By faith and patience, the Bible tells us, we receive the promises of God. However, there are some things that can prevent us from receiving. There are few things that can block the manifestation of what we are believing for more than strife and unforgiveness. So many believers do their best to pray and speak words of faith, but they delay or even abort their manifestation because they fail to keep the strife out of their life. This is where we slip up in our faith walk.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. James 3:16 (KJV)

Anger, arguing, offense, and holding grudges (unforgiveness) opens the door to the enemy. When the enemy has legal access to someone’s life, what does he do? Steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Maybe someone’s believing for the manifestation of their healing. When they prayed in faith for healing, God sent angels on their way to deliver healing to them. However, if that person gets ticked at someone, that allows enemy forces to come in and work to delay those angels. Even small irritations can cause issues. We must always remember that any delay or failure to see a manifestation of what God has promised is not the fault of God. He is perfect and never fails, so He is not the problem. That usually leaves one other person to blame- ourselves.

When we understand that faith works by love, we can see that faith cannot work without love. Strife, anger and offense are not listed as aspects of love. Check I Corinthians 13 and you’ll see I’m right. Quite the opposite. Strife, anger, and offense are products of selfishness and pride, both of which are characteristics of the devil. Therefore, we sabotage our faith when we allow strife to raise its ugly head.

When we get cut-off in traffic and say a few choice words under our breath, we are hindering our faith. When we get irritated at our spouse and make sarcastic comments, we are hindering our faith. When we hold a grudge against the person who got the promotion we thought we should have gotten, we are hindering our faith.

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:19 (KJV)

Unity increases the power of our faith, as this verse shows. Therefore, it stands to reason that division weakens faith. The enemy knows this, and that is why he does his best to bring strife. We must submit to God and resist the influences of the devil. When things happen to try to make us angry, we can respond in love. It is by immersing ourselves in the things of God that we can retrain ourselves to have better responses. The Word transforms our minds and thoughts (Romans 12:2) and praying in the Holy Spirit strengthens us in our inner man (Ephesians 3:16). That empowers us to act the right way when strife tries to get in.

If you have been actively believing for a long time for something to come to pass and it has not yet manifested for you, check your love life. If strife, unforgiveness, or offense are at work in your life, you probably know why your answer has not yet arrived. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you block strife from your life and listen to His promptings at those moments when your temper wants to flare. One incident at a time, we can all learn to live free of strife. When we do, I believe we’ll see our faith produce like it has never produced before.