In episode 102 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, host Greg Ryan moves from a brief discussion of unbelief to a deeper exploration of how hope, faith, and grace interrelate. He argues that unbelief is a real spiritual problem that must be confronted through disciplined effort—specifically prayer, fasting, and self‑control—mirroring the physical effort required to achieve health. Ryan emphasizes the power of thoughts, recommending John Acuff’s book Soundtracks as a tool for renewing the mind and breaking negative thought cycles that the enemy uses. He then contrasts feeding the body with feeding the “spirit man,” urging listeners to quiet sensory overload and focus on the Word of God. Using Scripture (Matthew 17:19‑21, John 1, John 15), he describes the Word as the source of spiritual nourishment, the vine that sustains believers, and the conduit for producing the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self‑control). These fruits are presented not for personal benefit but for the edification of others and the expansion of God’s kingdom. Ryan concludes with a brief prayer, a call to cultivate a mustard‑seed faith that can move mountains, and an invitation to continue seeking the Word to experience hope, faith, and grace in daily life.
Welcome to episode 102, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Welcome to episode 102. I want to finish up on the unbelief. I think I was almost done, but there was a couple things I needed to say, and then we're going to move on to what does hope and faith and grace— what do they look like and how do they work together? So I'm going to open up— this is a big old can that I'm trying to open up, and I just need your undivided attention for probably the next 3 or 4 months. Just kidding. I am going to try to give you a picture of what hope— in my mind, what I— how I've got hope pictured, how I have faith pictured, and how I have grace pictured. And so how— and then once we get a little picture on and we get a little handle that we can grab onto, then we're going to try to bring them all together and see how they work together and how we can get them all connected. But before we do all that We need to make sure that unbelief is gone. We at least need to understand that we have an unbelief problem. And that is all I wanted to do. I wanted to take you to where the scripture said, you know, where the disciples there in Matthew 17, it was 19 through 21, and Jesus said, this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting. And I want you to know that some unbelief is just gonna take some effort to get out, and I'm okay with that. You should be okay with that. If you're gonna get into shape physically, it's gonna take some effort. It's gonna take denying yourself. You can't keep having the chocolate chip cookie, Greg. You cannot have that. I don't care if you put some milk with it and it looks healthier. You can't eat the chocolate chip cookie every night, Greg. You just can't do it. So you gotta take And I'm sorry, that was just me talking to me for a minute. But you've got to take some self-discipline. If you want to be 400 pounds, you can eat whatever you want, you can do whatever, you can just not do a thing. But if you want to be in decent shape, you've got to watch what you put in your mouth. Same thing physically is you can't— you got to exercise. You can't just sit around and then go jump up and run a marathon. It just— your body just don't work like that. You've got to put some effort in on the front end to do anything on the back end. And that's what we're talking about now. We're going to move this to a spiritual talk. You have got to put some stuff on the front end, and that's getting— digging out this unbelief. First, you got to understand that you've got it, and then you got to know how to get it out. And I believe the only way you get unbelief out is to put belief in, and you got to replace it with something. And again, I've talked about our thoughts Your thought— your thoughts are your thoughts. That they're the only one— the only thing that you've got that you own is what you think about and what you— how you make up your mind what you're going to do for the day. That is your thoughts, your plans, your battle plans for the day. That, that's you thinking you. Now the thoughts that the enemy puts in, now I think they're a little bit stronger than your thoughts because they keep coming out And I want to tell you right now, I've just come in my mind, one of the best books that I've read— I may have already told you this, but I don't think I have— but one of the best books I've read in probably the last year, and that's saying a lot because I think I read 25, 30 books a year. I'm constantly reading and I'm constantly digging into information and trying to figure out what, you know, what's the best way to attack this thing we call life. But one of the best books I've ever— now, I don't know about ever, but one of the best books I've read in the last year is a book called Soundtracks, and that's John Acuff, I think. I'd never even heard of him before, but someone recommended it, and it is a wonderful book. And it talks about the things going on inside your head. And he don't come out— I don't know if he's a Christian. I mean, I would think he is, but if he's not, he's talking about the thoughts that go inside your head. And I think this— you can give Satan some credit for some of this— that he plants some of these negative thoughts in your head, and they're so easy to just keep going over and over and over and over on in your head that you just continue to beat yourself up. I know I do, and I haven't talked to anybody that will admit No, I mean, I'm pretty good at self-talk, and I think I'm decent at self-talk, and I'm constantly berating myself in my head. So I mean, really, I want to encourage you to get that book if you're a reader. And if you're not a reader, if you listen, you're obviously listening to this podcast, get the audiobook. I'm telling you, it's worth it. It's a good book. It's a good read. I'm talking about effort. It's going to require effort to get unbelief out. And with that said, you've got to— Jesus said with prayer and fasting. So that's kind of— that's got some effort. If you've ever tried to pray, wake up early in the morning and you're going to make yourself pray every morning, it requires effort, it requires commitment. And you know, once you pray, then you're ready, you know, you think, I wonder if that worked, or I wonder when that's— when that prayer is going to be answered. Well, The prayer is answered immediately, and I could show you in the Bible how when you say it, God hears it. I ju— it's gonna take some effort because you have some opposition in the form of the punk and the form of the world and the form of your body. So you— that's where the fast— when you fast, you've got to cut things off that would take attention away from what you're trying to get accomplished. Like when I fast in a— and it's a spiritual fast— when I do a spiritual fast, it's to shut my body up. It's nothing more than me just trying to quiet my body so I can hear my spirit man, if that makes sense. Because if you can put your two hands— put two hands up, the thing in between is your mind, will, and emotion. But you got a left hand and a right hand, and say that your left hand is your body and your right hand is your spirit man. Well, if you're always constantly feeding your body, you know, your body keeps calling out and saying, hey, I need some more coffee, hey, I need some more food. Hey, I need this. Hey, I need that. Hey, I need this. Your body is constantly talking, and your spirit— you can't hear your spirit, that still small voice. You got to quiet one of the two. And when you're always constantly feeding your five senses and you're always constantly got noise coming into your ears, and you can't hear God's voice. And I believe that's the truth. So you've got to turn things off and get quiet. You've got to steal one of the other. And unfortunately, I think most Christians, most of us steal the spirit man, and we keep feeding the body. We keep feeding our five senses. We keep putting things in our eyes. We keep putting things in our ears. We keep putting things in our mouth. And so we're constantly feeding these senses, and our spirit man is starving. If you're not feeding him the bread of life and you're not feeding your spirit man the word of God, then your spirit man is struggling. He is weak as a kitten. You need to, you need to start feeding him the bread of life. You need to start planting the seed, the incorruptible seed. And here comes the soapbox moment: you have got to get in the word of God. I mean, there's just no two ifs, ands, or bugs. The number one most powerful thing in the world, I believe you carry it in your phone or under your arm or sitting on your nightstand. The most powerful thing in the world is the Word of God. And I'm telling you, if you'll get in that book and let that book get into you, it is alive and it will come alive in you. And God is not a respecter of persons. He's, he's not sitting going, well, Greg, I really like Greg because he's in my word all the time. No, God's not a respecter of persons. I am in the vine. It tells me to get in the vine because the vine is where all the nutrition's at. The vine is Jesus. Jesus said, I am the vine, and if you— the branches can produce nothing on their own. The branches have to be— and that's found in John 15— but the branches cannot produce fruit on their own. They have to be in the vine. And in order to be in the vine, you've got to actually be into the Word of God, because again, Jesus is the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's in John 1. You've got to be in the word of God to be in the vine. And then once you're in the vine, then you grow the fruits of the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I believe that's all 9, but if I missed one, you can let me know. But there's 9 fruits of the spirit, and that is grown from being— the only way to grow that is to be in the vine. You have got to be in the Spirit to grow the fruit of the Spirit. And the fruits, remember we've talked about before, the fruits are not grown for you. The fruits are grown for everyone else in your world. So you grow the fruit of the Spirit to help show people and to help people come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That's the whole— we're building God's kingdom. We're not building yours and my kingdom. As much as I want to build my own kingdom, I have bowed the knee and I have humbled myself and said, God, what is it you want me to do? And he's got me here in this empty room with a microphone talking to you to tell— to encourage you to get in his word. I'm telling you, that's what God— that is my drumbeat, my soapbox moment is get in the Word of God. I want you to have the same nourishment, the same power, the same authority that I have. We've got mustard seed. All you got to do is have a mustard seed of faith and boom, we can start moving mountains. Well, let's pray real quick. Thank you, Lord, for everything you've done in my life. Lord, I thank you for being with the person here on this podcast. I thank you for this person staying to the end to hear this prayer, Lord, and I want them to hear that you love them. God, show the person listening to this that you're in mad in love with them and that you can't think of anything else but them, Lord, that it doesn't matter what they're going through. Holy Spirit, you know right where they're at and you know what they need to do if they will just ask you. And I pray in Jesus' name that you would start talking to the Holy Spirit just like I'm talking to you, and expect the answer. God, I thank you so much. We love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
