Mark 4.39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
*DISCLAIMER! This is a very difficult concept OF THE WORD ‘ACTION’ to explain. Most ‘action’ spiritually is by speaking. I am trying to say that the action of speaking is also work.
Jesus didn’t just ‘ believe’ the wind and waves would go away. He didn’t hope for them to leave or wish them to be calm. He didn’t even pray to His Heavenly Father for the situation to resolve. He did something very powerful though. He opened His mouth and used His tongue. He rebuked the wind. He spoke to the waves. Jesus activated a solution to His circumstances by speaking in faith. Proclaiming the will of God because He knew the will of God. We can too if we see it written in the Bible. God can not lie and the Bible is God’s Word.
Faith without works is dead. Jesus had to do something to save the day, so he spoke. He declared God’s Word. He created the heavens and the earth so He could calm it down as well. This action of speaking was all that was necessary.
James 2;17 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
With faith comes works (action). We are called to receive, believe and be doers of the Word. Just knowing the Word means very little. Seminaries are full of these kinds of people. We must take what we know and use it. Be doers of the Word, many times by speaking.
James 1:22 ‘be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves’
Work is action. Doing is action. Some action verbs don’t sound like work though. Speaking is one of them. When I was a new Christian, I thought that talking was not an action verb. I knew God was calling me to do stuff for Him, but I thought action was just getting up off of the couch and going and physically doing stuff.
That is worldly (carnal) thinking. You have to get up and do stuff, but the spiritual realm is affected by our talk.
The most effectual type of action (work) for the kingdom of God has very little to do with physical activity. Work by definition is moving mass a certain distance. We assume that we must work for the kingdom of God as well. I do that a lot. I love moving around. Taking food. Helping people move. Etc. but God, Kingdom of heaven, wisdom and other spiritual stuff have no mass, so it isn’t qualified as work. There often is nothing to lift or to move. Action is required.
Wisdom for example, is weightless. If you weighed the normal computer disc memory it would weigh aproxima 0.612471 micrograms. Now you take all the information stored in the library of congress, put it on the disc and weigh it again it would still be 0.612471 micrograms. A mass is a measurable quantity of matter or the form of matter that holds or clings together in one body. All matter has weight. Therefore mass has weight. Spiritual things of God have no matter , therefore weight. If you move it in thought capsules (words) it doesn’t count as physical work but it is an extremely important action
Spiritual things and knowledge have no mass. So taking action in this is not actually work, but definitely doing something. You take action to work. You take action to do spiritual things. I grew up working on Amish farms and soldiering. That is hard, grueling work. Now I don’t work so much (physically) but my life has more activity (action) than ever, Sure we exercise, work out, carry food to the dump. Hold Bible studies. Have schools and groups. Lots of activity, but the action (not work) that brings people to the foot of the Cross is talking, interceding, rebuking, encouraging, teaching, praying, worshipping, singing, reciting, praying in the spirit (tongues), loving, blessing, admonishing. Not work exactly, but a lot of activity (action). This is the primary job of Christians. None of it is physical work. But it is invaluable work.
Here’s a great combination of spiritual activity and work work in a day job to show you how to combine the activity of work and the action (work) of sharing the Gospel. A FedEx guy, pizza deliverer or an Uber driver does lots of work every day. (I would love to be an Uber driver btw). They work (move great amounts of mass every day). Now, if they pray before delivering a package, blessing the home they are ringing the doorbell of, and invite their customers to their church what they are doing is a million times more important than delivering cheap Chinese made clothes that are way too small, driving a drunken adulterers home or feeding a morbidly obese person more carbs and saturated fats. Work is necessary but it is worldly and temporary. Work’s results are seen immediately but not very satisfying. Godly action is necessary, heavenly minded and eternal. Godly action’s results are hardly ever seen, but extremely satisfying in the long run. Maybe not immediately, but eventually
I always kick myself for not delivering the message correctly. (Even this one) For not conjugating a verb correctly or using the right gender (a Spanish thing). For not praying enough. For not being kind enough. For not getting results. Sometimes God gives me a glimpse but hardly ever. But I know my actions are not in vane and I will continue doing so until I die. Like Isaac, the philistines kept throwing dirt in his wells, but he meekly just kept digging new ones until he finally dug Rohoboth. My continuous actions of speaking have eternal results.
Jesus used His mouth to do almost all the Kingdom of God work.
Luke 4:39, KJV: And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
Jesus’ ‘work’ was actually by the ‘action’ talking. He said to the storm ‘shut up and get out’. He told the fever ‘shut up and get out’. Sure, we get up and minister. We leave the house. Our main tool for ministry though is our tongues, creating very effective thought capsules that go out and complete God’s Word.
Prov 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof
Words are effective thought capsules if you are credible to yourself, and have faith according to God’s will (which can only be found in His Holy Word).
The strongest word for spiritual warfare is ‘no!’
The strongest words for praying for a demon possessed, or sick person is ‘shut up ailment and get out’. Words are strong and effective IF you can believe what comes out of your mouth. Telling the truth, always, is a very important, but extremely diffficult action.
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Faith (action) words get the job done better than any other work if you can actually believe what you are saying, and it is the will of God (which we know is because we get the will of God out of the Word of God.
- speak
- hear
- ask
- thank
- say (not ‘just saying’, I hate that phrase.
- confess
- rebuke (evil not people)
- pray out loud
- speak in tongues (out loud in your prayer closet)
- sing
- shout
- praise
- encourage
- exhort
- teach
- prophecy (expounding the Word of God)
- admonish
These are the greatest tools to use for the Kingdom of God, followed up by work and common sense. Embarrassing to have to say it but there I just said it.
James 2:12
and one of you say unto them, “Depart in peace; be ye warmed and filled,” without giving them those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?