Lesson 7. Actions Corresponding to Faith. A school from “Faith and Confession” that lays an amazingly deep foundation in the Word of God. Charles Capps teaches how to activate the power of God in your life.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no works? Can such faith save them? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does not give them what the body needs, what good is that? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14–17
Faith requires action. But do not fall into the trap of a half-truth concerning the action of faith. What James said in verse 17 is absolute truth. This statement is true in the context of this passage of Scripture. But if you take it out of context and apply it to a different situation, this truth may no longer be true in that particular situation.
The word works in this passage sometimes means “corresponding actions” – in other words, to act means to express your faith. You should definitely support your faith with corresponding actions. Problems begin when we start acting beyond our faith and take action beyond what we have received.
I believe that you need to confess what the Word says in the area of your finances.
But this does not mean that you should act as if you had thousands of dollars in your bank account. Some people have done exactly that. They said, “I confess abundance. I believe that God will meet all my needs, so I write and sign all my bills’ checks, and God will have to put money in my account before those checks reach the bank.”
This is not faith. It is recklessness. Some people call such checks “faith checks,” but they are not. They could be called fraudulent checks, and that is illegal. How can God bless what is illegal? He cannot and will not. We must follow biblical principles.
Appropriate Action
Someone may object: “But James says that faith without works is dead. Therefore, if I don’t act as though I have it, then my faith is dead!”
Let me draw a parallel with this statement. Acting as though you have faith when you do not have it is double deadness. By this I mean that such people’s foolish actions will bring sorrow not only to themselves but also to others.
Many people completely misunderstand James’s words and act recklessly. Follow the context of the Bible. You will not have corresponding actions regarding something until you have its complete fulfillment. You may have some partial corresponding actions. But according to Scripture, you cannot have works of faith until what you believe or ask for has been fulfilled.
Some people write checks knowing that they do not have enough money in the bank, while saying, “God will have to put money into my account before my checks reach the bank.”
No. Most likely, they will be in prison before God does that. God does not print money; He is not a counterfeiter. Putting money in the bank is people’s responsibility, not God’s.
The correct biblical way to act is this: write checks for the bills and put them in a desk drawer and do not send them until you have enough money in your bank account. This will be your work of faith at this stage, until what you believe is fulfilled further.
Faith is not reckless, but people sometimes act recklessly because they lack leading.
A similar example of overextending faith exists in the area of physical healing. There have been cases of people dying prematurely simply because they thought that if they believed in healing, they had to stop taking their medication. But their level of faith was not sufficient for such an action. Medication will not heal you, but neither will it keep you from being healed. It will help control your symptoms until you believe God.
Many people try to act at a higher level of faith than the one they have reached. They attempt to believe that God will heal them of cancer, while
their faith is not sufficiently developed even to get rid of a headache. Many have died needlessly when medicine could have helped them stay alive and live a full life. It is not a very good testimony when someone says they believe in God and dies. No, they merely tried to believe God beyond the level of development of their faith, and died.
You need to use common sense in applying faith and confession. If you have not yet reached the necessary level of faith, do everything necessary to master the situation and take control of it, especially when it is a matter of life and death. Then take the Word and develop your faith in God’s providence.
Hebrews 11:6 says: …and without faith it is impossible to please God…. When people decide to live by faith, they want to please God. And when they hear sermons about faith and works, they certainly do not want to disappoint God. They say:
“If I truly believe that God supplies all my needs, then my actions should correspond to my faith.” Such people write checks, knowing that they do not have enough money in their account to cover all their expenses.
But such actions cannot be called works of faith. They are reckless, foolish actions. Of course, people do not want to act recklessly because they truly want to please God. They simply do not understand what works of faith are.
Scripture is very balanced, and the secret of this balance is to hold to the truth in the context of everything that is said about the situation at hand.
James is not talking about a need you have prayed about; he is not talking about debts on your home or unpaid rent when he says that faith without works is dead.
James tells of a person who came and said, “I do not have enough food or clothing. Can you help me?” The apostle says that faith that is not ready to help is dead faith. In other words, you would not help such a needy person at all if you said, “Go, brother, warm yourself and eat well. I have faith that you will be fed and clothed. I believe that your needs will be met. May God bless you.”
James says that faith without any actions, such as giving clothing to a person in need or feeding them, is dead faith. Appropriate actions are required to meet this person’s needs. They do not need someone to say, “I believe”; they need to hear, “I will help!” James goes on to say:
But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works’: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. James 2:18
Remember that this is still about a person in need. Someone may respond to a needy person, “I will show you my faith. I will believe God for you too, brother, and God will meet your needs.”
James says, “If you want to show me your faith without doing anything, simply by believing, then I will show you my faith by helping the person in need. I will simply give this person food and clothing to keep warm, and I will believe that God will meet my need.”
Faith that says, “Brother, I believe your needs will be met and everything will be all right,” but is not accompanied by works, is dead faith. The person who came for help will leave with nothing, and your faith will not help them at all if you do not do something to help.
James says, “If you could show me your faith without works, then I will show you my faith by my works.” Then he inspires us to be doers, not hearers only.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror: he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what he was like. James 1:22–24
This is what a person who only hears the Word does. He hears what the Word says about him; he sees himself as God sees him. The mirror James speaks of is the Word of God, because the Word accurately shows us what God tells us and what we are really like.
A hearer of the Word is like a person who looks into the Word of God and says, “Thank You, Lord, that I have been set free from the curse of the law. I am free from the power of darkness and have faith abiding in me. The One who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world!”
But when everything does not go as he would like, a person forgets all this and becomes merely a hearer.
He saw that he had authority and faith by which he could move mountains. But when he faces the everyday circumstances of life, such a person quickly forgets what he heard, and he has no works confirming what the Word says about him. He enters a negative environment and says everything the people of this world say. “I knew I would never have any luck. The devil is always throwing some trouble my way. Nothing works for me. That is just how things are.” And the person is defeated by his hearer’s attitude.
But if a person is a doer of the Word, then when he faces difficulties and everything looks as though the devil has gained the upper hand, he begins to quote the Word of God and says what God has said about him. He says, “I declare that I have been set free from the power of darkness. In the name of Jesus, I am an overcomer! I overcome evil with good. Glory to God that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. No matter what happens, I will prosper!”
These will be works of faith in the situation. This is how we must resist the devil, with the Word of God.
Someone may say, “Oh yes, I believe the Word when I see it being fulfilled.”
James has something to say to such people.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? James 2:19–21
Abraham did not prove his faith by saying, “I believe You, God.” He proved it by acting as God commanded him. His faith was accompanied by works.
Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead also. James 2:25–26
James says that we must have works and that faith without works is dead. Rahab was a prostitute, far from a righteous person. But she believed that if she helped the spies, they would spare her life. She could have taken another position and said, “If I protect them, they will certainly kill me later.” But look, her faith was accompanied by works.
She assisted the spies and helped them escape. Even though she was an unrighteous person, she had faith that she and her household would be saved.
And just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. But remember that we must follow the context. When people misunderstand what works of faith are, they do foolish things.
I heard someone say, “I will receive the answers (or the money I need) on Thursday, by 4 o’clock.”
Because they confessed that it would happen on Thursday, by 4 o’clock, they acted on their own initiative and sent the checks on Tuesday. Do not set a time for what you have confessed to come to pass. Do not try to put God in a box.
There is something that confession cannot change. Whether you believe it or not, Jesus will return. And your confession will not change that. At the same time, something that can be changed takes time to come to pass. Therefore, when people try to set times and deadlines, they usually get into trouble.
There is nothing wrong with having goals. But if you say that something must happen on a certain day, and that day passes without anything happening, your faith will usually pass away along with that day. Let me show you the balance in such a situation. Let us turn to Mark chapter 4. This entire chapter is very important in relation to what we are discussing. But we will begin with verse 26. Notice that in this chapter Jesus had already said that the soil is a person’s heart, and the seed is the Word of God.
And He said, “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how, for the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. Mark 4:26–28
This is a revelation of how the Kingdom of God works within you. The Kingdom of God is like a man sowing seed in the soil. You are the one who sows the seed into the kingdom that is within you.
So, the soil is a person’s heart, his spirit. Jesus said that the kingdom works as follows: you sow the seed into the soil. Confessing the Word of God sows the seed. It is very important to combine faith with the Word of God. Thousands of God’s people did not enter the Promised Land; they died in the wilderness and never received what God had prepared for them. It was God’s will for all of them to enter the Promised Land. This land had been intended for them. God had already given it to them. Addressing them, Paul says:
For indeed we have had the Good News preached to us just as they did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because it was not united with faith in those who heard it. Hebrews 4:2
The children of Israel heard what God told them, but they did not mix what they heard with faith.
Many have heard what God has spoken to them, but it is very difficult to mix what He has promised with faith or to speak aloud and agree with what God has said. They say, “But what I see is completely different.”
I know that this is not the case, but God said it will be so, and therefore you speak it. You call things that have not yet come to pass. God's divine energy fills this Word, and it will also fill you when you declare the Word of God. The Word is a source of power. It is also the seed. And only by faith in God will you be able to receive everything God has promised.
Confession or a Lie
But some people think that you are lying when you confess God's promises, even though they have not yet come to pass. There is a difference between confession and lying. Confession is speaking what the Word of God says. Confession is a kind of agreement with God. Lying would be trying to convince someone that you have something right now when you do not. If people hear you confess, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory,” they hear you quoting what God has said. They may think that you have no needs, but you were not trying to convince them of that. You simply agreed with what God said in order to receive the divine power that would fill you. The Word itself contains the power that will help you receive what was promised.
The Seed Within Itself
The Law of Being, described in the first chapter of Genesis, in verses 11–12, says: “The seed is within itself” and produces everything according to its kind. When God promised to meet all your needs or heal your body, the seed was contained in the promise itself. If you keep the Word on your lips and speak it, you sow the seed into the kingdom. This is the principle of the Kingdom. Jesus gives a good explanation of this in Luke 17.
And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Luke 17:5–6
If you had faith like a seed, you would speak. You would speak to the sycamine tree — to the problems and situations in your life. The tree Jesus spoke about most likely stood in their path. And Jesus said that it would obey you, not God.
You could receive this kind of faith from the Word of God. Jesus said that it would certainly obey you, because the power of what we bind or loose is carried out on earth, not in heaven. This power must come through you. You need to mix the Word with faith. Jesus said that if you had faith like a seed, you would speak (command).
Harvest Requires Sowing
Jesus reveals two secrets of faith to us: 1) Faith works like a seed, and 2) to sow it, you must speak it.
People who want to say something today and reap a harvest tomorrow do not understand the law of sowing and reaping. Every farmer knows that if you want a harvest, you must sow the seed several months before it is gathered.
Consider your needs and plan your confession
You need to have a harvest plan. The problem with many people is that, while trying to operate in faith, they never plan anything. At such times, they always quote the passage where Jesus said that we should not worry about tomorrow. They say, “Jesus said not to think about tomorrow, so I don’t make any plans.”
Such people miss the whole point. Jesus said that we should not be anxious, but you certainly should plan. Think about what need you may have, and begin confessing the promise a week or even months before that need arises. Begin as farmers do when they prepare the soil, then plant and fertilize it. As you can see, they take the necessary steps long before they have a harvest. It is a lengthy process. Everything does not happen in an instant.
You cannot simply say it today and receive it tomorrow morning. It does not work that way. When your faith reaches a high level, some things will come into your life more quickly. But this does not happen at the first level of faith. The normal, ordinary way of faith and confession is to begin sowing several weeks or months before the time comes to harvest.
There are people who find themselves in debt by the end of the year, and they begin earnestly confessing the Word of God in December, on the 25th. They waited too long. They should have begun confessing in the first days of the year.
In Mark 4, Jesus tells us about levels of manifestation. Jesus said that we sow the seed by saying it, speaking it aloud. And remember Hebrews 4:2, which says that the Word did not benefit them because they did not mix it with faith. They had the promise, and they knew what God had told them about the Promised Land, but they did not mix it with their faith. You need to learn to mix the word with faith, and your tongue is a kind of mixing apparatus.
Faith works like a seed. If your faith is not like a seed, it will not work in your life. Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 17:20.
…If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
If your faith is the size of a mustard seed, then you will say.… Sometimes we become so focused on the mustard seed that we miss what is being said here. Jesus was not speaking about the size of a mustard seed, but about faith being a grain (seed). The life of the promise is contained in the seed itself, and the seed is in the promise; you can sow it by speaking it aloud.
Let us return to Mark 4.
And He said: The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. Mark 4:26–27
Some may say, “I don’t understand how what I say will help bring this to pass?”
The Bible tells us that we will not know how it happens. We may understand how it works, but there is no need to, because it will work anyway. If you have enough faith to believe what God has said and do as He said, it will certainly work.
However, knowing how it works can help you if you have enough common sense to sow the seed and go to sleep, then get up while the seed grows and sprouts.
Jesus is not telling us to quit our jobs. He is telling us to do what we normally do. After sowing the seed, a farmer goes on to do other things. When it sprouts, he does not know how it happens, but he knows for certain that it will happen. The farmer does not know how the seed germinates. The life of the seed is contained within the seed itself. If you have sown God’s promise, that promise contains life. You have sown it in your heart, and it will certainly sprout in due time.
As soon as your seed produces a sprout, you need to take the appropriate actions. But you cannot do all the things with it that you would do with a mature plant, because it is only a sprout. Would you say, “Look, the sprout has already come up. I am sure I will have a harvest; I declare an abundant harvest. Since I have declared it and believe it will happen, and I already have it in my spirit, I should have corresponding works of faith. Let’s go and harvest it today”?
If you do this, you will destroy your seed. The same is true in life: people destroy the sprout by trying to harvest too early. They try to have works of faith.
Many take out of context what James said—“faith without works is dead”—and try to have corresponding works of faith before they see the full fulfillment of what they confess.
They try to harvest sprouts. Many people have problems with this when they forget to use common sense in their faith. It even happens that highly educated people lack common sense, and when they turn to faith, they cast aside all their knowledge. They say they will live “by faith,” but then go and do foolish things. They say, “If I believe that my vision has been restored, I will crush my glasses underfoot, because my faith must be accompanied by works. By doing this, I will prove my faith.”
By doing this, they will prove that they cannot drive, because they cannot see well.
Of course, they should have works of faith. They should speak in accordance with their faith. But acting as though they can see well when in fact they cannot is very dangerous, especially if they want to get behind the wheel of a car. They should thank the Lord for their complete healing until it happens, just like a farmer who sees the grain sprouting. He will continue to water and fertilize it. No farmer will stop watering and fertilizing his grain and say, “It has sprouted, so there is no longer any need to water or fertilize it. I will act as though the ear of grain is already fully developed.”
If he did that, he would not harvest a crop.
So, growth and development take time. Do not try to harvest while your fruit is still unripe; wait for the full ear of grain.
End of lesson.
Author: Charles Capps
Source: The book “Faith and Confession.”
