In this life and in reality, there are many who complain that they have done all they knew to do and yet their faith seems not to be working.
For this reason, some have resigned everything to fate, accepting anything that the devil throws at them. This is not supposed to be so as there are reasons why the faith of some seems not to be working. We shall, therefore, be looking at making your faith work for you.
One of the greatest onslaughts of the devil is to cause our faith to fail. Faith failure is a destiny failure as we can never succeed as Christians without our faith being intact or strong faith.
If there is a time we should guard our faith, it is now that the storms and the battles of life are intense on earth that the faith of some is failing. Has your own faith failed?
That is why Jesus once looked at Peter in Luke 22:31-32 which says, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
Moreover, the devil knows that the faith that works can move a mountain as can be seen in the book of Mathew 21:21 “Jesus answered and said unto them,
Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
As said, the issue of faith is paramount to the Christian walk, as we cannot walk with God without faith. In fact, the Bible declared that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
See Hebrew 11:6 “But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.
And talking about the heroes of faith in Hebrew 11:33-34 which say “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
They quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
If we are ever going to survive the onslaughts of the devil this end time as to be counted among the heroes of faith, we must possess a strong faith or faith that works not faith that is passive.
It is unfortunate that some complain that their faith seems not to be working for them. Please before we complain that our faith is not working, we should ask ourselves what kind of faith we have.
Some people who complain that their faith is not working have no faith at all but only mental assent to the word of God. It calls for a deliberate effort on our part to strive to build our faith if we expect it to work for us.
In the New Testament, one of the people who manifested strong faith in his everyday actions that we should learn from was Apostle Paul.
According to Paul, he said that faith is a mystery as can be seen in 1Timothy3:9 “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Being a mystery, the working of our faith depends majorly on three things, according to Paul, namely: Firstly understanding the mystery of faith,
Secondly the state of our heart and thirdly the state of our conscience. In other words, faith that must work must be born out of a pure conscience.
The Apostle Paul also confirmed what made his faith work in 2 Timothy 1:3a, stating that he serves God with a pure conscience. As he pointed out in the above verse, “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience.
That is to say, before our faith can work; we must have a clear and pure conscience before God and man.
It is unfortunate that the consciences of some are not pure but evil. Hebrew 10:22 “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”.
Paul equally testified in Acts 24:16 and herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.
Look at what he also said in 1Timothy 1:5 now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: Also, Romans 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost
Moreover, and as said earlier, the devil will do everything to ensure that he counters our faith by ensuring that we are defiled. The reason is that he knows that God cannot walk with us once we are defiled.
Please look at what happened in Zechariah 3:1-4 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the Angel.
Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him, He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
What the above is trying to teach us is that we should ensure that we don’t allow the devil to get us defiled with iniquity, in addition to living with a pure conscience void of offense toward God and Man.
We should never allow ourselves to be clothed with a filthy garment if we expect our faith to work, or the devil will slaughter us like a Christmas chicken. Shalom.