WORK OF FAITH WITH POWER
(week 52/09)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Firstly, we want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Christ-filled, destiny fulfilling New Year during which you will come to know more by revelation the wonders of the person of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus and so experience more of His joy and goodness in every area of your life in this season of divine good will to all men!
2 Thessalonians 1:11 MKJV: Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of the calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,
Here in Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians, he prays that God’s work of faith with power be fulfilled in and through them.
As we close this year, we want to examine this phrase ‘the work of faith with power’.
What is faith?
Faith is trust in the Word of the invisible God whose reality is not perceptible to our physical senses.
Hebrews 11:1 AMP: NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].
However, when we exercise this faith, it releases the invisible power of God that creates realities we now perceive with our physical senses.
Hebrews 11:3 ESV: By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Now, to exercise faith requires spiritual work that is done by spiritual power from the Holy Spirit. It is instructive to note that there is spiritual power that is not given by God but by Satan that can also be used to create physical realities from the spiritual or invisible realm (Ex. 7:11-8:19). However, the power of God is far greater (1 Jn. 2:14, 4.4) than the power of Satan!
It is critical for us to have a clear and complete understanding of these things because we are NOW in the season of the manifestation of the glory and power of God in a measure that has not yet been seen on the earth (Hag. 2:9, Hab. 2:14); so we will be able to have fulfilled in and through us the fullness of God’s work of faith with power.
In fact. if we say we have faith but do not exercise it by works with power, that faith in our hearts will become a dead faith that will not produce any supernatural results.
James 2:17-18 ESV: So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (18) But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
James 2:26 ESV: For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
What then are the works of faith and how do we exercise them with power?
The works of faith are:
1. Confession or saying God’s Word with your mouth: calling the things which are not as though they are (Rom. 4.17), trusting, or, believing that the power of God that is being released through the spoken Word will create the physical reality of what is being said.
Mark 11:23 MKJV: For truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said shall occur, he shall have whatever he said.
You do this work of faith with power by filling your heart with the life and power of God, through the Word (2 Pet. 1.4) in sufficient measure before speaking the Word like this in faith.
2. Praying with all kinds of prayer in the Spirit to overcome satanic opposition in the air and the spiritual realm that would want to hinder the power of God from bringing into physical manifestation what you have confessed with your mouth in faith.
Daniel 10:10-13 MKJV: and behold, a hand touched me, which set me shaking on my knees and the palms of my hands. (11) And he said to me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright. For to you I am now sent. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling. (12) Then he said to me, Do not fear, Daniel; for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard. And I have come for your words. (13) But the ruler of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days. But lo, Michael, one of the chief rulers, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Romans 8:26 AMP: So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.
Ephesians 6:18 MKJV: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching to this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
Jude 1:20 MKJV: But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
Again, like as with confession above, you do this work of faith of prayer in the Spirit by filling your heart with the life and power in sufficient measure of God before you go into deep prayer in the Spirit.
3. Walking in love by the Spirit to be properly positioned to receive the manifestation of what your faith is creating: being in the right place, at the right time with the right people, with right attitudes and the right actions!
1 John 3:22-23 MKJV: And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. (23) And this is His commandment that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
John 13:14 MKJV: If then I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
John 13:34 MKJV: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another.
Again, like with confession and praying in the Spirit, you need the life and power of God in sufficient measure to walk in love in this way by the Spirit: to do this work of faith with power.
So, as we diligently confess the Word, pray in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer and walk in love by the blood, the Word and the Spirit, God’s work of faith with power will be fulfilled in and through us in all its fullness!
Once again, have a wonderful Christmas and Christ-filled and destiny fulfilling New Year by the work of faith with power!
