By Janie Baer

Lots of people mix up believe and faith because they are opposite sides of the coin.  To have a coin that you can spend you have to have something on both sides, otherwise it is a counterfeit.  So it is with faith.  For you to spend the coin of faith in the supernatural realm of heaven you have to have something on the other side of the coin and that is believe.

For example, if you believed that if you eat food you wouldn’t die but if you never ate then you would die.

Believing the Word of God but never acting on your faith, which is how faith works, the promises will never happen.  Some people ten years later are still believing something that never happened because they never put faith to work.

There are people in the Church trying to get God to do something but they never act on their faith.  They try to play it safe in case it doesn’t work out but God is not going to let them play it safe.  Acting in faith is how faith is going to work all of the time.  Faith requires action.

You can find a good example of putting action to faith in 1 Kings 19:19-21.

1 Kings 19:19-21 So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. 20 And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? 21 And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. KJV

Believe means that you make an unqualified committal or sell out to something.  So if you say you believe the Word of God but then turn around and get plan B in case things don’t work out, that is not true belief or believing.  That’s not faith when you make other plans or provisions.  You have to make an unqualified committal to the promises of God and stick with it no matter if things look like they will not turn out as you believed.

In the scripture 1 Kings 19:19-21 Elisha made an unqualified committal to Elijah.  He acted on his faith by burning up the plow, cooked the oxen and fed the people so that he could not come back and do what he had done previously before he met Elijah, but instead continue his pursuit of Elijah’s mantle even if he failed.  He is saying by his action that he is not coming back to this work any longer.  Meditate this account of Elisha for this is how you must operate in faith, with no thought of turning back from your faith. 

You must stick to the Word of God that is eternal and not look at the circumstances that are all subject to change; then all you need to do is speak as though it is already done and have expectation so that you experience manifestation.  You must decide there is no turning back.  This is the way you are going to operate the rest of your life.

Matt 9:27-31 And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. 28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. 29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. 30 And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. 31 But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. KJV

Notice here that believe and faith are together here in this scripture, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” and “According to your faith be it unto you.”

The “believing” Jesus is talking about here in Matt 9:27-31 is believing in God’s ability and not your own.  When you believe with the head, you believe something based on your own experiences, but believing with your heart is believing something that is based on God’s ability and this believing takes you to another realm, the realm of the spirit or the realm of heaven that is beyond your ability and what you can do.

Faith is an action.

You need to look at faith as the currency of the Kingdom of God.  It takes faith to transfer the need or desire you have from the Kingdom.  This works like money in the world’s system.  In the world system you need money to buy things and pay bills etc.  If you don’t have enough money then you can’t buy or pay for things.  Faith works the same way in the realm of the spirit; you need faith to receive things in the Kingdom of God and if you don’t use your faith then you won’t receive unless you experience God’s mercy.  So faith is a currency in the Kingdom of God like money is in the world’s system.