Extra Step to Faith

Written by

Mak Okay-Ikenegbu

January 2014

 

Luke 8: 43-48 – “A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped…” (NLT)

 

How can you make your faith work for you? There could be several ways, but one thing is for sure: you need to take an extra step even when you’ve prayed. The extra step builds and increases your faith towards enabling you key into your testimony. “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1 – NLT); but the bible also made it clear in James 2:26 that faith without works is dead. There are different significances of that particular scripture in the book of James, but it is clear that believing or hoping alone is not enough; you need to take an extra step.

 

The woman with the issue of blood for 12 years in Luke 8 didn’t get healed by Jesus’ cloth; no and far from it. I believe she wasn’t the only sick person within the crowd. In fact, some other sick people must have touched Jesus even better, not just the fringe of his robe or with just their hands, but with their whole body as the bible recorded in verse 45 – “…Peter said, Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you”. The point is, the woman had faith and her faith healed her as confirmed by Jesus in Verse 48 of the same chapter; but again she could have stayed in her house or by the roadside and still have faith, but no she did not. The woman needed to take that extra step to ignite her faith to action. She needed to carry out an action that will boost her faith and belief. According to St. Mark’s account of the same story, in Mark 5:28, the woman believed that her action (the extra step) will heal her – “For she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed” (NLT).

LESSONS

Overcome fear:

Peter in Matthew 14:24-33 walked upon the water like Jesus did, but the bible recorded in verse 30 that “…when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink…”. People say FAITH is the opposite of FEAR. In a way, this is a rational argument because, one cannot have fear and at the same time have faith and vice versa. If you have faith to embark on a trip safely, you cannot have fear of getting involved in an accident. If you are fearful of boarding an aircraft, you will need to first get rid of the fear before you can pick up the faith for a safe flight. The only fear that works with faith is the “fear of God” which the bible says is the foundation of wisdom (Psalm 111:10 – NLT); wisdom that surpasses all human understanding of people that will want to discourage you from exercising your faith and the extra step. Peter as a matter of fact needed to ask the Lord to command him to come. The command was the extra he needed to believe he could walk on water as his master. Christ commanded, Peter obeyed and began to walk on water, however, when he allowed fear to set in and grip him, he began to sink.

Sacrifice:

Sacrifice is at the center of Christianity. Jesus showed us a perfect example by dying for mankind, for the remission of our sins. It is simply because of this ultimate sacrifice of God allowing Jesus his only son to pay the price that the gospel is so propagated today. It is true that the purpose of man is to fear God and obey His commandments according to Ecclesiastes 12:13. It is also true that Samuel spoke saying obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 10:22), but every Christian need to cultivate the tendency to sacrifice. It is with sacrifice that you can give up your time in obedience to serve God. It is with sacrifice that you can give up your money or wealth in obedience to sow a seed in the work of God. In relation to the extra step, Hannah sacrificed being with his son Samuel by giving him off to grow to become a priest with Eli (I Samuel 1). This was a promise of sacrifice Hannah made to God in exchange for the elimination of her sorrow from childlessness. She took that extra step of making a promise of sacrifice to God.  Note that it is a difficult sacrifice for a mother to give off her just weaned child to be taken care of by another person especially after having been childless for awhile. However, the story had a happy ending for Hannah as she was later blessed with three sons and two daughters (which still stemmed from her initial promise and act of sacrifice).

 

Still to buttress the extra step to faith, a clear picture is painted with a request to God for prosperity in the land you’re in. When you are praying for favour in the place you are, what do you do? You could just lay on your bed and do your quiet prayer (which of course gets to God and has the potential of being answered), but a prophetic step will require you to get off your bed, go outside or even still in your bedroom, bend and lay hands on the ground as a point of contact to the land or earth and then begin to programme the land to favour you: …Hear, O earth [of your location] the words that I say (Deuteronmy 32:1). You command the earth and it will hearken unto your voice. When you eventually start to experience the open doors, it is the Lord who did it through your faith; but your action certainly played a role in increasing your faith to believe that by touching the ground as a point of contact, the land will favour you.

 

IN YOUR PRAYERS

Lord remove from me spirit of FEAR, and increase my FAITH towards receiving my miracle.

Lord enable me to take the extra step to faith, necessary to receive my miracle and testimony.