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Corresponding Action

September 21, 2024 • Pastor Joe Sabolick Ph.D. • James 2:14–18, Deuteronomy 28:2–6, Mark 5:39, John 5:19–20, James 2:20

Corresponding Action


When you’re expecting something to happen or someone to visit, what do you do? 

You make plans. 

You prepare.

You get ready. 

In other words, you take action!


Having faith in God—or the faith of God—is similar. 


When you pray, release your faith for something to happen. 



You Believe you receive the answer. 

And then, add to your prayer of faith what the Word calls 

“corresponding action.”


James 2:14-18 

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith yet Their actions do not correspond? Can faith save him? 

15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,

 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 

17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” 


Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 


When you pray in faith, believing you receive the promise of God in His Word and being expectant for Him to answer your prayer, 

move forward with corresponding action:

 

Prepare to receive God’s promise that you prayed! 

Faith prepares ahead of time for what it believes will happen.


Deuteronomy 28:2-6

2-6 These are the blessings that will come upon you: (Chase You Down~ 

Blessings in the city,

Blessings in the field;

Many children,

Ample crops,

Large flocks and herds;

Blessings of fruit and bread;

Blessings when you come in,

Blessings when you go~


Faith Prepared 

Is Faith Pre-Prayed~ 


Because in Prayer I disagree with the Mountain 

Because in Prayer I disagree With The devil 

Because in Prayer I Disagree with demons 

Because in Prayer I Disagree with the diagnosis 

In Prayer I disagree with the lying symptoms 



1 Faith Prepares Ahead of Time

Mark 5:28


Walk in the Spirit~. Believing God in all things` 


When Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee with His disciples, it was evening. 

He had been preaching and teaching all day long to people who were eager to listen to Him.


 When they arrived at the other side, as soon as He stepped out of the boat, 

Mark 5:2 says, “A man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him…. 

Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones” 

Self affliction is a sign of demonic presence…

After Jesus cast the demon out of the man, he got back into the boat and crossed the Sea of Galilee once again.


This time, when he stepped out of the boat, a man named Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come and heal his daughter, who was dying. 

On the way to heal the little girl, a woman who had suffered with an issue of blood many years, interrupted his journey. 


Mark 5:28

The woman said, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed”. 


In the account, 

the woman did touch the hem of his robe, and she was healed!

She prayed, She Spoke out her confession and acted upon it~ 

She Was Healed~! 


 By the time Jesus finished speaking with her, 

Jairus was told by a messenger from his home that it’s too late,

his daughter was dead…


BUT IT’S NEVER TO LATE FOR JESUS! 

WHATEVER YOU ARE DEALING WITH OUR THINKING IT’S NEVER TO LATE FOR JESUS…

Mark 5:39 But Jesus said, “The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep” 

That Prayer is NOT DEAD~ It Might Be Dormant for a moment but God is On His WAY~ 

JESUS IS ON HIS WAY~ 


If you’ve ever read this series of miracles, then you know how the story of Jairus’ daughter ends. 

Mark 5:41-42 Jesus went to Jairus’ house, and when He saw the girl, He took her by the hand and said, “Little girl, get up!” 

She “immediately stood up and walked around!”…


How did Jesus do all this in a matter of a day? 


How did He have it in Him to preach all day, and then perform not one, not two, but three miracles—and one that involved raising the dead?

Jesus not only came to reconcile Us To God But Came to Show Us This Amazing Relationship we can have with Our Heavenly Father~ 


The answer is because He depended on His Father, and He prepared ahead of time! 


Are you prepared & Pre- Prayed 

Are you tight with your Heavenly Father? 

-Walking In The SPIRIT! 

Jesus Fully God Fully Human taught us what it was to have a relationship with Our Living Loving Heavenly Father~ 

_____________________________

That’s what faith DOES~ 

3 Faiths 

Living Faith -True Faith 

Dead Faith- Make Believer  

Demonic Faith- Non Believer 


Jesus said two things that show us He depended on His Father and prepared in advance to do the work God sent Him to do:


First:

John 5:19-20 “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. 

Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. 

In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. 

Then you will truly be astonished”

___________________________


Second:

John 12:49-50 “I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say”

Jesus was the embodiment of The Father- 

2 Tim 3:16 Great Is The Mystery of the Gospel 

God Was Manifested in the Flesh~ 

Immanuel God is With Us~ 

Is 9:6 His Name Shall Be Called~ Wonderful Counselor All mighty God~ 


Jesus prepared ahead of time by spending time with His heavenly Father. 

Our Power Is IN the Presence of God! 

This is what we’re to do. 

We’re to spend time with God, in His Word, and in prayer, to build our faith to prepare to receive what it is we’re believing for, because 


Faith Prepares To Receive the Promise.


2 Faith Prepares for What It Believes

Romans 10:17


Everything in the Bible was done and received by faith. 


Every person Jesus healed, delivered and set free was healed, delivered and set free by faith.

By faith, the demon-possessed man was freed. 

By faith, the woman with the issue of blood was healed. 

By faith, Jairus’ daughter was healed.


Faith depends on the Word of God alone to work—

~and it prepares ahead of time for what it believes will happen. 

What is it that God has for you?


 What has He put in your heart to receive?


You have to see it with your Spiritual Eyes- 

Spend time in the Word—

reading, 

studying, 

meditating on it and listening to it preached. 


Romans 10:17 tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” 

Stir up the faith inside you, because Faith Prepares To Receive the Promise.


Romans 4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—

God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;


What are you calling by name into your life?

Healing

Blessings 

A new Job

Mr or Mrs right 


Joel 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.”


Psalm 107:2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;


Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved


John 11:40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”


Faith Prepares for What It Believes~


It sees the Promise and Refuses to Focus on the Problem~ 



3 Faith Prepares for What It Expects

Hebrews 11:1


The Oxford Dictionary tells us that hope is the 

“feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”


Not wishful thinking! 

Not Positive Thinking 

Not little say nothing riddles~ 


It’s Hope that is based upon The God of Creation manifested in the flesh~


 Hope is the blueprint of faith.

 It paints a picture inside us of what we need or want, and what we’re to be expecting.

 With that hope before us, we feed our faith and use it like a tool to receive what we’re believing for.


 Then, we release our faith by speaking God’s Word that promises us what we’re believing for. 


Hebrews 11:1 tells us that 

“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”


What are you believing God for? 

Make a list 


Make a list of your financial,

 Physical, 

Emotional,

Health, 

Relational or 

Spiritual needs,


Whatever else you’ve been praying and believing for God to answer.

Write it OUT~ 


SEE IT and SEE IT TAKEN CARE OF BY THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD

As you make your list and prepare your spirit and soul to receive, remember this: 


James 2:20 tells us that faith without works—or corresponding action—is dead-

So, find one or more covenant words and promises from God’s 


Word that apply to your situation and write them next to your need. 


For example,

 if you’re believing for healing and, specifically,

 if you are believing God to have a child, 


you could write 


Exodus 23:25-26: “You must serve only the LORD your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water,

 and I will protect you from illness.

There will be no miscarriages or infertility in your land, and I will give you long, full lives.”


The more specific you are in your faith—your believing—the more specifically God can answer your prayers…



If you’re believing for financial breakthrough, release your faith to live debt free. 

You can use the following verse to write a confession: 

Romans 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another.


 If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law”. 

Your confession could easily be: 

“Lord, thank You that I owe nothing to anyone but love. 

Thank You that because you so greatly love me, I can love everyone I meet today with Your love.”


If you’re believing for a relationship to be restored—with your spouse, child, a relative, friend or colleague—find a verse or verses to write, pray and confess the promise of God so you can release your faith…

because 



Faith Prepares To Receive the Promise.

_____________________


4 Faith Prepares for the Victory

Mark 11:22-25

Part of receiving by faith is thanking God for the answer before you see it in this natural realm. 


It’s praising God that what you’ve prayed, 

hoped and believed Him for is coming to pass.

 It’s worshipping Him for the answer—for your healing, your provision that’s coming, the breakthrough that will happen, for the child who will be set free or the lost who will be saved—before you see it.

 Faith counts it already done.


Mark 11:22-25 is a foundational passage of Scripture and a fundamental of faith:

 “Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Have faith in God. 

I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, 

“May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” and it will happen. 

But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.

 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. 

But when you are praying, 

first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.’”


When you have your prayer list and God’s promises to stand on for each prayer request, then pray using the promises of God. 

Release your faith by speaking what He promised—because faith depends on the Word to work.


 Then start praising God that the victory is yours,

 that what you’ve declared by faith is already done.

 God is faithful, and He will do what He has promised

. He will respond to your faith. He will always respond to His Word. He will honor your keeping “the switch of faith” turned on, because faith pleases Him


Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

He will honor you when your Faith Prepares To Receive the Promise.