Faith by default, without doubt, or mental adulteration, sensual or human be-carefulness, is as powerful as the Word of God that birthed it. Accepting the fact that particular faith is living; is also agreeing to the fact that there is a possibility of a dead faith.

According to James chapter 2 verse 26, see what the Bible says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Faithlessness is contagious, oftentimes, it is not as if some believers started without faith, but it is so unfortunate that they were careless in handling their faith life to the point that, they allowed the faithlessness of others to choke their faith and kill it.

What makes faith a living Faith or dead faith is dependent on its source. Faith can do tremendous things except we had refused to put the faith we have into active work. Passive faith is not different from dead faith.

Faith is living depending on the source of the faith, and faith is also seen as dead depending on the source.

In Romans chapter 10 verse 17, we see that the Word of God is the source of active faith. The Word produces faith in us. And if we want to see further the kind of faith that the Word of God produces, that will make us read Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, “For the word of God is LIVING and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

If the Word is living, it then means any faith that is sourced in the Word of God is as living as the Word that produces it. The faith of a believer is as living as the Word of God Himself. And it produces the same result as the Word of God. Whatever the Word of God can do the Faith of a child of God can do.

Whatever the Word of God can produce: whatever God can command to come to pass by His spoken word, you can achieve it by your faith. What looks like God in us is the Faith that the Word of God produces in us. It is not our shape, voice, or our beauty or the lack of it that makes us look like God.

There was something that transpired between the Lord Jesus and the leaders of the Jews one day that intensified the bitterness of the people against the Lord Jesus. Going before, the Jews hated Jesus because He heals on the sabbath day, and Jesus’ reason for doing so was simple: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner”. But that was too hard for the Jews to settle with. And to make it worse, Jesus went on to call Himself the Son of God, and the meaning of this act sank heavily into the mind of Jews, and they voiced it out in a terrible rage:

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and ^[f]believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Therefore, they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand. (John 10: 33 —39.)

Faith does not only make us children of God, but it makes us act like God, in the room of God, on the earth. Faith is not one common or useless thing, faith is the product of the Word of God, it is like what mango fruit is to a mango tree.  faith is all that defines our essence and relevance. Without it we are handicapped, we are blind and know not what we are doing, or where we are going.

There is this popular song we often sing without being careful about what the song is saying: “I am wonderfully made, carefully made, I belong to God and I resembled him”. Looking at the wordings of this song carefully, we could be templated to think that there is something else in us that make us look like God.

Of course, no, nothing else makes us resemble God’s order or kind than what His Word produces in us, which is faith. Without faith, the bible says, “It is impossible to please God.” Very impossible indeed. It takes creatures of the same nature to be able to please the other. That is why God never complained that the cows, donkeys…though bigger than men are not worshiping Him. They took nothing from the person of God. The Word of God is the author of Faith in our heart, so, it is simple, if the Word is living, it means our faith is living, if the Word of God is powerful, then our faith is also power. Whatever the Word of God can do, my faith can do, and it is equally true for you, only if you can believe.

There was a particular life experience that Apostle Paul shared in Galatian chapter 2 verse 20, and this will be of great help to our understanding to help us lay hold of the life that we have been called to share in Christ Jesus which has given us access to Himself, the Word of God.

See what the Bible says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

This was not meant to be apostle Paul’s experience or reality alone; it is the reality for all believers who have been restored unto God through the redemptive work of the Cross of Jesus. We are not relevant to God aside from faith. Our relevance to God and our generation is via the faith that we live on. We control situations around our lives by the instrumentality of Faith. Faith works miracles, signs, and wonders. Without faith, it is impossible to have anything done on the earth to profit God and advance our journey in the hand of the Master. We maximize every single time and season of our lives through the medium of Faith. To lose faith is to lose essence and relevance.

Faith is the spiritual state of the heart that upholds or esteems the Word of God above all understanding and renders or invalidates all thoughts, opinions, imaginations, and ideas of the mind and fears of the flesh. Faith is anchoring the entirety of one’s being on the integrity of the Word of God validating the basis that God can’t lie. (See Number 23:19.)

In the same way, the Word of God cannot be hindered, or overpowered by any force, in like manner, nothing can invalidate the Faith that is sourced and built on the integrity of the Word of God.

The effect of dead faith is not just on the fact that it is dead, but the effect of it. Dead faith is limited in result delivery. It is sourced in the wisdom of man and the ability of man. It is founded on the senses. It is dead and passive.

The Bible says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall ^[b]direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3:5 —7.)

 

Faith that is founded in the ability of man is limited and shortsighted, it is earthy, sensual, weak, and unprofitable. It is limited, and it doubts everything that is called God. It is a faith that misplaces trust in God and exalts the wisdom of men. Only faith makes our daily experience the product of God’s Word.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am John Ojoagbene!

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