Putting your money where your mouth is (Part Two)
This is our weekly post here at deposition of our faith. Thank you for joining us. This is Week 8.
(Although you can start from anywhere, we encourage you to read up on previous posts as well; this particular article is a continuation of last week’s)
Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:3–6
Number 2, Our result lies in what we do.
When you have to act on God’s word, you have not only done it as proof of faith, you have also done it to possess your possessions. Exodus 12:13, Deuteronomy 2:24
Faith is the currency of the spirit realm.
You are saved by grace, but you accessed that grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). You access your healing through faith (Romans 4:19). You stay saved through faith (Philippians 1:6). “If ye believe, the works of me, ye shall do also”: we operate supernaturally through faith (John 14:12). I will speak more about faith as a legal tender in another exhortation.
Now, we all know that money can’t buy you anything until it is spent. Money that stays locked in a safe may be a form of security, but it is nothing if it cannot be spent.
Faith also needs to be worked upon.
It is your faith that has actions that will give you tangible results (James 2:18). In fact, note that Paul didn’t say, “I will show you my faith alongside my works”. He said, “I will show you my faith by my works”. Action and faith are like hand and glove.
I gave two reasons why we must also act on what we believe to access the promise.
Number one: to prove your faith (to verify that you even have faith and not something else).
Number two: Action is needed to possess your possessions because our result lies in what we do.
These two reasons work hand in hand, and doing one is proving the other, and proving one is doing the other. They are in sync.
Now, to be more exhaustive in explaining this, I want to use an analogy:
Imagine that you are trapped on the roof of a building, and I am on the ground telling you to jump.
“Jump! I will catch you!” (Yes, this is from “This Life” 😂) “It doesn’t matter how poorly you jump or land, I’ll catch you, and you won’t get hurt. Trust me.”
Now, if you don’t jump, it proves that you don’t believe me. And you can’t get down from there if you don’t jump!
So, even if you keep shouting, “I trust you!” “I believe you”, “I know you can catch me”, “I know you don’t wish for me to get injured”. If you don’t make the jump, it simply shows that you didn’t believe me. Because your fears are a confirmation of your doubt, you wouldn’t be afraid if you believed me (Mark 5:36).
At the same time, because you don’t believe me, you will stay on that roof. So, you cannot come down because you don’t have the trust in me, or my strength, or my positioning, or even in yourself, to not get hurt when you jump.
The illustration above shows something about belief and action.
Jesus said, “Those who hear my commandments and keep them” (John 14:21). Jesus said that because He knows that the doing is what proves that you are putting your money where your mouth is.
At the same time, doing is what engenders result. These things are just potential until you make them dynamic. You can potentially be saved if you pray the sinner’s prayer in faith. God can potentially heal you if you believe it. You can potentially have good success and financial dominion if you do what brings it.
I don’t know if the people who read this blog have any knowledge of superheroes or comic books, but I’m going to use a few examples because of how apt they are.
I remember this scene from the movie “Venom”. Let me give you a little background first. Eddie Brock, the titular character, is infected with a “virus” (which is actually an alien called Venom) that enables him to do many spectacular things. The alien gives him super strength, extreme jumping ability, shapeshifting, and healing abilities.
Now, there’s a scene in the movie where Eddie had just gotten his “powers”, and he was on the top of a skyscraper (for some reason, I can’t remember). The “venom” alien using his body as a host then spoke into his mind, “Jump”. Eddie, looking down at how far he was from the ground and thinking that he couldn’t possibly survive it, refused to make the jump. He took the elevator instead. It was more hilarious than I just made it out to be, sorry!
Eddie Brock could jump down from a skyscraper because he had a Venom in him that gave him superpowers. However, he used the elevator like a regular guy because he did not trust that he’d stick the landing without literally sticking to the pavement!
His “unbelief” in his abilities made him miss out on the benefits of being a host to a mighty alien.
Get this: A Superman that refuses to fly will walk like the rest of us.
In essence, what am I saying? Belief is a powerful word. So, it isn’t demonstrated merely in speech. We need to prove the things we say because then we know we truly meant them, and we need to do the things we say because that is when the real change happens.
God is not rejoicing in heaven whenever you make promises to him; he knows all things. He is more interested in your action than your words. You can promise a kid a bike and not mean it because you are a man, and you are subject to change. We do the same thing to God, as well. The only difference is that one can fool a child because he believed in your words even before your deeds. However, God is not fooled by promises, no matter how genuine they are.
If you tell me that your pet dog is friendly and it won’t hurt me, I can quickly genuinely agree with you. Now, if I come over to your house, and I don’t come in until the dog is chained, it’s not a “precaution”; it’s because I don’t believe the dog is safe.
I read this illustration in a book that said, “it’s one thing to say that you believe that aircraft are safe, but if you are still scared when you are on one, it shows that you don’t trust aircraft at all.”
That’s what true belief is: an action that backs up a word or thought. If you won’t leave your baby in the custody of a tame lion, then it shows you don’t genuinely think the lion is harmless. Your numerous “precautions” are just a sign of distrust.
I know we are tired of hearing these illustrations. “How can we do what we say we believe? How can we practice what we preach? I’ve heard you, but now how can I help myself?”
Well, I have good news and bad news for you.
The bad news is that you can’t help yourself.
The good news is that the one who can help you lives inside you. The Spirit of God enables you to both will and do the good pleasure of God (Philippians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 10:2–5). We cannot do it on our own. Our flesh is weak. Our flesh is shameless.
We have to be spiritually minded, and we have to understand that nothing that God commands us to do is doable without power from above. Peter was nothing but a closeted fanatic until the HolySpirit came upon him (Acts 1:8, then read through chapters 3 and 4). Paul was expected to come back and preach the gospel to the same people he persecuted for it. There is no human way that he’d have been able to do that. Yet, “I can do all things THROUGH Christ that strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). That was the testimony of Paul.
So, my charge for us today is that we continue to do back our beliefs with our actions, not because God needs to “test” you, but because beliefs are confirmed by actions.
Next week’s topic is about putting the Spirit in the driver’s seat of your life. It is one that I’m very excited about, so much so that it is even nearly done already!
Our Godless generation is too eager to gratify self and fleshly desires, and we can never be the believers that God has called us to be if we keep sowing unto the flesh (Galatians 6:7–8).
Thank you for joining us here again today,
I pray that the words you receive here will continue to build you up spiritually and that you will have a rekindled heart for active followership of God.
See you again next week, and God be with ye till then!
