Have you ever been in a situation that looked so hopeless you almost thought even Jesus couldn’t get you out? If we are honest, we’ve all been there. I’m talking about those situations where we know what the promise of God’s word says, but we can’t seem to muster faith in that promise. Often anxiety and stress will begin to weigh us down because we aren’t believing and we know we should be. We pray and study and confess and it seems like we are still in fear because our crisis seems so big. This is where the gift of faith kicks in!
Before I define the gift of faith, I want to define the primary way faith comes so as to distinguish the gift of faith from faith that comes through hearing the word of God. According to Romans 10:17 faith comes by hearing, and hearing of the word of God. The primary way faith comes is through hearing the word. This could be through hearing through personal Bible study or anointed preaching. According to Mark 4 faith comes like a seed and as we steward the word in our heart, our faith grows and we see the breakthrough. This is a process and the way the kingdom typically operates.
The gift of faith is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit discussed in 1 Corinthians 12. Many translations of the Bible and commentaries refer to it as special faith. It is different than the the faith that comes by simply hearing God’s word and stewarding our heart to keep out distractions and fear because it is a supernatural impartation of the Holy Spirit.
This impartation or gift of faith is God’s way of rigging the system when we haven’t developed the measure of faith we have by feeding on God’s word to see the breakthrough we need. For example, if a person just got saved and was then diagnosed with a terminal illness, they may not have long enough to develop their faith through the process of renewing their mind that Mark 4 talks about. They are going to need an impartation of faith.
A great example of the gift of faith in the Bible is when David defeated Goliath. David didn’t fight Goliath with his own strength or even with his own faith. The Apostle Paul verifies this when he quotes David’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:13:
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,
The Holy Spirit came upon David when he was anointed to be king (1 Samuel 16:13). David operated in the power of the spirit and gift of faith when he defeated Goliath and delivered the nation of the entire nation of Israel. David benefited all of Israel when he defeated Goliath the same way the gifts of spirit are supposed to benefit the entire body of Christ today.
One of my favorite modern day examples of the gift of faith is through the ministry of Randy Clark. Randy travels the world teaching in churches and conferences and sees a lot of healing and miracles through his ministry. Often when Randy is done teaching, he will begin to minister in the gifts of the spirit, specifically healing. God will often give him a word of knowledge about wanting to heal a specific body part such as the right knee. Randy will then say say, “God wants to heal anyone who has pain in their right knee right now. If you have pain in your right right knee, raise your hand to where I can see it.”
As 100 or so hands are raised in a room thousands of people, Randy will then say, “I’m going to pray and when you feel the healing power of God touch your body and you are at least 80 percent better, I want you to stand up.” Do you know what happens as those 100 hands that were raised, become 100 bodies that are standing because they have received their healing? Faith is imparted to everyone in the room! And this faith didn’t come through studying the word. It came through impartation!
Randy will typically go through the same process again with a different part of the body such as the shoulder. And guess what happens as 100 hands that were raised become 100 more more bodies that are standing because they are healed. The faith level in the room increases even more through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Usually at that point, Randy will call forth his prayer team and they begin to pray for everyone else and an explosion of healing happens in the room!
Many of the people who are healed in Randy’s meetings are unbelievers or are Christians who have grown up in denominational backgrounds that teach God does’t heal people today. These people who are getting healed aren’t people who have developed their faith by meditating on healing scriptures and listening to CD’s of ministers who teach on healing. Their ability to receive from God comes through a direction impartation of the Holy Spirit as Randy Clark cooperates with the Holy Spirit in his meetings.
The best news is God is not a respecter of persons. The same God that moved on the behalf of David, of the Apostle Paul, and operates today in the life of ministers like Randy Clark wants to flow through you and I.
So how do we operate in the gift of faith? 1 Corinthians 14:1 says WE ARE TO DESIRE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. The word desire means we are to lust for.
The beginning of operating in any of the gifts is hunger. Hunger for more. Hunger for the supernatural. God’s eyes roam the whole earth desiring someone to show himself strong through. He just needs you and me to have the same desire! Begin to pray and ask God to increase your desire and the next time an impossible situation comes your way, press into the Holy Spirit and allow Him to impart a supernatural gift of faith to you!
