What kind of rules do you hear? My heart speeds up and my eyebrows lower at remembering some that were given to me. "Doubt is a sin, repent and move on". "You need to will to not doubt", "Read your bible and pray every day". "Confess your doubts and decide to not doubt anymore", and many more. I heard these from family, close friends, and church elders who were responding to my prayer requests I put in the offering. Oh they were given with good intentions but without understanding of the situation. Mentally this increased my feelings of depression, fear, and helplessness. For do you think for one second if these rules would have worked like that I wouldn't have already done it? That if I could will my doubts away that I would ever let myself get into this position in the first place which was causing the most agonizing time of my life? I still tried, oh how I tried, all the time... I prayed, confessed, and rebuked in any position that might work; on my knees, face to the floor, hands together, crying, fasting, sleep deprived, and I used every type of wording I could think of. I would grit my teeth like never before and cry every time someone gave me a quick whip solution.

After time I became instantly frustrated accompanied with bitterness every time I heard a solution phrased as a rule. Why? because as far back as the law of Moses rules only point out our weaknesses but they never offer a solution to solve our short comings. I've heard the law compared to a thermometer, it would let you know you were sick, but it offered no solution for the sickness. For example, "Thou shall not steal". So does the fact there is a rule guarantee that it will not be broken? Has the rule itself guaranteed that since this commandment was given nothing was ever stolen? Of course not. If you've ever stolen anything than this rule is simply pointing out that you failed. Incidentally, this is just one of hundreds of rules laid out in the old testament.

Just as the law has no power in itself to save, weak as it is through the flesh (Rom. 8:3), neither does the law or rules have power in themselves to deliver us from our doubts. For the ability is not within ourselves to save ourselves from our doubts, that is, it's not in our flesh. For as we discussed in previous chapters, doubt is rooted in the frailty of our flesh and is shaped by the effects sin has on our lives both internally and by outside influences, and the flesh is never regenerated.

We are made up of two major parts, our spirit, and our flesh. (John 3:5). When we are first born, we are born of the flesh (John 3:6), when we are born again, we are born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-8). The need to be born again is because our spirits are stillborn from birth; our spirits are dead and our flesh is headed that way. When God, in commanding Adam and Eve to not eat from the tree of knowledge said "...in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", He meant it, and man did die, not immediately in the flesh, but immediately in the spirit. That day marked the beginning of deaths reign. (Rom. 5:14).

So when we are born again our spirits are made alive and new! This means no more doubting right? Countless Godly men would testify from personal experience that the answer to that question is no. Why? because the flesh is never regenerated, even after the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote:

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. -Rom. 8:10

So on one hand we have our spirits, made alive and new by the fusing together with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:5, Col. 2:13, 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19), and on the other hand we have our flesh, fused together with sin, and still condemned to death. (Rom. 7:24, Heb. 9:27). And we know by Galatians 5:17 (and from personal experience) that the two are at war with each other.

Because the flesh is never regenerated, even after our spirits are made new the damage done to the flesh remains. Because the damage remains there is a breeding ground for doubts. Generally speaking, doubt originates from our fallen nature, both our flesh and the fallen state sin has brought on mankind. Even so, doubt's origin in a persons life can be traced back to a number of issues in which we've divided into eight categories. A person's doubt can stem from one or more of these different categories.

• A faulty foundation

• An inaccurate view of God

• Sin

• Trials and tribulation

• Spiritual warfare

• Damaged emotions

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

• The normal growth process

In the remaining parts of this chapter we will discuss these categories and the effects they have/had on our lives.