"FAITH WORKS" is the medium through which we will deliver the monthly messages fromANOINTED WORD MINISTRIES. We believe these messages will be an inspiration and an encouragement to you. Therefore, passing the URL for this ministry page on to others is greatly appreciated and encouraged. Also, adding this page to your "HOTLIST" would be a good source for some monthly edification. Thank you very much

THIS MONTH'S TOPIC

"If you have faith..."

 There are two areas where faith is evidenced in a believer's life: what he SAYS with his mouth and what he DOES. Obviously, these two areas are totally based upon the Word of God. If you have faith, then the reference point for what you say and what you do will always be what you believe from the Word of God. It is the intent of this message to express that faith should be both HEARD, which comes from what you say and SEEN, which comes from what you do! I will address these two individually.

 We shall discuss first: " If ye had faith, ye would SAY..." Lets look at what Jesus says in Luke 17:5-6. In verse five of Luke chapter seventeen the disciples said unto Jesus, "...Lord, increase our faith." Now immediately I can understand why they would ask Him such a question. I am certain that after spending much time with Jesus and observing the tremendous results he achieved as a result of His faith, they wanted to tap into this type of access with the father. He even emphasized to them on more than one occasion the significance of faith in regards to answered prayer. But you will notice that the apostles question is somewhat awry because they addressed faith in regards to quantity. They assumed that they did not have enough of this substance called "faith" which to them is the reason why they were not getting the dynamic results which Jesus consistently obtained. I have seen other contemporary believers do likewise.

Despite this, Jesus immediately responds to them addressing not the quanity or how much but the quality of their faith. He replies: "if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,...". Now, it is my understanding that a mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds in existence. From the illustration that Jesus presents, it now seems clear that "how much" is not the issue when it comes to faith. Bible faith is like money in this sense. Money is neither good nor bad. It could be classified as neutral. Once it gets into the hands of people, then the determination of how good or bad it is becomes evident. Obviously in the hands of a drug dealer its uses would be substantially different than in the hands of a missionary. But the money itself is not bad. It has no moral character good or bad. In a certain sense, faith is like this. It is neither big nor small it is just faith. Faith is faith. Either you have it in God or you have it in some other person or thing. Jesus admonishes us in Mark 11:22 to "have faith in God".

With this in mind let us address the demand that the disciples presented to Jesus in Luke 17:5-6: "Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it shall obey you. One of the most important issues about Jesus' response to them is He says "if ye had faith...". God, Jesus nor the Holy Spirit will assume that you have faith. It is interesting though that Christians of various background sometimes assume that they have faith when they really do not. Jesus does not say: "Since ye had faith ..." but "IF ye had faith...". It is very important to understand that IF could be the difference between your receiving something from the Lord and you receiving nothing from the Lord.

This IF is repeated by Jesus in Matthew 21:21 when he says"IF ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also IF ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Here is another issue worth addressing. Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 " IF ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,... Now this is very, very interesting. Jesus, the One who believers say is not a liar, is telling us to "say unto this mountain.... He is telling us that IF we had faith we would speak unto a mountain or anything else we would have faith for. Do you see this? I am certain that there are many people who have read this and started speaking to things without faith. I can tell you now that this is presumption. It will not work. As a matter of fact, Jesus explains to his disciples, who tried to do what they had seen Jesus do, that the reason they could not cast out the demon was because of their unbelief, which, based on this explanation, the disciples apparently spoke to the demon in the child but they spoke without faith in their hearts. The conclusion is that if one has faith, then one will speak TO, not about nor around but TO those things one is exercising his faith upon. I realize this may seem very radical indeed but examine the scriptures I have indicated and decide for yourself what you will do with them. The benefit you will receive from the understanding of these verses will be worth the time you put into the investigation of them.

Please do not get confused on this issue of faith alone. What is really important is that if you do not have faith that comes from the hearing of the word of God you will not speak to anything. You can speak to whatever you want but without faith it will not work . So it becomes a moot point.

This now addresses the very important issue of How faith comes so you can speak to mountains and an assortment of other things based on the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says that "...faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." You have to hear faith that comes from the Word before bible faith will come. Once faith comes you will not have to ask what to do. Jesus says if you have faith ye would say. James 5:15says that the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up;..." How can one pray the prayer of faith if one has no faith in the area he or she is praying ? James 1:6 says for us to "ask in faith, nothing wavering..." How can I ask in faith if faith has not come for the thing or things that I am asking?

Do you see now where we go wrong when it comes to faith? We have been hearing all kind of things, but the question is have we been hearing the Word of God so that faith from the Word of God can come that will cause us to speak our faith?

My encouragement is this: Feed on the Word of God! Meditate on the Word of God! Study the Word of God! But most importantly, hear the Word of God. Once faith comes, the speaking will take care of itself, if you believe according to Word.

 Now, let us address the other area of evidence that one has faith. If ye had faith, then you will have corresponding actions to what you say you believe. In other words: FAITH SHOULD NOT ONLY BE HEARD BUT ALSO SEEN! James chapter 2:14-26 vividly describes the faith and works relationship. For James the disciple and half brother of Jesus to address this issue, apparently people in his day erroneously assumed a great deal about faith. To their benefit, James helps them and us with this issue. He asks first what does it profit a person who says he has faith and does not have works that corresponds with what he says he believes. In verse seventeen he declares that "faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. In this sense, dead means barren or unable to produce fruit or results.

 One powerful statement in verse eighteen qualifies and even summarizes what James' intent is when dealing with what people say they have concerning faith and what they really have. He declares: "Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works[he infers here that it cannot be done], and I will SHEW THEE MY FAITH BY MY WORKS. This is strong!!!! In other words, you will know that I have faith by the actions that go along with and correspond to what I say that I believe. How do YOU know that I have faith unless YOU, GOD, ANGELS, HUMANS and DEMONS can SEE it? Faith, though a spiritual force, will always manifest in the natural.

James continues by asking the seemingly obvious question in verse twenty of chapter two: "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" He says that Abraham was justified by works when he offered Issac his son upon the altar. He then poignantly explains that "...faith wrought with his works and by works faith was made perfect". Another way of saying this is that faith worked in conjunction with and in harmony with his works to produce certain desired results. James then says that the scripture was "fulfilled" which says that Abraham believed God, it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. Works that correspond with what you believe fulfills the scripture. We are all the friends when we do what we say we believe concerning the Word of God. James concludes in verse twenty-six by caying through the Holy Ghost: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." In other words without the spirit the body will never produce anything. No blood will flow. No carbon dioxide exchange will occur. No ideas will be expressed. Nothing. There will be no fruit of any kind from a dead body. So it is with faith without works. Actually, with all this in mind, there is no such thing as bible faith without works. Your faith works are the consumation of what you believe.

There is a wonderful illustration of how faith can be seen in Mark 2:1-12 In verse three of this second chapter of Mark there were four men bringing an individual who was sick of the palsy. These four men could not reach Jesus because of the many people that thronged him. So with the type of initiative that was grounded in faith, they uncovered the roof of the house where Jesus was located. They let down the person who was sick of the palsy. Mark chapter two verse five explains it like this: "When Jesus SAW their faith, He said to the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." The commentary that the Holy Spirit gives us does not say when he saw them let the person down. It does not say when he saw them uncover the roof. The Holy Spirit through the writing of Mark says very emphatically: "When He SAW their faith,..." They apparently believed that if they could get to Jesus, He could and would heal the person they were carrying. They were not deterred by the crowd that kept them from getting to Him through normal channels. They were not deterred by the thought of having to climb on the roof of a person's house and remove any obstructions necessary to lower him in the presence of Jesus. They were not embarassed about how they would look to the crowd or what anyone in the crowd thought about their activities. Their believing removed all fears, all concerns, all doubts and moved them into receiving from the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Now many people probably saw only their actions. Jesus saw not their actions, but their faith. There is a very big difference. Many people see you do things but they can not appreciate the source of such actions. So it is in the realm of works driven and carried by faith. If you have faith, then there will be corresponding actions to what you believe. This is the way of bible faith. There will always be corresponding actions to this type of faith.

 What are some examples of actions following your believing? Speaking the word is one example. Saying what the bible says about your life instead of what circumstances are saying is a good way to begin doing the word. Speaking or saying what God says is a type of faith works. Another example would be to do the opposite of what you fear. If you are afraid to give according to Luke 6:38 because you think it will not work, then give according to Luke 6:38 to the degree that you are able to believe. Start with fifty cents and develop your believing from their.

In essence, if you had faith you would speak and you would do the Word of God. The Word is the source of such activities. As you feed on the Word, as you read the Word, as you hear the Word and as you do the Word of God, faith in the Word of God will be a consequence. As you do these things God will be glorified because of the strength of your believing.

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Andre Gorham