Faith Is Action. What are “good works”?
To the Western church at this time, for many their faith is too ABSTRACT and MENTAL, and thus they are not being truly spiritually ACTIVE. They do religious actions, but not spiritual actions as described below. Thus, many are not able to connect their theology to their lives, rendering them ineffective for the Kingdom where God placed them in this life.
God wants His Goodness/Righteousness done here on the Earth. God does not need YOUR idea of what you think is moral and for you to get into your own initative and actions to make your “good ideas” happen. No, that is the core of religious goodness, not spiritual true goodness.
God has us as BELIEVERS, to do our part in making that happen. In manifesting the power of God’s Kingdom so that others can “taste and see that God is good”! Jesus said that if he is “lifted up” (words indicating death by crucifixion), that he will “draw all men to Himself.” God wants the world to know He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… so that all may come to him and receive forgiveness, restoration and LIFE eternal.
God intends US to be His hands and feet in the here and now. To be practical extensions of His heart in action. Jesus showed us an unselfish and obedient like that was continually DOING GOOD to everything He encountered and everyone He met. Even if that Good took the form of confronting the wicked regarding their wickedness.
We are God’s children by faith in Christ, and to not be infantile, but mature sons/daughters that are like Jesus who said “I must be about My Father’s business.” Jesus was not trying to live his “best life”; rather He was seeking to please His Father (God) by doing God’s will in this life.
God wants to work THROUGH us. Even Jesus said in John 14:
Anyone who has seen Me has seen Father God. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am IN the Father and the Father is IN Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father LIVING IN ME, who is doing the work!”
We don’t do the work in our own ability, but UNITED to Father God THROUGH Jesus Christ, we are both empowered and charged with the opportunity to be a force for true goodness — to “do the work” that Father God is doing. It is “God doing it” as the source of it all, but doing it THROUGH us as yielded / responsive / active vessels of righteousness!
We cannot speak anything into existence…we are not God. We are the not Creator, and yet, we are allies / servants / friends / soldiers and ambassadors of the Most High God. All because of what Jesus did for us and as us. We are clothed in HIS righteousness. So that we do good works that God has prepared for us.
We are not God, but we are ALLIES with God, Sons/Daughters of God, Righteous Saints in Christ Jesus, and Friends of the Bridegroom. We do not operate by formulas like witches do, but rather by our grace/faith relationship of Authority UNDER God’s authority.
We operate by our IDENTITY as created in the IMAGE of God, to be like God as a divinely empowered vessel to extend the good will of the Father out into this world, as HE directs!
Christians do not try to “manifest” like dark magic and new age people suggest. That is just wishful thinking + demonic lures operating through the Flesh’s opportunistic selfishness!
Instead we ARE to take spiritual actions of prayer and declaration — and note that these prayers and declarations are responses to GOD’s SPIRIT MOVING US to pray and declare HIS WILL — that get God’s angels into action on our behalf and to tear down the spiritual structures (strongholds) of evil.
That can provide food, stop armies, move mountains, heal the sick, cast out demons, dissappear addictions, transform lives and SO MUCH MORE.
But they KEY is that we are submitted to God! The prayer example Jesus gave us is to say to Father God: “THY WILL be done here on Earth exactly as it is fully done in heaven.”
It is ALWAYS GOD’s WILL TO MANIFEST HIS KINGDOM HERE ON EARTH. And within that overall will of God, the way, the timing, the season and all those specifics of HOW, are not ours to command. Yet we pray, we entreat, we please our cause to a GOOD Father who wants to bless righteousness and obedience!
Your selfish prayers don’t move heaven. That does not mean to not pray for anything for yourself; it means to KEEP CHECKING IN throughout your day as to what God is wanting, where His heart and eyes are, where His Spirit is blowing. God is dynamic/active, but always within His eternal Character of Holiness. Seek HIM. You know His will, His Heart, His Mind (the Bible uses all those words for a good reason) SO THAT you do know what to pray and what to declare.
It is HIM moving your spirit in union with His, not your flesh getting some impulsive idea. We must submit and listen. We must take orders from our commanding King, who is also the lover of our souls. Jesus ALWAYS SOUGHT to glorify Father God. We must be life Jesus.
Just understand that we do not magically make things happen. We ALIGN with God’s will — his will being done on Earth, and then speak out and pray for His will to be done in the specifics of the situation. Then He does it, using us as the anchor point on Earth, in time and space. He if faithful to perform HIS will.
We just need to line up with it and take the (1)spiritual actions (faith, prayer, submission, communion, declaration) and the (2) physical actions (Bible examples of faith-actions are: store up grain, bathe in the Jordan, evacuate Egypt at a certain time in a certain way). The faith-actions are specifics UNIQUE and not formulaic to the dynamic instructions of your Heavenly Father.
