The Gift of Faith
THE GIFT OF FAITH
Hebrews 11:1
• Faith is PRESENT TENSE, Hope is FUTURE TENSE
• Faith is BELIEVING BEFORE SEEING, but will eventually bring substance to what you have believed.
“Natural Faith” comes through the five senses
True faith comes from God supernaturally.
What caused you to believe today what you did not believe yesterday?
Three Kinds of Supernatural Faith
That Which is Common to All Christians:
1. Saving Faith – Hebrews 11:6, Acts 16:31
- Key: Believing before seeing
a. Ephesians 2:8-9
b. Romans 10:17
2. Fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23
a. John 15:5
b. Our faith in Jesus us the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is He Who supplies the faith as we go along in the Christian life. Our part is to respond to Him.
c. Matthew 9:29, Mark 9:23
That Which is Potential in All Christians
3. The Gift of Faith
1 Corinthians 12:9
“Faith: The special ability to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for the future of His work.” – C. Peter Wagner
“Faith: A sudden surge of faith, usually in a crisis, to confidently believe without a doubt, that as we act or speak in Jesus’ Name it shall come to pass.” – Dennis & Rita Bennett
“Faith: Communicating to the Body of Christ confidence that God’s specifically revealed plans and purposes will come to fulfillment, regardless of circumstances or challenges that might suggest otherwise.” – Doug Love
The spoken gift of faith is confessing what God says, as led by the Holy Spirit.
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." Mark 11:22-23
The Greek for "Have faith in God" is 'echo pistis Theos' which literally is 'have faith God'. The reason that this is important is that our English translations inset the preposition 'in' which does not exist in the Greek. What's the point? This verse could just as easily and accurately be translated 'have the faith OF God', which changes everything. The person exercising the gift of faith, isn't exercising THEIR FAITH, they are exercising GOD'S FAITH. Our faith doesn’t move mountains – the faith of God does!
You see, if God wanted the mountain moved it would be no problem for Him. He has the power. In life, as we walk in faith, we want to walk in the right faith - the faith OF God. He has the power to do what we could never do.
The level of faith in which we are living may ebb and flow. Sometimes we find that we are strong in faith; the Holy Spirit in our spirit is allowed to work, and wonderful things happen in our lives. At other times, the hang-ups, doubts, fears and doubts and other debris in our souls that the Holy Spirit is working to remove gets in the way, and we are not able to function as well.
Though the gift of faith may be active from time to time in our lives, it should not surprise us if we also experience times of doubt. This only serves to remind us that Philippians 2:13 is true.
Hebrews 11:1
• Faith is PRESENT TENSE, Hope is FUTURE TENSE
• Faith is BELIEVING BEFORE SEEING, but will eventually bring substance to what you have believed.
“Natural Faith” comes through the five senses
True faith comes from God supernaturally.
What caused you to believe today what you did not believe yesterday?
Three Kinds of Supernatural Faith
That Which is Common to All Christians:
1. Saving Faith – Hebrews 11:6, Acts 16:31
- Key: Believing before seeing
a. Ephesians 2:8-9
b. Romans 10:17
2. Fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23
a. John 15:5
b. Our faith in Jesus us the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is He Who supplies the faith as we go along in the Christian life. Our part is to respond to Him.
c. Matthew 9:29, Mark 9:23
That Which is Potential in All Christians
3. The Gift of Faith
1 Corinthians 12:9
“Faith: The special ability to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for the future of His work.” – C. Peter Wagner
“Faith: A sudden surge of faith, usually in a crisis, to confidently believe without a doubt, that as we act or speak in Jesus’ Name it shall come to pass.” – Dennis & Rita Bennett
“Faith: Communicating to the Body of Christ confidence that God’s specifically revealed plans and purposes will come to fulfillment, regardless of circumstances or challenges that might suggest otherwise.” – Doug Love
The spoken gift of faith is confessing what God says, as led by the Holy Spirit.
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." Mark 11:22-23
The Greek for "Have faith in God" is 'echo pistis Theos' which literally is 'have faith God'. The reason that this is important is that our English translations inset the preposition 'in' which does not exist in the Greek. What's the point? This verse could just as easily and accurately be translated 'have the faith OF God', which changes everything. The person exercising the gift of faith, isn't exercising THEIR FAITH, they are exercising GOD'S FAITH. Our faith doesn’t move mountains – the faith of God does!
You see, if God wanted the mountain moved it would be no problem for Him. He has the power. In life, as we walk in faith, we want to walk in the right faith - the faith OF God. He has the power to do what we could never do.
The level of faith in which we are living may ebb and flow. Sometimes we find that we are strong in faith; the Holy Spirit in our spirit is allowed to work, and wonderful things happen in our lives. At other times, the hang-ups, doubts, fears and doubts and other debris in our souls that the Holy Spirit is working to remove gets in the way, and we are not able to function as well.
Though the gift of faith may be active from time to time in our lives, it should not surprise us if we also experience times of doubt. This only serves to remind us that Philippians 2:13 is true.
posted by Doug Love at 8:35 AM
0 comments
