Faith In Action

I’m a big believer in the power of confession!  The words we say have power to bring the will of God to pass in our lives so it important for us to say about ourselves what our Heavenly Father is saying about us.  With that said, sometimes if we aren’t careful we can be all talk and no substance.  What do I mean?

Have you ever heard a person say, “We need to live by faith and not fear and take authority over the works of the enemy” only to see them run like a fraidy cat at the first sign of trouble.  Come to think of it, I may have done that once or twice myself – lol. I’m not writing this to criticize any of us whose lives don’t always match our words as we are all a work in progress, but I do want to encourage each of us to press into God and walk in all the power that is available to us.  Look at this passage of scripture in Luke 20:

 1 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, “Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?”

The fact the Pharisees asked Jesus, “by what authority do you do these things” means they realized Jesus had authority.  Think about it, the Pharisees weren’t debating whether His works were real or not.  They couldn’t deny the miracles because they were real.  These miraculous works revealed His authority, which caused the Pharisees to want to know where His authority came from.  

One of the ways to know our lifestyle matches our confession is when others see the power of God working in our lives.  A great question we should all ask ourselves is when is the last time someone saw us operate in such authority that they wanted to know where our authority came from?  This is what the Pharisees wanted to know of Jesus. 

What if our neighbors or co-workers saw us live such lives of power and excellence that they wanted to know where our ability came from?  How many people would we be able to lead to the Lord simply by living a life of power and excellence that reveals the authority of Jesus in our lives?  

If people aren’t asking us where our power and authority came from, it’s a sign we probably aren’t walking in much spiritual authority. I don’t say that to condemn. I say that as an invitation to pursue Jesus so we can come up to a new level in Him!  One of His greatest desires for all of us is for people to see His life when they look at our life.  This leads to an important question.  How do we do that?

We walk in authority by endeavoring to act on the things the word of God says about us.  Unfortunately, many hear the word and confess the word but don’t act on it.  This leaves them full of knowledge, which leads to spiritual pride and not spiritual growth.  James 1:22 says when we hear the word and don’t act we deceive ourselves.  We must act on the word of God to walk in authority. Check out this message to learn more about stepping out in faith.

When we begin to act on the word of the Lord, there will be failures.  Don’t get discouraged.  It’s part of the process.  Our initial failure should invite us into a deeper encounter with Jesus where learn His word at a deeper level and cry out for His spirit to transform us so we actually do what the Bible says we can do.  This pressing in season is vital.  It’s a place of brokenness and authenticity before the Lord where we begin to long for what He longs for. It also creates the reality in us that we can’t do the works of God apart from dependency on Him.  

In my own life I usually don’t see immediate change when I begin to act on the word of God in a particular area.  I usually fail a lot at first and then have to bring those failures to Jesus.  Even after I bring my failures to Him, I usually continue to fail in that area for a while.  As I keep coming to Jesus, He stirs my hunger and begins to show me others scriptures or ways of His I need to understand in order to walk in the fullness of what His word has declared over me in the area I’m trying to see breakthrough.

This was what happened for me when it came to praying for the sick.  I have had a theology of healing for as long as I can remember, however, for most of my life people rarely got better when I prayed for them.  If anyone would have been observing, they wouldn’t have seen any of Jesus’s authority in my life.  I looked full of knowledge, but was powerless.  Today, however, people get healed regularly when I pray for them.  What has brought the change?  A prolonged pursuit of and series of encounters with Jesus where He took what I intellectually knew and taught me how to apply it!  It’s not a magic formula.  It is spending time with Him.

I still don’t see everyone I pray for get healed, but I probably see 10 times as many people healed as I used to – Praise God for Growth!  By the way, the Lord is still inviting me into deeper encounters so I see more healings and miracles in my life.  These miracles, signs, and wonders reveal the authority of God in my life.  In other words, I don’t have to declare it about myself, other people actually see it working.  That’s the point of this article!   

I’m not writing any of this to brag about me because I’m not very impressed with me.  I am thoroughly impressed with Jesus, however, and want more of what He has for me.  I want that for you too, which is why I wrote this article.  Jesus wants others to see His power and authority working in your life.  He wants you to walk in so many miracles and supernatural breakthroughs that people ask where your authority came from.  When they do, it will give you an awesome opportunity to tell them about Jesus!

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