The Power Gifts: Part 1 - Faith

Intro

Welcome,

Today we’re continuing our series on the spiritual gifts and we’ll be talking about the gift of faith. We’ll be attempting to answer the questions, What is faith? why is it important? and What is the difference between saving faith and the spiritual gift of faith?

College money story

Faith

The definition of faith is this: “complete trust or confidence in someone or something” with little to no tangible evidence that that thing or person is trustworthy.

Faith takes trust to a whole new level… in many ways faith is the opposite to trust. Where trust comes with history and that tangible evidence to base the trust on, faith has no such thing. Faith is harder because you must believe in something or expect something to happen without being presented with a lot of evidence that that thing exists or if that thing will actually happen.

This is why you have to gain someone’s trust but not their faith. If someone has faith in you, it's because they chose to place their faith in you based on a hope. But, trust, that needs to be earned and is easily broken.

Faith makes no sense to the average person... It does after you’ve experienced life with God, but to someone who doesn’t know God faith is probably the most illogical idea and not a very smart philosophy to live by. Pretty much everything about living a Christian lifestyle and putting our faith in God doesn’t make sense. Myself choosing to make pastoring my career choice… unwise by the worlds standards. Giving so generously that one’s bank account is near empty most of the time… unwise by the worlds standards. Choosing to give a homeless person at a stoplight money because that’s what Jesus would do… unwise to the world because that person may go buy drugs or alcohol rather than food.

We live by a faith that looks to be backwards to most people… but that is why faith is so powerful, that’s why it is such a beautiful thing. What comes of our faith in God is unexpected to those watching and so creates an opportunity for God to show his power and who He is to those that don’t know Him. God’s way is almost never the most logical or safest sounding course of action, but it’s always the one that brings the most blessing and positions us to be more of a blessing to others.

Faith is a beautiful thing, but what’s the difference between faith and the gift of faith?

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

The first verse of Hebrews 11 is arguably one of the only places where the bible attempts to define exactly what faith is. Verse 1 has two parts, each containing an essential element of what faith is.

The first part of verse 1 is saying that Faith takes hold of the reality of what God has promised in the present and is sure that it will happen.

The second part is saying that Faith is sure of the things that the human eye can’t see, in other words what we might think as impossible or illogical.

The gift of faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Most times when we have faith in something we are choosing that faith. We aren’t given a faith in Christ… we don’t just become believers because the belief is given to us. We are presented with the truth and then we have to make the decision to accept that truth. We have to choose it.

The conviction of things not seen is our faith in God, that He is there and He is with us and loves us. The word assurance means “a positive declaration intended to give confidence or a promise.” The assurance of things hoped for… Pause... I would suggest that this is the essence of the spiritual gift of faith. The spiritual gift of faith is a faith that is more than just faith, it is a faith that is given, not one that we choose.

Not only is it a faith that is given, it’s a faith that is founded in an assurance by God of things hoped for by us. Think of that person who never doubts, who never shows any sign of worry because they know God is working behind the scenes… They have the gift of faith. They have been given an assurance of God’s truth and the things He will do.

When we began this series we talked about how the primary purpose of the spiritual gifts is the edification of others… as much as having the gift of faith and that assurance that whenever we were prompted to pray or walk through difficulties or give something up God was coming through for us without any smidgen of doubt, that kind of faith is for others to witness.

If regular faith in God can be used to shine light in dark places, how much more can the faith given by God do that? Imagine being someone who isn’t a christian who had a really good friend who was. Now this christian friend was really open about their faith and that didn’t bother you because you weren’t changing your mind. This friend would always talk about how they knew God was going to do something and you would question them on it, but for all your questioning and reasoning and logical thought they didn’t budge… even on things that were impossibilities. Then to your astonishment, the things they said God would do happened every time. Time and time again you were forced to face the illogical reality that your friend’s God may actually be real.

The friend of that unbeliever who never swayed, who had the gift of faith and wore that on their sleeve planted seed after seed in that unbeliever’s life until they were forced to believe in something they said they would never believe in.

The gift of faith is faith on steroids. It’s a faith that never backs down, and never falters because it’s the faith of the Holy spirit, of God who knows perfectly well what He is and isn’t going to do.

In 1 Corinthians 12:31 Paul tells us to “earnestly desire the higher gifts.”

Desire the gift of faith. Pray that you might receive it. God is a God of generous giving and He loves to give. Not only that He might bless us but that we can be His blessing to others.

Walk in faith, pray for faith. “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 1 Corinthians 5:1.

I’m going to close with this… before you go and do whatever it is that you do after church, discuss this question with your family or in your journal if you’re by yourself.

What are the things that I need to walk in faith for? What are the things that you are looking to that are seen, when you should be looking to things that are unseen?

Then pray as a family that God would give you the faith to trust Him and His plan and that you would be an example to those that need God’s love and who are secretly desperate for it but don’t even know it.

This world is dark and depressing, but you are the hands and feet of Christ. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Go, and make someone’s day and perhaps even change someone’s life with the love of God today.

Blessings be upon you.