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The Light
Dr David Wood
MY PRAYER FOR YOU – PART TWO
I trust that you all have had a Merry Christmas and now I say Happy New Year!
No matter your circumstances in 2007 determine in your heart and proclaim with
your voice that all the former things that did not glorify God will change and
your life in 2008 will show the goodness of our God! You, child of God, and you
alone are in charge of your today and your future. Get off the pity pot and the
circumstance pot and realize that in Christ Jesus you can do all things
(Philippians 4:13) and nothing can successfully stand before you (Deuteronomy
11:25). But you must believe, you must have faith and as we talked last month
you must walk in love. We will now continue our discussion of Paul’s Holy Ghost
prayer for the saints of Ephesus. The topic I am going to focus in on this
first month of 2008 is faith for “without faith it is impossible to please him”
(Hebrews 11:6) and I hope we all want to please Him. Now let us review our
Scripture text.
Ephesians 1:15-23 (KJV)
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus,
and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward
who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is
to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to
be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Again, let me say that we do not take you for granted and I do not cease to give
thanks for you and know that if you are a partner you are in my prayers
everyday. Last month we focused in on the fifteenth verse and how Paul had
heard of their faith and their love of the other saints. There was no doubt a
demonstration of this love and this faith. Remember what James said about
faith. Turn to James Chapter Two. Picking up in the fourteenth verse we see
the Apostle James making the point that faith and works are tied together. He
goes on to give the example of the person who knows his brother or sister is in
need, has the power to help but instead says “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and
filled;” It seems to me that this demonstrates not only a lack of faith but the
absence of love and remember that what makes faith work is love, love of God and
love of the brethren. As we continue verse eighteen is a key verse.
James 2:18 (KJV)
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy
faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
Again the point is made, the works demonstrate the faith. Many times the works
are words but it can be anything that demonstrates faith. For example if we
believe what God said about tithing, tithing in a Scriptural way is the evidence
of faith or belief in His Word. It is an example of putting our money where out
mouth is. Don’t just talk the Word; wage the good fight of faith.
1 Timothy 6:12 (KJV)
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto
thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many
witnesses.
This word profession is this verse according to Strong’s Concordance is the
Greek word homologeō meaning to speak the same thing. Speak the same thing as
whom? God of course! Now James goes on to give us yet another example.
James 2:19 (KJV)
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils
also believe, and tremble.
Believing by itself has no power there must be action and or words to
accompany. For example you may believe in Devine healing but if you never lay
hands on someone and say be healed in Jesus name what has been accomplished? I
heard of a man once who had a growing ministry and was at a point that he needed
his own airplane to move from meeting to meeting in a more efficient way. The
Lord led him to lease a hanger for the plane when as yet he had no plane. That
is faith. If you can not see (includes hear it) faith, it is not present.
James says the devils believe there is one God and they tremble but they are not
doing or saying the Word of God. James goes on in the twentieth verse to say
how foolish we are when we do not understand that faith without works is dead.
I want to say something at this juncture, works absent God is not faith but
responding to the Word of God with words and action is faith. James goes on to
show us how by believing God and acting on what God said Abraham was justified.
James 2:21-23 (KJV)
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered
Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was
faith made perfect?
23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of
God.
We must believe and we must act that which will yield the fruits of
righteousness. In the next chapter of James we see that the fruit of
righteousness is sown in peace to them that make peace.
James 3:18 (KJV)
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make
peace.
So could we say that the fruit of righteousness is sown in faith of them that
walk by and in faith? Of course. When we believe God and take action there
will be fruit. Those that have received Jesus as Lord and Savior are made
righteous, they not only have righteousness, and they are righteous. A fruit of
that relationship will be our desire to please God and we will take His Word and
act on it. Finally the Apostle James says it this way.
James 2:26 (KJV)
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works
is dead also.
I pray that you will receive this word from God as we start this New Year and
you will repent of unbelief and move forward into 2008 bearing fruit. The
Scripture says “you shall know them by their fruit”. (Matthew 7:20) How will
you be known in 2008? Fruit is what Paul saw; fruit of the people’s lives in
Ephesus was why the report came to Paul and provides a lesson for us as we start
2008.
Our prayer is; Father forgive me where I have failed to put action with what I
believed for I now realize that belief without action is not faith, it has no
power, but in 2008 I will move forward in power bringing the Kingdom of God not
just into my home but into my entire sphere of influence, in Jesus name.
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