FAITH? OR WHAT?

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. (John 13:17)

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:25) 

The focus of this volume is to discuss why the concept of obeying the word of God seems to be unfamiliar and unpopular with the believer today. It is to draw attention to the fact that the believer seems to have mentally segregated the Word into two parts: the part which must be aspired to and the part which is impossible to do. Consequently, many believers exercise ‘faith’ in relation to their material prosperity, healing and deliverance from demonic influence, job prospects and the like. In this duplicitousness, the believer’s attempts to extort gain from the Lord are proverbially referred to as acts of faith. So to such, the exercise of faith and the application of spiritual laws such as confession of one’s faith or the making of faith declarations are seen as means to gain material from the Lord and not necessarily to obey His word.
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I want to state categorically that material prosperity is necessary and good. We should believe God for our finances, jobs, health, deliverance, etc. However, my point is that this does not constitute the totality of faith. It is only a part of it. It is not the beginning of faith. Faith begins with the prosperity of the soul and completes itself in external prosperity. We must believe God for and in everything.

This brings us to the second part where the believer seems to have dismissed unconsciously areas in the Word to be impossible to do. We seem to switch off when we are asked to obey certain areas in scripture. When the bible talks about resisting the devil, we are able to ‘hear’ only when it is linked with money, academic excellence, jobs, etc. etc. but when it is linked with sins that must be rejected, we switch off thinking that it is impossible to overcome such sins. We jump and claim that all things are possible to the believer and all this while we have certain ‘all things’ in mind to the exclusion of others. It is possible for money to come to me, but it is impossible to forgive that brother or sister. It is possible for me to be healed but it is impossible to reject this bitterness and hatred. It is possible to trample over scorpions and serpents but we do not want to accept that jealousy, envy, fornication, adultery and fear of man are all scorpions and serpents.

We say all things are possible for him who believes and at the same time think that not all things are possible. At best we sit around and say grace will enter us and make us overcome. But beloved, that is not you waiting for grace. That is you loving your sins and wanting to stay in them. It is not that certain things are impossible to do in His word but rather that we love evil to the extent that the pain of letting them go appears unbearable.

To rise above jealousy and be happy for your friend is too difficult because we love ourselves. We think it is impossible to stop fornication because we love fornication. We think it is impossible to walk in integrity because given the situation we love to take the apparent relief that lying and corruption brings. If we do not like these things we would have taken the same approach and gone the same lengths to use faith to overcome them. We will look to God and confess His word that we are overcomers in these areas as well. We will stand and not give in to these urges; not by might but by the grace supplied to every man that chooses to stand by the word of God. When it comes to claiming our ‘blessings,’ we speak of words like lambano. We say once Jesus has made these things possible for us to enjoy, we don’t just sit in wait, we rise up and exercise our faith to
receive. So why do you want to sit there and wait for a certain mysterious grace to enter you and make you fight that temptation? Why don’t you rise up in this same fashion and exercise your faith to resist the devil? Why don’t you rise up and resist him because the grace is already at work in you. But if you don’t want to take a decision to reject those things now, it may well be because you love them and you do not want to deal with the pain of their loss, do you?

I am not a sin consciousness preacher but I am also saying that don’t you see there is something wrong with your definition of faith? Don’t you see that you say you have victory over the devil and the devil too can say he is exercising victory over you? You are claiming victory over him in your finances, health, academics, job and so on and he is also claiming victory over your heart (soul); filling it with evil because that is what you want. He is filling your heart with adultery, womanizing tendencies and all the while preparing you to be a rebellious wife who walks in divine health or an unfaithful husband who walks in financial prosperity. He is preparing you into a statesman who fears and seeks approval from men and not God. He is preparing you to be a corrupt CEO, a money-loving doctor, a property-stealing owner and a womanizing bank manager. Why? Because all we want and are using our ‘faith’ for is to be statesmen, have husbands and wives, be CEOs, be doctors, bank managers, etc. And interestingly this kind of ‘faith’ does not work.

Faith looks to Jesus as his Lord. Faith submits to Jesus that He may be glorified. Faith seeks the glory of God. Even in possessing material things, it is to the end that God may be glorified. What is required to exercise faith only in material gain will keep you from genuine faith which works. I call that kind of faith selfish faith. It does not look to the Lord for help and neither can it. In exercising such faith one will constantly find himself looking to himself. That is why many who hear messages on faith are usually also quick to open their ears to hear the ‘steps’ of it: something they could do in order to obtain what they want at all cost. But faith calls Jesus Lord. Selfish faith calls the user Lord in the process. It may be veiled with utterance of the name of Jesus but within it is self-exaltation equivalent to that of Satan.

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (Luke 6:46)

My point exactly. Why do we call Him Lord Lord and do not the things He says? Why is it that we don’t like to obey His word? Why do we dismiss His instructions? It is because our love seems to be growing cold. It is because we love iniquity more than good. And the good we love, we love because it serves our ends and intents.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matt. 24:12)

So we have a reputation for being powerful but we are powerless. We have a reputation for being spiritually endowed with all manner of revelation but we are poor. We have a reputation for being clothed but we are stark naked.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Rev 3:17-18)

Why don’t you let Him into your heart? Why don’t you submit your heart to all of His word? I am not talking about being ‘born again’. I am talking about being a doer of the word. Grace is working in the one who is doing the word. The one who does not do the word turns his back on grace. Be a doer then and be blessed in your doing.

The concept of faith as against the law will be discussed in the next volume.

* All Scripture References are from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)