You Have Enough Faith Pt1

When we pray prayers like the disciples prayed in Luke 17:5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Give us more faith”, we often pray it because we don’t know what we have already been given. There are 2 kinds of faith:

Firstly there’s the kind of faith that says “I will believe it when I see it”, like with Thomas in John 20:25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. We call this physical or natural faith, faith that is based upon what we can see, taste, hear, smell & feel with our 5 senses. Then there is the kind of faith that is anchored firm in the Word of God, that does not falter because we don’t see the answer to our prayer, faith that keeps on believing “I AM healed” because the Word says so, even though I don’t “feel” healed yet. John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Do you know we have the same faith as the apostle Peter that did mighty signs & wonders? 2 Pet 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. In fact do you know we have the same faith as Jesus? Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. All believers have been given THE measure of faith: Rom 12:3 … according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith (KJV).

This faith was given to us by God the day we were born again, it was a gift: Eph 2:7 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it (the faith) is the gift of God (emphasis my own). Now since we have received this faith as a gift in the first place, we can rest assured that God will maintain perfect & perfect it for us as well. Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith… Some translations say “author & perfector”. When Jesus said someone had “great faith” or “little faith”, He wasn’t referring to the quantity of their faith, He was referring to the level of faith that they were operating in.

Now some would try to counter this by quoting 1 Cor 12, saying that the Spirit gives only SOME gifts to each of us individually. 1 Cor 12:11 But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing separately to each one as He desires. Well did you ever consider that you have inside you the Holy Spirit that has ALL the gifts? This verse doesn’t say He only gives “some gifts”, no the Spirit will give to a person ANY of the gifts that is needed in that specific situation. Also see just a few verses before this one: 1 Cor 12:6 And there are differences of workings, but it is the same God working all things in all.

When we are new in the faith, we need the Holy Spirit to come and empower us with these gifts from time to time as we may require in our specific situation. In Paul’s epistle to the church at Corinthians (who was a “baby” church) he wrote this: 1 Cor 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. And it was this same “baby” church that Paul was speaking to when He wrote about the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor 12.

But when we come into maturity in Christ, we will realise that we have all the gifts at our disposal since we have received FULLNESS in Christ. Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. And also Jon 1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

You see the biggest problem is not that people don’t have faith. Born again believers all have the faith of God. The faith of God is simply this: Faith that enables you to believe in things that you cannot perceive with your 5 senses. You needed this faith to be saved in the first place – how else would you KNOW that your sins have been forgiven? You had to believe it!  Sins that have been forgiven and blotted out is not something you can see, but through the faith God has given us, we can believe it and KNOW we have been forgiven. I encourage you to download this sermon from one of my heroes of the faith: Andrew Wommack. Click on this link: http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/a01

Well if we have God’s faith, why doesn’t it produce for us in the area of finances, health, etc. at the level which God promises in the Bible? Next week we will be answering this question, so stick around!!

Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe
www.NewCovenantGrace.com

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Previous Messages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.