Volume 2007/5
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"He will throughly purge his
floor, and gather his wheat into the garner”
Mat.3:12
(From a sermon of Bro. Julius Adewumi at GMI Church, Phoenix Arizona,
Sunday Morning, June 10,2007)
(
Bro Julius gave the testimony in part one of praying that rain should not fall and how the voice of reasoning reminded him
of his umbrella under the car seat, and
how voice of Faith countered that “if he takes the umbrella, he nullifies the
prayer and the faith”. Bro Julius said
he “damned-the-consequence” and left the umbrella insisting that the rain must not fall till he
returns from the walk, ready to be drenched if it disobeyed.}
…continuation
from part one…
Someone
may say “Suppose the rain fell?” It could have fallen, and I would be drenched.
Many have done that, and that is the faith of men in the bible. Go and read the
book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 35. “Some laid down their lives for the faith.
They were killed, they were beheaded, they were sawn asunder”, but God still
called them men of faith. If we are
trying to save our lives, or if I was trying to save my clothes from the rain,
I become not a man of faith. God is saying there are some that He may not even
show up, but they laid down their lives “preferring a better resurrection”.
That is what He is looking for. But faith must be followed with that
action. When you combine both faith and action
God is pleased. Praise ye the Lord!
Let me give another example: the Shunamite
woman, 2 Kings 4. You know, the bible is full of this, but many people talk about the
results of faith and never remember the steps these people took to get these
results. That’s what I’m pointing out to
all of us—those steps are critical, or nothing will happen. We always
talk about how we want these things to happen, but we must remember that they took some steps
which God said “thy faith made thee whole”. He told the woman, thy faith hath
made thee whole. He told another man, thy faith hath made thee whole. It’s
their faith that they acted upon that made them whole. Now we have the faith
inside, but the actions must show forth that we have that faith because God is
looking for that action of faith. This Shunamite woman (many of us that have
read the bible know the story of this woman) in 2 Kings chapter 4. It’s the story of Elisha the prophet. He
always come to that town and then that woman, maybe for kindness would give him
food. So they became friends, family friends with Elisha the prophet. Elisha
realized that this woman has been blessing him, let’s bless the woman back.
Elisha blessed the woman by praying that she would have a baby for the woman
had no child. So the woman had a baby boy and the baby grew up. And that’s the
story where we’re headed. 2 Kings 4: 17: “The woman conceived, and bare a son at that
season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life. And when
the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the
reapers. And he said unto his father, ‘My head, my head’. And he said to a lad,
Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his
mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.”
Now
we are talking about the actions of faith. This woman believed that this
miracle of the boy came from this prophet so there was rejoicing in the fact
that the miracle happened. But she didn’t want a baby for five years and then
have him die.
That’s why she told Elisha: ‘don’t deceive me’.
Now she was furious when the baby died as a five year old boy or something
like that. Verse 21, “And she went up, and laid him on the bed of
the man of God, [the man of God only came once in a while and they had
reserved that room] and shut the door upon him and went out.” Verse 22, “And she called unto her husband, [step
by step action that this woman is taking is what we are trying to analyze here]
Send
me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses. That I may run to
the man of God and come again. And he said, [the man did not know that
anything had happened] why are you going to the man of God today;
it is neither the new moon nor the sabbath? And she said, It shall be well.
Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack
not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. So she went and came unto the man of
God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off,
that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunamite
[Now we have to remember that God is almighty. He is sovereign also which means
He does what He wills. God did not tell Elisha anything about these things.] Run
now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it
well with thy husband? Is it well with the child?” Elisha could sense
that this was not the time for someone to come. Like coming to church, you do
not come on Tuesdays or Thursdays. That is what it looked like to them here.
Elisha saw a woman that wouldn’t normally come, and said something is wrong—go
and ask her is it her child or her husband, for those are the two people in her
life. And the woman said, It is well. She kept it in until she got to Elisha.
Verse 27, “And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the
feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her
alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and
hath not told me.” One might say God must tell us everything, but God
has the right not to tell us everything. Verse 28, “Then she said, did I desire a son
of my lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me?” So Elisha straightway
knew that it was the boy she was talking about and sent his servant to go do
the miracle. The steps of this woman are the actions of faith. You must be
ready to take actions against all odds. God is watching for those actions.
Sometimes He waits until the end of the rope, and wants to see that you hang in
to the end before He shows up. God waits sometimes to the end because at times
we want to exercise faith, like Christ said, “Strive to enter in at the door.
Because some will seek to enter in but they will not be able to.” Some
seek then say it’s too hard, and give up. But God is waiting to the end right
here and that is where He is going to perform the miracle.
Let me remind you of another testimony because
sometimes we look at the testimonies of the bible days as if they were great in
those days and we are not. No, God is saying He is the great one and if
you walk with Him with the same simple faith and actions, He will do the same.
We just have to hang in there to the end, like this woman. She went to Elisha
and said I’m not going to leave you for she wanted to see that baby alive.
Elisha followed the woman and he had to pray and pray before the miracle
happened. Elisha was not a
magician. He didn’t just touch the
child for the child to come alive. He had to pray and pray and pray. Of course if he was Jesus Christ He could
have just touched the boy and bring him to live. But he was not Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ in many occasions just spoke or touched. He just lifted up a little girl, the daughter
of Jairus, and she woke up. He stopped a procession to the graveyard and he
just touched the brier, the thing they carried the young man inside, and told
the young man to arise, and he arose. He is God in the flesh! But Elisha had to wrestle in prayer.
I’m talking about the men and women who
got the miracle for hanging in there tough, by acting on their faith. That is
why the bible said “women received their dead raised back to life”,
(Heb.11:35), because they held on to that rope that God had given to them.
Faith with action is believing.
This reminds me of a testimony long ago in
Do
we know how long Elisha prayed in that room for the son of the Shunamite woman
before he arose? The bible said he
walked up and down in that room praying, and laid on the child several times.
Let’s
go again to the story of another fellow. John 4:46, “And there was a certain
nobleman, whose son was sick at
That’s
action of faith. He had been nursing this boy for days and looked like the
thing was getting worse and worse. And look at what the Lord Jesus said to him:
“Unless
you see signs and wonders you will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him,
Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son
liveth.” The bible says “and the man believed the word that Jesus had
spoken unto him, and he went his way.” He had taken the first action to
go look for the Rabbi. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ, asked, and the Lord said,
You are looking for signs and wonders, if you don’t see, you won’t believe. But
he said, please come, and the Lord said, just go. So he believed and took the
steps—that is action of faith. Well he could have said, “come, I need You to lay Your hand
upon him for this to happen”. No, he believed and took the steps and
started going back home. That is the action of faith. The bible said, by the
time he was on his way, his servants said that his son liveth. Faith with
action is believing. We have to take those steps as the Lord prompts us.
I
heard the story of a woman that was asking for a husband. She was getting old
for a lady and was going to use faith. She started getting the wardrobe full of
men’s clothes saying that a man is coming to wear these clothes. Praise the
Lord. So when we talk about action of faith it’s the taking of those small
steps; and God is looking for those types of steps to see that we are truly
believing.
Here’s another example in 2 Kings 4. Here
is a woman that her husband passed away who was a man of God. And there was
Elisha the prophet that her husband was more or less following. The woman realized that they had debt. The
man had debt before he passed away, and the creditor came to ask for his money
or they would take the boys away to become slaves. So this woman ran to the
prophet Elisha to beg for help in whatever way. Chapter 4, “Now
there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto
Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy
servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two
sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell
me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, thine handmaid hath not any
thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels
abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when
thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and
shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is
full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who
brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the
vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he
said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came
and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and
live thou and thy children of the rest.”
The first step was that she went to the man of
God for help whether for money or anything, and Elisha told her this was the
miracle that they were going to do. It was the woman that worked that miracle
at the mouth of the man of God! God can still do those miracles, but He wants to see those actions of faith.
Let’s talk about actions of faith of men
of God. We want to become men of God and perform wonders as well or give
miracles to some other people. Let’s see some actions that we may have to do, which
God also wants to see. From the Lord Jesus Christ himself, John 11, let’s look
at actions that the Lord did before the miracle. Those are critical to the
performing of the miracles that we need to remember.
In John 11:39, we see when the Lord Jesus
came to raise up Lazarus. All the things He was saying before he even called
Lazarus out of the grave are the steps and actions of faith. If you say I
believe and you’re going there to raise this body back to life with strong
faith, you know that the Holy Ghost who is going to do this thing may give you
some steps to do. Let me take you to the one the Lord Jesus did in Mark chapter
5, verse 39. When the Lord came to this house where all the people were crying
and mourning, He first spoke to these mourners. That is an action of faith. If the Holy Ghost tells you to take that
action and you say “until I raise this boy first before I can talk to these
people”, you just violated your faith. The Lord spoke to mourners, “why
are you making all this ado, the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth”. The
action of faith may be in what you say before you go to do the miracle. The
same thing in Jn 11:39. When the Lord
Jesus Christ was talking to these women, it says in verse 39 that He got to the
graveyard and there was a stone in front of it. Now this is the God almighty
that has all the power. Do you know what He said? “Take away the stone.” Do you
think that the Lord Jesus Christ can’t blast the stone away? If He can raise
the dead, if God Almighty is going to make the graves be open by His voice to
make the dead come out of that grave in the last day, He could have blasted the
stone away. But you see the Holy Ghost wanted Him to say it because it takes
some guts to tell people to take the stone away. Anybody can speak and pray
over the dead hoping it will come out of the grave but it takes
some guts to say let’s roll this stone away, or let’s dig this person out of
the grave before we pray. Something would tell you that you’re wasting your
time digging it out of the grave! That is one of the actions that I’m talking
about because to roll the stone away is an action of faith. To even tell this
people, the voice of reason will respond. The voice of reason replied to him
and said, Master, he has been dead for so many days, he’s stinking now. Don’t
roll the stone away. And then He responded to that also. So we have to remember
those small, small steps, God requires it. God requires those small, small,
steps that look like no step at all but they are the steps that He is looking
for that show that you really believe what you want to do. Faith with action is
believing. Amen.
.
(to be continued….)
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