Comfort the Fainthearted

Doubt and unbelief cause a person to become fainthearted, for he has not placed everything on the altar of the Lord. A fainthearted person tends to be the tail, although it was God’s intention to make him the head.

Yet the Lord will show you the way out of this wretched condition if you are willing to obey His voice. He requires that you cleanse out the old leaven—that is, old doctrines that are contrary to the teaching of the Holy Spirit—and that your heart be liberated from earthly idols.

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.” Deut. 28:1. This nation, set high above all the nations of the earth, refuses to be destroyed by faintheartedness. On the contrary, they are a people whose hearts are full of true joy—not merely a superficial joy.

“Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.” Verse 10. No one is afraid of a fainthearted man or woman, but a victorious person is respected. This is a law in the spirit world.

Some people may say that this applied to Israel in the old covenant but has nothing to do with us. But if the law is a shadow of reality, and if this rule holds true for the shadow (that when one hears the Lord’s voice and heeds it, one will be tremendously blessed), how much more does this law apply to the perfect, that which casts the shadow. Even the new covenant says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Heb. 4:7.

The Lord’s voice is always working to liberate the heart from its idols, and this is not necessarily a pleasant experience. That is why the Lord found it necessary to exhort us not to harden our hearts. When a person draws back from the Lord’s voice and clings to the earth and the things of the earth, faintheartedness and discouragement creep in like a plague and take over the mind, just as rust consumes steel and moths destroy old clothing.

It is not God’s will for anyone to be fainthearted, but if someone on the “inside” has become discouraged or fainthearted, they must not lose heart. They must just take another run at it, and then their last works will be more perfect than the first.

“And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.” Deut. 28:13.