-Day 6 -
Faith Without Works Is Dead
The Righteous Acts of the Saints
In the book of James it says, “Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe there is one God. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”… You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:18b-20, 24)
“The fine white linen that clothes the Bride of Yahshua is the righteous acts of the saints.”(Revelation 19:8) These acts will allow His Beloved to make it through this earth as a pure, spotless, and blameless Bride. She will have faith in Yahshua’s blood, and the power to freely perform, by the Spirit, Yahveh’s good pleasure and bidding. So faith is not enough. It gets back to what Yahveh has said in the beginning of this message; He has given us life, He has given us breath, He has given us talents, He has given us energies and gifts and what, by faith, are we going to do with all He has placed in our lives? Where are we going to sow?
By what are we going to sow? His Spirit will look at all these gifts and say, “I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. I KNOW HOW TO INVEST THEM, LET ME LEAD YOU TO INVEST THEM WISELY, by the guidance of My Father. I can show you, and by My power, lead you, to take those gifts and use them, to turn them over into eternal dividends and rewards that will allow you to hear, ‘Come and share in your Father’s joy.’ ”(Matthew 25:21) Faith takes your gifts and uses them, for the righteousness of Yahveh to be made known through your righteous acts and deeds. Religious works that are not in agreement and alignment with the Word of the Righteous One, are a different story. We read in James 3:13, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.” He is talking about deeds and works that are in complete agreement with the Father that are released and fulfilled by His spirit that is in us.
Wisdom dictates that we do things Yahveh’s way. Anything short of this is called folly, it is called sin,it is called transgression, it is called iniquity, and it is never called wisdom. “Has not Yahveh made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20) So when James is talking about wisdom, he is talking about one thing only, that is the wisdom to know, discern, and to do the deeds that line up with the perfect will of Yahveh for His praise, honor, and glory and for the building up of His body and kingdom.
Yahveh's Sheep Will Hear His Voice
“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.” (James 3:14) Now let’s look at this, I have been plagued with this at times, as part of my downfall, not the selfish ambition, but the bitterness. I get bitter and resentful in the anguish that the truths that Yahveh has given to us, that He has invested in us, that have transformed us from glory to glory, the truths that have set us free to worship Him in spirit and in truth, that these truths seemed more blocked than ever by the airwaves that are permeated with the polluted waters of “Christian doctrine.”
The prince of the air has done a glorious job for his kingdom to make sure that erroneous doctrines and traditions, that are not the pure stream coming from the throne room of Yahveh, are flooding the earth. In Revelation 12:15 we read about the dragon that comes out of the abyss who “pours water like a river out of his mouth;” waters of deception. It is being spewed out all over and people are drinking it, they love it, they are drunk on it, but what is really happening is they are being knocked out into an eternal stupor. The people rejoice that the gospel goes out and the righteous remnant grieves because the full counsel of truth is not preached. As Apostle Paul says, “I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of Yahveh.” (Acts 20:26-27)
My heart was sick, I don’t have selfish ambition, I have the ambition to see Yahveh’s kingdom advance. I have the ambition to see Yahveh’s name glorified. I have the ambition to see the waterless places of religion opened up so that the pure river can flow and bring life to whoever is thirsty so they can come and drink, and to him who is hungry that they can come and eat from the pure banqueting table of Yahveh without the risk of imbibing something that is contaminated by man.
Yahveh says, “My people are like sheep without a shepherd and the shepherds lead them astray.”But Yahshua says, “I am the Good Shepherd, My sheep hear My voice and I call them by name and lead them out…I go before them and they follow Me…” They are not going to follow a hireling, they are not going to follow a deceiver, they are going to follow Me. (paraphrase John 10) He says, “I am going to raise up shepherds after My own heart,” (Jeremiah 3:15) I am going to feed them, I am going to bring them into safe pasture, “I am going to bring them to my holy hill” (Ezekiel 34:26), and I will be there and there will be blessings, He says, “YES! “There will be showers of blessings” upon My sheep who I rescue out of the hands of the deceivers, out of the hands of the ones who could have cared less about their spiritual well being for they had their own interests at heart over Mine for the elect.”