“Gifts Of The Spirit,
Part 5: The Gift Of Faith”
By
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we began to look at the types of gifts that have been
called ‘manifestation’ gifts of the Holy Spirit
1.1.1. We looked at the spiritual
gift of the ‘word of knowledge’
1.1.2. We looked at the spiritual
gift of the ‘word of wisdom’
1.2.
In our study today we are
going to look at more of the ‘manifestation gifts’ of the Holy Spirit
1.2.1. We will look at the ‘gift of faith’
1.2.1.1.
1 Cor. 12:9 says, “9 to
another faith by the same Spirit…”
2.
The Gift of Faith
2.1.
I have to be honest, before doing this study
I hadn’t really ever thought much about ‘faith’ as being a spiritual gift, and
yet it is. ‘Saving Faith’ itself is a
gift from God even though it is something that we ourselves are required to
have in order to receive salvation. In Ephesians 2:8-9 we see that ‘saving faith’ is a gift from
God for Paul says that our faith is ‘not of ourselves’, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one
should boast.”
2.2.
In Hebrews 11:1
there is given a definition of faith, “11:1 Now
faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
2.2.1. Faith
then is confidence that something is going to happen that is based upon the
Lord and nothing but the Lord causing it to happen. It is trust that the Lord will perform something.
2.3.
In Romans 10:17,
Paul wrote about the fact that faith for the Christian has as it’s object God’s
Word, “17 So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing by the word of Christ.”
2.3.1. Faith
for the Christian then is not any of the following: blind optimism, wishful thinking, positive thinking, mind over
matter (as those in Christian Science for instance believe), and not faith in
faith itself.
2.3.2. Rather,
faith for the Christian is confident assurance that God is going to act
according to His promises and revealed will.
It is to know that the Lord is going to do a certain thing, and this
knowledge has come about only as a result of our faith and the Lord who has
inspired that faith within us.
2.4.
In Romans 5:1
we read that our salvation is by our faith, for we are ‘justified’ before God
by our faith in Christ for salvation, “5:1 Therefore
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
2.5.
In Luke 11:9-10,
Jesus taught that if we keep on asking, keep on knocking, and keeping on
seeking we will receive that which we are asking for, “9 “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and
you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. 10 “For everyone who
asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be
opened.””
2.6.
In 2 Cor. 5:7
we are told that we Christians in this life walk by faith and not by our sight,
trusting God for the things that He has promised and yet which we with our eyes
cannot see yet at this time, “7 for we walk by faith,
not by sight—”
2.7.
In Romans 14:23
we read that ‘whatever is not from faith’ in our lives is actually sin in God’s
sight, “23 But he who doubts is condemned if he
eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is
sin.”
2.8.
In Hebrews 3:12
we are warned that it is the ‘evil unbelieving heart’ that falls away from God,
“12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in
any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.”
2.9.
Hebrews chapter 11,
the ‘Hall of Faith’ chapter of the Bible
tells us of many of the things that were gained by faith by God’s people in the
Old Testament, and in that list we can see some of the ways that the ‘gift of
faith’ may work in our lives as Christians today
2.9.1. In Hebrews 11 we read all of the things that
these people did ‘by faith’:
2.9.1.1.
We ‘understand’ that God created
everything: Heb. 11:3
2.9.1.2.
Abel offered a better sacrifice than
Cain: Heb. 11:4
2.9.1.3.
Enoch was translated to heaven because of his
righteous life: Heb. 11:5
2.9.1.4.
Noah prepared the ark: Heb. 11:7
2.9.1.5.
Abraham went out to a place he didn’t know
and lived as an alien: Heb. 11:8-10
2.9.1.6.
Sarah in her old age received the ability to
conceive a child: Heb. 11:11
2.9.1.7.
Abraham offered up Isaac as a sacrifice to
God: Heb. 11:17
2.9.1.8.
Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau about things to
come: Heb. 11:20
2.9.1.9.
Jacob as he was dying blessed each of his
sons and worshipped God: Heb. 11:21
2.9.1.10.
Moses was hidden by his parents for three
months: Heb. 11:23
2.9.1.11.
When Moses was grown up he refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter to instead suffer the reproach of God’s
people: Heb. 11:24-25
2.9.1.12.
Moses left Egypt, kept the Passover, and
passed through the Red Sea: Heb. 11:29
2.9.1.13.
The walls of Jericho fell down: Heb. 11:30
2.9.1.14.
Rahab was saved from Jericho: Heb. 11:31
2.9.1.15.
Conquered kingdoms, obtained promises, shut
the mouths of lions: Heb. 11:33
2.9.1.16.
Quenched the power
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became
mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight:
Heb. 11:34
2.9.1.17.
Women received back
their dead by resurrection: Heb. 11:35
2.9.1.18.
Were tortured, not
accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better
resurrection: Heb. 11:35
2.9.1.19.
Etc., etc.
2.9.2. What the Lord is showing us through Hebrews 11 is
that all of the major events of God’s moving throughout the history of the Old
Testament were accomplished through the faith of God’s people- beginning to end
2.10.
We see in Jesus’ many healings in the gospels
that He often required the person whom He healed to first believe that He would
heal him. Here are a few examples:
2.10.1. Matthew 9:27-30, “27 And as Jesus passed
on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, and saying, “Have mercy
on us, Son of David!” 28 And after He had come into the house, the blind men
came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do
this?” They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying,
“Be it done to you according to your faith.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And
Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See here, let no one know about this!””
2.10.2. Luke 8:49-50, “49 While He was still
speaking, someone *came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your
daughter has died; do not trouble the Teacher anymore.” 50 But when Jesus heard
this, He answered him, “Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she
shall be made well.””
2.10.3. Matt. 17:14-21, “14 And when they came to
the multitude, a man came up to Him, falling on his knees before Him, and
saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and is very ill;
for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 “And I brought
him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 And Jesus answered and
said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked
him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus
privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 And He *said to them, “Because
of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a
mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 21 [”But this kind does not
go out except by prayer and fasting.”]”
2.10.3.1.
In this incident we see that greater amounts
of faith are required at times in order for God to perform a healing upon
someone whom you are praying for. The
disciples had prayed for many people who were healed of various diseases and
who had demons cast out of them, however they did not have enough faith for
this challenge. They would have had to
fast and pray for this demon to be cast out.
2.11.
In our last study I mentioned how that there
is such a thing as ‘passive’ faith which believes that God is able to do a
certain thing, and then there is ‘active’ faith which believes that God is
going to do a certain thing. The ‘gift
of faith’ is this second type, it is to believe and know that in the particular
thing for which you are praying that the Lord is going to do it.
2.12.
In Matt. 11:24,
Jesus taught that in everything that we pray for that we are to have this same
kind of ‘active faith’, “24 “Therefore I say to
you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received
them, and they shall be granted you.””
2.13.
This kind of ‘active faith’ to believe and
know therefore that God is going to do a certain thing for which we are praying
is a ‘manifestation gift’ of the Holy Spirit, the ‘Gift of Faith’.
2.14.
The scriptures do give us
several qualifications for answered prayer besides believing:
2.14.1. Abiding in Christ
2.14.1.1.
John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye
will, and it shall be done unto you. 8”
2.14.2. Obedience to God
2.14.2.1.
1 John 3:22, “22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his
commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
2.14.3. Asking according to His will
2.14.3.1.
1 John 5:14-15, “14 And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we
ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He
hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have
asked from Him.”
2.14.4. Unselfish motives
2.14.4.1.
James 4:3, “3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,
so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
2.15.
As I look throughout church history there is
no one whom I could say must have more demonstrated this gift working through
his life than George Muller. George
Muller was born in 1805 in Germany and was received a theology degree in 1825
at the university of Halle. Depending
solely upon voluntary contributions he built schools for the poor and
orphanages which schooled and lodged over 2,000 English children and employed a
few hundred people full time, distributed Bibles and Christian literature
around the world, etc. With no money or
resources himself he simply prayed continually and trusted God to provide
miraculously for each day’s needs, and he never advertised any of the needs
that existed trusting only in God to provide.
He himself even refused a salary from any of the money which came in.
2.15.1. The
following is an excerpt from the introduction to George
Muller’s Autobiography, “The most remarkable
instance of the efficacy of prayer with which I am acquainted, is that recorded
in the following pages. It seems, in
fact, to be a practical illustration of the meaning of those passages of
Scripture which I have already recited.
A young German Christian, friendless and unknown, is conscious of what
he believes to be a call from the Lord to attempt something for the benefit of
the poor vagabond children of Bristol.
He is at this time preaching the gospel to a small company of believers,
from whom, at his own suggestion, he receives no salary, being supported day by
day by the voluntary offerings of his brethren. Without the promise of aid from any being but God, he commences
his work. In answer to prayer, funds
are received as they are needed, and the attempt succeeds beyond his
expectation. After a few years he is
led to believe that God has called him to establish a house for the maintenance
and education of orphans. He was
impelled to this effort, not only from motives of benevolence, but from a
desire to convince men that God was a living God, as ready now as ever to
answer prayer; and that, in the
discharge of any duty to which he calls us, we may implicitly rely upon his
all-sufficient ad in every emergency.
Mr. Muller was led to undertake this work in such a manner that aid
could not be expected from any being but God.
He did not of course expect God to create gold and silver and put them
into his hands. He knew, however, that
God could incline the hearts of men to aid him, and he believed, if the thing
that he attempted was of Him, that he would so incline them, in answer to
prayer, as his necessities should require.
Most men in making such an attempt would have spread the case before the
public employed agents to solicit in its behalf, and undertaken nothing until
funds adequate to the success of the enterprise had been already secured. But Mr. Muller, true to his principles,
would do no such thing. From the first
day to the present moment he has neither directly nor indirectly solicited
either of the public or of an individual a single penny. As necessities arose he simply laid his case
before God and asked of him all that he needed, and the supply has always been
seasonable and unfailing. The
conductors of benevolent enterprises generally consider it important to publish
the names of donors, appealing thus to what is considered an innocent desire in
man to let our good deeds be known, and thus also to stimulate others to do
likewise. Ignoring every motive of this
kind, Mr. Muller made it his rule to publish the name of no contributor. When the name was known to him, which ,
however, was not often the case, he made a private acknowledgment; while in his printed account he only made
known the sum received, and the date of its reception. In this manner, forsaking every other
reliance but God, and in childlike simplicity looking to him alone for the
supply of every want, all that he needed was furnished as punctually as if, in
possession of millions, he had drawn from time to time on his banker. Thus has he continued from, I think, the
year 1834. By degrees the establishment
increased, and it was necessary to leave the hired houses in which the children
had thus far been accommodated. Land
was purchased, and a building erected in the vicinity of Bristol. This was soon filled to overflowing, and
another building was demanded. This was
erected, and it also was very soon filled.
These buildings were sufficient to accommodate seven hundred
orphans. At the present time, a third
building, larger than either, is in the process of erection, and is to be
finished in the course of the ensuing summer.
When this shall be completed,
accommodations will have been provided for eleven hundred and fifty
orphans. These expensive buildings have
been erected; the land has been
purchased on which they stand; this
multitude of children has been clothed and fed and educated; support and remuneration have been provided
for all the necessary teachers and assistants, and all this has been done by a
man who is not worth a dollar. He has
never asked any one but God for whatever they needed, and from the beginning
they have never wanted a meal, nor have they ever allowed themselves to be in
debt. There seems in this to be
something as remarkable as if Mr. Muller had commanded a sycamore tree to be
removed and planted in the sea, and it had obeyed him. But this is not all. Mr. Muller saw that there was a great demand
for copies of the Holy Scriptures, both in Great Britain and on the Continent,
and he commenced the work of Bible distribution. This so rapidly expanded itself that he was soon obliged to open
in Bristol a large Bible House. He
believed that great good might be done by the circulation of religious tracts,
and he has carried on this work extensively.
He was moved to make an attempt to aid and even to support missionaries
among the heathen, as well as other good men, of various denominations, who,
with very inadequate means of living, were preaching the gospel to the poor and
destitute at home. He began to aid them
as their necessities came to his knowledge, and now one hundred such men are
depending on him, wholly or in part, for support. Here, then, we certainly behold a remarkable phenomenon. A single man, wholly destitute of funds, is
supporting and educating seven hundred orphans, providing everything needful
for their education, is in himself and extensive Bible and Tract and Missionary
Society, the work is daily increasing in magnitude, and the means for carrying
it on are abundantly supplied, while he is connected with no particular
denomination, is aided by no voluntary association, and he has asked the
assistance of not a single individual.
He has asked no one but God, and all his wants have been regularly
supplied. In these labors of love he
has, up to the present time, expended nearly a million of dollars. It is thus that he has endeavored to show to
an unbelieving world that God is a living God, and that he means what he has
said in every one of his promises.”