Doing III

 Another worthwhile point worth mentioning is that James didn’t say ‘if someone says they have faith in Jesus,’ rather, he said ‘if someone says they have faith.’ The faith he was referring to was not faith in Christ but this amorphous, ethereal, indefinable faith that has become so popular nowadays. It was his way of saying if someone insists they are spiritual. It’s not a new thing, but it has recently exploded in popularity.

People want to claim spirituality; they want to say they have faith, but they don’t want to associate themselves with any religion in particular. They’ll insist they are people of faith, but when you press them and ask faith in whom or in what, they’ll start to stutter and throw out some hackneyed line like karma or the universe or the god within.

That’s when you know you’ve happened upon someone who would stink to high heaven if ignorance had a scent attached to it. Their spirituality is not some inward experience bringing them closer to truth; it’s a way to highlight their self-importance. What such people believe to be enticing, exciting, cutting-edge, and noteworthy is vapid, tedious, cumbersome, and trite. Whenever I hear someone say they are spiritual, my Pavlovian response is to roll my eyes and throw up in my mouth just a little bit.

You have no rudder, no compass, no anchor, no clear path in life, no direction, and no purpose, but sure, you’re spiritual because you ate some dried-up mushrooms and did ayahuasca with the hippie that smelled like stale sweat and patchouli. At least the Gnostics of old had knowledge as their objective. What does this new iteration of spiritual persons have, exactly?

Faith must have a focus, an objective, and an anchor point. Faith in nothing is no faith at all, but if your faith is in Christ, then you will do the things Christ commands you to do. It’s the process of supplanting their will with God’s will that bothers many people. They want to be in control. Some even need to be in control, and when called upon to surrender that control and become a bondservant of Christ, it riles the flesh.

If the function of the faith God requires of us is to place us in possession of all His promises, does it not stand to reason that the enemy’s singular purpose is to keep you from developing true and abiding faith?

God has something great for you. The devil wants to keep you from getting it at all costs. In his quest to keep you from receiving the promises of God, the enemy is willing to give you baubles, trinkets, influence, power, wealth, and even a harem if that’s what it will take. Few stop to question why the devil is offering them such shiny things in exchange for something he calls worthless, meaningless, and not worth pursuing. Few ponder what the true value and worth of God’s promises is if the devil is willing to part with vast fortunes just to keep you from them.

The enemy knows what heaven is. He knows he can never return. His jealous rage has funneled into a single point of purpose, that of keeping everyone else from going there as well. If you look at the situation objectively, dangerous as he might be, the devil is still just a petulant child who doesn’t want anyone else to have heaven if he can’t.

By what James says, we can infer that there is dead faith, and there is living faith. There is faith that moves mountains; then there is faith that lays comatose in the fetal position, waiting for it all to end. There is active faith, looking to do the work of the kingdom, looking to be a good and faithful servant of the cross, and then there is faith that restricts itself to an early exit and as little exertion as possible.

God’s function is to give, and mine is to receive. That’s all I know, and it sounds good even though the rational part of me tends to wonder why the guy telling me it’s God’s job to give and mine to receive is asking me to give to him. I’m sure it’s just an oversight that will be remedied posthaste. I mean, doesn’t he want to unclog the torrent of blessings by being sacrificial in his giving too?

Sometimes, we want to believe the lie so much that we ignore the inconsistencies. We want the easy win, the comfy life, and the prosperous future without enduring or overcoming because we know what those things imply, and it’s not summer hats and cotton candy.

If the enemy can manage to eliminate certain concepts from the Christian ethos, then when those things appear in one’s life, they are rejected wholesale because they will be associated with something other than faithful obedience and perseverance.

If, as a new believer, I’m constantly told I will not have to suffer persecution even though Paul said all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus would, and Jesus Himself said that if the world hated Him, they would likewise hate us, then when persecution arises, wouldn’t I do anything to avoid it?

If, as a new believer, I’m constantly told that all I have to do is raise a hand in the air, and I’m set for life when the opportunity arises to be an answer to prayer and a blessing to a brother or a sister in need, wouldn’t I turn my head and walk the other way because I could use the extra twenty in my pocket like anyone else.

The least we can do is be honest with ourselves and admit that we gravitate toward certain teachings because they are more pleasing to the flesh. The least we can do is admit that if we rightly divide the Word, a healthy, vibrant, living faith is active and purposeful in doing the work of the Kingdom, putting its hand to the plow wherever a need arises.

You can tell a thirsty man you pray his thirst be quenched and send him on his way, or you can give him a cup of water. Never discount the possibility that you may be the miracle that man’s been praying for.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.