How to Handle Negative Believing

 The following is from Knight of Faith, Volume II, a collection of Norman Grubb's personal correspondence. The following was written shortly after his wife, Pauline, passed away, which makes the bedrock of these words even more reliable.  This is what he replied to one writer who corresponded with him:

 ". . . God in His perfect love MEANS all that comes to us, good or evil (that is, I see good/ evil with the mature eyes of Heb. 5.14).  So you start by PRAISING Him that He means you to have these faith-slips into false fears, etc., and 'reactions that overwhelm' you.

"Then you see . . . you have only one temptation and sin to watch out for (and we have plenty of it) of negative believing--in other words believing in something or some one which appears evil (read John 19.11).  But even then, when you do so believe negatively (and I spend my life starting with that every time!) then that is not sin, but temptation to which we have responded a little and been enticed (James 1.14), but we only 'sin' when we deliberately choose to continue in it--which we don't!

". . . The secret is to pick yourself up again and again when you have all kinds of temptations (just as I do) to follow your negative believing in unpleasant appearances, and as quick as you can, transfer to believing the 'invisible' fact that The Perfect Spirit actually means you to have this 'combat with unbelief' to give you practice in finding that it was HIS means of newly manifesting Himself . . . .

". . . Still PRAISE that the Spirit means you to 'feel' overwhelmed, but you NEVER ARE!!

"You are NOT 'double minded.' You only appear so on your soul level which is external bluff, really Satan inserting a dose of his self-for-self stuff into your soul.

". . . You 'love God.'  But that may not be a soul-consciousness, but just a Spirit-fact and in the relationships of eternal Spirit, we aren't necessarily soul-conscious, but just ARE in Eternal Spirit-fact, and thus He trains and establishes us (1 Pet. 5.10) in just BEING.  And the inner witness of 1 John 5.10 just settles in, in HIS time."