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Gifts of the Spirit

4. The Gift of Faith

A Series that considers the Gifts given by the Holy Spirit to Believers

Introduction

This page is one of a number that seeks to provide basic study material for the Christian who wishes to see what the Bible says about the gifts of the Spirit.

Because there are so many Bible references, there will not be links to them from these pages, and the student is simply advised to copy and paste the page information into say Word and then study the materials from there.

 

Faith Definition :

Defn. : a supernatural level of faith (believing God) for a specific time to believe for the impossible

 

Different sorts of faith :

•  Saving initial (justifying) faith - trust in Jesus for forgiveness of sins and eternal life from God. (e.g. Rom 5:1)

•  The Faith - the sum of Christian teaching, a body of truth (e.g. Jude 3, Acts 6:7)

•  Simple daily faith - simply responding to the word of God by the Spirit in daily living (see Heb 11:6)

•  Miraculous faith - the gift of believing in the face of the impossible

 

Examples of miraculous faith in the O.T.:

•  Abram believing for a child Gen 15:5,6 & Heb 11:11

•  Elijah and no rain 1 Kings 17:1 & Jas 5:15-18

•  Daniel prays & in lion's den Dan 6:10-23

 

What we can learn from these:

•  Faith in each case is followed by a miracle.

•  Faith was expressed in the face of the impossible.

•  Although we are not told of any special impartation from God it is obvious that in each case their faith was way beyond the ordinary.

 

Faith in Jesus' Ministry:

•  Every act of Jesus was by faith  -   Jn 5:19

•  For every miracle to be performed there has to be a special impartation of faith, e.g. raising Lazarus - in Jn 11:4 we have “knowledge” of what is to happen, but the speaking it out is special faith - assurance of what has not yet happened (Heb 11:1). The speaking was followed by activity which brought the miracle.

•  The gift of faith always seems to go with the bringing of a miracle.

 

Examples of supernatural faith in Acts:

•  Peter speaking on day of Pentecost - he speaks with a supernatural level of faith that understands the past, and applies it to the present, with a belief of what will come. Result - 3000 saved! (Acts 2)

•  Peter at Gate Beautiful - faith rises within him and the man is miraculously healed (Acts 3)

•  Peter raising Dorcas from dead - proceeds with supernatural faith. (Acts 9)

•  In each case of a miracle, the person performing it is enabled to act boldly in ways that would make most of us quiver. There seems to have been an impartation for that moment to allow them to proceed and go on to perform a miracle.

 

Comments:

•  For the servant of God, seeking to serve the Lord wholeheartedly, there seem to come moments when they receive from God a special ability to believe for the naturally impossible.

•  The “impossible” here may be provision of:
  •  life, when raising the dead.
  •  rapid restoration, for miraculous healing.
  •  physical goods, money etc.
  •  change of circumstances, e.g. removal of obstacles.

   

•  In each case the gift of faith enables the person to step out and move ahead in the service of God to claim the impossible.

•  It is simply that total assurance (Heb 11:1) that the impossible is no longer impossible!