Let's learn about the spiritual gift of faith. Your first reaction to this might be, "How can faith be a gift? Faith is absolutely a gift! It is specifically mentioned as a spiritual gift in scripture (1 Corinth. 12:9). Because it is a spiritual gift, that means not everyone has the gift of faith. And that's okay.
The spiritual gift of faith is found in the list of the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. Verse 9 says that some people are given the gift of faith, but the gift is not specifically explained. All believers have been given saving faith by God as the only means of salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but not all believers are given the spiritual gift of faith. The Bible says that the spiritual gifts include a gift of “faith.” Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this particular spiritual gift. Thus, there is a gift of faith.
In looking at this gift, we also discover that there are a number of things that the Bible has to say about faith. All believers have a certain amount of faith. While all believers possess some amount of faith, there is a gift of faith which is a special ability to trust God beyond the limits of what we think is normally possible.
The spiritual gift of faith is not to be confused with saving faith. All Christians have been given saving faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), but not all receive this special gift of faith. The word for faith in the New Testament is pistis. It carries the notion of confidence, certainty, trust, and assurance in the object of faith. The gift of faith is rooted in one’s saving faith in Christ and the trust that comes through a close relationship with the Savior.
It’s important that we don’t put every verse about faith into a sack, mix it up, and shake it all out together. The first kind of faith is saving faith, which every believer has. We see this general faith described in Ephesians 2:8-9. Galatians chapter 5 talks about another kind of faith: the fruit of faith or faithfulness. Today, I want to talk to you specifically about the gift of faith mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This gift of faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit and the greatest of what is often classified as the three power gifts of the Spirit: the gift of faith, the working of miracles, and the gift of healing. When a believer has the gift of faith or special faith, they believe God in such a way that He honors their word as His own and miraculously brings to pass what that faith has given them.
Read also: Understanding anemia spiritually
Also, the gift of faith is something that goes beyond our normal faith - something extraordinary. The gift of faith is the special ability that God gives to some members of the body of Christ to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for the future of His work.
More than just belief, faith is a gift that empowers an individual or a group to hold fast to its identity in Christ in the face of any challenge. The gift of faith enables believers to rise above pressures and problems that might otherwise cripple them. Faith is characterized by an unshakable trust in God to deliver on God’s promises, no matter what. Those gifted with Faith create a foundation upon which true community can be built and sustained. It is critical for people possessing the gift of Faith to make opportunities to share their beliefs, their learning, and, most importantly, their life experiences. Faith stories have powerful and transforming effects.
Defining the Gift of Faith
The gift of faith may be defined as the special gift whereby the Spirit provides Christians with extraordinary confidence in God’s promises, power, and presence so they can take heroic stands for the future of God’s work in the church. The spiritual gift of faith is exhibited by one with a strong and unshakeable confidence in God, His Word, and His promises.
In the Bible the gift of faith is often accompanied by great works of faith. In Acts 3:1-10 we see this gift in action when Peter sees a lame man at the Beautiful Gate and calls on him to stand up and walk in the Name of Jesus. Jesus said even a small amount of this faith could move mountains (Matthew 17:20; 21:21). The Holy Spirit distributes this gift to some in the church to encourage and build up the church in her confidence in God. Those with the gift of faith trust that God is sovereign and He is good. They take Him at His Word and put the full weight of their lives in His hands. They expect God to move and are not surprised when He answers a prayer or performs a miracle.
When a believer has the gift of faith or special faith, they believe God in such a way that He honors their word as His own and miraculously brings to pass what that faith has given them. One of the biggest differences between the gifts of faith and the general faith believers have is that general faith can be increased by feeding on the Word of God and exercising it in every arena of your life.
Read also: Light Blue: Calmness and Healing
Gift of Faith vs. General Faith
Put your hand out in front of you for a moment and then pull it back next to your body. This is the way we receive something. The gift of faith is a gift of the Spirit where the believer passively receives a miracle. This is different from the working of miracles, where the believer actively works a miracle under the power of the Spirit. Let me show you some biblical examples of these gifts in action.
Throughout Daniel’s ministry, we see the passive gift of faith working many times. One example was when he received a miracle in the lions’ den. In those days as well as down through history, people thrown into a lions’ den were eaten. Why didn’t they eat Daniel? Well, the Bible says that Daniel believed God. God had shut the mouth of the lions because of Daniel’s faith. As a result, Daniel wasn’t hurt. That’s the gift of faith in operation. Daniel didn’t do anything.
Jesus wasn’t bothered by the storm just as Daniel wasn’t bothered by the lions. They both laid down and slept right there in the face of danger. This is actually a common characteristic throughout the Bible of those who operated in this gift: the gift of faith primarily worked for individuals in the face of danger and provided them with a calmness that was supernatural. You can also see this same calmness in the stories of those who were martyred for the sake of the Gospel in other lands and especially those who were burned at the stake. Even the night before, many had such calmness that they laid down and slept all night before being taken to the stake.
The gift of faith also can be employed in the casting out of evil spirits. You are trusting God to honor your word when you command a spirit to come out in the name of Jesus. You may notice, though, that other gifts of the Spirit are in operation in this situation as well, and that’s absolutely true. When someone casts out a demon, the gift of discerning of spirits and the gift of faith are in operation. Sometimes the word of knowledge is as well. If you don’t discern the spirit when you’re casting out demons, very often it’s revealed through the word of knowledge.
The spiritual gifts listed below are found in three passages: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 28-30, and Ephesians 4:11.
Read also: Explained: Spiritual Blessings
Characteristics of Individuals with the Gift of Faith
Who do you know who can continue to trust in God no matter what comes their way? A person who can see where God is working in your life when you can't see it?
Extraordinarily faithful people show a humble godliness and reliance on God’s promises, often so much so that they are known to be quietly fearless and zealous. Those with the gift of faith are an inspiration to their fellow believers, exhibiting a simple confidence in God that shows in all they say and do.
Signs of the gift of faith in operation:
- An unusual desire to accept God’s promises at face value and to apply them to given situations until God fulfills them.
- Receiving what you believe to be a vision of some future work of God and trusting God for it until it comes to pass.
- The recurring experience in the midst of situations to sense that God is going to do something unusual even though most of the people around you don’t have this kind of assurance.
- An unusual desire to know God in His fullness and to depend on Him and Him alone for solutions to problems.
- Deep knowledge of God’s realness because He and He alone has specifically intervened on your behalf.
- An attitude that says not only that God can do something but that He will do something in the situation, in fact, in many cases to know that God has already done it.
Biblical Examples of Faith
The Bible gives us so many examples of individuals with the spiritual gift of faith. Examples of people with the gift of faith are those listed in Hebrews chapter 11. This chapter, often called “the hall of faith,” describes those whose faith was extraordinary, enabling them to do extraordinary, superhuman things. Here we see Noah spending 120 years building a huge boat when, up to that time, rain was non-existent and Abraham believing he would father a child when his wife’s natural ability to do so had ended.
Examples of those in the Bible with the gift of faith: Abraham, Noah, Paul
Through faith, Moses charged bravely into many situations that should have led to death. Every time he dared to step forward on nothing but God’s promise of protection, miracles ensued. This list of names shows us fascinating stories of odds that were defied through someone’s miraculous faith.
An example of an individual who has exercised the gift of faith is George Muller. Muller, who lived in nineteenth-century England, had a great desire to help orphans. He spent his life educating them and building orphanages. By exercising the gift of faith, he was able to raise money, time and time again, for the needs of the orphans.
Misconceptions About the Gift of Faith
The gift of faith should not be equated with only getting things from God. Too often, the idea is that the more faith we have the more things God will give us. Many times the emphasis is wrongly on the material rather than the spiritual blessings. Those with the gift of faith, who properly exercise their gift, do so in the spiritual realm.
While those with the gift of faith are able to trust God for certain things, the gift of faith does not mean that the believer will be able to acquire abundant material possessions. Great faith, therefore, does not mean that material blessings will always follow. Indeed, the great things for God are always spiritual, never material. The material things will perish while the spiritual things are eternal.
If a person has been given the gift of faith, then they should not look down upon those who lack faith. Not every Christian possesses this spiritual gift. God the Holy Spirit alone decides who will receive it.
The Nature of Spiritual Gifts
In 1 Corinthians 12 on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Paul opens the chapter with: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.” The key word for the distinctive nature of these gifts is manifestation. The Holy Spirit Himself, dwelling in a believer, is invisible. But when these gifts operate through a believer, the presence of the Holy Spirit is made manifest to human senses-and the results can be seen, heard or felt.
Since these gifts are manifestations, not of the believer’s personality but of the Person of the Holy Spirit within the believer, all of them are supernatural in character. In every case, the results they produce are on a higher level than we believers could ever achieve solely by our own ability, possible only through direct, supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit. By these gifts, and through the believer, the Holy Spirit emerges from the invisible spiritual realm to make direct impact upon the physical world of space and time.
Paul establishes two important practical points concerning these gifts. First, they are distributed solely at the discretion of the Holy Spirit, according to His sovereign purpose for each believer. Human will or achievement are not the basis for receiving these spiritual gifts. Secondly, they are given “to each one... for the common good”-for a useful, practical purpose.
It has often been pointed out that these nine gifts fall naturally into three groups of three:
- Three gifts of utterance: Gifts that operate through the believer’s vocal organs: prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
- Three gifts of revelation: Gifts that impart spiritual illumination: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and distinguishing of spirits.
- Three gifts of power: Gifts that demonstrate God’s supernatural power in the physical realm: faith, the gifts of healing, and the effecting of miracles.
The gift of faith is the first of the three gifts of power. It is distinguished from the other forms of faith by the fact that it is a sovereign, supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit working through the believer.
Have God’s Faith
The special kind of faith we are speaking of here is faith that is a gift. It has its origin in God, not in man-it is an aspect of God’s own eternal nature. Through the gift of faith, the Holy Spirit imparts a portion of God’s faith directly and supernaturally to the believer. This is faith on a divine level, as high above mere human faith as heaven is above earth.
In saying, “Have God’s faith,” Jesus challenged His disciples to receive and exercise this kind of faith, just as He Himself had done. He went on to tell them that with faith of this kind they would be able to accomplish much: “Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen.” (Matthew 21:21)
Jesus sets no limit to the scope of this kind of faith. The phrases He uses are all-inclusive: “Whoever says. . . what he says. . . shall be granted him.” There is no restriction as to the person who speaks or the words spoken. All that matters is the nature of the faith: it must be God’s own faith.
Quality, Not Quantity
Jesus here uses a mustard seed as a measure of quantity. Matthew 13:32 tells us a mustard seed is “smaller than all other seeds.” Jesus is reminding us it is not the quantity of faith that matters, but the quality. A mustard seed of this kind of faith is sufficient to move a mountain!
When the gift of faith is in operation, a man becomes, for a time, the channel of God’s own faith. The person who speaks is not of primary importance-the faith is! If it is God’s own faith at work, it is equally effective whether the words are spoken through directly by God or uttered by the power of the Spirit through the mouth of a human believer. When a believer operates with this divine faith, his words are just as effective as if God Himself had spoken them.
Sometimes a word spoken in prayer becomes the channel for the gift of faith. In James 5:15 we are told that “the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick.” Is there any doubt as to the effect of the prayer described here? Its results are guaranteed. Prayer with this kind of God given faith is irresistible. Neither sickness nor any other condition contrary to God’s will can stand against it.
Faith of this kind need not operate only through a spoken word. It was this kind of supernatural faith that enabled Jesus to walk on the stormy Sea of Galilee (see Matthew14:25-33). He did not need to speak; He merely walked out over the water. When Peter followed the example of Jesus and exercised the same kind of faith, he was able to do exactly what Jesus was doing-that is, until he looked away from Jesus to the waves-and his faith deserted him and he began to sink!
Jesus’ reproof is very illuminating. “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). Jesus did not reprove Peter for wanting to walk on the water, but for losing faith halfway. Don Basham has pointed out that there is a divine urge implanted in every human heart to step out in supernatural faith and walk on a plane above the level of our own ability. Since God Himself placed this urge in man, He does not reprove us for it. On the contrary, He is willing to give us the faith that will enable us to do it. He is only disappointed when we do not hold long enough to this kind of faith.
Supernatural faith is given in a specific situation to meet a specific need, it remains under God’s direct control, for it is God’s own faith. He gives it or withholds it at His discretion. Faith is like all other supernatural gifts, concerning which Paul says, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). That key phrase at the end-“just as He wills”-means God Himself determines when and to whom He will impart each of these gifts. The initiative is with God, not with man.
We must learn to be as reverent and as careful in our relationship to the Father as Jesus was. The gift of faith is not ours to command, nor is it intended to satisfy our personal whims or ambitions. It is made available at God’s discretion to accomplish ends that originate in God’s own eternal purposes. We cannot, and must not, wrest the initiative from God.
Pictured as a “mustard seed,” the gift of faith is similar to two of the revelation gifts-the word of wisdom and word of knowledge. Wisdom is directive; knowledge is informative. Fortunately for us, God, who has all wisdom and all knowledge does not burden us with all of it. But in a situation where we need direction, He supernaturally provides a “word” of wisdom-just one little “mustard seed” out of His total store of wisdom. Or when we need information, He provides a “word” of knowledge-a little“ mustard seed” out of His total store of knowledge. So it is with the gift of faith. God has all faith, but He does not impart it all to us. In given situations, where we need faith on a higher level than our own, God provides a“ mustard seed” out of His own total store.
From another point of view, as we have seen earlier, the gift of faith is associated with the other two gifts of power: the gifts of healing and the effecting of miracles. In practice, the gift of faith often serves as a catalyst to bring the other two gifts into operation.
The Importance of Faith
Faith comes as a result of knowing God’s Word. Before one can exercise biblical faith they must personally know the God of the Bible and be able to hear His voice. One way in which God communicates to His people is through His written Word. This is how He speaks to us.
The gift of faith enables some people to have an extraordinary amount of faith that God uses to show us His power in ways that create joy and encouragement for others. Throughout the Bible, we see people demonstrate supernatural confidence in God’s promises, power, and presence. Take a look at the men and women in Hebrews 11.
Romans 3:23-24 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” God gives all Christians saving faith. In God’s kingdom, there are only two statuses: dead to sin or alive in Christ. We are all equally in need of God’s mercy. The Bible tells us that each member of the church is necessary and important: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). There is no such thing as access to a “closer” relationship with God because God is just as close to each of us, regardless of whether or not we choose to walk closely with Him. God’s love knows no limits. We all have spiritual gifts. God has intentionally chosen specific gifts for each of us (1 Corinthians 12:28-31), and He has specific plans to work through them (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
While faith is something that all believers have to a certain degree there is a special gift of faith that God gives to some Christians. The gift of faith seems to be a special ability to trust God in all circumstances. Often this gift is exercised through prayer. Usually it consists of praying for others. This means that many people who have this gift are unknown to other Christians since they exercise their gift in the presence of the Lord and Him alone. We should certainly not underestimate this particular usage of the gift of faith.
It’s so marvelous of our Lord that He gave these gifts to us in these many different manifestations so that believers can demonstrate His power. In other words, these gifts of the Spirit are not for us.
Faith, as depicted in the New Testament in its various aspects, always agrees with the definition given in Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Yet the essential nature of faith expresses itself in distinct but related forms:
- Faith to live by.
- Faith as a gift.
- Faith as a fruit.
Conclusion
In summary, we see that the gift of faith is one of nine gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), each a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in a believer and operating through him. In the gift of faith, the Holy Spirit temporarily imparts to us a portion of God’s own faith-faith on a divine level, far above the human. Rather than the quantity, the quality matters, wherein a “mustard seed” of this kind of faith is sufficient to move a mount.