Do you want to do great things in your life? Do you want our Heavenly Father to use you in great ways? Do you desire to see your dreams come to pass and be fulfilled? If so, I want to encourage you in the matter of your faith.

Beloved, faith will get you everywhere.

Now, I’m not talking about the kind of faith that doesn’t believe hard enough to actually work for things. That’s not faith; it’s presumption. When you believe God for something for real, you’re going to go out and work for it and work toward it. Remember what the apostle James told us, taking literal dictation from the Holy Spirit, in James chapter 2:

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 

If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 

You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 

You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (James 2:14-24 NKJV).

But real faith–the kind that inspires you to work for a thing, the kind of faith that gets you up and compels you to DO–real faith will get you everywhere.

What do I mean by that?

My own story is one of faith. I personally do not have anything natural to recommend me to be used by God:

• I’m not related to anybody;
• I grew up without resources;
• I didn’t go to any famous schools;
• I hate networking to try to advance a career or opportunities, and I don’t do it, and I don’t suck up to anybody;
• Nobody ever saw anything much good in me at all.

I’m not anything that anyone would ever look at and say, “God could use her.”

But you know what? God loved me and drew me to Himself, just like He loves you and drew (and is drawing) you to Himself. And He taught me to love Him. And then I loved God so much that I believed Him. And when He called me, I answered.

That’s all I’ve got, but answering that call to give my life to Him and then again to serve Him with everything I’ve got has changed everything for me. Because it meant:

• I had to study the Word to learn what He wanted me to do.
• I had to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, which is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit at the same time as He also requires us to put in the effort to take every thought captive and study the Word. He did the work while I also did the work.
• And then I had to choose to believe Him, because His Word is true and cannot return to Him void. It always accomplishes the thing for which He sent it.

And God’s Word says some pretty big things.

• God’s Word says that you can do anything because He can do anything.
• God’s Word says He can use anybody. He even made a donkey to see the pre-incarnate Christ in person, and to rebuke a prophet.
• God’s Word says that it’s not by (your) might, and not by (your) power, but by His Spirit that He does all things.
• God’s Word commands us to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.
• God’s Word commands us to GO into ALL the world and preach the Gospel.
• God’s Word says that He will give you what you ask for–whether that’s a miracle baby (which He gave me after 11 years of infertility), or a paid-for house (which He gave me after years of my husband and I working multiple jobs to pay our house off), or a worldwide ministry (which He has given me with your help after years of working 16-20 hour days and feeding the people of God all the Word I have strength to feed them).

And yet, although I’ve done my due diligence and put in my time, both in the business world and in seminary and in hard, HARD work, I still have nothing to recommend me:

• I still am not related to the right people;
• We live by faith financially; and
• I’m not famous, or connected to famous people, or glamourous, or anything like that.

And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because like this, my faith is in God alone. I’m not waiting for a kingmaker; I’m just seeking God and trying my best to humble myself every single day and give myself to serving God and others.

But big dreams are still possible, because faith BUILDS.

Look what God says about what He can do, and therefore about what YOU can do:

“For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37 NKJV).

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NKJV).

And also:

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).

“Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes’” (Mark 9:23 NKJV).

Faith will get you the promises of God when you have no outer resources to recommend you. Faith will take you to the tops of the highest mountains, alone with God, where you can cry out to Him in desperation: “Show me Your glory!”

And faith, worked out through the process of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling by inviting God to pulverize your heart every day with His Word, will build you the character it takes to keep you there.

Great works are done by faith too.

For example, even though we are the smallest of the small, with your help:

• We are housing pastors and missionaries and feeding dozens of them every month.
• We are seeing people healed and delivered and set free all over the world: healed from father wounds, from identity issues, from depression and discouragement.
• We are teaching people how to stand on their own two feet and have their own faith in Jesus Christ, Who died for them.

And greater works are yet to come.

Beloved, greater works are still to come for you too–if only you will have faith.

You have to have faith that works: in other words, faith that drives you to get out and work for the thing. But faith does work; true faith does. And faith will take you everywhere.

You don’t have to be qualified today. You don’t have to have the resources of your own yet, or ever. You DO have to decide to obey God and let Him deposit big dreams in your spirit, however; and then you have to believe that those dreams came from Him, and pray and work and work and pray until you see the fullness of those dreams come into manifestation.

Sometimes people who are big, famous, rich people talk about faith a lot, and it’s easy to see that it works for them. Their faith is probably what got them there, even though we can’t always see or know the backstory.

But friend, I want you to know that you don’t have to be big and famous to have faith, and to do great works.

Faith may have worked for the guy with a megachurch and a Rolls-Royce, and I’m happy for them that it did. I’m not knocking anybody’s progress or blessing. However, faith will work for you too, and God will honor your faith equally:

• Sitting at your kitchen table, crying over your bills;
• Desperately looking for an apartment or house to rent, when you need shelter and you need God to show up;
• When you’re putting in job applications all day every day, desperate for a job or new job;
• When you’re sitting at your loved one’s bedside in the hospital, believing God to raise them up.

O my beloved friend, faith WORKS.

And faith in God will get you everywhere.

But do you truly have faith? If not, step out and dig into the Scriptures today. Let God build your faith, because His Word is always true. God is not a man that He should lie, and every word that He speaks has power. Look at what Isaiah 40:8 says:

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8 NKJV).

And if you do have faith, allow yourself to dream big dreams today.

With your help, we’re housing pastors and missionaries right now, and teaching children and rescuing girls and doing all of that, and I’m believing God to do more of all of it.

We’re reaching people for Christ all over the world, and I’m believing God to do more of it–and to reach people more deeply. (I’d rather have impact than numbers, if I had to choose. But God says we can do both!) And we’re healing people all over the world, and I want to see more healed and whole than ever before.

That’s just me and my dreams (although I know you dream some of the same dreams, because you partner with us). But what about your dreams? What are you believing God for?

Faith works, beloved. Find what you want from God, ask Him for it, BELIEVE HIM, and then step out and work toward it today.

Love in Jesus,

Jamie