The Scripture tells us there was a paralyzed man who spent his days in bed. One day he heard that Jesus was in a nearby town teaching in a private home. He asked four of his friends to carry him to that home. When they arrived it was so crowded they couldn’t get in.
They’d gone to great lengths to get there. I’m sure the four men were tired. Their shoulders were sore. Their backs were hurting. They’d hurried to get there, so when they couldn’t get in they were let down and disappointed. They could have easily given up and thought, “Too bad. It’s not going to happen.”
But the paralyzed man was not about to give up. He said to his friends, “Take me up on the roof. Tear a hole in it and then lower me down so I can have a front row seat.”
They hoisted him up on the roof. Jesus was in the middle of his sermon and dust began to fall from the ceiling. People looked up, thinking, “What in the world is happening?” All of a sudden a tile came off, then another and another. Finally they lowered this paralyzed man into the room, all curled up on his bed, right in front of Jesus.
The Scripture says in Mark 2:5, “When Jesus saw their faith.” That’s my question for you. Do you have a faith that God can see? Are you doing something out of the ordinary to show God you believe Him? It’s not enough to just ask. It’s not enough to just believe. Like the paralyzed man, you’ve got to do something to demonstrate your faith.
Jesus looked at the paralyzed man and said, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” Immediately the man rose from his bed, picked up his mat and went home, perfectly well.
This all started when he did something so that God could see his faith. Don’t you know there were other people in the room who didn’t get well? Other people had the same opportunity. The difference was this man put actions behind his belief. God is looking for people who have faith that He can see. Not a faith that He can just hear, not a faith that just believes, but a faith that is visible, a faith that is demonstrated.
One day after a Lakewood service, I talked to a gentleman who had smoked cigarettes since he was in high school. He looked to be in his midforties. He’d been smoking three packs a day for the last ten years. He smoked the same amount without giving it a thought every day. He wanted to quit. He had prayed. He had believed. He had friends and relatives trying to help him. They encouraged him to give up smoking, but nothing worked.
Then one day he heard this principle: you have to put actions behind your faith. So he started taking simple actions every day to break his nicotine habit. Whenever he’d open a new pack he would immediately throw away three cigarettes. This was his way of saying, “God, I’m trying. I’m not just asking for Your help; I’m not just believing that I’m free of this addiction; I’m not just hoping that one day I’ll stop. I’m taking it one step further and showing You I mean business by putting action behind my faith.”
The action you take does not have to be something big. It could be just a small step to show God your faith. After a couple months of throwing out three cigarettes from each pack he wasn’t missing them anymore, so he doubled up and every day began throwing out six from each pack. Eventually he got to where he could eliminate a whole pack a day, so he kept cutting back more and more.
Several years after he first took action to break his addiction, he realized the cravings were gone. He no longer smokes at all.
“Joel I haven’t felt this good in thirty years,” he told me.
Here’s my point: He could have prayed twenty-four hours a day for God to take away his addiction. He could have believed it would just happen one day and last for the rest of his life. But the power came when he took it one step further and showed God he meant business by putting action behind his faith.
Are you doing something to show God you’re serious about your dreams coming to pass? God is not moved by our needs. He’s concerned about our needs, but God is moved by our faith. When God sees you doing what you can to get well, when He sees you getting to work a little earlier because you want that promotion, when He sees you bypass the cookie jar because you’ve been believing you’ll lose weight—that is when extraordinary things will happen.
Like the man who took small steps to kick his nicotine addiction, you’ll find that you have a power to do what you couldn’t do before. You’ll see favor and opportunity that will thrust you to a new level when you take action to show your faith.
When my sister Lisa was about three years old, she wanted to go to the office with my father. She heard my dad saying he was going to the church. When she asked to go with him, he said, “No, Lisa, I’ll take you some other time, but not today. I have meetings and I’m going to be busy. Maybe tomorrow or next week.”
But Lisa wouldn’t take no for an answer. She didn’t want to go some other time; she wanted to go that day. She was so determined she ignored my father, ran back to her room, and got dressed as if she were going with him. You would have thought she hadn’t heard a word my father said. His negative response simply didn’t register in her mind.
After dressing, Lisa heard the back door open. She realized our father was about to leave. She took off to grab her shoes, going full speed. My father turned around and saw his little three-year-old daughter suddenly dressed and struggling to put her last shoe on. His heart melted.
He couldn’t say no.
“Come on, Lisa, you can go with me,” he said.
What made the difference? He saw her faith. When he saw how badly she wanted to go, when he saw how determined she was, when he saw her going all out to prepare herself, he was so touched he changed his mind and allowed her to go with him. Lisa’s actions spoke louder than her words. She could have begged him all day. She could have sat in a corner pouting. Neither of those approaches would have worked. Our father wasn’t moved by begging or by pouting. He was moved when he saw little Lisa’s faith.
God is the same way. Can He see your faith? It’s one thing to ask for God’s help, it’s one thing to believe He loves you—but if you want to get God’s attention, take it one step further and put actions behind your faith.
A man I know felt called into the ministry. He took a step of faith by renting the small auditorium of a high school for his first service. He invited his friends and neighbors to come, and he spread the word through the town’s newspaper.
He was so excited. The first big meeting started at seven o’ clock. He couldn’t wait to see how many people were going to come. But at 6:30 there was no one. Six forty-five, and still no one. The clock struck 7:00 p.m., and the auditorium was empty. Not a soul in the seats. My friend was alone onstage. The only other person was a technician in the sound booth. He was so disheartened. He felt like going home and calling it quits. But just as he was about to give up something rose up on the inside, a holy determination.
“I’m not going home a failure. I’ve prepared my message,” he thought. “I’ve taken this step of faith so I’m giving it my all.”
He went up on the platform, and without one person in the auditorium seats he preached as if the place was packed. He went on for over an hour doing his very best.
At the end he even gave an altar call and invited people to receive Christ. It looked as if he was just going through the motions. Later, he told me he’d felt like a fool and a total failure.
But as he finished his altar call invitation, a side door opened and this older gentleman, who was part of the cleaning crew, walked down to the front, shook the young minister’s hand, and said, “I want to accept Christ.”
The man told him later, “It wasn’t your message that got to me—it was the fact that you preached your heart out without a person in the room.”
A few seconds after the janitor came down, the sound technician joined them, saying, “I want to make a commitment to Christ.”
The young minister went home that night not feeling like a failure at all. Instead, he knew the hand of God was on his life. That was a turning point. Door after door opened to him after that. Today, he has a church with thousands of people in the congregation. He travels the world ministering. When God can see your faith, extraordinary things are going to happen.
The Scripture tells us that a group of lepers once saw Jesus passing by. They came over and said, “Jesus, please make us well.” Jesus could have healed them right there easily enough. But he asked them to do something to express their faith. He said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”
And as they went, they were cleansed of their disease. Jesus asked them to do something that they were not allowed to do by law. They were not supposed to be near other people. They had a contagious disease and were considered unclean.
I’m sure they debated whether to follow His instructions. “Should we do what He asked us to do? My skin doesn’t look any different. I’m not well. Why should I go?”
But they put actions behind their faith. The Scripture says, “As they went they were cleansed.” In other words, if they had not had the courage to demonstrate their faith, then they would not have seen God’s goodness. As they started down the road, I can imagine every few blocks they said, “Look I’m getting a little better.” Another mile: “Can you see it? I think my skin is clearing up.”
They just kept moving forward, demonstrating their faith, and by the time they reached the priests they were perfectly normal.
A lot of times we want change without taking action. “God open all the doors, then I’ll step out. Give me the power to break this addiction, then I’ll cut back. Give me the big crowds, and then I’ll launch my ministry. Let my husband straighten up, and then I’ll start treating him better.”
Yet God says, “As you go, as you show me your faith, then I’ll give you what you need.”
Lakewood Church was still in its first small auditorium back in 1972. It held 270 people, and it was very crowded during most services. We needed a bigger building. My father had some plans drawn for a building that would seat one thousand people. It was estimated to cost about $200,000.
One Sunday he took a special offering for the church’s building fund and the donations were right at $20,000. Month after month went by as my father waited for the rest of the funds to come in. The donations trickled in a few hundred dollars here and there. At that rate, Lakewood would have needed another five or ten years to raise all the money needed for a new church.
One day an old friend of my dad’s came by.
“John, what are you still doing in this little building?” he asked. “You’ve got to have more room so you can grow.”
My father said, “I know that. But I don’t have the money.”
“How much do you have?”
“I only have $20,000,” my father replied. “That’s just enough for the foundation.”
The man looked at my father and said very sternly, “John, pour the foundation and watch what God will do.”
He was saying, “Put some actions behind your faith.” My father got his courage up, and they poured the foundation. Before long the money came in for the steel, and then for the exterior. It wasn’t any time before the whole building was up and totally paid for.
What happened? Just like those lepers, my father took a step and saw God’s goodness. As he demonstrated his faith, he saw God show up in amazing ways.
You may have a dream that’s on hold. Like my father, you have waited and waited for everything to fall into place, thinking once it does then you’ll stretch, and then you’ll make a move. And yes, it’s good to have a plan, it’s good to stay in God’s timing, but you cannot wait around your whole life. At some point you’ve got to say, “I’m taking a step of faith to put actions behind what I’m believing. I’m going to show God I’m serious about fulfilling my destiny.”
When I was growing up my father traveled overseas for ministry work, often for weeks at a time. My mother stayed home to take care of all five of us by herself. When my father was away on these long trips, invariably a couple of us kids would either get sick or have some kind of accident that made it even harder on our mother. One time I cut my leg playing in a Little League baseball game and I had to get stitches.
It seemed like these little emergencies always occurred when my father was away. My mother began to dread him leaving. If he had a trip planned, we’d seem to catch cold or run a fever before he started packing. My mother would think, “Here it goes again.”
My father got fed up. He said, “God, I’m going away to do Your work, to help people, and here my own family is falling apart again.” My father was bold. So he decided he would make sure God could see his faith. Instead of just praying over us he asked all of us kids to come outside. The oldest, Paul, was about thirteen and the youngest, April, was about three at the time.
He lined us up from the oldest to the youngest, and we had to grab the shoulders of the person in front of us, like a choo-choo train. My mother and father stood at the front.
Our dad led us around the perimeter of our property saying, “Father, I want to thank You that no weapon formed against my family will prosper, and You said Your angels will watch over them and no sickness would come near our dwelling.”
He had us repeat his words, “No sickness, no disease, and no accidents.”
We were in the backyard, and I was hoping he wasn’t leading us out to the front yard. The neighbors already thought we were crazy. We were about to prove them right. Sure enough, my father marched us right out to the front. I was so embarrassed I had my head down. I saw friends going by staring, neighbors looking out the windows, cars slowing down.
Do you know from that day forward when my father went on those long trips we never got sick again while he was gone? We never had any more of those accidents when Mom had us on her own. Years later, when we were trying to acquire the former Compaq Center to be our church, Victoria and I would go to it at night when nobody could see us and walk around it.
We circled the arena saying, “Father, thank You that this building is ours. Thank You that You’re fighting our battles for us. Thank You that You’re making a way where there is no way.”
Can God see your faith? Are you doing anything to demonstrate your trust? It’s not enough to just pray. It’s not enough to just believe. The Scripture says, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” I know good people who have faith and love God, but they’re not living an abundant life. They have faith, but it’s not doing what it should be doing. It’s not helping them overcome obstacles. It’s not helping them accomplish dreams.
Why is that? Their faith is dead. They’re not putting any actions behind it, so it’s not activating God’s favor. It’s not activating God’s goodness.
Your action doesn’t have to be something big. When you go to work each day and give it a hundred percent, that’s demonstrating your faith. Sometimes just getting up in the morning and putting a smile on your face is putting action behind your faith. Just the fact that you go to church is an action of faith that God can see.
You could be resting, working, running errands, but when you take time to honor God, He knows it. Right now, reading this, you are putting action behind your faith. That tells me your faith is not dead. Your faith is alive. Your faith is activating God’s power. Your faith is allowing God to fight your battles. Your faith is opening the door for the extraordinary.
I heard about this lady diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was trying to stay positive and hopeful, but she was so afraid. She had two children. The doctors had given her only a 15 percent chance of surviving. She prayed and believed, and she had friends and family supporting her.
One day somebody gave her a little gray rock with the words “Expect a miracle” written on it. We’ve seen little trinkets with Scriptures on them and such. But when she was given that simple rock, something on the inside came alive.
Her faith was ignited. She knew: “It’s going to happen to me. I’m going to be well.” From then on, everywhere she went, she kept that rock with her. All during the day she would keep it in her pocket. At night when she went to bed, she put the rock right by her pillow. It was a reminder to thank God that He was working and to thank Him that He was restoring her health.
The little rock in itself was nothing special, but it was her way of putting actions behind her faith. When God looked down and saw her always carrying that rock, He recognized a faith that he could not just hear, but a faith that He also could see.
The woman went through chemotherapy and several surgeries. After months of fighting the good fight, it came time for her doctors to perform biopsies to determine whether the treatments had worked. The doctors examined one hundred different places where they thought it could have spread. They told her not to get her hopes up. There was little or no chance that they would all come back cancer free.
She went to the exams with her rock right by her side. When she woke up after the procedures, she saw a beautiful older lady dressed in a bright white dress. She thought she was a nurse. The lady said very gently, “Are you the one expecting a miracle?”
This cancer patient was kind of groggy, but through the haze she wondered how this strange lady could know that she was hoping for a miracle. She answered, “Yes, I am.”
The lady in the white dress handed her a small plaque that read, “Miracles happen every day.” When the patient read it, she felt a warmness go all through her body. The next thing she remembered was waking up and seeing her husband leaning over her with a big smile.
He said, “Honey, the results are in. There was no cancer in any of the one hundred biopsies.”
She never found out who that lady in white was, but she still has the plaque on her wall. “Miracles happen every day.” Let me challenge you to have a faith that God can see. Put actions behind what you believe. It’s not enough to just pray, not enough to just believe. Take it one step further and demonstrate your faith.
You may not see how your dream could ever work out, but like those lepers, as you take steps of faith you’ll see God begin to open new doors. You’ll have the strength to do what you could not do. You’ll see His favor in unusual ways.