoughts like that are warning signs that your faith has been defiled.
Many times we feel as if we are still trusting God but we become more cautious in our faith. We become afraid to believe for the big things. Or we still know that God can do anything, we simply fail to believe that He will do that anything for us personally.
Another warning sign of defiled faith is that you have full, pure faith if you are praying for a friend, knowing the faithfulness of God and the power in His word. But when you pray for something for yourself, you are less sure that God will do it for you. You know He can, you just don’t trust that He will do it for you.
I have come to believe that this is a tool of the enemy. If he can keep you being ‘safe’ in your faith, you will never possess the fullness of what God has for you – because you will be afraid to put your faith out there once again.
Hebrews 10:22 tells us to draw near with a pure heart and full assurance.
1 Peter 1:7 says, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
These trials and times of testing do not come to discourage or defile our faith. They come to prove our faith is genuine and in the end it will bring glory and honor to God.
One translation puts it like this; Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
It brings to mind a time when God said to me ‘can I take you to a place where your faith is unshakable?’ At the time I knew it wouldn’t be a fun journey, but I agreed. During that time, the enemy tried everything in his power to defile my faith, to taint it, to bring some unbelief and doubt where pure faith had been. That is his purpose BUT God’s purpose is to prove your faith is as precious as pure gold.
It is just as Joseph said ‘you meant it for harm, but God meant it for good.’ It is my hope that today you can see things in a different light. It is my prayer that you will see the enemy meant to defile your faith but God meant to prove it – therefore continue to trust in Him and allow Him to prove your faith.
If you feel your faith has been defiled, let’s ask God to restore us to a place of pure, undefiled faith; a faith that is worth more than gold, a faith that will be put on display as evidence of your victorious life.
