Faith That Produces Results

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.2 For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, [a]not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. (Hebrews 4:1-2)

There is a certain kind of faith that produces results. To further explain this, I am going to use the example of a woman and how she produces a child. First, an egg is released from her ovary and makes its way down to the womb. Sperm is released to penetrate the egg, and when the egg is inseminated, it produces a child. A biological miracle has happened. Now, unless the egg and the sperm mix or make contact, it produces nothing. The egg will continue to make it to the womb where it can be inseminated but will be discarded. Even though the womb will get filled with blood, making the conditions right for insemination, the egg will die. There will be no miracle, no birth, and nothing will happen.

In a similar way, when we hear the Word of God, it will produce nothing unless we mix it with faith. The Word of God must be met with faith to produce healings and miracles! Let's take the story of an actual Holy Spirit insemination in the life of Mary, Jesus' mother.

"Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!'" (Luke 1:26-28)

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end."

Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"

And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible."

Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:29-38)

Now, the Word was given by the Angel Gabriel and it was met by Mary's faith. The moment Mary said, "Let it be to me according to your Word," the Word of God inseminated her womb and the Holy Spirit's power brought it into existence. Just like in Genesis: God spoke the Word, and the Holy Spirit brought it into existence. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness." (Genesis 1:1-4) Here we see the Godhead creating our world. The Father speaks the Word (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit's power brings it to pass. The angel said, "That the Holy Spirit would overshadow her." Just like in Genesis, the Holy Spirit is hovering, waiting to take action on our faith.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith gives things substance. In other words, it makes it a reality. Many times we confuse faith and hope. Hoping for something does not produce anything. While it is a building block of faith, it is not the same as faith. Hope is a desire for something to happen. Faith is knowing it will happen. Also, many people pray out of fear. They are afraid that if they don't pray, things will continue to get worse, or in their anxiety, they are praying all the time. Jesus said this, "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words." (Matthew 6:7) Sadly, we pray over and over about the same things because we don't believe we were heard the first time. I know that this hits some people where it hurts because we can all be guilty of this. I don't want people to think they can't pray for the same thing over and over again. Sometimes we need to take ground in the spiritual realm. To be honest, some of our family needs our continuous prayers until we see the manifestation. I'm not talking about that. We need to examine whether we are in faith or anxiety when we pray.

If we are going to produce results with our prayers, we must believe God's Word and mix it with our faith. The best kind of prayer is praying God's Word in faith over our circumstances or the people we love. We can also command healing and miracles to come to pass through faith. It floors me that the God of the universe has given us this type of capability and authority in Jesus' name. He has given us this God-given power to produce results in the earth. Can you feel the weight of this responsibility?

Let us pray: Father, we thank you for this awesome and amazing God-given power and authority to co-labor with the power of the Holy Spirit and bring about results by faith. We receive the insemination of your Word in the womb of faith. We pray that we be fruitful and multiply an abundant harvest of healings and miracles in your name as well as many souls coming into Your Kingdom. Amen!