Even as I type the name of this gift, the words of the George Michael 80’s classic ring in my ears- ‘Gotta have faith, faith, faith, I gotta have faith’.
Now you might not be as old as me and you won’t remember that song but take it from me it was a classic and so catchy that even now I can still hear the chorus in my head and see him playing that guitar, looking all moody because it was shot in black and white!!
You may be surprised to know that faith is one of the spiritual gifts, as set out in the bible,
“To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit.” – 1 Corinthians 12:9
It seems surprising because surely, we must all have faith to believe in Jesus in the first place, right?
Yes, that’s right, as Christians we have to have faith in God from the very start that we have been saved by His son. This kind of faith is called ‘saving faith.’ This is different to the spiritual gift of faith that we will be learning more about today.
Scripture is the living, breathing word of God and packed full of truths. It is so helpful in times when we may have doubts about being saved and in the book of Hebrews faith is explained so well;
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1
That in a nutshell is what faith is. It’s not something you can necessarily see with your eyes so you have to believe it in your heart.
Now, even though you can’t see faith with your eyes, anybody who knew you before you got saved will start witnessing the changes in you as they see you demonstrating the fruits of the spirit which are; Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” – Matthew 7:20
When we receive Faith as a gift from the Holy Spirit, we get a strong sense of confidence in Gods power and who He is, which encourages us to step out and do amazing things for Him that we wouldn’t have the ability, confidence or courage to do on our own.
Hebrews 11 is known as the ‘Faith’ chapter and is often referred to as the ‘Hall of Faith’ (like the Hall of Fame) and lists all the biblical greats of faith including;
Noah, Issac, Rahab, Abraham, Gideon and Moses to name but a few.
These people with this faith gift would often do great works of faith like Noah. He built the ark, which was a massive project, taking a very long time, that most people didn’t understand because there wasn’t even a drop of rain at the time, let alone a mighty flood. To the onlooker he seemed foolish but that didn’t deter him because he had the gift of faith and was obedient to what God asked him to do, is such a faith building chapter and too long to post here but I recommend reading it if you want to be encouraged and stirred in your own faith. – Hebrews 11:1-40
Those with this gift of faith are given it to instruct or teach others, encourage and inspire fellow believers, with their unswerving confidence in God. It can help others have increased faith themselves for any given situation.
These individuals are so confident in God’s ability that they literally believe that no barriers will stop the advancement of God’s kingdom or whatever the situation is that they are praying for or wanting to see breakthrough in. These people tend to be fearless and having people like this in the congregation can often do more for the kingdom than the most gifted of preachers.
At the moment I am really stirred to press into God to see people healed and I long to have the sort of faith I read about in Hebrews 11 so that when I pray for sick people they are healed every time. That is not my current reality but, I still choose to pray for people regardless and I do have faith that the time will come when I will see increasing breakthrough in this area and as that happens my faith will increase for even more.
What do you need faith for today?
Ask God for this gift of faith because we need faith filled people all around us to encourage us and spur us on to greater adventures with God and to see His Kingdom advance across the Earth.
1 comment
Thank you for a lovely, inspiring site .
I am one of the blessed, given this gift. I would go one step further in describing it. It is not just unswerving confidence, but complete conviction, in all the attributes of God. Conviction in His power and conviction in His Purpose.
Yes, someone with this gift being there alongside a healer or worker of miracles is important, but even then God does not heal every sick person. He doesn’t need to. Healing is a witness, a sign of God’s power to non believers. However for others, like Jacob and Paul, God uses their faith, their conviction in Him, so that they can be content in all situations ( do all things) through Christ. They don’t need healing, God’s grace is sufficient. A person with this gift can rejoice in their suffering as a means of uniting with Christ, learning endurance, perseverance and character. We don’t need perfect health in mortal bodies, we have God. As Paul describes in Romans 8 and Habakkuk in 3:17-19, the love of God is all a person with this faith needs. And we have conviction in His love for us. God equips the called. You get this gift when you are going to need it, not just salvation faith or the faith that grows with exercising it and getting to know more and more of God. Having this faith means you need to get very very close to God and know Him intimately. You need to stay very very humble as well as be very bold, in order to use it for its purpose and that is to build up the people of his Church.
Healing happens to show God’s glory, and rejoicing through suffering achieves this too, just in a different way.