The Work Of The Holy Spirit Series
Part 5 – “The Gifts of The Spirit: The Gift of Faith”
Submitted by Dave White – Central Florida District Coordinator
1 Corinthians 12:7-11
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
The nine gifts of the Spirit can be divided into three groups.
- Gifts that reveal something
- Gifts that say something
- Gifts that do something
The three gifts that reveal something are the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom and the discerning of spirits.
The three gifts that say something are the gift of tongues, the gift of interpretation of tongues and the gift of prophecy.
The three gifts that do something are the gifts of healings, the gift of working of miracles and the gift of faith.
These last three gifts are also known as power gifts because they will demonstrate the power of God.
The Gifts Of The Spirit Are Supernatural
Every gift of the Holy Spirit is supernatural, not natural. These gifts cannot be learned in the sense that a person can be taught to activate these gifts at their demand. These gifts are all given to the individual as the Spirit of God wills.
The gift of tongues was not taught to you like your native, natural language. When you were filled with the Spirit you spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance. So the spiritual gift of tongues is the same. God is supernatural and even as He leads us in life, that too is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:14
14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Being led by the Spirit is not a supernatural manifestation of one of the nine gifts. It is however supernatural because you are being led by the Holy Spirit within your human spirit.
The Gift Of Special Faith
The Amplified Bible calls this gift Wonder Working Faith (1 Cor. 12:9).
The Gift Of Faith Is Not The Same As Saving Faith
Every believer has general or saving faith.
Ephesians 2:8
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…
The faith you were saved by is a gift but it is not one of the nine gifts of the Spirit. Salvation is a gift from God, why? It cost us nothing, but, it cost Jesus everything. Saving faith and faith to live our lives in victory comes to us from hearing the word.
Romans 10:17
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The gift of faith in 1Corinthians 12 is a special impartation to the believer of wonder working faith. It is a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit used to accomplish the wonders of God’s power released upon individuals as the Spirit wills.
In each three categories there is one gift that stands out above the other two.
So it is with the power gifts, the gift of faith stands out because when it is in operation it will cause the believer to receive a miracle or a supernatural healing.
As these gifts work together you can see that miracles and healings are the gifts needed to accomplish something in the person’s body, but the gift of faith is the conveyor that transmits these two gifts.
Someone with a terminal disease may have been struggling in their regular faith, but then God, by His amazing love and power drops this gift of faith down into them and they, at that moment become faith giants and rise up and receive what they need from God.
Though there are three power gifts we can see that they often work together. The bottom line is that someone gets healed or delivered from the enemies’ grip. The question arises; does our ordinary, everyday faith have anything to do with the manifestations of the Spirit?
Yes, to initiate these gifts you have to step out in your own faith to begin the flow of the Spirit no matter what gift is in operation. Just as the gift of faith is different from simple faith, it is also different from one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Some translations use the word faith, but the word faithfulness is a more accurate translation. The fruit of the Spirit have to do with character issues. The gifts of the Spirit and the gift of faith have to do with power.
Fruit grows, so the fruit of faithfulness will grow in us as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us. The gift of faith is given at the moment needed. This gift does not remain in you whereas simple faith can increase by study of the word and faithfulness can grow as we show ourselves faithful.
Faith like prayer has different aspects. Just as there are different kinds of prayer there are different kinds of faith.
You cannot put all faith in one bag and say that’s all there is to it. The Bible states we must study to show ourselves approved.
2 Timothy 2:15 KJV
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Some have read 1 Corinthians 12:9 and said, “Well, if God wants to give me faith, then He will.”
Because it says that faith is a gift then they may be one who will never be given faith. It is true that this special gift of faith is as the Spirit wills, but faith to believe God in everyday life comes by hearing the Word of God.
Prayer is answered because we exercise our faith. If we had to wait for a manifestation of the Spirit, which by the way only operates in those filled with the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues, then only Spirit filled believers could ever hope to have prayers answered.
Romans 10:17
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith can come to anyone who studies the word. But the gift of Faith does not.
The Gift Of Faith Vs. The Working Of Miracles
The gift of faith is also distinct from working of miracles, although both produce miracles. One of them is active, the other is passive.
The working of miracles is active, it actively works a miracle. The gift of faith doesn’t actively work a miracle, it passively receives a miracle.
When Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den, he received a miracle. In those days when people were thrown into the lions’ den, it was a form of execution. Why did Daniel survive without a scratch? He received a miracle.
Daniel 6:23
23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
No doubt God gave Daniel the gift of faith to simply lie down and sleep with the lions.
Jesus slept in the rear of the boat during a powerful storm.
Mark 4:37-38
37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
Jesus did everything He did as a man. He did not possess anything or operate in any gift that we can’t operate in.
Philippians 2:7 says Jesus stripped Himself of all the powers He possessed in Heaven,
He was a man, anointed by God.
John 14:12
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
We as born again, Spirit filled believers have the same ability working in us Jesus did when He was on Earth. Throughout the Bible we see many people who operated in the gift of faith. Many times this gift delivered them out of dangerous situations. These people possessed a calmness and quietness to face unbelievable situations. This is faith beyond our basic faith; it is supernatural faith, the gift of faith.
The working of miracles employs faith that actively works a miracle. But the gift of faith employs faith that passively expects a miracle as a sustained and continuous action.
That means when it is necessary, there is duration to the gift of special faith, it is ongoing in its action. When the gift of faith is in operation, it may be that nothing is seen at the time to confirm that the person has the answer. The gift of faith may carry over for a long period of time and be sustained or continued in its action of passively receiving a miracle.
The gift of faith is a divine enabling by the Spirit of God that causes what is spoken or desired by man, or spoken by God to ultimately come to pass.
Submitted by Dave White with excerpts from Kenneth Hagin’s study course The Holy Spirit and His Gifts.
Thank you.
After reading all five of these articles, I am blessed by your understanding. You have done some good work here.
Since you seem to have a pretty solid grasp of this subject, I thought you might be a good person to have a personal dialogue with concerning questions that I have struggled to clarify. If it would not be too much of an encumbrance, please respond.
My email is ronbeougher@gmail.com.
Your brother in Christ, Ron
Please contact Pastor Dave White directly since he most likely will not see your comment on here. You can locate his email address on our Ministry Organization page under the District Coordinator section (Central Florida) at http://www.gcmf.org/gcmf-usa-home/usa-ministry-organization/.