To understand the distinction between living faith and dead faith, we have to understand the meaning of the word dead in the spiritual realm. Death is unawareness in the spiritual realm. When Christ told a man to follow him, the man asked if he could bury his father first. Christ said to him, let the dead bury their own dead (Luke 9:59-60). The people Christ were referring to were only spiritually dead. They were physically alive, but they were unaware of the issues of life the Father provided.
We can reach a higher degree of understanding when we define death in the spiritual realm. This allows us to apply the scriptures from a perspective that exposes the big picture. When we examine the scripture written by James that says, “Will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead” (James 2:20), we can understand it with more clarity. Vain men are of a low degree (Psalm 62:9). Men of a low degree are men who consider very few people if any.
Many have defined dead as useless in this scripture, but to say so would mean that prayer is useless. Prayer is not useless faith. Prayer is faith without awareness. Faith without awareness is like praying over a child with a fever. The child can indeed be healed by the prayer, but with this faith we are unaware. Without awareness we can’t repetitiously do this with a consistent result. Living faith is faith with an awareness of the works that brought about the change. Living faith would be the discovery of antibiotics. With antibiotics we can repetitiously heal the infected children with consistent results.
We have been led astray to believe that scientific discovery is not faith based. When dealing with matters of discovery, we have what is known as that eureka moment. Eureka is a phrase that means “I have found it”. After spending time trying to solve a mystery, we are often hit with a sudden revelation. It is said that the great scientist Albert Einstein would stop and play his violin and allow this to happen. We no longer see our deep thought as prayer, or these eureka moments as an answer from the Lord within us.
God favors our desire to know things. God rewards us when we approach the Father with a great amount of faith. That Eureka moment is the Father rewarding us with living faith for our effort. The scriptures teach us that a Centurion came to Christ to heal his sick servant. The Centurion did not feel like his home was worthy of his presence. The Centurion presented away his servant could be healed saying, “but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, come, and he comes; and to my servant, do this, and he does it”. Christ marveled at his faith saying, Truly I say to you, I have not found so great faith in all of Israel (Matthew 8-10).
Christ said the Centurion had more faith because he didn’t stop at what he desired. The Centurion took it a step further and believed in a way it could be done. This also occurred when a woman said, “If I shall touch his cloths, I shall be whole”. Christ again marveled and said, Daughter your faith has made you whole (Mark 5:25-34). We have greater faith when we take it a step further and think of ways a thing can be done.
We are commissioned by God to manifest the works of living faith. The scriptures teach us this saying, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2). When Jesus and his disciples came across a blind man, his disciples asked, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind”. Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him (John 9:3).
When we see dis-ease in our world, we are commissioned by the father to seek out a solution. In the perfection of the Father’s blessings, rain is sent on the just and unjust (Matthew 5:45). If bad things only happened to bad people, we would be less compelled to do something about them. Therefore, these bad things are allowed to happen to good people. This shall remind us that the Lords wants us to be his children the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). With a greater hope, we are to seek out a way so that we can be rewarded with living faith.
