S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

The term double-minded comes from the Greek word dipsuchos, meaning "a person with two minds or souls." It's interesting that this word appears only in the book of James (James 1:8; 4:8). Bible sch...

Login or Sign Up to view the rest of this answer.

July 01 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jay Saunders

Double-mindedness is when trouble comes your way and you doubt your Heavenly Father to deliver you. His word says that all things work together for good to those that love the Lord. Romans 8:28

If you're in Christ or a loved one is in Christ, even death has the reward of heaven. If the Lord spared not his own son to suffer and die, are we to assume that in this life we will escape unscathed by rejection, treachery, false accusations, persecution, discrimination, or even death itself? 

A double-minded wavering believer will receive nothing from the lord. James 1:7 says without faith it is impossible to please the lord. Hebrew11:6 says faith and trust in the unseen conquers the seen world if it be God's will. Faith pleases God. Faith moves God to action. God heals whom he chooses to heal and saves whom he chooses to save, but faith moves God to enact mercy. Mercy trumps everything that we could do or say.

We all have to encounter death, but we know not the how, when or where but only the why. For the scriptures clearly tell us it is appointed unto mankind to die (Hebrews 9:27) but we escape the second death of hell fire and brimstone in the lake of fire if we know Christ Jesus as our Lord and savior and confess him before men. This guarantees us to be present with the Lord when death comes, so rejoice. Eternity awaits. 2 Corinthians 5:8

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). He says one thing and does the another. When trouble comes he abadons the promises of God for a lie. Therefore his faith has no fruit of deliverance. For his faith is cast aside like an old pair of sneakers.

When God heals you of a disease man has no cure for, then you can boast that you have learned how to trust in the unseen world of our God while ignoring the seen world of mankind's world. 

But even then you know mercy came upon you because your faith moved God to be merciful,so our Heavenly Father always gets the glory. Hebrews 1:3 Romans 11:36

July 13 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Danny Hickman Supporter Believer in The Gospel Of Jesus Christ

Jesus describes the double-minded in His parable of the different qualities of soil of Luke 8, Mark 4 and Matt 13.

The seed that fell on rocks are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away (Luke 8:13). Translation: Our faith depends on what we're going through.

Paul says when we are double-minded we're like "children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting" (Ephesians 4:14). Translation: Our faith ebbs and flows depending on who we talk to. 

James says the double-minded is he who prays but doubts that his prayers will be heard and answered. He says this person is "like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind" (James 1:6). This kind of faith needs proof, which means it isn't faith. 

Perhaps the most glaring case of being of two different minds was demonstrated by Israel when the nation was at the doorstep of the Promised Land. Being oppressed by the Pharaoh of Egypt they cry out to God in prayer and supplication for a deliverer. Moses shows up with a story about God appearing to him in a burning bush, and sent him back to Egypt to deliver them from bondage. Ten plagues later, miraculous signs that could only be from God, Pharaoh releases them. Then he changes his mind, chases after them, and hems them in at the Red Sea. God parts the Red Sea, they cross over on dry land, Pharaoh gives chase and his whole army is drowned when the sea closes up on them. All that is left for Israel to do is make an eleven day trip from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea (Deut 1:2). 

They refused to enter the land after Moses sent 12 men to spy out the land. Two came back and said " It is a good land which the Lord was giving them." Ten said "The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And the sons of the Anakim (giants) are there." Thus they refused to believe that the God who had brought them all that way, leading them during the day as a cloud and during the night as a pillar of fire, would be with them when they enter the land that He, God, had promised to their father Abraham. They wander in the desert for 40 years. 

I don't know if there is a better example of what it means to be of two different minds than what we see when we look at Israel in the scriptures.

When Elijah summoned King Ahab and "all Israel," together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah to Mount Carmel for a showdown between those 850 prophets and the one true God, Jehovah, his question to them was, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions?" (1Kings 18:21) "If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow Him." 

The next sentence is very revealing. It says, "But the people did not answer him a word." Translation: they weren't sure. Elijah had called for the drought that was the focus of this affair. God had caused the rain to cease. The land was dry from 42 months without rain, and they still weren't convinced about who they should follow. 

The apostle James gives the answer to how to shake off the spirit of double-mindedness; he says it is due to your faith being tested. The cure to weak faith is to ask God for wisdom, "who gives to all generously and without reproach" (James 1:5). The scriptures that follow explain that God's wisdom would teach the humble man that he was in a high position and the rich man that he would some day be humbled. To be double-minded is to not recognize which camp you're in. When you belong to God there's no real difference in the two.

December 02 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report