Faith Isn’t Talk—It’s Movement

Scripture Focus: James 2:17

What if the reason you feel stuck in your faith isn’t because you don’t believe… but because you haven’t moved?

In this powerful kickoff to Season 3, Becoming a Faith Walker, Not Just a Faith Talker, we confront a hard truth: faith was never meant to be something you only say—it was meant to be something you live.

So many believers declare, quote, and even teach faith… but their lives remain unchanged. Why? Because real faith requires action. According to James 2:17, “faith without works is dead.” That means faith that doesn’t move… isn’t really alive.

In this episode, we break down:

•  The difference between talking faith and walking faith
•  Why many believers feel spiritually stuck, stagnant, or unfulfilled 
•  How comfort, fear, and overthinking keep you from moving 
•  The mindset shift required to become a true Faith Walker 

This is more than a teaching—it’s a wake-up call.

If you’ve been:

•  Saying you trust God but hesitating to act 
•  Waiting for perfect timing or full clarity 
•  Feeling like your faith isn’t producing results 

Then this episode is for you.

🔥 And here’s where transformation begins…

To help you move from passive faith to active, bold, consistent faith, I’m introducing the 10-Day Active Faith Kickstart—a guided journey designed to help you practice your faith daily, not just hear about it.

This plan will walk you through:

•  Daily scripture and short devotionals 
•  Simple but powerful faith actions 
•  Reflection moments to evaluate your growth 
•  Real-life application so your faith becomes visible 

Because the truth is: your life will not change by what you hear—it will change by what you do.

This season isn’t about inspiration alone… it’s about activation.

🎯 Faith Challenge for This Episode:Take one step of faith within the next 24 hours in an area where you’ve been stuck. No more delays. No more overthinking. Just move.

✨ It’s time to stop talking about faith… and start walking it.And your journey begins now.

 📥 Download the 10-Day Active Faith Kickstart to continue walking in active faith beyond this series. (Link below)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dI0Cm9SUZXkPo8gP4BHSiHSNRLLT8BJu/view?usp=drive_link

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is Faith Finder, where Faith becomes your roadmap. Welcome, welcome, welcome back to Faith Finder's Podcast, where Faith Becomes Your Roadmap. I am your host, Tamara Anderson, and I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you so much for coming back and joining me for season three. Oh my goodness, so excited, so thankful that you decided to listen in or watch the video, however, you're getting this podcast. I am so thankful that you decided to come back for another season. Season three is entitled Activated Faith from Belief to Bold Living. And episode one, which is now, is uh faith isn't just talk, it's movement. And you know how we do here on Faith Finder Podcast. We're gonna begin every podcast with a word of prayer. Oh, glory, hallelujah, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. Oh Lord, we thank you for another day, Lord. We thank you for another week, Lord God, we thank you for another season, hallelujah, of Faith Finder Podcast, Lord. We thank you, hallelujah, glory to your name, Jesus. We just thank you, we thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy, Lord. We thank you for being God and God all by yourself. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus. We thank you for sitting high and looking low. Hallelujah, Lord. We ask that you please forgive us of anything we have said, done, thought, or felt that is unlike you, Lord God. Hallelujah, glory to your name, Lord, as we jump into this new season, Lord, as we jump into this episode. I'm asking, Lord God, that you give us that shift that we need. Hallelujah! Glory to your name, to go from just believing, uh, hallelujah, but living boldly with activated daily faith. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus. I'm asking that you be with each and every person that comes, Lord God, to hear more of you, Lord, to learn more of you, Lord, hallelujah, to learn how to grow their measure of faith so that you can elevate it to the next level. Glory, hallelujah, Lord. We just ask that you be with each and every one of us, hallelujah, on this journey called life. Glory, hallelujah, Lord God. We're going to draw closer to you, Lord, and we're standing on your word that said that you will draw nigh unto us. So, Lord, we just thank you for today. We thank you for this lesson that you're gonna give us on today, Lord Jesus. Give us application of your word, and Lord, we just thank you. We give you glory, we give you honor, and it's in your mighty name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen, amen, and amen. Hallelujah. I do want to take a moment and just apologize. Normally, the Facebook or the uh podcast goes live first thing in the morning, but uh as you can see, those who are watching me, my face is just swollen, and I couldn't get it to go down. So I said, you know what? Oh well, we're gonna do this. I want to get this out of here. I want to get started in season three because I'm excited about season three. We, you know, when we do this, my goal, my desire is that we have this foundation. We already know that Jesus is the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone of our foundation. And like I said back in season one, I'm not here to break up your foundation. No, what I want to do is help you build upon it. I want to help you understand more, and that when you go into the word, you grab more and you're building on your foundation. So there may be a little bit of repetitiveness between season one, two, and three, but that's just believing. I'm sorry, teacher at heart, not professional, but I'm a teacher at heart. So I believe it's in the repetition that we really get it, we really understand, we grab a hold of it, and then therefore use it in our daily lives. So there might be a little bit of repetition, but I also want you to see, or as you go with me in season three, I'm gonna come from a different perspective of maybe a broad topic. And as I dive deep in it, I want you to understand that again, just let's just build upon our foundation here in season three. And again, I do apologize for the tardiness. I tried my best, but it's like, whatever, you know what, Lord, let's just get the lesson out. So let's jump into our scripture for today. It comes to us from James chapter 2, verse 17, and it says, even so, faith, if it has not works, is dead being alone. So when you just have faith with no works, we kind of really talked about this in season two. Again, just building upon that foundation. But when you have just faith with no works, no action, no whatever, it's by itself, it's just faith. Guess what? It's gonna die. I want you to think about this. Um, fakes, I want you to think about it kind of like this. Um, because again, I'm a visual person. If we have faith and we don't feed our faith, think of that work, that thing that we're doing, that activation, that that movement. Hallelujah. That movement is feeding our faith. So if we're not doing anything and we only have faith, it's gonna die. A plant without water and plant food, a child without food and water, you yourself, you don't drink no water, you don't eat no food, you're going to die. So, again, I want you to think about your faith just like that. It being alone with no works, it is dead. Faith must be lived, not just spoken. I want you to understand that. Again, movement is feeding our faith, and so our faith must be lived out. We can't just sit there and talk a good game. No, we have to live a good game, and that's what I want you to really understand here in season three. That it's not about lip service, it's about actual service. We can't sit here and say, I got faith, I got faith, I got faith, but then there's no movement behind it. We can't sit here and say, you know, I got faith, I got faith, but we're not living a productive life of active, again, that active faith. How is it activated? How have you activated glory? Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Since season two, for those who have been with me, season one, season two, what have you done between the beginning of season two and the beginning of season three? What have you done to have an activated life? An activated faith life. That's my question to you. Let me know in the comments. You know, drop me a line. What have you done over the past two, three weeks from the ending then to now to say I am living that activated faith life? Again, it's not just saying it, it's doing it. So there's a difference between confessing that you have faith and actually demonstrating that you have faith. And this is me because again, I believe in being transparent, y'all believe in it. So years and years and years ago, and years ago, um, I'm still their days, it's like, nope, I'm not gonna kill that bug. I called my husband, or whatever. But mainly with me having the grandkids in the evening time and he's at work, I gotta be the adult, I gotta be the fearless one, and I gotta be the one to go hunt down the the um what do they call the stick bugs or the spiders or the moth or whatever, some of the tongue things. I'm like, what is this? So I gotta be the one. So it's not just enough for me to say I'm not afraid of bugs, because like I said all day long, but the minute one of my grandkids called me, no ni, no ni, there's a something flying around my room, it's say that I'm not scared of bugs, but if I don't go into that room to actually face that bug and kill it, knowing that I'm a thousand million times bigger, I'm just talking, and again, that's confessing faith. When we sit here and confess, I got faith, I got faith, it's coming out of our mouth. It's lip service, it's what we say. But if we're not demonstrating that we have faith, activated daily faith, then that's just all it is. It's a confession, and again, I'm not trying to be funny. How much of a confession is it if you're sitting here lying to yourself, saying I have faith, but you're not moving in it? Because again, we're we're not hurting anyone else but ourselves or that person that's looking at your life. Thank you, Jesus. That person that's looking at your life. So many times I've heard it, I got faith, I got faith, I got faith, and then they come up against something where they really have to now move in faith. Uh, testimony uh years ago, years ago, a friend of mine gave me how the Lord told her to leave her leave her job, and again, baby in Christ kind of knew, and she didn't have the full picture, so she left one job and started another job. And God was like, No, I didn't tell you to leave this job to go start this job, I want you to go to school. So, literally, that's what she did. Fast forward to from not her, but another person again. He heard the Lord say, Leave your job, leave your job, and he left, but fear took over, he took that leap of faith, he stepped out of the boat like Peter, but then fear just took over him and he went back to that job. And and I'm here to say that when we the the word says obedience is better than sacrifice any day of the week. And I can't sit here and say that the life that came after his disobedience or after him, you know, is is that because of that going back to that job? I'm not here to say that. I don't know. That's between him and the Lord, but I will say this: I I often wonder, God, when I've heard God say do something, and I do it, but again, I allow fear to step in and I step back, or if I've heard God say do something, and I'm sitting here confessing faith, confessing faith, but I allow fear to rob me of taking that step. I do wonder all the things that came after, whether good or bad, but primarily bad, is it because I'm saying I have faith, but I'm not walking in my faith, I'm not living my faith. I'm being honest. I have I sometimes sit back, okay. I know I heard God say that, but whatever reason that prevented me from being obedient, oh, did this happen because of that? That this happened because of that. So I'm just saying there's a difference between confessing faith. Again, that's that whole lip service, and actually demonstrating it because you never know who's watching you, you never know who's watching the life that you live, and they hear what you're saying, but they're also watching what you're doing, all right. So, why do many believers feel stuck in their faith? Why do many believers feel stuck in their faith? And I want to give two examples. Number one, faith is meant to grow, not stay the same. Faith is meant to grow. My most recent book, sorry, Growing Your Measure of Faith. There's a caveat to that, so God can elevate it to the next level. So, literally, when I say faith is meant to grow, it's like a plant, it's like an animal, it's like a child, it's like a weed. However, you want to look at it, it is meant to grow. I'm not meant to be not only just in my faith, but in my walk with Christ. 10 years ago, when I give my life to Christ, not me personally, but 10 years ago, where I was in the Lord, is not where I'm supposed to be now. No, I'm not treated for a year ago where I was in the Lord, it's not where I'm supposed to be now. Just like we're supposed to draw closer and learn more and do more, and I mean, literally live for Christ, we gotta be living and growing our faith the same way. It's not meant to be the same, it's not because I just told you, faith that you don't feed, that's the illustration I gave you, it's gonna die. So when believers stop feeding their faith through the word, through prayer, through application, guess what? You're gonna plateau. You're gonna plateau if you're not feeding your faith, if you're not doing what you need to grow your measure of faith, you're it's gonna plateau. And after a certain point, anyone who could tell you that in weight loss or whatever, you tend to gain the weight back. If you've gotten to a point and you've lost weight and you plateau, you get discouraged. So you kind of revert back to those old things you used to do, and then what you've gained that weight, and sometimes a lot of people have gained more weight than what they lost. Same thing can be said with your faith. That faith that you're not feeding, and it begins to plateau, fear is gonna come in and it's going to devour that faith. So that's why a lot of believers feel stuck in their faith. We gotta stop and start doing some self-evaluation on seriously, what have I done to feed my faith? What have I done to grow my faith? Some things God is just not gonna do, it's our responsibility, it's our responsibility. That's one of the ones. He will give us the situations, he will give us the the uh opportunities for our faith to be grown and that muscle to be really flexed. But guess what? If we haven't fed it before we got to the opportunity, how far are we really gonna go? Second caveat on that. They say that they're waiting on God, but in actuality, they're doing nothing. I hear that's oh, I'm waiting to hear from the Lord, I'm waiting to hear from the Lord. You know good and well, you done heard the Lord say move or do this or say this or go here, but you're scared. Again, you're scared, so that's why you feel stuck because this is the devil, he's gonna always be on his job. Whether or not we are, he's gonna always be on his job. So he knows that you know let me let me say that a little different. He knows that you heard God, he knows that you heard the Lord, he knows even probably what the Lord has told you to do and say and whatever, but again, you didn't do it for whatever reason. So now he's gonna bring in condemnation, he's gonna bring in guilt, guilt, he's gonna bring in um, I mean, so many things are gonna come that he's bringing into this equation. The Lord never meant it to be like that, but the enemy's gonna drop all that guilt and and you know, self-loathingness and just self-inadequacy because you didn't move. You know you heard the Lord. Oh, I'm just waiting to hear. I need confirmation. I apologize, um, because this is just coming to me. I don't know who it is in the Bible where he prayed and that God told him to do something. He said, Lord, if this be you, let the I'm gonna say mat, let the mat be wet in the morning and all the ground be uh dry. Okay, the that happened. Oh Lord, if this really be you, let the mat be dry and the ground be wet, Lord. If this is really you, how many times that he had to give you confirmation that he's told you to do this? How many times? No, no, we can't be like Moses when we sit here and have all of these excuses. That's why you feel stuck in your faith because God told you to do something, you got the confirmation to do it, and then you didn't do it, and and your excuse, and it's not even an excuse, uh your cop out. Thank you, Lord. I'm so sorry, y'all. Your cop out is, oh, I'm waiting to hear from the Lord. You need to stop that foolishness for real, for real. Stop the foolishness, stop the foolishness. You know you heard from the Lord, you know you heard from the Lord, and I'ma say it like this. What came to me as I was preparing for this, because again, you heard God say move, do, which call which is an activity, is it is is movement. Oh, glory, it's movement, but you're staying stagnant. I'm staying still till I know what the Lord is saying. I'm staying still till I get you know confirmation. I'm staying still till he lays out every step of this, that whatever it is. No, no, so the example that the Lord gave me is water. Water that doesn't flow is considered stagnant, and stagnant water breeds bacteria, and we know bacteria is bad, it's bad. Glory, hallelujah, hallelujah, a Christian, a saint that is not flowing when God says flow, not moving when the Lord says move, is going to become stagnant. And as you're stagnant, waiting to hear from the Lord, waiting to get your confirmation, bad things are gonna be breeding. I'm not bad things are gonna be breeding while you're sitting there being stagnant, waiting on the Lord, waiting for confirmation. No, just like stagnant water breeds bacteria, stagnant Christians. I'm not trying to be funny, you're gonna end up breeding backsliding. That's what's gonna end up happening. You're gonna end up breeding backsliding, and we don't want that, we don't want that. So stop allowing fear and and overthinking, and then all of these worldly things prevent you from moving, glory, hallelujah, moving in your activated faith. Stop just talking about it and be about it. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. So again, I told y'all, I'm a transparent person. If you're new to uh me for season three, I'm gonna say go back and watch one and two, and you'll see I'm a transparent person, especially when the Lord tells me to be transparent. I'm transparent. So, mind you, uh last year, uh yeah, last year, so 2024, I began writing a book, began writing a book, got a prophecy in the beginning of 2025, and finished the book, sent it off to my editor, my guy Mike sent it off. I had my book edited for weeks, and I mean weeks, and I had not sent it off or sent it out to try to get me a uh a book agent because nowadays for traditional publishing, you have to have a book agent, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Okay, so I had it for weeks because again, I allowed the enemy to get in my ear. You ain't good enough, it ain't good enough, you really didn't hear from the Lord. I mean, A B C D E F G. I had it for weeks. No joke, life event after life event. Like I will sit down. Okay, this Saturday, I'ma sit down and I'm gonna do my research and I'm gonna do ABC B D and I'm gonna, you know, send my stuff out, and then something would happen, and I'd be sick, or my grandma would be sick, or grandchild will be sick, or what you know, whatever the case. Life, and it was about April. Mind you, I had my completed edited book for a minute. I had found me someone to help me do a um, oh, I can't think of what it's called when you send your book out. I'm sorry, I'm I'm losing the word right now, I apologize. But he had created me one, and when I say it was dynamite, it was dynamite. Had all of that that I needed to begin to launch. Whew, glory to launch, and I held on to it for weeks. Finally, I had to rebuke myself. I had to repent, I had to rebuke myself and the enemy. No, let's do this. While no, I did not get the book agent, but I got so much feedback and a better understanding. So now the book that I got now, that's going to be, you know, everything that they told me, you know, all that feedback, I now have it. But again, weeks I set on all of this because I allowed the enemy to bring in all of these different things. I just wrote a book about growing your measure of faith. Just wrote the workbook to go with it. And here I was seriously, for a couple of weeks, just like frozen. Because I'm like, oh my goodness, what if it's not good enough? What if I'm not good enough? You know, this and that. Even though I got a glowing review from the one gentleman, I had to send him the book, so he had to read through the book, and he was like, I am not of your religion. He he's not, he's Middle Eastern. I'm not of your religion. But when I tell you reading your book, oh my goodness, it was. I mean, seriously, this is what someone of a different religion is telling me about, you know, our religion, our Christianity. And he just went on and on with great reviews that still wasn't for me to just no, I hate I said on it. I said it. So I get it. Been there, done that. I get it. No, no offense when I tell you that last year Tamara is not this year, Tamara, at all. At all. And I'm moving. I know what God has put before me. I'm moving. I'm not allowing fear or frustration or or anything else, self-esteem or inadequacy, uh, what's up, imposter syndrome. I'm not letting any of that stop me from what I see, see about to happen in my life. So I just want to be transparent. I I get it. Been there, done that. Again, just wrote a book about faith, and and and and my faith did not allow me to take that leap. It happens, but we don't sit there and we don't stay in it, we don't become stagnant in it. We realize, oh my goodness, okay, let me do better, let me go ahead and go, let me take that leap, let me step out of the boat like Peter. But instead of allowing all of this to get me distracted, let me keep my focus on the Lord, let me stay attentive to what I my ear attentive to what he is saying, so I know the next step to take. I ain't gonna See the whole thing, Martin Luther King. This quote when I say I love it, it's in my book. Love this quote. Faith is taking that first step, even when you don't see the staircase. Even when you don't see the staircase. So that's a lot of people. I'm very analytical. Lord, show me the whole blueprint. My first lady preached that. And I promise you, I'm not letting that one go. We want to see the whole blueprint. That's not faith. That's not faith. Faith is hearing God say go, hearing the Lord say move, and then doing it. That's faith. Not even knowing when that first step is gonna land. That's faith. Alright? So something I picked up in season two, and we're gonna continue this. Um in season three is a faith challenge. Faith challenge. So the faith challenge for the week. Identify one area where you've been talking faith but not acting it. Okay? Think about one area, just identify one area in your life where you have been talking faith, but not actually acting it out, not living it, and make a move within the next 24 hours. Now, mind you, you've gotten confirmation. So don't sit there. Uh no. You know that God, you heard God say do this. You know you got confirmation and you still have not moved. Identify that and within the next 24 hour move. I want to hear what was that thing you identified. Okay, and I want to hear the testimony of how you stepped out on faith and you went on ahead and moved in that area. I also want to hear, seriously, once you move, how did you feel? What did it do to again grow your measure of faith? How did that feel? And what was the outcome of you making that move that you knew God told you to make? All right, as always, as always, as always. Oh, glory to your name. We want to ask who wants to give your life to Christ. I just had the opportunity of uh attending a surge conference back in March and then um what have you, and again, because the invitation was given. Sometimes my pastor says this all the time people will hear about a party and never go because they didn't get an actual physical invitation. And again, I went to a uh surge event, life surge is what it's called, and over 22,000 people last year gave their life to Christ. Who am I to say that that wasn't the only time they ever received the invitation? So I always want to give the invitation. Who wants to give your life to Christ? You're not too old, you're not too young. As long as you have breath in your body, you still have grace and an opportunity to give Christ your life, as well as those who have once walked with the Lord and you turned your back on him because he didn't leave you. He his word says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So he didn't leave you, you left him. But the word also lets us know he is married to the backslider, so he's waiting there with open arms. And if that's you today, just say it's me. It's me, and I will reach out if you want me to, and we can pray together that God will send you to that Bible-based faith-believing church in your local area. If you're in my area, I'm in the Midwest, um, Metro St. Louis, Metro East St. Louis. My church is Liberty Christian Church of the Apostolic Faith, located in Alton, Illinois. Address is 2753 East Broadway. We would love to have you. We are a Bible-based, faith-based, Bible-believing, faith-based church. We live according to the word of God, we live according to his word. Yes, we are the of the apostolic faith, because that's what it is. But regardless, I will pray with you that God send you to where he wants you to be planted. Because again, there's there's more you need, but guess what? You have a purpose too, and there's something that he needs from you. There's that one person that will hear your testimony that no one else can get through to them. But when they hear your testimony of how you gave your life to Christ, so we want you to be planted in the kingdom where he wants to use you. Okay. So again, as always, we're going to end with prayer. Oh Lord, we thank you, we thank you, we thank you. On today, Lord, we thank you. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, Lord. I'm asking that you help us to feel the shift, to feel the pull, to go from belief to faith, to live in boldly for you. Hallelujah. Walking in activated faith every single day, Lord. I'm asking, Jesus, hallelujah, that you forgive us of that lack of faith, Lord God, that you forgive us, hallelujah, for allowing fear to take over, that you forgive us for being disobedient when we knew we heard you and received the confirmation. Lord, forgive us. And I'm asking that the grace cover us even the more, hallelujah, so that the next time we will move. No God, not move, hallelujah, when we feel comfortable or when it feels comfortable, Lord, but we'll move immediately. Hallelujah. Not even giving the enemy a chance to bring about fear in our lives. Lord, we just thank you. We thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. We thank you for this opportunity to learn more of you. We thank you for this opportunity to come together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, y'all. Join me next week for episode two when God says move before you're ready. You guys have a wonderful day and a blessed week. God bless. Thank you for traveling with me today on Faith Finder. Every mile we take together strengthens our faith, sharpens our vision, and reminds us that God is guiding the road beneath our feet. If this episode encourages you, make sure to follow the podcast, leave a review, and share with someone who's on their own faith journey. Until next time, keep trusting, keep growing, and keep moving forward. Because faith isn't just something you have, it's something you live. This is Faith Finder, where faith becomes your roadmap.