The word “faith” means “action”. Which, is why James said faith does not exist (is dead/non-existent) unless it is action-oriented. Otherwise, it is just “hope.”
So, yes, it is true that “it’s faith and faith alone that manifests power.”
What else would possibly manifest power?
Hope sure don’t manifest power.
Nor, does love.
Nor, does bible reading.
Nor, does good character.
Nor, anything else.
That is the function of faith, brother.
Shoes go on feet.
Gloves go on hands.
Love manifests God’s character.
Faith manifests His power.
Faith manifests power.
Love does everything else.
And, one does not need a gift of faith to make things happen. They just need to be faithful in manifesting the faith they already have and also in growing a stronger faith (killing unbelief).
When Jesus’ friends asked why they could not get the boy healed/delivered in Matthew 17, Jesus gave ONE reason why and it was “small faith”.
Not, small love, or small hope, or lack of worship, or generational curses, or any of the dozens of things people tend to believe it is.
Just….. Faith.
That is good news because everyone can grow in that area!
Faith is a force like gravity or electricity. What most Christians call “faith” is actually “hope” or “faithful” or “faithfulness. When a person is actually in faith, it is very often felt as a presence/force around them and/or coming out of them.
Love is what gives us relationship with God. But, it is faith that releases God from within us, out OF us… into the world around us.
So, the one thing that will allow one to walk in the FULLNESS of the unveiled life He bought for is, is and always has been faith.
For by it, we even gain entrance into Him so as to be saved. Faith is what saved us to begin with. Not love. Not tongues. Not being nice. Not, anything…. except faith, and faith alone.
Then, we are told, “do those who work miracles among you do it by the keeping of the Law or by faith?” So, working with Him, in the unveiled fullness He made available to us is done by faith, and by it alone.
We “stop the mouths of lions” with faith, and faith alone.
We “subdue kingdoms” with faith, and faith alone.
We raise the dead, cast out demons, and heal, with faith, and faith alone.
And, without one the Word says we cannot please God. And, that one thing was not love, or kindness, or tongues, or whatever. No, it was faith… and faith alone.
It is faith and faith alone that manifests power consistently. Love does not do it. Tongues, while it builds power in one – and sometimes it “leaks out of us” – it is faith that releases it consistently.
And, if Jesus knew how prone we were to not want to not walk in this thing called ‘faith’, which is why He – in unsolicited manner – asked “will I find faith left on the earth when I return?”
Because, my only focus for nearly 20 years has been faith, and faith and nearly that alone… an angel was sent to me to commission me for a mission for heaven – and, having landed on my roof (and burned my shingles, btw) and given me the message that the Father wants people to listen to the message of ‘uncompromising, wild, intensely focused-upon, Faith without watering it down & that all that the Church has been looking for and not finding {John 14:12b stuff} was found by focusing on FAITH, and that alone”
Because, when we focus on faith toward Him, then salvation comes from it, then love comes from it, then being renewed-in-mind comes from it, and then His will done in the earth will also be done by it.
Faith works through love. Love, IS God. Thus faith is THIS God (of love) IS faith that IS faith in love, and thus love FROM faith.
Faith has been forgotten because it is HARD. Much harder than what people call ‘love’ today. And, MUCH harder than being a ‘good Christian person’. Faith is a death to our everything, and therefore a Life from His everything.
Faith is NOT faith unless there is movement (inside you or through your body {“action”}. :>)
James did not say that faith exists in a “dead form” without action. What he said was that faith IS action so if one is claiming to have faith and yet they are acting like they do not REALLY believe… then there is really NO faith there at all. He is saying that that supposed claim of faith is a dead claim because faith IS moving on it.
Further, as one lives a life of faith, and they thus see many things supernaturally manifest through them, then their faith is then increased into a stronger level of unwavering conviction. We see this when Jesus and the disciples in the boat discussing bread. We see that they did not fully/really/actually “see”/discern the meaning of the miracles of the fish and bread and thus they had no more faith/Godfidence then they did from the start. And, THAT was the sin/”leaven” of the Pharisees (seeing but not actually “seeing” and hearing and yet not actually “hearing” – and thus they had no faith when they should have had faith after considering what they knew).
Romans 10:17 says faith comes by “hearing” (aka “perceiving”, “discerning”) the Word of God/Christ. The word “word” there is not logos (the written word) but rather rhema (the revealed word).
Like, when Peter was the only person who knew who Jesus was, when Jesus had asked everyone. What did Jesus say to Peter? Peter had “caught the rhema-message about Jesus” when no one else did. It is thus not a coincidence that Peter was the only one to then later walk on the water.
FAITH comes only via this manner.
And, supernatural is manifest only via this manner.
Love, tongues, etc, etc are aids in growing and sensitizing one so they CAN then grow in faith, and therefore power.
REAL faith is not easy.
THIS, is why we must “hate” our lives, “carry our crosses unto death,” “put First His Kingdom,” love God with ALL (not most) our strength, etc, etc.
The Apostles even failed to believe for a healing in Matthew 17.
If we tell people walking with Him is not tough, then they will be discouraged when they soon find out that living Jesus’ command in John 14:12 is actually not easy.
“What you win them with, you win them to”.
Walking with God is this world, IS hard. And, if one thinks it is not, then they are not walking with Him like they think.
Faith in God IS walking with God.
Without faith, there is no walk in God. There, is only religious hope.
Because;
God IS a Spirit Being (John 4:24 & & Cor 3:18).
Thus, to walk with a Spirit Being, it takes faith toward God as a lifestyle because you cannot see Him with your eyeball.
And, to manifest that Spirit’s Beings power into this physical world, it takes an unwavering faith, in the moment.
Note the two critical words here:
1) “lifestyle”
2) “in the moment”
When I believe, without wavering, and therefore tangibly felt power pours of me, causing demons to manifest in people, animals to react, miracles are manifest, and spirit-servants (angels) to descend down as large physical balls of light from the sky, and, etc, etc, etc…
THAT is not “faith as a lifestyle”.
Nope, that is “unwavering faith in the moment”.
That faith, is felt like a force-field that emits out of my body, causing an unseen Kingdom to come riding in, on that wave of power.
Both kinds of faith are similar in regards to the fact that is an “unwavering conviction”.
When lifestyle faith gets really, really strong then it can then be felt and cause physical manifestations.
Maria Woodworth Etter’s faith-filled presence caused the dead to rise.
Rodney Howard Browne’s faith-filled presence caused thousands of people to manifest God – even if they did not want to.
Charles Finney’s faith-filled presence caused crowds near him to spontaneously fall to their knees and cry out to God for forgiveness, even without him saying a word.
John G. Lake’s faith-filled presence caused people to levitate in their chairs in church.
My faith-filled presence often causes telekenetic manifestations like John G. Lake’s.
etc, etc, etc, etc.
Faith, alone…. and nothing else (not hope, not joy, not love) is what causes realms to bend and contort and Heaven to pierce through the veil and into this world.
Faith comes from a number of ways. Love does not produce miracle-working faith. Love motivates the use of the faith we have, to be used to bless people and the Father. :>)
The woman with the issue of blood did not get healed because of love, not even because she loved this “Jesus guy that everyone was saying was a healer”. She got healed because she believed the reports.
Faith, alone, moves power.
Love, motivates its use.
When we have faith that what we say WILL happen, then it will indeed be forced to manifest from that world and into this one.
I hope that helps some.