God Thinking 55 - Exploration of the heart 6

"There are two kinds of faith; dead faith and alive faith.  Let's look at dead faith first.

Dead faith is when you say one thing and do another.  You say you are going to do this or that, but you don’t follow through.  You don’t really have faith to do it, you just say you do so you will fit in or so that others will think you did do what you did not do, because dead faith seeks recognition - not righteousness.

  

Dead faith is when you let those at church think you are altogether the professional business man and Christian extra-ordinaire, while you are stilting people, trying to make a buck without regard for integrity or truth or full disclosure of your product or service.

Dead faith follows others with dead faith, each on their own self serving path of indiscretions.

Dead faith talks a lot about what it is going to do in the name of good works, but follows through with little, because dead faith has no power and carries no reward, but it is easy - just say you are going to do it and in due time enough people will think you did do it, so you can take credit for the work of another.

Dead faith prays, wavering and changing with every wind, convinced that prayer is just a formality.

Dead faith is the faith of the double-minded.  There is no efficacy with a double-minded man because there is no agreement between God and man.  There is only the theatrics of faith, but no connection between yourself and the Spirit of God.

James says, in James 1:5-8, 5.  "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  6.  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.   7.  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.   8.  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

Dead faith doesn’t receive answers to prayer, because dead faith doesn’t trust in a living Savior. 

Dead faith is:

• Intellectual, but not wise
• Religious, but not righteousness

Those with dead faith try to make those with alive faith believe that they have alive faith too, but it is evident that they do not.

• There’s no fruit
• There’s no testimony
• There’s no witness
• There’s no power

Just the motions of having faith, some of the language, but no real connection.

• Dead faith is stirred to rebellion each time it is faced with itself.
• Dead faith is always trying to lower the bar.
• Dead faith is not moved when God enters - because dead faith is callous to God’s gentle wooing.
• Dead faith looks alive on Sunday, but by Monday, there’s not even enough residue from Sunday, to see it under a microscope." \

Excerpt from God Thinking 55 - Exploration Of The Heart by Keith C. Powell copyright 2012