Psuedo Faith vs. Real Faith

Pseudo-Faith = telling everyone you're believing God while you tell them specifics of all the things you need and all your circumstances.
Real Faith = telling God about your needs and circumstances. And going from that point with thanksgiving that the need is already met.

The first puts trust in others being moved with compassion, the later puts trust in God moving with His power to prove Himself faithful to His Word! Are you a manipulator of Psuedo-Faith or a Activator of REAL Faith?

I often notice in social media and in person, some people will tell you every single burden in their life and every single thing they are believing for, usually material and/or financial. I believe some of these people have a misconception of what real faith is. It's almost as if "faith" and "believing God" and "making good confessions" are used to manipulate others into being your provider. I've never felt comfortable with such behavior. Perhaps it's the way I was brought up and the ministers I was brought up under. Raised on Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth W. Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Scott Webb, Jesse Duplantis, and many other leaders in the faith movement some of who have gone on to be with The Lord, I had many years of the Word of Faith being planted deeply in my heart. I never heard these ministers instruct people to speak their problems to others, in fact I heard them talk against such behavior. And most importantly, in the Word I have never seen examples of such behavior. What I have seen is encouragement to speak, with your mouth, to the circumstances and to thank God for His Word and Promises and faithfulness to perform His Word! To tell people all your circumstances and problems, will cause well meaning people to "feel led" to give to you, because compassion rises at hearing your need. And then, if you have a conscious, you have the guilt of feeling like you manipulated a "blessing" out of them. I speak from personal experience, I have been in a place where I was pressured and pressured because someone wanted me to do something with them that I didn't have the finances for. However, I knew this person's heart and giving personality and didn't want to take advantage of it. I kept making excuses and finally got pressured into telling them I didn't have the finances to do it, and of course they said they were providing and wouldn't take no for an answer. Even in that instance I felt so guilty. Felt like a manipulator. We never want to live life like that, and we never want to go through life questioning whether we manipulated the "blessing" into working for us, and begin to question faith. That's when we enter into works and get to a place where it's me making faith work and it's my power, and forget why faith works.

When we get unbalanced in reference to the gospel, we find our selves doing things in our own strength, using cute "Christianese" and "faith-lingo" to sound like faith warriors when really we are carpetbaggers riding on the coattails of victory, using and manipulating it for our own personal advancement and material gain. True faith works in an entirely different manner. The believer that truly understand faith and how it works appears to be facing no serious battles. Often a true warrior of faith is understated by those around them. They appear to have a carefree life never facing serious issues like WE face, by the casual onlooker. But the truth of the matter is, they wage spiritual warfare on the true battlefield. They know who their source is, and it is not people. They understand people may be a vessel, but the vessel only transfers what is needed from the source to the receiver. They understand God is their source and that He is the one who takes care of them. They may be facing battles you can't even fathom, but you'd never know it. Because they know the victory has already been won, they've taken hold of it and seized it by faith in the midnight hours and they have joy and peace because they know God will bring it to pass!

It is truly wonderful to see God bring about answers to the deepest desires of your heart, to prayers and needs you've told no one but Him about. When these things happen, faith explodes and grows. Your vision and capacity to believe increases enormously. I've experienced such events in my life as well. Once small example, my sister and I were struggling financially during our time at bible school. I had no money and was waiting on a paycheck that got delayed. We had boxed Mac and cheese, some butter, and soured milk that was gross to smell. We made Mac and cheese and ate it, feeling reminiscent of the widow woman who said to the prophet, "I have enough to make a meal for my son and I, and then we will die." perhaps our situation wasn't that drastic, but at the time it felt like it as we had no idea where our next meal was coming from, BUT GOD. We told no one, not even our parents. As we ate, we prayed over our food and prayed that our storehouses were full, even though in the natural our cupboards and fridge were empty, we chose to believe God's Word works. The next day, bags of fresh groceries were on our door. And it was all really nice, organic and top of the line! We ate like queens! We cried and knew it was ALL God! Our faith in Him and Him alone had activated the blessing in our life. Like manna from heaven, groceries we needed to survive until the finances turned around were provided, and we ate even better than we had been eating off of our own finances. When you put your trust in God and His word, it is an unexplainable feeling of joy that HE,not another person, BUT HE heard the cries of your heart and your greatest needs and HE was faithful to perform His Word in your life!

When God meets your needs, it's always bigger and better!

That is truly living by faith and in God's prosperity!

Who is your source?

JRT