FAITH WITHOUT DEEDS IS DEAD

INTRODUCTION

A new year has begun and we have lots of expectations because we think this one will be better than the last one. This year will be a blessing; we will achieve things that God will put in our hearts and things He has already put. Let´s walk towards God´s aims.

We look for what God promises us and wants to show us so that we can achieve those things he has dreamt for each of us. I declare for our church “Misión vida para las Naciones” that this will be a year of great achievements. One of our goals is to build a new auditorium and we are asking God where we have to build it. For this we need faith, and this is very important, because without it, it is impossible to achieve what God wants; without faith it is impossible to please Him. Without faith one becomes doubtful, double minded. Without faith one becomes incredulous. No matter how much you believe in God, there are other things in which you have to believe.Demons also believe in God, but the only thing they don´t have is the faith   that is reserved for those who love God. That faith is for us and not for the demons!

Demons are really cunning, they have power, but we have God´s faith which is more powerful. Our faith has been designed to give us victory! It has been designed to beat the demons!

FAITH IS SHOWN BY OUR WORKS

We read in James 2.14” What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and has not works? can faith save him?”. This verse teaches us that faith is shown by the things we do. Your deeds show if you have faith or not. Is it worth saying you have faith if you have no  good deeds? Will that faith save  you? The answer that James gives us is that it cannot save us. So there has to be something more than good wishes and good intentions.  Therefore, those good wishes must be fulfilled through our faith.

Faith produces deeds, it makes us do things, so we do according to the faith we have. If you get angry because you tried to do something and you couldn´t get it or it didn´t work, don´t get angry with the others, please. Get angry with yourself and say: “I deserve it”, your achievements are the ones that encourage you and speak well about you and your faith. If you couldn´t get it, it was because your faith was weak or you simply had no faith.

James makes a comparison:”¹⁵ If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,¹⁶ And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? (2.15-16) If a brother feels bad and needs something, will words be enough? Those who have faith not only speak, but also do things, although we have to speak when we have faith, too.

The day after the “Nights of Glory” with Pr. Cash Luna I told the congregation that I wanted a bigger place to gather. Then a brother from another church, who is a businessman, called me and said: I´ve heard you wanted a bigger temple and I have a structure to sell you. That was the moment when I had to do something. I had spoken about it but then I had to practise my faith, so I had to decide if I was going to buy that structure or not. I had to go on a trip to several countries and in 2 days I had to take the decision. They showed me the plans, I bought the structure and I went to see it. Then I felt happy. If you do not face the things in which you believe, then what you have is not faith.

This year you will have a faith that will move your hands. Your hands will not stay still, waiting, your hands will do things. You will not be a person who waits for something to happen, you will be someone who provokes the event! We are not the ones who read the newspaper to see what is going on. We are the ones who produce the news. Then James says:” Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”(2:17). In other words, he who does not do what he says he believes in , has a dead faith, that means something foul-smelling which does not work. But today we will learn from God´s Word.

It may be true that one has faith, but there is faith that is genuine and it is the one that comes from Christ. I visited India and I saw several gods in the shape of a snake, an elephant, a cow , etc. I saw such gods! People believe in many things! Even in Uruguay many people tell me:” what is important is that you believe in something”. I do not believe in a stone or in a red ribbon! I do not believe in a string of garlic! I will never believe in Iemanjá or in the gods that the different religions in the world create! I will always believe in the true God and in the Word that the real God gives me! That God who created heaven and earth and the one who sent Jesus to the world to save it! That is why the living faith or the real faith has roots in God´s Word; and God needs people who have this kind of  faith, because only those who have this faith do His deeds. The real Christian exists to do and show the world God´s deeds. That is why you are in this world!

God has plans and we carry them out. He has put us in this world as an authority, we are representatives of God´s Kingdom and our power and authority are supported by the faith that God has given us, because it is through the faith that we can do the things that God wants to produce. As the Bible says, “because I believed I spoke”. Because I believed I did God´s deeds!

Will you walk this way during this year? Do you expect this year to be better? God wants this year to be better than the previous ones. He wants you to stand firmly on the rock that is His Word. The faith in His Word produces God´s great deeds on earth.

We read again in James 2:16: “And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” The deeds you do give faith to others from the faith you have. What´s the point of saying that I´m going to achieve something if I don´t achieve it? Who will believe me or believe in the God I have?  I have declared that this year we will start and finish building the new temple  in the name of God . I want to tell you that the temple will be built with or without your offerings! If that temple isn´t built, then you´ll be able to say I´m a liar.

A Christian businessman introduced 3D films into Uruguayan cinemas, which means that if a bomb explodes in a film, we can see how the splinters spread and the sound is also special. This businessman showed me how everything works. I asked him if Christian films could be made and he said it was his wish that this kind of films existed. Then I prayed to God “Lord, I want to make films in 3D “ I want to start making commercials or some kind of messages in 3D  to be shown in these cinemas. Something happened inside of me and I said:” God, I´m going to do these things” And today I declare it!

If you believe, speak. If it happens we will know you had faith. Today I tell you we will make films in 3D! The day after we spoke to the businessman, who introduced this kind of films, I met another Christian businessman who told me that his son had given up his  career at university to study cinema and that´s why he had travelled to New York. When he came back, he brought all what he had learnt about the cinema. The man was worried because his son was confused and didn´t know what to do. I told his father to let his son know I was interested in making films in 3D. The films that are most suitable for 3D are horror films because of the special effects they have, but this man told me he wasn´t going to show these films because God is his associate and He wouldn´t permit it. This costs this businessman a lot of money because production companies sell him a package of 3D films and when he doesn´t show those horror films he loses a lot of money. He doesn´t want to show horror films and I want to show Christian films! All what I have just told you has to do with faith.

VISION, FAITH AND DEEDS

Have you confessed what you are going to achieve this year? Is there anything that comes from God that you believe you will achieve this year? Because your life   will be  like your achievements, and these  ones like your faith. If you have no faith, you lack vision and if you don´t have vision, you won´t achieve your aims.

You have to put your faith and hope in God´s Word! You won´t achieve anything important if you don´t have great faith that makes you confess that what you are dreaming is God´s will.

Apostle James continues saying in his epistle:”^”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.” (James 2:18)What I can show you is the result of my faith. If you show poor things, they are the result of  weak  or  dead faith. You can show achievements that a man  can  get with his strength. I´m sure that a man can achieve a thousand better, bigger and more important things than what a chimpanzee can get, but I´m not talking about the deeds that we can do with our own strength, but about the ones we achieve with  God´s power.

Will you spend this year pleasing God or will you fail? Let´s continue reading James 2:19-20” Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.²⁰ But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” How did Abraham show he had faith in God? When he heard God´s voice and knew that  God wanted him to sacrifice his son, he  went to the set place, laid his son on the altar and was justified, as the Bible says by his faith, the just will live by faith. The goals we will achieve in the future must be the result of faith and not of doubt. There are many Christians who declare: “I will do it just in case” Please, don´t say that again. You´d better say. ”I´ll do it by faith”

The devil introduced in our vocabulary things that God hates. Anyone who doubts won´t receive anything from God, and won´t  do things according to faith! If you do it just in case, then what you are doing doesn´t come from God. God wants to renew you in your inner self. This will be a year of internal renewal! It will be a year of achievements! Abraham´s faith worked together with his deeds. That´s what it says in James 2:22” Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” When you achieved it your faith was perfected! After you achieve something in faith you will be  ready for another achievement in faith. As the Bible says: by faith and for faith! It doesn´t matter how much you have to struggle! If  you have a vision from God, it doesn´t matter what they say about you.

Every day I receive messages by facebook from people who tell me how I should have done certain things or how I shouldn´t have done it. And I answer them: “I would like to know what you do”. That´s what I recently told a woman. And I asked her: Do you come to church? What are you doing for God? And she said she had separated from the church. And I told her: “Don´t say you are apart because of others, because when one falls apart it is just because of himself!”

I find people who criticize me every day. They tell me what I should have done and what I shouldn´t have done. And I wonder what that person, who speaks better than me, is doing. What has he achieved? Because after all, what you say is not important if it doesn´t match what you do. Are you one of those people who speaks but doesn´t do? Do you criticize others and say what they should have done, or that if they had done the way you said everything would have been all right?  We are not here to listen to those kind of people but only to those who want to do God´s will , those who declare that they will achieve  it, and we are witnesses of that. There isn´t a neutral territory! Your deeds   are God´s or  the world´s,  flesh deeds, demons´ deeds! There is no way out. Your deeds must be God´s deeds. Everybody has to see the light, the glory and the power in you!

God wants to renew you and bless you! He wants to spread His Holy Spirit over you so that what you do and say what comes from God. And if the Holy Spirit inspires you and gives you power, if the Holy Spirit helps you, you will achieve things you have never imagined. This is a year of achievements. There is no way out; you will have to come before the Lord and the society, with your hands empty or happily showing your deeds’. You make decisions every day and you do many things every day. If you do them with faith they are well done, but if you do them without faith, they are badly done. Day after day you show God and the world the results of your faith.

Romans 14:23 says:” And he that doubteth is damned if he eats, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” The apostle Paul spoke about a discussion that started about what should be eaten or not. In those times there were many idolatrous celebrations in which the sacrifices consisted in offering food to the gods, the same as what they do today in some religions, which offer their gods hens, corn, etc, that they leave in the crossroads. Then people discussed whether they could eat meat which had been sacrificed to the idols. When people went to another country out of Israel, it was very difficult to find meat that hadn´t been sacrificed to the idols and apostle Paul said:” Buy and eat all what you find at the butcher´s and don´t worry about it.” But there was a problem with those brothers who were weak in the faith. So Paul said,  If what you eat is an occasion to grieve your brother, don´t eat because of him. Be merciful with those who are weak in the faith, but if you have faith, eat because demons are nothing.

There were many discussions in those days just like today. For example during the Holy Week some people doubt whether to eat meat or fish, then someone invites a weak Christian to a barbecue, and he looks at the meat and wonders if he should eat it or not. Paul would say: “ If you have faith , eat that meat, but if you are with people who will scandalize, then have some soup. But the Bible says:” Don´t condemn yourself doing what you are doing. If you are going to eat it, do it and don´t doubt.  If you doubt whether to eat it or not and then you eat it, you have sinned because you doubted. But Paul says:” If you   have faith, thank God and eat it.”  If you did it with faith, then you haven´t sinned. Some people doubt and they condemn themselves because they  doubt. Do it but do it with faith because everything that doesn´t come from faith is sin. Make sure you have faith and that it comes from God. If it didn´t work is because you had no faith, and you doubted. It the thing doesn´t work is because God didn´t reveal it to you, but you have to find what God wants you to do and you have to do it with faith. Because whatever you do without faith is a sin.

CONCLUSION

Christians have always been taught they mustn´t get into politics since democracy started. From the time the church and the state were separated they have wanted to make us believe that we are second class citizens and that because of the fact that we are religious and because of our beliefs, we don´t have the right to work in politics because it belongs to the devil. We have been going against the stream since democracy started and we declare that we know the truth and that we want to bring it in the laws. If God and His Word have nothing to do with the law, then the law that is being passed, is trash. The laws that are being passed and those they have the intention to pass are rubbish because they have lied to us saying that  we didn´t have to participate in politics. We need to have a lot of faith because pastors and churches are against us, however, we are getting into politics. We need faith and we need to go against the thought and the established laws.

I fought   against the law of abortion a lot in the streets while the legislators did whatever they wanted but I understood that God wanted us to be inside, in the parliament. Some laws are mean, they put in force laws that legalize things that are against God, and that is to legalize evil. But how will it be avoided if we aren´t there? If we think we have to leave it to the christians´ own choice and that we don´t it have to warn them against anything.

In this country, practically all laws are passed because of 1 vote, iniquitous laws, where what is good is called bad and what is bad is called good.  What will you do with your life? You will have to do what you dare and go against the stream of the world. I am one of those who thinks we will have Christian MPs in the government. I am one of those who believes   that we will abrogate iniquitous laws. This will be a year of achievements.

Some people say: How can a pastor get into politics and leave the sheep, leave the flock? We have to have faith to tell them: ”We won´t leave the sheep and we will be there”. Hell is roaring because of what we are doing. Let it roar! My God is with me like a powerful giant.

Some say we mustn´t enter the enemy´s territory. Which territory does the enemy have? He is not the owner of anything. The only territory that belongs to him is the lake of fire and sulphur and that is a place where I don´t want to go . My vision is to get into the enemy´s territory, deprive him and make him leave the place he thinks is his. Because Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.  Everything belongs to Christ. The Nations don´t belong to the devil. The world belongs to Christ.

Do you think you will achieve things this year or not? Let the Lord´s spirit of faith take hold of you to win your family, the things we think are very complicated today, but we believe  are true.

If you recognize you are an incredulous person, if you doubt and have two minds, if you realize that because of that you have no aim to show, and wish and need to be free from that double mind, it´s time you went back to your Creator and asked Him to forgive you for your incredulity. I pray that God´s faith fills you up and that you are free today. In the name of Jesus!

MENSAJES