Lesson 9. Balance in the Works of Faith. A school from “Faith and Confession” that lays an remarkably deep foundation on the Word of God. Charles Capps teaches how to activate the power of God in your life.
In this chapter, we will touch on the practical teaching about the works of faith. We will devote a great deal of time to this subject because so little has been said about it in the past.
Let us turn again to Mark, chapter 4.
And He said: “The Kingdom of God is like a man who sows seed on the ground, and sleeps and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know, for the earth produces crops by itself: first the blade, then the head,then the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26–29
Let us focus on verse 29. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle… Only when the grain is fully ripe is your harvest ready to be gathered.
Faith excites many people this way. But we want it not merely to excite you; we want to teach you to live by faith and use the principles of faith. Sometimes people who become overly excited about faith go beyond the level of their faith. We do not want to push people out of, or lead them away from, the level of development of their faith.
Excited Faith
This is exactly what happened to the apostle Peter when he jumped out of the boat to walk on the water (Matthew 14:22–28). He was not ready for faith that walks on water, but he saw Jesus walking on the water. I am sure they were all saying:
“If Jesus were here, everything would be different.” Then they saw Jesus walking on the water. Peter, feeling excited, said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You.”
But at that moment Peter was not ready to walk on water. Yet his faith felt so inspired that he compelled Jesus to call him out of the boat, saying, “If it really is You, command me to get out of the boat.”
What else could Jesus have said? He could, of course, have said, “No, Peter, it isn’t Me. Forget it; you are not yet ready to walk on water.” Anything Jesus could have said other than “go” would have been a lie. If He had said nothing at all in response, that would still have been a lie, because Jesus Himself was standing before the disciples. Everything Jesus said was an answer to Peter’s question. He said: “Go”.
Peter walked on the water, but his faith had not developed to the point where he could hold firmly to the word of faith (“Go”), and external circumstances confused him. When Peter turned his attention to what was around him, he began to sink. His faith left him. If you are not careful, you can stir people’s faith to such a level that it may even destroy them. Very often, faith is stirred when people hear someone else’s stories. They tell them, “This happened to me, and everything turned out well.”
But that person acted according to his level of faith, and it may be destructive for you. Therefore, if you are guided by the principles of faith, practice them before you teach them. Many people practice what they preach, but you should first practice what you are going to preach. Do not merely stir people’s faith; teach them the principles of faith.
You can stir people up, and they will go far beyond their abilities. This happened to Peter. He became inspired and decided to act beyond his level of faith. Jesus did not want this to happen; Peter compelled Him. Perhaps you have done the same when you said:
“Lord, if it is Your will for me to do this, let something happen that will prove to me that it is so.”
This was God’s will for you, but it was not His will for others. You put God in an awkward position and backed yourself into a corner, so to speak.
Inspired faith very often ends in disappointment.
As in Peter’s case, inspired faith can sometimes prompt other people to do things simply because you did them. They want to act at your level of faith instead of remaining at their own. For example, several years ago I was preaching in a church and told how God miraculously provided fuel for my airplane. It happened that I
got lost in the northwestern part of our country and remained in the air for more than five hours before landing. My airplane usually has enough fuel for only four and a half hours. Yet when I landed, there were still about 17 gallons of fuel in its tanks.
One man from that church heard my testimony and was so encouraged. After the service, he and his wife got into the car and drove home. His wife said:
“We’d better refuel.”
“No,” he replied, “God made sure Brother Capps had enough fuel, so He will make sure we have enough gas in our car.” They drove about five miles, then ran out of gas and had to call the pastor to bring them some.
That is how people sometimes act. Since then, I have realized that when I share my testimony, I must be sure to mention that it was an emergency. God will not fill your gas tank simply because it is empty. It is a different matter if you are in a critical situation and have sufficient faith for it. But it is not God’s responsibility to fill every empty gas tank.
The story about the man is an example of inspired faith. He acted that way only because I failed to say what I should have said, and he read between the lines what he wanted to hear.
Check Your Level of Faith Before You Jump
Let us talk about divine healing. People usually get into trouble when they have a wrong understanding of matters of faith. Some even die. Many of them cannot receive healing without a doctor or medication. They could develop faith by confessing healing for a period of time, but many say that they do not yet have that kind of faith. And if you insist, saying, “If you really believe God, throw away your medicine” or “If you really believe God, stop going to the doctor,” many may even die.
Your level of faith may already be high enough, but do not try to pull everyone up to your level of faith. Each person must act at their own level of faith, not yours. So do not try to push them, and do not belittle their level of faith simply because yours is higher.
It takes time to develop faith. They may need several years to reach that level, and some may never reach it if they throw away their medicine. You do not want them to die simply because their level is not high enough to receive healing. Each person must start at the level they are at. They cannot start at the level of Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, or Oral Roberts.
Some people, at their current level of faith, are not yet able to receive divine healing, but many of them can believe that God can give a doctor wisdom to operate on them and that they will soon recover. If that is their level of faith, that is how they should proceed.
There are people who try to believe. But when life or death is at stake, you had better know for sure whether you believe or not. If doctors discover that you have cancer and say that you must have surgery immediately or you will die, you must make a decision, because you are the only one who knows your level of faith. If you have the slightest doubt about your faith, agree to the surgery. You may say, “But I so want to believe that God will heal me.” But this is not a question of how much you want to believe; it is a question of the level to which your faith has developed. And only you know the answer.
Fear or Faith?
There are people who have not learned to believe in healing from a headache, yet already want to believe that God can completely heal them from cancer. For many, this is not a matter of faith that causes them to trust God, but a fear of going under the knife. Many would be alive today if they had agreed to surgery.
I do not want to cool anyone’s faith, but I want to warn you to determine your level of faith before making a decision when the matter concerns life and death for you or your family.
The main point is this: do not push anyone to the next level of faith. People can be taught, and if they practice their faith, they will develop it; many of them will eventually be able to receive healing and will no longer need medication.
But if you constantly push them, some may die. Yes, James said, “Faith without works is dead.” He is speaking about a person who needed food and clothing. Simply telling such a person, “Go, warm yourself and eat,” will not be enough. If you give them nothing, your faith is considered dead (James 2:14–20).
If we want to follow what James teaches, then we cannot send a needy person away empty-handed. First, they should be anointed with oil, and then prayed over with the prayer of faith (James 5:14–15). But even after prayer, symptoms may remain for several days before complete healing. The medications they take do not heal them, but prevent the disease from maintaining control and keep the symptoms in check. Even if the process of divine healing has already begun, the symptoms still need to be managed until complete healing comes.
Some can deal with the symptoms and remain in faith, while others cannot. Remember that James said to give the needy person what they need, and this will be an expression of your faith accompanied by action. A person may be healed, but if you take away their medication, the symptoms may cause them to doubt.
Someone may say, “But if they are healed, then they do not need medication.” If they received healing by faith, then they truly do not need medication to heal their bodies, but they may need it to control the symptoms, so that they do not give in to fear and doubt. Therefore, some people need medication until they are completely healed. Others, operating at a higher level of faith, may ignore the symptoms and remain in faith, knowing that healing is a process that takes time.
The work of faith that would perfect faith, of which James speaks, is to give a needy person what they need rather than take it away. For some, prayer is enough to receive healing because their faith is stronger. Others always need medication because they have not been taught about divine healing. And there are people who need both prayer and medication, to withstand fear until doctors say that they are completely healthy.
Medications do not heal; they only contribute to healing. Therefore, if they are unable to heal, they are likewise unable to suppress healing.
It takes time to grow in faith in divine power that can heal. Therefore, each person needs to determine their own level of faith. Never tell anyone to throw away their medication. If God tells them to do so, if they have a “full head of grain,” then they may do it. Some people think they will be healed when they stop taking medication. But no one has ever received healing ONLY because they did not take medication. Someone may object: “Such an act proves my faith.” It may only prove that you will die young if that is the only reason you did not take your medication.
The Word of God Is Able to Heal
You can grow in faith in divine healing because healing is a fact of the Bible. Psalm 196:20 says about God that He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their graves. It was the Word of God that healed them. Someone may ask, “Why do you confess the Word of God every day?” Here is my answer. It is like a farmer who needed thirty thousand dollars to pay off a debt and said, “I can earn one hundred dollars from one acre of wheat.” So he planted wheat on only one acre and said, “I have planted wheat, and now I will have the opportunity to earn my thirty thousand.”
But that will not happen; he will receive his one hundred dollars because he did not sow enough wheat. The point is that we must sow for as long and in such quantity as is necessary to meet the need.
A Confession of Faith, Not Fear
Some people try to operate at the highest level of faith even though they are at a lower level. Their sowing was too limited. The farmer could not receive a full provision for his need because he had not sown enough wheat.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a man who sowed seed in the ground. Sowing is a process. The more you sow, the greater your harvest will be. Confessing the Word is the process of canceling out the negative in your life and sowing God’s promises. Everything cannot happen in the blink of an eye. Someone may say, “I do not understand why they died, since they confessed the Word of God.”
Yes, they confessed it, but they had not grown in it. Someone confessed the Word out of fear. I know a woman who had cancer for two or three years and did not want to go to the doctor because of fear. By the time she heard my teaching on faith and confession, the cancer had already spread extensively throughout her body. She began confessing that she was healed, but her faith had not developed. She still did not go to the doctor until it was too late. When she died, someone said:
“I do not understand; she was saying the right things.”
You can say all the right things and still be living in fear. Faith takes time to grow. It is difficult to build a foundation during a storm. The bottom line is this: do not base your faith on someone else’s actions; base it on the Word of God.
Timing Is Very Important in Confession
Confession is a process; you need to begin your confession long before a need arises, especially when it concerns finances, because you may have some idea of when you might experience a shortage. But it is impossible to know in advance that you will become ill. Some people make the mistake of beginning to confess that they are healed after they have already become sick. The Word will heal you, but the Word may also prevent you from becoming sick.
You need to confess God’s promises concerning healing day after day. Declare that any virus or bacterium dies immediately upon touching your body. Say, “I am healed, I am healthy, and I am delivered from the curse of the law.” Speak this while you are still healthy. Use your faith in advance. It is possible that those who are sick might not have become sick if they had begun confessing that they were healed before they became sick, rather than afterward.
Remember the old saying: The best tactic is prevention. Use your faith beforehand so that you do not allow sickness to attack your body.
Doctors and Medication
“What about doctors? Is it permissible to see a doctor?”
Here is how I understand this question. If I need a doctor, I go to a doctor. If I need medication, I take it. I do not sit around saying, “How I would hate to miss out on God’s best.” But if I am sick, then I have already missed it. We need to confess the Word of God daily to build our faith and grow in the Word of God. But if you are already sick, do not feel condemned; we all make mistakes, we are not perfect, and there is no need to die simply because you failed to prevent the illness.
When it comes to healing, some people try to have actions that confirm their faith. They act as though they already have a “full ear,” when in fact all they have is a “sprout.” You have probably noticed that Jesus said in Mark 4:29 that as soon as the crop is ripe, the farmer sends the sickle to harvest it. Only the manifestation
of complete healing can be called a harvest ready to be gathered. That is when your faith can be accompanied by actions; only then is your harvest considered ripe.
And you will not want to take medication if you have no symptoms of illness or if the doctor says you are healthy and scans show that there is no longer any cancer. It would be foolish to take medication in such a situation, because healing has already fully come. Your harvest is already ripe.
Do Not Be Deceived
Several years ago, a man said, “Oh, I cannot ask you to pray for me.”
I said, “Why not?”
He replied, “I am taking medication.” Then I answered, “What does the medication do?”
The man replied, “The doctor said they would help me.”
I replied, “The Bible says that prayer will help you, that the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up (James 5:15). And it seems to me that if you use both options—prayer and medication—you will recover twice as quickly.”
This is one of the ways the devil uses to plunge people into condemnation. The devil does not mind if you choose one way, but he does not want you to choose both. He will have a better chance if you are limited to one option. He may tell you, “If you are going to believe God, then you cannot take medication,” or, “If you take medication, then you cannot believe God.” But God wants you to feel well and be healthy, even if you use two methods—or ten!
Too many people are like Peter. They get out of the boat without believing that they can walk on water, and for a while they may walk on water, but then they begin to sink because they have not learned not to look at the circumstances around them. When fear comes, it is evidence that they are not walking by faith. When people call and ask, “Why isn’t this working?” it again proves that they are not fully convinced.
Don’t go all in when you only have half
In one city, I met a man who had been born again and converted to the faith. He thought it was the greatest thing he had ever heard in his life. By the time we met, he had already learned that God had delivered him from the curse, healed him of diseases and infirmities, and that God is the Healer (Gal. 3:13; Ex. 15:26; Ps. 103:3). This man attended a church that did not teach any of these truths, and when he first heard them, he seized upon them and wanted to apply them. He was a newly converted Christian and had not grown sufficiently, so he used the truths of the Bible at an intellectual level. This man had diabetes and five other conditions, but none of them was life-threatening.
So this man decided to “go all in,” so to speak. He threw away all his medication and nearly died. He developed extremely serious physical problems. Other people and I counseled him, and I said, “Start taking your medication again. Insulin will help control the symptoms, and it will be much easier to believe that you are healed when you feel well.”
The purpose of medication is to control the disease and give you the ability to function. Medication cannot heal you; no one has ever been healed by taking insulin. But on the other hand, it does not hinder your healing either. Therefore, every time you take your medication, thank God that you have received healing. Mix your faith with the Word of God.”
He followed our advice and confessed healing and the Word of God every day. In addition to diabetes, this man also had cancer in both lungs, an enlarged heart, and high blood pressure. His doctor said that this man had the highest blood pressure he had ever seen in someone who had survived it.
After ninety days, I saw the doctor’s report. The doctor told this man that he no longer needed to take insulin and that his heart was normal in size. His blood pressure was also normal, and his lungs were clear, with only a small spot on one of them.
This man was almost completely healed within ninety days. I am more than certain that he would have died if he had not returned to taking medication. He was a young Christian with more zeal than knowledge.
That is why we sometimes read in the newspapers that a child died simply because his parents stopped giving him medication, believing that he was healed. But the child died. Perhaps someone told them to stop giving him medication because they were praying for healing. Many tragic cases have occurred needlessly because of a lack of knowledge.
You certainly will not receive healing if you simply isolate yourself from medicines and doctors, but you may die. Ultimately, healing comes only from God. Doctors have only learned to help the body manage symptoms. This needs to be said because many people go beyond the limits of their faith and get into serious trouble.
The Leper’s Act of Faith
I am not saying all this to keep anyone who has enough faith from receiving divine healing. But I am saying it to prevent some people from throwing away their medicines when their level of faith is not yet high enough for such an action, simply because someone told them to do so.
Let me give an example from the Bible. In the seventeenth chapter of Luke, you will find the story of ten lepers who came to Jesus. They stood at a distance because, according to the law, they could not come within 100 yards of the people.
And they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have mercy on us.” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:13–14
When Jesus saw them, He said to them: “Go, show yourselves to the priest”. What kind of answer was that? The only reason they could go to the priest was that they had been cleansed. That was the law: if you were cleansed and no longer had leprosy, you had to go to the priest, and he would declare you clean.
Jesus did not pray for them. He said: “Go, show yourselves to the priest”. The Bible says that as they went, they were cleansed (verse 14). Going – was their act of faith. They acted on Jesus’ words, and that was all they could do at that moment. Jesus told them to go to the priest even though they had not yet been cleansed. They could have replied, “But Jesus, we have not been cleansed yet,” but they did what Jesus told them. And as they went, they were cleansed.
But it seems to me that nine of them lost their healing.
Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Were none found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way; your faith has saved you.” Luke 17:17–19
Notice that Jesus says it was HIS faith that saved him. The leper’s faith was released and manifested in action as he was on his way to the priest. Perhaps the other nine lost their healing. This is, of course, only an assumption, since the Bible does not say so. They may have seen that they were healed and thought, “Look, we have been cleansed. Now we can do whatever we want. We do not want to go and show ourselves to the priest; let us go to Damascus and tell everyone that we are healed.” I am not saying that this is exactly what happened, but it is possible that they disobeyed Jesus and lost their healing.
Everything Jesus could do, He did by healing them. He spoke the Word, and their part was to express their faith through action by obeying His Word.
And as they were on their way, they were cleansed. But I wonder about the healing of the nine, because Jesus asked: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” In other words: “If the other nine were healed too, why did they not come back to give thanks?”
Actions matter in everything you do; this applies to both the spiritual and physical realms.
When I was a farmer, one fall I planted wheat but could not care for it, so I told the people who worked for me: “While I am away, keep an eye on the wheat; if it dries out completely, pull it up by the roots.”
My wife said, “Let’s pray over the wheat and confess the Word of God over it, and I believe it will bear fruit.”
I replied, “You know that I am a person of faith. And you know that to confess something over anything, you have to have something there, and when I look at this wheat, it does not even amount to enough to apply faith to.”
We went to a meeting, and when we were returning, there was very heavy rain, and by then my workers had not yet dug it up. We looked at our wheat again, and it already looked a little better. My wife persuaded me, and we declared faith-filled words over that wheat. We read Malachi 3:11, Psalm 1:3, and Deuteronomy 28:1–15 over it; that is, we took
the Word of God and mingled it with our faith. We confessed God’s promises and fertilized the wheat.
When harvest time came that fall, we gathered 50 bushels (one bushel = 36 liters) of wheat per acre, and in some fields even 70 bushels per acre.
The actions that supported our faith at that time were confessing the Word over the wheat, fertilizing it, and patiently waiting until the time came for the grain to fully mature and be harvested. If we had said, “We believe we have good grain, so let’s harvest the wheat right now,” when all we had at that point were shoots, and had acted accordingly, we would have been disappointed with our results. But we continued using the good skills we had, and therefore reaped a good harvest.
Do not abandon good skills and practices simply because you want to act by faith. Use both.
When it comes to healing, there will be people who say:
“If you confess that you are healed, then why do you take medicine? You are treating something you do not have.”
Let’s look at it this way. You are unwell and you call forth healing, but simply saying that you are not sick will not make you healthy. But calling things that do not exist as though they do is a biblical principle. You certainly do not want to go around declaring yourself sick. If you declare healing while you are still sick, that does not mean you are denying the fact that the illness exists; you are simply giving it no place. You are not denying its existence; you are refusing it the right to exist in your body.
Confess the Word of God over your body, and that will be an act of your faith for healing. You call forth complete healing until it fully comes and you have a “full ear.” But refusing medication or throwing away your glasses when you cannot see well is not an act of faith at all.
Use your faith at the level to which you have already grown, and the day will come when you become like the man I told you about, who took medication while confessing healing until it came.
Let me give you another example. Once I learned that a decent property near my office was available for rent. I submitted an application, but was turned down. I thought it was a worthwhile opportunity, and the realtor who worked with me said, “I believe that eventually you will get this property. I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
After I made the offer, I went for a walk around the property. I spoke a word over it, as Jesus talked about in the sixth chapter of Luke.
Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock; and when a flood arose, the stream beat against that house and could not shake it, because it had been founded on the rock. Luke 6:47–48
Here Jesus says that if you do His words, then when a storm comes into your life, it will not be able to shake you.
And I did what Jesus said—I commanded this property, as Jesus said: “If you say to the mulberry tree; say to this mountain” (Luke 17:6; Mark 11:23). That is what I did: I walked around it and spoke to it. This is the principle of the Kingdom—to call things that do not exist as though they did. I said, “Land, I command you to serve me. Jesus said that you would obey me, so I say that you belong to me, in Jesus’ name.”
I simply walked around the property and spoke to it; I declared my rights according to God’s promise.
I said, “You will belong to me, in Jesus’ name.”
As I walked, I was not only speaking to the land; I was also praying. “Father, I ask You for this lot; make it mine. I have spoken to this land; I have done everything I knew and could do. I offered the man a good deal.”
I did not pray about it anymore. But I confessed and thanked God that I had received this property. Every time I passed by, I said, “You are mine. So be it, in Jesus’ name.”
And one morning several months later, as we were going to work, we saw a large sign on that lot: “Future property of the Industrial Credit Association”. I came to my office and asked my wife, “Did you see that sign on our lot?”
She said, “Yes.”
And then my thoughts started making me anxious about that sign. Just like Peter, who stepped out of the boat and saw the wind and waves, I began thinking about it too. I said to my wife, “Maybe I should go and talk to those people about this property?”
My mind would not let me rest, but one morning I finally understood what was happening. The enemy was trying to knock me out of faith through that sign. So I stopped in the middle of the house and shouted, “I understand what I need to do! NOTHING! Jesus said that it would OBEY me!”
At that moment, the act of my faith was to do nothing. It would have been foolish to go to court and say, “I want to file a lawsuit concerning this property.”
They would have asked, “Where is the deed to the property?”
“Well, this property has not become mine yet.”
They would have thrown me out and said, “You’re crazy!” That is what happens when someone wants to perform an act of faith before something has come to pass. In this situation, all I could and should do was nothing. I made the man a good offer, I spoke to the land, and I did everything the Word told me to do. I prayed about this property, and now it was time to rest in what I had said and done. As David said:
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalm 37:5
Several weeks passed, and they signed the documents to build a building on the site of the property I wanted to acquire. I was at the river fishing, and I was doing pretty well.
I called my wife, and she said, “A woman from the real estate company wants to speak with you immediately.”
I called her, and she said, “Are you still interested in this property?”
“Yes, of course,” was my reply.
She said, “Will you still be able to pay as much for it as you offered?”
“I think so.”
Then she said, “You know, it’s so strange, but they decided to build on another street.”
To which I replied, “I had no doubt.”
As you can see, I waited for the complete fulfillment. The realtor said that all the documents would be ready in a couple of days, and I would be able to pick them up.
In this particular situation, the work of my faith was to do nothing. When you have done everything you could, fulfilled the Word of God that was spoken to you, and acted according to the knowledge you had, it is time to be still and rest in what you have already accomplished (Ps. 37:5).
Let us consider one more example in Mark 5:22–24.
And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet, and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. And a large crowd followed Him and thronged Him. Mark 5:22–24
Notice that Jesus immediately went with Jairus. He was already on His way to heal the synagogue ruler’s daughter when a woman who had suffered from bleeding approached Him and, touching Jesus, received healing and immediately told everyone what had happened. Perhaps an hour passed before she dared to tell her story. Then Jairus’s servant came running and reported that his daughter had died.
The Calm Work of Faith
Jairus did everything he could; he believed that if Jesus would only lay His hands on his daughter, she would be well. When Jesus heard the bad news, He said to Jairus: “Do not be afraid; only believe” (Mark 5:36).
Believe in what? Believe that when He lays His hands on his daughter, she will be well.
For Jairus, there was no longer time for confessions. If he had begun confessing then, fear and unbelief might have come. He might have said to Jesus, “If You had not stopped to heal that woman, You would have come to my house in time to heal my daughter.”
Jesus said to him, “Do nothing, only believe.” And He set out immediately as soon as He could. Jairus’s act of faith was simply to remain at peace. Psalm 37:7 says: Submit to the Lord and wait patiently for Him…. There are times when you need to rest in God. Sometimes all you can do is rest in God—in what you have said and believed. This will be your act of faith. If you do not know what else to do, simply rest in God.
Paul said this in Ephesians 6:13: …and having overcome everything, to stand firm. Stand firm! If there is nothing more you can do in faith, simply remain in God’s peace so that you can stand firm. An act of faith is saying, “I know what I will do—I will rest in the Lord, because I have done everything I could do.”
But be sure that you have done everything you were supposed to do. The point is not that something happened because you did nothing. Be careful that people do not think everything happened simply because you did nothing. No, it is not about your passivity or doing nothing. But sometimes doing nothing is an act of faith; this is not the case in every situation.
For example, in the case of the ten lepers, their act of faith was to go to the priest. And as they went, they were cleansed. Sometimes an act of faith may be some action taken in faith, but not something foolish or reckless. On the other hand, all you need to do may be to rest in God and in what you have done.
Sometimes, when people are in trouble and their faith is very small, they try to speak confessions of faith, but they do so out of fear. You can say very correct things, but say them out of fear rather than faith. People may even confess the Word of God out of fear.
But a confession must be a confession of faith. That is why you cannot judge a situation solely by the final result. It may appear that a person acted in faith. Surely, they spoke the right words, but whether it was out of fear or faith is unknown. Sometimes people begin confessing the Word of God as a last resort, but their faith is not sufficiently developed. In fact, they believed the opposite of what they confessed, and it was already too late.
In every case, faith must be accompanied by actions. Sometimes this is what you do by faith, and sometimes it is doing nothing.
God has already released His faith in what He has said. God believes that every Word He has spoken will come to pass, and He acts as though it has already been fulfilled. An act of faith has two sides—God’s and yours. You must do your part, and God has already done His.
The Word of God stands forever in heaven; we must establish it on earth.
End of lesson.
Author: Charles Capps
Source: The book “Faith and Confession.”
