Let us go to this Apostle James, and let us read a few verses from his Book. James chpt.2, let us start from verse 20: “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 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. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
We should make a great division between works of faith and works of flesh, because this is exactly the difference between what Paul is saying and what James is saying. But we should underline the words: by works a man is justified and not by faith only, (Jam.2:24).
We will return to James a little later, but I would like to say another thing which I believe is a cause of deception to too many Believers and a kind of mystery also, and that is the difference between our true beliefs and our false beliefs. In other words, we can divide the beliefs of a man into two categories. We say “I believe”, but when we say “I believe”, we must believe on the basis of something, and that something we must divide into two categories. One category is the true faith, faith authored by the Lord, coming from heaven, something spiritual with true spiritual substance that is in our spirit alone. And the second category includes “everything else”.
Now, in that “everything else” we may include or should include our five senses, and emotions, imaginations, mind, intellect… they probably would cover “everything else.” In other words, you can say: “Well, I have seen that — so I believe.” Well, you have seen that — so you believe, and that’s fine, but that’s not faith! “I have heard the preacher, so I believe,” that’s not faith either. What you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you touch, what you taste is not faith! This is a belief based on your soul and it has nothing to do with faith.
How many people have said: “I heard the preacher speak, and because I heard him I believe”? But this is not faith. If you should say: “I believe what he said”, then that’s where the faith begins to come in, because what he said triggers something in your conscience, in your heart, and not in your brain. As soon as you end up in your brain, this is false belief. It must trigger something in your spirit, in your conscience, in your discernment, in your intuition, deep in your spirit! In other words, what somebody says, whether it be a preacher behind a pulpit or anybody else, and if it touches your existing faith, then you buy it, and it builds up your faith or enlarges it.
“Everything else” is false belief, or we should say, to be more exact, a non–spiritual belief. If I see something and I believe it is, well, I’m right and I have seen it and it exists and that’s fine, but we are not talking about faith. And if you start acting upon that belief which is not based on your faith, you are not working the works of faith. You are working the works of your own soul. Therefore, if I have seen something beautiful in the store, I go and buy it because I like it. That is not the work of faith. Do you agree?
True faith is a revelation from God and it has nothing to do with our senses. It has nothing to do with our imaginations, with our thoughts or our understanding. It has nothing to do with our emotions, and whether it produces good emotions or bad, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what reaction that faith produces in us, and it does not depend on it. As we said the last time: faith equals reality, God shows us reality! When we embrace this reality, and buy it and cherish it, that reality may be sweet to us and we may feel fine, and we may start singing and praising God. But that reality may be bitter, and we may start crying and weeping and mourning.
That reality might be something very little about something very personal, or it may be something great showing the destiny of the whole nation. That reality we may comprehend as soon as we see it, or we may not comprehend it. That reality may match part of our imaginations or it may be completely something else that we never dreamt about. And so this is the relationship between true faith and our soul.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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