So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).—JAMES 2:17 AMP
When I think of people who pushed Christianity out of stationary mode and toward active, living, working faith, John Wimber immediately comes to mind. He was a key leader in the Association of Vineyard Churches movement during the 1980s and beyond.
I believe that God is not looking for squeaky-clean, pitch-perfect people to demonstrate His power through. Wimber personifies this. When he first encountered God and gave his life to Christ, he was a “beer-guzzling, drug-abusing pop musician, who was converted at the age of 29 while chain-smoking his way through a Quaker-led Bible study.”83 And yet, in his first ten years of being a believer, he led hundreds of people to Jesus. He was a passionate evangelist for the Kingdom! But he still saw a gulf between what was revealed in Scripture and what believers were experiencing in their everyday lives.
When Wimber read the Bible, he saw examples of Jesus and the early church “doing the stuff”—the “stuff” referring to moving in power, miracles, signs, wonders, healing, and the prophetic. This became his desire. If supernatural breakthrough was common in the early church, why was it being ignored today? Wimber’s legacy is outstanding. A man of great humility, wisdom, and power, one of the great contributions he made to the furtherance of modern Christianity is showing that it is biblically legal for all believers to extend their faith and walk in supernatural power. Just knowing it on the page was not sufficient for Wimber, and it should not be enough for us either. This man placed a demand on what was revealed in Scripture and proceeded to shift the landscape of how Christianity is expressed. This is truly the faith in action that we read about in James 2.
Demons know what the Bible says. They believe in one God (see James 2:19). And this is why they tremble. It should not be enough for us to see the demons tremble but still continue to bring terror and destruction to countless lives. We should desire to see them destroyed (see 1 John 3:8). Every demon should be served a notice of eviction. The enemy is not afraid of people who believe in God; he is absolutely terrified of those who believe that God lives inside of them, and live accordingly.
James 2:17 is the classic “faith without works is dead” passage. The Message Bible puts it this way, which is highly relevant for our subject matter: “Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” I do not want to give you a book full of spiritual-sounding God-talk. I want to equip you to actually do the God-acts.
In James 2:14 we read: “Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?” (MSG). Talking or learning about faith does not profit us at all unless we put the principles into practice. This is how we will finish up our journey together!
Every chapter has been leading up to this point in the book. I am going to now share some practical tips on how to effectively walk out this breakthrough faith lifestyle.
Choose your company carefully: This includes close friends and, most importantly, your significant other. These are the people who have speaking-power in your life. In other words, what they say to you and over you tends to impact how you believe or how you think. Bible teacher Marilyn Hickey delivered a fantastic message on the importance of having four radical-faith friends—based on the account in Mark 2.84 I can say without a doubt that I am where I am today because I have intentionally surrounded myself with people of “like precious faith” (see 2 Pet. 1:1). It is important to identify these people in your life. As for my significant other, my wife constantly challenges me to take God at His Word and live like it is true.
The enemy is not afraid of people who believe in God; he is absolutely terrified of those who believe that God lives inside of them, and live accordingly.
In college, I so fondly remember gathering around the apartment coffee table with my two closest friends in the world, and praying through the impossible. Encouraging each other through struggles. Worshipping through worry. We did not deny that problems existed; we openly discussed them. At the same time, we made a decision to respond to them with an elevated perspective. These guys helped me maintain the mind of Christ in the midst of all kinds of craziness—from dating dilemmas to professors suffering disease to persevering in our relationships with Jesus. Regardless of the seasons we went through together, I could always count on their words to awaken my faith rather than discourage it. The desire for the impossible was written in their DNA. There was no request too outlandish or too off-limits to bring before the Holy One.
Of course, not all of our friends and acquaintances can be people of like precious faith; in fact, many should be those who either do not know the Lord yet or are still maturing in their walk. These are the people we freely give to, helping them develop into the mighty men and women God has destined them to be. However, when it comes to the people who are closest to us, and the ones who are consistently influencing our lives, it is vital they are people who feed our faith and push us toward the impossible.
Here are some benefits of radical-faith friends:
Find testimonies of what God is doing: Watch them. Listen to them. Read them. Feed yourself on the faithfulness of God through testimony (see Ps. 37:3). Remember, the four friends came to the place where Jesus was because of what they heard. Testimony brought them out of the woodwork and awakened faith within them—faith that ultimately broke through a ceiling and experienced the miraculous. It is vital for the health of our faith to constantly be focused on what God is doing.
So let us get practical for a moment. How can we do this on an everyday level?
If you are a reader, I encourage you to read biographies of the men and women who experienced supernatural breakthrough as normative. Examples include Kathryn Kuhlman, Smith Wigglesworth (Ever Increasing Faith, Even Greater), John G. Lake (Complete Collection of His Teachings), Tommy Welchel’s True Stories of the Miracles of Azusa Street and Beyond, and many others.
If you prefer video, go on YouTube and find reliable testimonies of people who have received God’s miracles in powerful ways.
If you know of people who have experienced God’s supernatural power and appear to walk in this breakthrough faith, connect with them. If mentorship is possible, ask them to take you under their wing and share their stories. Even if you just get together for coffee or lunch, it is vital for us to encourage each other, sharing testimony of what God is doing.
It is vital for the health of our faith to constantly be focused on what God is doing.
“Soak” or rest in God’s Presence: The “soaking” language might sound a bit out there to some people. Also, for some type A personalities, just “resting” in the Presence of God is quite the outlandish thought. “So, how does this whole soaking thing work?” That is a fun one to explain. “Well, you just kind of sit there and do…nothing. Just rest in God.” I can just hear the responses: “Okay…so what do I do while I am resting in God?” That’s me, for sure.
Do you know why it is so important for us to learn how to rest in God? It is not so much that we sit around and do nothing, but we are learning how to live from a perspective of rest. His Presence is a vital catalyst to sustaining this rest in our lives. Rest is the most powerful posture we can assume when activating breakthrough faith. We do not generate faith. Our willpower does not muster it up. Our striving and pressing and worry and struggle do nothing to create faith. So what is the key? Rest. We must recognize that we cannot do anything about the situation. We cannot move the impossible circumstance.
However, we are entrusting the impossible to the One who is both able and willing to work as we rest. Rest demonstrates trust, and trust fuels faith. Trust is only built through intimacy. This is why we devoted such a strong emphasis to the knowledge of God in the previous chapters. “Soaking” or resting in God’s Presence is a powerful statement of trust. We are physically choosing to do nothing except focus on Him, trusting that He is moving behind the scenes.
Declare God’s Word: We must understand there are two aspects of declaration. Many of us are familiar with Option 1—confessing Scripture. This is important. Does our confession do anything to God? Not really. It does, however, keep what we say in agreement with what God says and what God thinks. And here is Option 2—saying what the Father is saying. This is beyond just quoting a Bible verse. Sometimes we quote a Scripture but other times we have to command a spirit to leave. Sometimes we recount a Bible verse and other times we rebuke a disease.
What we read in Scripture serves as the basis for saying what the Father is saying, but again, it is not simply quoting a Bible verse. The ability to do this comes from intimacy with the Father. When we know that torment and bondage is not God’s will, we simply declare, “No, in Jesus’ name!” When we are entertaining thoughts that have the potential to steal, kill, or destroy, we already know God’s heart on the matter. We simply need to say, “Enough—go, in Jesus’ name!” This releases the commanding power of God. Remember, His words are spirit and life. We are not commanding God to do anything. Rather, we are saying what God would say about the circumstance that we are up against.
Carry others to the place of breakthrough using your faith: Did you know that your faith can actually bring someone else into a breakthrough—even if they do not necessarily have faith for themselves? I am not presenting any type of principle or ironclad rule here. All I know is that in Mark 2:3 we see that the paralytic’s four friends carried him to receive his miracle. Obviously, they were full of faith because they were the ones who broke through the roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus. I would encourage you to find people whom you can carry using your faith.
Rest is the most powerful posture we can assume when activating breakthrough faith.
Never underestimate your role as an intercessor. I can list time after time and story after story where God supernaturally transformed situations for people by using others to carry them to victory.
Also, never underestimate the power of persevering on behalf of someone whose faith is struggling, or taking it a step further, someone who might have no faith at all! Even then God is still faithful. This is really the heart of the breakthrough faith message. It is not about us only receiving our breakthrough; it is about living a life of sustained victory so that we can carry others into an encounter with God’s supernatural power. No, we cannot carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Someone cannot have a relationship with God through us. Rather, carrying someone to the place of breakthrough would be akin to intercessory prayer.
Keep Jesus as the main focus. We conclude with the most important focus of all—Jesus Christ. It is easy to get caught up in miracles, signs, and wonders. Some people end up getting so focused on putting the correct faith principles to work and pressing in to get what they need from God, that they forget the point of it all.
Did you know that it is possible to miss God’s invitation to relationship in the midst of miracles? Israel did this time after time. Scripture tells us that they continuously witnessed God’s miraculous acts, but their hearts were still disconnected from Him. They did not have eyes to see where the signs were pointing.
In John 6:26 Jesus makes a stunning comment, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs” (NLT). When we understand what miraculous signs are purposed to do, we celebrate the breakthrough and then desire to be with Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is our focus. He is our emphasis. He is the center. He is not a side topic. He is not a formula that we use to grab a blessing and then tip our hat to God. His name is not some magic word that we use to get what we want out of God. He’s not a celestial Santa Claus or divine vending machine. He is the Lord of Heaven and earth. Every sign points to Jesus. Every wonder stirs up our awe and holy fear toward the Savior.
Everything I write and speak about is motivated by the following statement: What one generation experiences as an outpouring or revival, the next should walk in as a lifestyle. As we experience a “faith revival,” something is being expected of us. The Holy Spirit is issuing a glorious summons to everyone who has an ear to hear. Walking in breakthrough faith should never end with us; if anything, it starts with us and will only increase in momentum and power as future generations emerge on to the scene.
In order for them to know how to walk out this faith, we need to pass on the message. More than just reading a book, my prayer is that this message would be vividly displayed through your life.
This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord (Psalm 102:18).