The Lord Who Heals YouSample

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD

James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.

James 2:17 (AMP) So also faith if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up) by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

It helps to think of works, here, as actions or behaviour that accompany faith. If you really believe something, then you act on it. Faith without actions is incomplete.

More often than not our actions naturally follow how we see ourselves, our life and our health- they are not usually something that we have to work up. We don’t act to prove we have faith- we act because that is now how we believe and see things.

Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of a woman with a difficult issue receiving her healing. She heard about Jesus (faith comes by hearing)-she could have heard about how others touched His garments and were healed (Mark 6:56). She spoke “if only I touch His clothes, I shall be made well” but then she had to act. She acted because she believed and if she hadn’t acted on what she believed, then nothing would have happened. Now, as an unclean woman, she was not allowed in crowds- she would have had to push her way through the crowd with everyone knowing that she was unclean and not allowed there. She acted like a healed woman.

Her faith drew healing power from Jesus- Jesus felt her touch of faith, different to the touch of all the others around Him. He asks “who touched Me?’ He is asking ‘who was it’ who touched Him with an attitude of faith, expecting to receive from Him. It was not His action that caused the power of God to go into the woman’s body and heal her- she drew on the power of God through her faith. Jesus said to her, “your faith has made you well”. Jesus didn’t even know that power was going out from Him until He perceived it as it went. Her faith positioned her to receive from Jesus.

Faith in your heart causes you to reach out and touch God with such expectation that it draws His healing power into your body.