By the Grace of God, by the time you have finished reading this Message, you will KNOW if you have faith or not, and if not, then you WILL know where to get faith.

Let me say this at this point: To have faith in God is one thing and to believe God is quite another thing as you will see.

I have seen many who have faith in God, yet, they do not believe God. On the other hand, I have seen many who believe God, yet, they have no faith. It is much like two men; one has money in the bank but doesn't know how to write a check while the other knows how to write a check but has no money in the bank. Now if we could get both those qualities (having and knowing) in one man, we could get the job done but till we do, I am afraid that we will continue to come up short.

While Hebrews 11:1 tells us what faith is, yet it does not make it clear to us. Let me give you an example: If you were to ask me what we were having for dinner and I told you "food" I would be right, yet, I have not made it clear to you what we were having. Now if I told you we were having "beans and potatoes", while it IS food, now it is clear to you what we are having. So is it with this Scripture. Now we get into our subject of "What Is Faith". I have taught this in different part of this USA and it has always been a blessing to the people and I pray that it will be so again as you read this.

We go to James 5:14-15:
"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

"And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

We want to keep this real simple. Notice in Verse 14, there are three things (and only three things) which are to happen.

I am going to inter mix an example with this so you may understand better what I am saying.

The first thing (a question) "Is any (that's you) sick? Here is the example: "Are you (any) hungry?" See! Same thing. "Are you sick? Are you hungry?"

Let's just say that the answer to those questions are "YES". Notice, that is the first part. Now what? Here comes the second part. Notice: No 1: "Are you sick?" "YES". No 2: "Let him call for the elders of the church." Period!! Amen! Period. Example: "Are you hungry?" "YES". No 2: "Come to my house and I will feed you". Period! Amen! Period. Nothing else to do. Amen! NOTHING ELSE TO DO, JUST COME!!!

At this point I always insert a bit of humor and will do so at this time. "What were you told to do to get food?" Come to my house, right? Then there is NOTHING else for you to do. You don't have to take a bath, you don't have to brush your teeth, you don't have to change your clothes. NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU THINK YOU NEED TO DO THOSE THINGS AND NOT EVEN HOW MUCH YOU NEED TO DO THOSE THINGS, IT IS NOT A REQUIREMENT THAT WAS LAID DOWN IN ORDER FOR YOU TO GET FOOD. Notice, there was no requirements laid down. Most time we try to place requirements where none is to be found. We do this because we THINK it would please the Lord and WHILE this may be true, yet it was not required in order for us to receive the PROMISE. I pray that you understand what I am saying. Let us do THOSE things that He requires us to do and not try to add to it. Those things that we try to add only gets in the way.

Notice here: He has asked us a question and we have answered. Now, what? Where is the responsibility at? Is it not on our shoulders? It sure is. He has NO responsibility till we first do what He has asked us to do. Example: I have no responsibility to feed you TILL you get to my home. You are sick, so what are you to do? Call for the Elders, right? Notice the Elders have NO responsibility TILL you call.

Once you "call" then ALL responsibility leaves your shoulders and rest on the shoulders of the Elders. Example: Once you get to my home, all responsibility leaves your shoulders as far as food and now rest upon my shoulders. If you don't get food at this point, it is not your fault but mine.

Now that the responsibility is no longer your, what happens? Well, the Elders has a job that they must do. What is that? They are to pass the responsibility on to the One who will fulfill it, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Example: When you get to my home, what happens? Well again the responsibility leaves your shoulders and rest on mine, so what is to happen? Again the responsibility is to be passed to the one who will fulfill it, which in this case is my wife.

Notice, at this point the Elders have no more responsibility, I have no more responsibility. ALL responsibility now lies one the shoulders of our Lord Jesus Christ or in the example on the shoulders of my wife. So now, what happens? Wife goes and prepares the food and brings it to the one in need. But what about our Lord?

Well He already has your healing prepared: (I Peter 2:24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: BY WHOSE STRIPES YE WERE (PAST TENSE) HEALED!!! So He just hands it over to you for you to enjoy.

Here I will insert another bit of humor. I have asked you if you were hungry and you said "YES". Now do you need to pray for food? do you need to beg for food? do you need to buy food? NO!!! JUST COME TO MY HOUSE!!!

OK. Jesus has told us what to do if we are sick and that is all we need to do. WE DO NOT NEED TO ADD ANY THING TO WHAT HE SAID.

I told you that FAITH is one thing while to BELIEVE is another. Faith is KNOWING what to do, while to Believe is to have CONFIDENCE in the one you are dealing with.

SEE THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD KEEP YOU FROM DOING WHAT YOU WERE ASKED TO DO WOULD BE A LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN THE ONE THAT ASKED.

Just take God at His Word and may God bless you is our prayer. Amen.

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