16. Actions Complete Faith
Chapter 16 Actions Complete Faith Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself (James 2:17).
Faith has no power without works that agree with it. (James 2:14) What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him? (James 2:17-18) Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. There are no recorded instances in the Bible where God’s people were saved, healed, delivered, or provided for without acting on faith. (18) Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from [thy] works, and I by my works will show thee [my] faith. Many have said that they had faith without seeing the answer, but just as there are no Christians without fruit, we can only prove our faith by corresponding actions. Jesus never said He would judge our faith, but our fruit and our works (Revelation 2:5, Revelation 2:23, Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:1, Revelation 3:15). (James 2:22) Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. The most important way that we perfect or complete our faith is with our tongue, but that is not the only way. Peter completed his faith when he stepped out of the boat. The ten lepers completed their faith when they went to show themselves as healed before their healing was manifested. The answer never comes until after the works. When my wife Mary and I were first coming to the Lord, she was suffering with chronic urinary tract infections. She already had one in-hospital cystiscope, but she continued to have infections that created more scar tissue. The doctor recommended repeating the procedure, but our insurance would not cover it for another month. So he prescribed antibiotics and pain medication and set up a pre-operation visit for when the insurance would cover it. During this time, we discovered in the Word promises of healing and had a Spirit-filled pastor pray over Mary. At first, we saw no immediate change, but then we had a surprising and eye-opening experience. When Mary was wondering where we might be missing it, the Lord spoke to her very clearly. What He said showed us the key to what was missing in our faith. The Lord said, “If you believe that I have healed you, why are you taking all that medicine?” In other words, “Why are your actions disagreeing with what you say you believe?” Mary did not hesitate but grabbed her medicine and started pouring it into the commode, completing her faith. As she stood there, she was instantly healed! At this point, I am sure many would argue against my theology, but they cannot argue with success, then or now. The Lord was not saying to get rid of your medicine so that you would be healed. That is legalism. That thinking gets people hurt. He was saying that if you “believe that ye received” your healing, then your actions will prove it. “Faith if it have not works is dead in itself… and I by my works will show thee faith.” You see, faith must come before works as the horse must come before the cart, for “by works was faith made perfect.” A month later, on the previously set date for the pre-operation visit, the symptoms returned. By this time, we had learned about our right in God and about our enemy. We knew there was an evil intelligence involved in the symptoms returning on that date. We just rebuked the devil and the symptoms left forever. This is where many accept the sickness back and lose the healing. In the early 1980’s, I had a mental vision several times of myself on my motorcycle about to hit a car turned sideways in the road. To avoid it, I stood up on my bike. That is not the normal way for bikers to react to sudden obstructions that cannot be avoided. Usually you end up laying the bike down. These visions were a warning I did not recognize quickly enough. The Lord was dealing with me to obey the speed limit on the interstate. I used to fudge and justify it with the thought that the police would not bother you for a few miles an hour over the limit. God did not agree and gave me a spanking. As I was approaching the beginning of an overpass at my normal fudging speed, the driver in the car in front of me for some unknown reason slammed on his brakes, turning sideways, just as I had seen in the visions. The car was taking up two lanes between the overpass rails, and all the cars quickly took the third lane, which left me with no choice. I had only a moment to steer the bike away from the driver’s door and to stand up, which I believe my mind had been programmed to do by the visions. If I had laid the bike down, I probably would be dead. My bike plowed into the car, and I flew over the hood. I landed on the top of the overpass about 70 feet away. I wish I had observed rather than participated in this spectacle. Considering my flight with no helmet and the hardness of the concrete, I came out miraculously well. I landed on my arm and face and immediately realized that I was blind. Thinking that a vehicle might be coming, I rolled over till I felt the concrete curb. A spirit of praise came over me like I have never experienced. As I lay there praising the Lord, my sight gradually came back. No one came near me until an officer showed up. They probably thought I was a deranged religious fanatic. Fanatic maybe, but not deranged.
There was a rather light moment in this. The officer asked me if I had my seat belt on. I tried to focus on his face to see if he was serious and decided that he was. I said, “I was on the bike. They don’t have seat belts.” He just turned and walked away. The ambulance came and picked me up. I asked the driver if he would take me home, but he refused. At the hospital, I still had this wonderful uplifted spirit and was witnessing to the nurses and technicians as they x-rayed my arm. Later the doctor came and told me that my arm was broken and would have to be put in a cast. I told him that I did not want a cast because God would heal me. I told him I just wanted to go home. He then wanted to sew up my lower lip, which was split, and my chin, which was gashed to the bone, and I told him the same thing. By that time, Mary had come to the hospital, and she pleaded with me to let him stitch me up because she did not want to look at it. So I relented. Later, at home, those stitches did not hold, so I took them out, and God healed the gash.
I could not walk because my legs and arms were so painful. When I flew over the car one shoe stayed with the bike and the other stayed with me. We figured that one shoe hooked on the bike as I took flight and stretched me out some. It could also have been the whiplash from the sudden stop. When we got home, Mike Burley carried me into the house, and we prayed the prayer of faith. In a few days, I was out hobbling around my neighbor’s yard trying to exercise my sore muscles. He had been clearing some trees from his lot. I came across a tree trunk next to a fire. Since I had been helping him before the wreck, I thought, “I should heave that over on the fire and burn it in two so that we can handle it later.” My next thought was, “Oh sure, if I do that my arm will be laying on the ground.” The next thought was, “If by Jesus’ stripes you were healed, then you can pick that up.” I believe that thought came from the Lord to remind me to act on what the Word says. By the grace of God, I bent down and picked that trunk up and heaved it on the fire. I immediately noticed that there was no pain in my arm, and I knew that the Lord had manifested my healing. In the Gospels, when they acted on the word of Jesus, the miracle came.
Before Exxon would let me go back to work, I had to be checked out in their infirmary. I told the doctor there that the Lord had healed me, and I was ready to go back to work. He told me, “That is impossible because it takes at least 12 weeks for a break like that to heal.” I said, “Doctor, what religion are you?” He said, “Episcopalian.” I said, “Don’t you Episcopalians believe God heals?” He said, “Yes, we do, but we believe He uses doctors to do it.” I said, “Well, He didn’t do that this time.” He said, “Well, you will have to prove that to me.” He sent me to their x-ray department. Later when I was back in his office and he looked at the x-ray, he said, “Something is wrong here.” I said, “No doctor, nothing is wrong. Could I do this if I had a broken arm?” I did a few calisthenics for him. Although he was puzzled, he let me go back to work. My very first job was to stretch cables across the top of a 40-foot wide cooling tower stack to keep it from pulsating as the fan turned inside. Melvin Jenkins, the man working with me, started out pulling the cables with one hand while holding the stack for leverage with the other. I would start a nut when he stretched the cables. He soon tired and could not stretch them far enough, so we switched places. Satan tempted me to fear using the arm at this point, but by the grace of God, I ignored him and acted my faith. It took all my strength with my once broken arm to do this and it surprised Melvin. He said, “Are you sure that arm was broken?” I said, “The x-rays say that it was.” Eventually, he was converted through this and other testimonies. My oldest boys were getting into Motocross racing. For those who do not know, this is dirt bikes with racing engines going around a dirt track with turns, 180° turns, jumps, etc. They were at a local track a few years ago practicing. Corban, my oldest, attempted a long jump but landed wrong, and the bike went one way while he went another. Nathan said that Corban was knocked out temporarily but finally got up and walked to his truck and sat in it. Corban said that he did not remember walking to the truck, but he remembers gaining consciousness while sitting in the truck looking out of the windshield. Corban’s arm clearly was broken. The flesh was pushed out in a point about four inches below the right elbow. Nathan did not have a license yet, so he shifted and Corban steered them home. Satan attacks with fear and doubt when you are faced with a sight like this, but you can become hardened to him with your armor so that his fiery darts bounce right off. The best thing to do is to deflect the dart with the shield of faith before it enters and starts a bonfire that you cannot put out. We prayed the prayer of faith over his arm, and in a few days, it improved until he was completely healed. God is absolutely faithful to His Word.
About a year later, Nathan was chasing Corban and Tommy, his cousin, on his motocross bike when he missed a curve and ran off into a creek bed. The boys missed him and retraced their tracks a couple of times looking for him. As they passed the place where Nathan wrecked, a lady who was riding down the creek bed on a four-wheeler motioned to them. She pointed out Nathan, who was knocked out lying on the edge of the creek. They put Nathan in the back of Tommy’s truck and hurried him to the hospital in Jay, Florida and then called us. When I contacted the hospital they said that Nathan’s arm appeared broken, he was talking irrationally, and they thought that his brain was swelling. Because of this they had already sent him to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola because they did not have an M.R.I. machine. I went there and found Nathan in the Emergency Room. His arm appeared broken within a few inches of where his brother’s was the year before. The bone had not come through the skin, but it had pushed the flesh up an inch and a half. He kept repeating the same questions every few minutes. We prayed concerning the condition of his soul/mind. Then I asked him if he wanted to believe God for healing. Probably because that was the only way of healing he had ever known, he said yes. So we prayed the prayer of faith. Since we knew from the Word and experience that faith without corresponding action is useless, when the nurse walked in we told her we were ready to go home. She objected on the grounds that he could die with brain swelling and that his arm appeared broken. I assured her that we had prayed and everything would be fine.
She hurried off to get a doctor who tried to warn us of the same things and finally gave up. They brought some papers in for us to sign, absolving the hospital of all liability. Nathan hobbled out to the car, leaning upon my shoulder. By the next morning he was thinking, eating, walking, and looking much better. He had taken a shower by himself and the arm had gone down considerably. That afternoon a Children and Families Services worker showed up at the door. She said, “You don’t look surprised to see me.” I said, “No ma’am, but you are welcome.” She asked me if I had anything against doctors. I said, “Not at all, but I believe that God consistently heals the sick when they believe Him.” She told us that the report she had received accused us of “medical neglect.” She wanted to see Nathan, so we called him in. She looked him over and asked him a few questions, which he answered to her satisfaction. When she was through she said, “Well, I do not see any reason to go any further with this. He seems to be doing pretty well, but since we were called-out this will stay in the record for five years.” With that she left, and we have never seen the C.F.S. again. Nathan quickly returned to normal. Glory to God! He enabled us to believe and to act on His Word and saved us from the C.F.S.
Before we came to know the Lord, Mary was in labor a day and a half with our first child Deborah. It was a terribly drawn out affair. Deborah was breach but both the doctor and we hoped she would turn without a C-section. The doctor would give Mary pain medication with the side-effect that she had trouble pushing the baby, so they put her on the drip to counteract the pain medication. We went back and forth like this a few times. At the last few minutes after we decided to give up and do a C-section, the baby turned and was born normally. Had God not done this we might not have done what He wanted next. Not long after this, we turned to the Lord and discovered faith. We were seeing God do wonderful things and believed from then forward that He could do anything. When our next child was on the way we felt that the Lord wanted us to have him at home. (I say him because Mary had a dream and saw Corban with his distinguishing characteristics.) Others tried to give me books on the subject of childbirth, but I felt not to count on my own wisdom but God’s. I did learn how to tie the cord. When it was time for him to be born, not having had sonograms, we did not know that Corban was breach. You can imagine the shock when that little toe came out and I said, “What is that?” As we realized what was happening we prayed fervently. We felt a strong sense of the Lord’s presence.
Don’t laugh now! Then I commanded that baby to “come out of there in the name of Jesus,” which he soon did. Our boy was born a “footling breach” as the medical profession calls it. That is one foot up, one foot down, and wrong end up. We did not know at the time how rare this was. As doctors have told me since, it just does not happen because they always do a C-section. (Jeremiah 32:27) Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me? Corban looked just like he did in Mary’s dream.
Because Mary’s and my own blood were not compatible, Corban was born jaundiced. We prayed over him and thanked God for healing him. Then we turned our attentions to getting a birth certificate. We called the public health unit, and the lady wanted to know if we had problems getting to the hospital. When we told her that we had not planned to go, she said they would send someone right out to give us a birth certificate. The nurse who came out took one look at Corban’s yellow body and said, “Sir, you need to get this baby to the hospital for a blood transfusion. He has blood poisoning.” Faith was completed in our actions. I said, “No, ma’am, we prayed for him, and he will be just fine. Jesus said, ‘All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’” She was polite and did not argue, but she left. We really did not know her intentions but in a little while when she came back, Corban was totally healed. Glory to God! The nurse said, “That just does not happen without a transfusion.” She was amazed but glad.
Nathan was born 15½ months later. He was seven weeks premature and was a tiny 4 lb. 3 oz. We prayed for him, put him in his bed and put a light bulb close over him for warmth. When we called the health unit the same lady answered the phone. She said, “Is that you again?” Guess what? She sent the same nurse out, who brought another nurse with her. The first thing she asked was, “May we see the baby that was born the year before last?” We said, “Sure.” They went in to look at Corban, who was sleeping soundly. She said quietly to the other nurse, “This is the baby that I was telling you about.” It was obvious to Mary and me that Corban’s healing had become a testimony to them. When they looked at Nathan, our newborn, it seemed that they were not worried about him. It was as though they had gained a little faith themselves. Nathan outgrew full-term children who were born at the same time. Thanks to the Lord!
During Mary’s next pregnancy she fell down the front steps and landed very hard on her rump. Not long after that, to our great disappointment, our baby was born dead. I examined and found that the baby’s skull was crushed, probably by the pelvic cradle when Mary fell. I asked the Lord if He wanted to raise this baby up, but I felt that He said, “No.” In all of our questioning the Lord, Mary and I were reminded of the same thing. I had asked the Lord when we first came to Him, that if He foresaw that any of our children would grow up and be lost, that He would take them as infants to be with Him. (Ecclesiastes 6:3-5) If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he: (4) for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness; (5) moreover it hath not seen the sun nor known it; this hath rest rather than the other. We were comforted to understand that our baby had entered God’s rest. This cannot be said of the overwhelming majority of babies, who grow up to rebel against the Lord. Considering the alternative, we are thankful. We trust the Lord to work all things together for our good. Abortion is a terrible sin, but if these ungodly parents raised these babies up, most would turn against God and be lost. God is sovereign even in this. As I have already shared with you, our youngest two children were also born at home. We are not trying to set a precedent for anyone else, but we do believe this knowledge will help some in the wilderness experience about to come. From some of these testimonies, some could erroneously conclude that faith always works very quickly and that if you do not get an answer quickly you have done something wrong or God has not heard. The overwhelming majority of answers to prayer will come after a trial of our faith. This trial is a result of being faced with the need and at the same time being faced with the promise of the Word that this need is met. The wilderness trial for Israel was just like this, and our trials are no different. God promised Abraham a seed, but he was tried first. (Romans 4:18-20) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. (19) And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; (20) yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God. Abraham was 75 when God told him, “I will make of thee a great nation” (Genesis 12:2,Genesis 12:4). He had to wait 25 more years as he and Sarah both continued to age. God waited until Abraham and Sarah gave up trying by their own natural efforts, which produced Ishmael, to bring the promise to pass. Abraham did not permit what he saw and experienced to destroy his faith in God’s promise, therefore, he received.
If in our trial we are double-minded, we cannot receive. (James 1:5-8) But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; (8) a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. Since this is true, what hope do we who have been double-minded have? Just before Isaac was conceived, Abraham and Sarah both laughed in unbelief that they could bring forth a son (Genesis 17:17; Genesis 18:12, Genesis 18:15). However, God leaves this point out of the glorious report of Abraham’s faith in the above account. Why? Abraham and Sarah obviously repented and walked in faith again. God no longer remembered their sin and left it out of the Romans 4 account. (Isaiah 43:25) I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake; and I will not remember thy sins. Thank God!
We are in a battle for what God says is ours in Christ, which is where our heavenly places are. (Ephesians 1:3) Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ. Christ’s resurrection gave us the position of being already seated in the abundant provision of those same heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:6) And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly [places], in Christ Jesus. What we have by position becomes manifestly ours as we fight unbelief by faith. God gave to Israel the land of the promises (Joshua 1:2); but then they had to take it with the sword, which represents the Word (Hebrews 4:12). Paul goes on to say that we must protect our mind and heart and use the sword of the Word in a battle to take that position (Ephesians 6:10-18). (Ephesians 6:12) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]. Demonic hosts seek to keep us from our inheritance by every form of lie, religion, and manipulation. By faith in the promises, we must violently take from them what is ours. (Matthew 11:12) And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force. We must “fight the good fight of the faith” in order to take from Satan what God says is ours. We “confess the good confession” by faith that we have eternal life and we are the righteousness of God in Christ, etc. In so doing, we “lay hold on” these promises. (1 Timothy 6:11-12) But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (12) Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called (Greek: “invited”), and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
We win this battle, as we believe we are who God says we are, we can do what God says we can do, and we have what God says we have.