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FAITH WORKS IN LOVE
FOUNDATION STATEMENT: Faith that is not backed by the love of God has no power and will not produce victory in the life of a believer. For faith to operate at its fullest potential and produce maximum results it absolutely must be energized and powered by the love of God.
FOUNDATION SCRIPTURE: Galatians 5:6
I. Faith is a force that will only work when it is energized and powered by the love of God (Galatians 5:6)
A. There is no power in circumcision or uncircumcision, but the power and "can do" is in faith working by love
1. The power for the believer and available to the believer can be found and connected to when faith is working by love
B. Faith works by love to connect you to the anointing of God that will remove the burden, destroy the yoke, and produce victory in your life.
1. Faith works to connect you to the anointing
a. Faith is working to connect you to the power that is necessary for you to overcome and walk in victory
2. If love is missing, faith lacks the power necessary to connect you to the anointing of God.
C. Faith that is not working by love lacks the power necessary to produce victory in your life
1. Faith works in love, faith is mighty in love, faith shows itself forth in love, faith works effectually in love
a. Your faith won't work outside of the circle of love
2. If my faith is going to work, then there's a place that I have to be and that place is love
a. The moment you step outside of love, you just pulled the plug on the whole operation of faith
3. Faith without the love of God is void of power
a. Love is the power that energizes faith and enables faith to connect to the anointing and bring victory and deliverance to you no matter what the situation is
b. If love isn't working, faith isn't working; and if faith isn't working, you can't connect to the anointing and walk in victory
c. EXAMPLE: Car works by gas. I don't care what kind of engine you have under the hood or how good the body looks, without gas that car isn't going anywhere
D. Faith is a law and for it to work the principles must be in place
1. POWER COMPANY EXAMPLE: The power company is the source of your power. The power that it provides can light your house, heat your house, turn your TV on, keep food cold, make food hot, make your water hot, turn your hair dryer on, and it can do much more. That power called electricity is capable of doing all these things. But if your house isn't connected to the power company through power lines, then you have no access to that power. Now the power company has the ability to do all those things for you through electricity, but without a connection you can't benefit from any of those things.
2. The Word of God is the power of God that will produce nothing missing and nothing broken in your life. It can heal your body, it can increase your finances, it can get you out of debt, deliver you from depression, and it can accomplish the impossible.
a. Faith is the power line through which the anointing (electricity) can flow and hit your life. The power on that Word of God travels through faith to your life and will produce nothing missing, nothing broken.
3. Faith is that wiring that's underground and it's composed of a bunch of little wires or principles
a. One principle (wire) is faith comes by hearing the Word
b. Second principle (wire) is believe that you receive
c. Third principle (wire) is faith works by love
d. With the necessary wires in place you've got a line in the ground that can work to transfer electricity (the anointing) from the power company (The Word) to your house (you)
E. Faith works in Love and outside of love faith doesn't work
II. A step outside of love is a step outside of faith and a step outside of faith is a step outside of victory
A. God is Love and God is the Word; Love is the Word (1 John 4:16, John 1:1)
1. If you are walking in opposition to the love of God, then you are walking in opposition to the Word of God
2. If you're not agreeing with the Word of God then you're not in faith
3. You might be confessing the Word out of your mouth, but you're walking away from the destination that you want to reach
B. There is no such thing as faith outside of love
1. It's just high expectation without the power necessary to produce results
2. I don't care what a person says they believe, if they are not in the love of God they are not in faith
III. The God-kind of faith only works by the God-kind of love
A. Faith is a powerful thing, so powerful that God used it to frame the universe (Hebrews 11:3)
1. Faith has raised people from the dead, healed terminal illnesses, created new body parts, produced supernatural increase
2. Jesus told us to have the faith of God (Mark 11:23)
a. We are supposed to have the faith of God or the God-kind of faith; the same faith that did all these powerful things, we are supposed to have it
b. We are also supposed to have the God kind of love (Matthew 22:36-40)
B. We've tried to run the God-kind of faith on human, emotional, unconditional kind of love and that won't work
1. The Kind of Love that makes faith work
a. 1 Corinthians 13:4 - 4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. 5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
b. Ephesians 4:29 - Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it.
c. Luke 6:27-37
2. If we as believers are going to release the power of the God-kind of faith and see that power work in our lives, then it demands that we walk in the love of God
a. That's like trying to put a double AA battery in a car and expecting it to go
b. Some automobiles require premium gasoline to run, well faith requires premium love to run
C. As believers we've desired to walk in God's power, without first of all qualifying ourselves to walk in that power, by walking in God's character
1. The name of Jesus - If you're going to operate in the power of that name, you are first of all going to have to live in the character that His name carries
IV. Faith that is working by love will produce victory 100% of the time
A. Faith can fail if it's not working by love (Luke 22:31)
B. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8)
1. Love will never fail in its job to make faith work
C. Jesus' faith never failed because he never one time violated the commandment of love (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
1. He knew no sin - There wasn't a second in his life where he violated the commandment of love and consequently every time he released his faith it worked
V. Love must be the primary thing in the life of faith (Matthew 22:36-40)
A. Before you ever put on one piece of armor he tells you to be strong in love (Ephesians 6:10)
1. Without you being in love your armor isn't going to work
2. You might have your shield up, but it's not working to quench any fiery darts of the adversary. You might be swinging the sword of the spirit, but without love it has no power to affect your adversary
B. Strife and unforgiveness will keep your faith from working (Mark 11:22-25)
1. If you're in strife, your giving in faith won't produce a harvest (Matthew 5:23-24)
2. Where there is any violation of the commandment of love, faith is not working,. You have no connection to the anointing, consequently there is every evil work present because you lack the power necessary to stop the oppression (James 3:14, Act 10:38)
C. If you don't have love, you lack the power necessary to activate faith (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
1. You can pray in tongues, but without faith working by love it's a bunch of noise
2. You can have faith to move mountains, but if you don't have love you are a useless nobody
3. You can give everything you have, but if you don't have faith working by love it will profit you nothing
D. Love always precedes the acting power of faith that produces results
1. James 4:7 - You submit to God before you start resisting in faith
2. Luke 8:50 - You fear not before you believe only
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