Putting Your Faith to Work -By Seun Elere

By way of definition, faith simply means demonstration of what you have not seen. It is the certainty or strong convictions that we have what we have not yet seen – believing we have received from God things we have not yet seen (Heb 11:1). Faith is also believing what we see to be the true acts of God (Mathew 27:54). John 20:29 clearly show us these two kinds of faith – believing before you see and seeing before you believe. I wrote a little bit more on this in one of my articles titled The Arts of Faith.

A few weeks ago, as my family and I were getting ready for our Saturday fellowship meeting, it started to rain heavily. My wife and kids were disappointed that we were never going to be able to attend the fellowship but I encouraged them to get ready and I told them that as we step aside, the rain would stop. Immediately I said this, the rain increased in intensity but I insisted that we should all get ready to go. To the glory of God, as we stepped foot outside in the rain, the rain stopped instantly.

Your faith is not complete without action. No faith works without being worked. In the above testimony, the rain would definitely continue if we hadn’t taken action to step into the rain. In James 2:26, the scripture clearly encourage us to take action for faith to work:

So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead. GNT
For just as the [human] body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works [of obedience] is also dead. AB

In this kingdom, faith is a verb – it is a doing word. The true demonstration of your faith is your action. If you truly believe, you will act. It’s not enough to proclaim your faith, you must also act or behave what you proclaim. For faith to be effective, there must be a goal. Let us go through a few examples in the Bible.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Exodus 14:15 KJV

In Exodus 14, we saw how the Lord led the Israelites through the red sea. In verse 10, the Israelites saw the danger and cried to the Lord and in verses 13 and 14, Moses proclaimed faith in God. They prayed and proclaimed faith but they would have perished if they had stopped. This is why in verse 14, God asked Moses, why are you still praying and proclaiming? Don’t you believe my promises to you? If you do, then demonstrate your faith by going forward.

Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 2 Kings 2:8 NIV

In verse 6 of 2Kings chapter 2, Elijah told Elisah that God sent him to Jordan but when they got to river Jordan, there seems to be no way across, no boat nor ship to sail across the river and many people had also gathered to see how they would cross over to the other side of the water. But Elijah acted, he rolled up his cloak and smash it on the river and river divided for them to cross over to the other side on dry ground. I mean, Elijah used a piece of clothing to divide a mighty river.

And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” Joshua 3:13 NIV

In the above scripture, some folks were charged with the responsibility of carrying the ark of God across Jordan but instead of going ahead of them to part river Jordan, God told them to go forward for the sea to part ways. Pretty scary, right? Yes, they could have been afraid of drowning but they demonstrated their faith in God’s word by marching forward and Jordan parted ways. The moment their feet were out of the river, Jordan returned to its normal state (Joshua 4:18). This goes to proof that if they hadn’t stepped into the river, it wouldn’t have parted for them to cross over.

And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 2 Kings 7:5-6
Once upon a time, there was famine in Israel so much so that hunger drove people into eating each other but in 2 Kings 7:1, God’s word was proclaimed by Elisha with an assurance to terminate the famine within 24 hours. This generated a lot of argument, some openly discredited Elisha’s prophecy and many that believed, did nothing about it – they didn’t take any action. But for the four lepers who decided to rise up and go, they all would have died in hunger. They were not the strongest in the country but while others were debating God’s word, these four acted in faith and, guess what, they dislodged the entire troops of the strongest army at the time.

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:14 NIV

We are all familiar with the story of the ten lepers. We all remember how they shouted and prayed for healing. They proclaimed and prophessed because they believed that Christ could heal them but one thing was missing, there was no action. You can be on the alter of prayer for a very long time but until you act on your faith, you will probably not see answer. Jesus told the 10 lepers to do the only thing missing – act. He told them to rise up and go and as they went, they started to see healing. Do you believe God can give you a child? Show it by getting set for your baby as though you are already pregnant. Start prepping the baby crib, buy clothes for your baby, that’s the only thing left – act.

Similarly, in Mathew 14:22-33, Jesus told Peter to act. He said oh come on Peter, you don’t need my permission to walk on water, you only need to demonstrate your faith by acting. Peter acted and he, just like Jesus, walked on water. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda believed but for many years, he was not healed just because he would not act (John 5:7). Jesus told him, in verse 8, to get up, pick his mat and walk. All he has to do was just make the effort to get up and walk, this is the same thing he complained about to Jesus. ‘Oh you know I could not walk, even though I have been here for many years because I believe, I still need someone to take me into the river when it’s stirred up’. And Jesus simply said to him, you only need to act on your faith, take a step and you will be made whole.

You build your faith by feasting on the word of God consistently (Rom 10:17). You strengthen your faith by speaking boldly the word of faith (2Cor 4:13). However, for faith to yield expected results, you must act (James 2:18 Amplified Bible).

Make no mistake, faith delivers instantly but would only deliver when you act. God is not a last minute God, He is I Am not I was or I will be. The reason many people refer to God as a last minute God is because we (humans) ordinarily tends to follow logic, we all want to exhibit wisdom and because, more often than not, faith does not make sense, we tend to disregard it until we have tried everything within our capacity and still no result. We only act in faith when we are at our wit end. Faith only delivers when, in demonstration of your certainty of receipt even before you see it, you act. God can’t do anything for you unless you believe. It’s just like a light switch, it’s active and powered up but will not produce current until you turn it on. Faith, like the light switch, delivers instantly.

You cant have faith and fear. A faith filled person is always at peace, always calm without any anxiety even in the face of provocation. Where there is doubt, there is fear, fear and faith does not co-habit. You can’t believe that you have been healed and remain on the bed. Faith emboldens you.

You need to keep building your faith. To have bigger biceps, you need to exercise daily, in same way, eat the word of God daily to build your faith. Those who truly believe act, the fact that you are not acting only shows that you are not there yet.

Remember, faith to those without Christ is foolish (Mark 4:11). The first step in faith building is to believe that Christ died for you and me. This grant you access to the mystery of faith. Accept Him today as your Lord and savior.

Be blessed!