If we are wanting to walk in faith, to truly be casting out devils, have God caused miracles happen through us, and see people genuinely won to Jesus as His disciples, there is only one verse we need to understand and one principle. The verse is Galatians 5:6 and the principle is "the circle of faith."
Let's begin with the verse: "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision availeth anything: but faith which worketh by love."
We can understand all the theological aspects of faith, we can know that faith rests totally and only in Jesus and His will. We can have saving faith, be filled with God's grace and power and have it bubbling inside us jumping to get into action. We can be praying properly, giving properly, and living morally and still not have results in our walk of faith. We need to understand that what Galatians 5:6 says is true, FAITH DOES WORK! But we also need to remember HOW it works--by LOVE.
It's like this. I could go down and buy the biggest, fanciest car on the market and have it in perfect working condition. I could get all excited and have it delivered to my driveway. All the neighbors could run out to see this perfect machine and get all excited with me. Then we could all decide to go for a ride, hop inside, stick the key in the ignition, and err, errrr, errr, nothing! Why? Because the best car in the world won't go anywhere without GAS! Likewise the best faith in the world won't work without LOVE.
I Corinthians 13:13 tells us that faith, hope, and love are the most important things, but love is the most important of all. When Jesus comes again, faith and hope will be swallowed up in reality at the presence of Christ, but love will continue forever. Faith is to love as the Law is to grace; faith is but the handmaid of love.
The object of real faith is God, Jesus Christ our Lord (Mark 11:22). Faith has a result which is victory (I John 5:4). Faith's importance is that without it we can not please God (Heb. 11:6). Faith's use is a shield to ward off Satan's fiery darts (Eph. 6:16). We as Christians live by the faith of Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:20). God's desire is to find faith on the earth when He returns (Luke 18:8). We receive faith by preaching and hearing of the word of God (Heb. 4:2). But most importantly faith works by love.
But faith does not work by just any ole kind of love just as cars today can't run on just any gas. So what type of love makes faith work? The love Jesus commanded us to have as we love each other AS He loved us (John 13:34).
Let me illustrate two aspects of Jesus' love, the kind of love by which our faith will work.
Read Mark 8:10-21 especially verses 15-16. In this scripture the disciples demonstrated, perhaps more than any other place in scripture, just how spiritually and mentally ignorant they could be. How could they have possibly thought Jesus was talking about bread and missed what was really going on! When this happened, Jesus did not go out and get Himself another "church" worthy of His ministry, ability, and intellect due to their denseness. Rather He loved these unlearned fishermen and dreamers. The point--Christ's love is tolerant to the immaturity of others.
Next, in Luke 23:34 Jesus said these familiar words, "Father, forgive them: for they... " We have heard this so often that perhaps we have missed what is at the heart of these words.
For example, when someone does something hurtful to us or wrongs us, we are usually counseled to forgive them for--what they have done to us. But this counsel is incomplete because people don't hurt us, not if we are dead to self and our lives are hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
What people do when they sin against you is hurt themselves. When someone steals from you, don't they really rob God? All we have belongs to Him, doesn't it? That act of thievery just added up to another sin against themselves, sending them farther down the road to hell. Which is worse--having your goods stolen and being persecuted by someone, or this someone sending themselves to eternity in hell because of their actions?
Listen, being all wrapped up in telling the Lord or others that we forgive someone for what they have done to us is only pride and haughtiness! We need to intercede to the Lord and pray for our enemies, persecutors, and all who are sending themselves to hell. Remember what we said about giving and receiving based on Luke 6:28-37?
Do you think when Jesus was on the cross He was saying "Oh, Father, forgive these lousy reprobates for what they are doing to me." NO! He was praying that the Father would please forgive these unfortunate, poor sinners for what they were doing to themselves, "for they know not what they do [they don't understand the eternal consequences of their actions]" (Luke 23:34). At the center of Christ's prayer was not an awareness of His situation (which was horrible), but of the people who were sinning in crucifying Him!
Until we love like Christ loved, we do not have the proper "love fuel" to make our God given faith work! Faith works by Jesus' kind of tolerant, forgiving, interceding and dead-to-self love. If you don't see the importance of this yet, read 1 Peter 3:5-7 and realize that our prayers, the prayers of the saints, can be hindered and cut off from reaching God's mercy seat and attentive ear by lack of LOVE.
Sometimes when we feel that our prayers are not going past the ceiling, we're right. They aren't. We need to repent and truly love. And my friend, until you love and intercede for (not against) your enemies, YOU HAVE NOT LOVED!
Where would we be if Jesus had not loved us while we were yet sinners, crucifying Him upon the cross by our rebellion and sin? "LOVE YOUR ENEMIES" (Luke 6:27). "For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15). "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye also love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have [this kind of] love one to another" (John 13:34-35).
This should give you a good start on understanding Galatians 5:6. I hope you pursue this further and come to see why it is wrong for anybody to live in luxury while the world starves. Not because there is anything wrong with having nice things, but because while our pocket book may allow us to have abundance, a true Christian heart of love will not allow it. God loves the whole world, and cares about their physical needs just as He does their spiritual need.
But there is also a principle involved in the working of faith which is what I like to call the "circle of faith."
We can have the gift of faith and Christ's love to make it work, but like water in gas, our doubt will cause faith to sputter and die. Doubt is the thing that messes everything up. Often we pray, "Lord I believe, but help my unbelief!"
We spend time in prayer, counseling, and Bible study seeking diligently to rid ourselves of doubt. Well, I can't rid you or your doubt--no one can. But I can tell you the mechanics of faith and where doubt comes from. Let's look at Matthew 14:22-23.
Peter wanted to walk on the water and come to Jesus. He was talking to Jesus, which is what prayer is--talking to God. Peter "prayed" the Lord for permission--or if it was Christ's will--to let him walk on the water, also. Jesus' answer was, "Come," clearly establishing God's will. Peter then stepped out in faith on God's will and was upheld by his faith in that will, "come." But Peter faltered, slipped in his faith and started to sink. Jesus then said, "O thou of little faith, where didst thou doubt?" (vs. 31).
It is obvious that doubt quenches faith, but what causes doubt? In verse 30 we read that when Peter looked (saw) the boisterous wind he became afraid. It is FEAR that causes doubt! Now we are getting somewhere for I John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear: He that feareth is not made perfect [mature] in love."
Friend, the reason you doubt is because you fear. The reason you fear is because you are not mature in Christ's love and, like the water in the gas, fear is killing not only your faith but your walk with the Lord. For, "without faith it is impossible to please him [the Lord]" (Heb. 11:6).
This is the circle of faith: Faith works by love, doubt quenches faith, fear causes doubt, love casts out fear, faith works by love, doubt quenches... . This circle or merry-go-round of double mindedness must stop for faith to flow and work smoothly. The pure love that works faith is not only important, it is as they say the whole ball game! Love both causes faith to work and stops fear.
When we doubt, we doubt GOD because we are not TRUSTING God. Peter's doubt was of Jesus Himself for Christ had said. "BE NOT AFRAID!" (vs. 27). People's faith is not working because they don't really trust God--which is believing in HIS LOVE.
That's right, for I John 4:19 says, "We love him, because he first loved us." We don't love purely because we don't really believe God loves us. So what do we do? We invent doctrines like positive confession and everything else to try and make faith work instead of acing the real problem--a lack of submission to Jesus and love for others in our own lives!
This is evidenced by the materialistic way we live. Who are we kidding? We don't love God because we don't love our neighbors as ourselves (I John 4:20-21). We have savings accounts because we don't believe God can or will take care of us day by day. We don't have a New Testament church like everybody talks about because no one is about to sell what they have, entrust their lives to the brethren, the Lord, and live in community possessing all things in common. The church in America is the church of materialistic Babylon the Great waiting for a "charismatic, miracle-working" false prophet to feed us to the Antichrist! Satan's gospel of self-interest is destroying the Church of Jesus Christ from the inside out in order for Satan to take it over and set himself up as god!
The so-called faith, prosperity, and confession teachers of today are charlatans--Satan's ministers of righteousness referred to earlier! And the populous eating up their ungodly trash are the people mentioned in II Timothy 4:3-4. "For the time will come when they [the Church] will not endure sound doctrine: but after their OWN LUSTS [own desires] shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [fairy tale theology]."
I want to repeat something very important I said a few sentences ago. The real reason people's faith is not working is that they don't really TRUST God and believe in His LOVE. This is happening for two reasons. 1) There is no real grace and love in someone or 2) the frustration of grace and love in one's heart by false faith--due to false teaching.
Today's faith teachers tell people God's will is for them to be continually happy, have perfect health, be prosperous, and have their heart's every desire. But when people are not having this "abundant life" (materialism and pleasure) actually happening in their lives, these teachers then tell them it's because they must be sinning.
I have counseled with people under this teaching and they have become victims plagued with fear and doubt. They have believed the false "faith message" of divine health and prosperity, but it has not worked! They know they love the Lord, but think they are disappointing Jesus through some unknown sin--because they are not getting what they have been misled to believe He wants them to have.
These individuals become confused, depressed, and afraid to tell anyone for fear it will be a "negative confession" making matters worse. Satan is having a field day destroying people's joy in Jesus by the "faith" teachers' false doctrines.
The balance in this section is this. First, people who don't have working faith because they lack love for God and others need to repent. Second, people who do have love and faith but fear their faith is not working or doesn't exist because of false teaching, need to forget the doctrines of men, rest in the arms of Jesus, and trust Him unconditionally!