The Pentecostal Experience- the Gifts. Part 4.
Introduction
In the last teaching of part three, we covered the revelation gifts, which are the Word of Wisdom, the Word of Knowledge, and the Discerning of Spirits. In this session, we will cover the three power gifts. The power gifts are those that do something. These are the Gift of Faith, the Working of Miracles, and the Gifts of Healing. We will first examine in this teaching the gift of faith. Please read once again, I Corinthians 12: 4-12. Let me reemphasize that the gift of faith, like all the gifts of the Spirit, is supernatural. It is not natural there are those who say that some of the gifts of the Spirit are natural and some are supernatural. However, if one is supernatural, then all are supernatural. I believe that every gift is a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Please see. 1 Corinthians 12:11.
It is my opinion that the Gift of Faith is the greatest of all three Gifts of Power. However, all three are related and can be used interchangeably as the Holy Spirt desires. Therefore, we must understand that faith, like prayer, is often confused in some people’s minds. We tend to put all kinds of faith in the same bag, make them up and shake them altogether. But we must differentiate between them. There are four kinds of faith. The first kind of faith is saving faith which leads one to salvation. The second faith is general faith, which every believer has. The third is the fruit of faith or faithfulness, the fruit of the re-created human spirit, which comes after salvation. And number four, the gift of faith or special faith is a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which is imparted to the believer after baptism-of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit.
Saving Faith
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”— Eph. 2:8. Saving faith is that faith by which we are saved, and it is a gift of God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. Romans 10:17, Saving faith is imparted to us, by hearing by the word of God. However, this kind of faith is different, the gift of faith or special faith is different from saving faith.
General Faith
…. according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Rom. 12:3.
According to the scripture that we have just seen, there’s a general faith which I believers have. This general type of faith can be increased as Christian’s feed on the word of God and exercise it in the arena of life. We can call it ever increasing general faith. However, the gift of faith is one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit given as a spirit. I want to insert in here that faith needs to grow and Cristian needs to grow up from babies to mature, clear thinking believers. How we think is how we will speak. And how we speak is how we will live.
It is the arena of general faith by which Christians receive answers to prayers. For example, we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit by faith, and we receive the answers to prayer by faith, because “Jesus said whatever things you desire, when you pray believe that you have received them and you should have them”. Mark 11:24.
Prayers must be based on faith in God. It says that without faith, we cannot please God. We exercise general faith to receive answers of prayer. The Gift of Faith is a special faith to receive answers to prayer for special things that the Lord God wants to do in and through one’s life. The scripture says one is given a Word of Knowledge to another Faith by the Holy Spirit. Paull is very specific stating that to one is given Word of Wisdom, another Word of Knowledge, to another the Gift of Faith and to another the Gifts of healing.
“For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit” I Cor. 12:8-9. Paul states that not everyone has any specific on-going gift but it is as given by the Holy Spirit as He wills. So, in summary we can see that the gift of faith is not the same as general faith which every believer has period. Patient has a valuation if we had to rely on the gifts of special faith to get our prayers answered then not everyone could receive answers to prayer.
The Fruit of Faith
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Gal. 5: 22-23
The fruit of faith is different from the gift of faith. In the Greek, the fruit of faith is called faithfulness. The fruit of the Spirit are the development of Christian character, but the gifts of the spirit are to produce power in the believer’s life. Fruit is something that grows. Faith or faithfulness is a fruit that grows in the life of a Christian to establish spiritual character. But the gift of special faith is a gift given by the Spirit of God as the Spirit of God wills. When we study the phrase of the gift of faith this is supernatural faith given to the believer by the Holy Spirit as He wills. 1st Corinthians12:9
I’ve heard people say that if God gives me faith, I will have it and he doesn’t I won’t but the scripture says to another is given faith and they think that this is the way to get faith. However, general faith is revealed to us by the word of God and by hearing the word of God. The gift of faith is different than the fruit of faith.
The Gift of Faith
“to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit”. 1 Cor. 12:9
So, we now can see that the gift of faith is not imparted to all but only to those who the Holy Spirit wills to do so. Again, it’s a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit to receive a miracle. By the gift of faith, one does not work a miracle but receives the faith for a miracle. The gift of faith the distinguished from other kinds of faith in that with special faith there is a manifestation of the evidence of the supernatural. One can supernaturally Believe in God for a miracle. Of the three power gifts, the gift of faith, the working of miracles, and the gifts of healing, the gift of faith in my opinion is the greatest. We have seen that the gift of faith or special faith is separate and distinct from saving faith which leads one to salvation, general faith which every believer has, and the fruit of faith which helps developed one’s Christian character.