Faith and Confession !

FAITH AND CONFESSION : Yes, one might say, "yes, but James said faith without works, or faith without corresponding actions is the. So if I don't act as though it were already true, then my faith is dead." James said you must have corresponding action. Faith without corresponding actions is dead. Rahab was a harlot [prostitute], not a righteous person. But she believed that if she would be of help to the spies who came, they would spare her. She could have been negative and said, "if I protect them, I may be one of those killed in the war, she could have said I'm going to give them up to the authorities." But you can see her face in her actions. She befriended the spies and help them to escape. Even as an unrighteous person, she had faith that she and her household would be saved alive. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. But remember, keep this all in context. When people misunderstand corresponding actions, they do crazy things. Some say, "The answer [or the money I need] will combine Thursday evening at 4 o'clock." Because they have confessed that it's going to happen Thursday evening at 4 o'clock, they go ahead and send the check on Thursday. Don't set time for the manifestation. God is not bound by time and space don't try to put God in a box. Now, there are some things that confession will not change. Whether you believe it or whether you don't believe it, Jesus is coming back. Your confession is not going to change that. Then on the other hand it takes time to bring about some things that can be changed. But when you begin to set times, and dates, you usually get in trouble. It is all right to have that as a goal. But if you are saying that it is going to happen on a certain day, when then there passes, then your faith usually goes with it. Let me say it this way, you probably would say something like this. "Well, it must not have been God's will for that to happen." Let me show you the balance to this. Let's go to (Mark 4:) this whole chapter is important to what we are talking about. But we will begin with verse 26. Notice in this chapter it has already been established by Jesus that the soil is the heart of man, and the seed is the Word of God. "And he [Jesus] said, so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And Should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." (Mark 4:26--28). This is a revelation of how the kingdom works within you or me. The kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground. You are the one who sows the seed in this kingdom inside you. Now remember, this soil is the heart or--- the human spirit. He said the kingdom works this way--- you sold the seed into the ground. The confession of God's Word sows the seed or the confession of what the devil and the world is saying is sewing seeds. It is important to mix faith with the Word of God. Not, the words of the devil and the world. Thousands of God's people missed the promised land, died in the wilderness and never obtained what God intended for them to attain. It was the will of God for them to enter in. It was their land. God had already given it to them. When referring to them, Paul says: "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." You have, the same situation today with people who hear the Word but failed to mix the Word with faith .(Hebrews 4:2). The children of Israel heard what God said, but they wouldn't mix any faith with what they heard. Many have heard what God said, but it's hard to get them to mix faith with what God said, or to get them to speak in agreement with Him. They say, "But I can see it's not that way or that was for them and not for us." I know it's not that way, but God said it, so you say it. You are calling things that are not yet manifest. The divine energy force of God is in that Word, and it will get inside of you as you speak it. It is the power source. It is the seed. It is the faith of God that causes you and me to be able to attain to any of the promises.