Can You Believe!

We continue with the series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit as per 1 Corinthians 12:7-10.

Before I continue with the next gift, which is faith, I’d like to mention one more example of a Word of Knowledge that came to me this morning as I woke up. We call it a hunch. When it comes to business, creative ideas, solving crime or anything where we get to a dead end, the Lord would gladly help as long as somebody prays somewhere, which is why someone would get what is called a hunch – she just had this brilliant idea from somewhere. I’m a firm believer that the Lord is involved in the solving of many mysteries by passing knowledge supernaturally to the relevant person(s).

What is the difference between everyday faith and the gift of faith? Everyday faith is something we learn. We receive a rhema word from the Lord, which gives us something to hold onto. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ,” (Romans 10:17). Because the Lord said He’ll do it, we have this hope to which faith gives substance – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith, as a gift, is supernatural faith given when we need it urgently. When Jesus walked on the water (Matthew 14:25) He did it with this kind of faith. When Peter asked for faith to join Jesus on the water, he received this kind of faith (Matthew 14:26). In his book ‘Like A Mighty Wind’ about the Indonesian revival, Mel Tari told of an occasion where the missionaries got confronted by a full river and he just knew he had the faith to step onto the water and he walked across the river, which he did. When Brother Andrew smuggled his first carload of Bibles into communist Russia, he received faith to drive the car openly into the border post, believing that the Lord will shut the guards’ eyes and He did. When Jesus was about to be thrown down a cliff by the people of Nazareth, He received faith to start walking though the crowd, believing nothing would happen to Him (Luke 4:28-30).

When we are serious about doing the Lord’s will, we’ll get confronted by obstacles hindering us to accomplish our purposes. We’ll also face resistance and persecution. When we struggle with dilapidating temptations to sin and strongholds that threaten to overpower us, i.e. thorns in our flesh that aim to paralyse us, we’ll need support. To overcome these the Lord made supernatural faith available whenever we need it. Once again we are not called to be religious. We are called to accomplish what the Lord lay before us to do and the Holy Spirit is always ready to support us all the way as we build the Lord’s Kingdom here on earth.

We therefore need to start moving by everyday faith and when we get to really tough situations, the Holy Spirit is ready to give us the extra faith we need for that moment. The secret, however, is that we need to get into such a situation, i.e. we need to do something worthwhile in building the Kingdom of God.

Lord, I’d love to experience your gifts and power. Please lead me into your purpose for my life.

If you benefited from this, why don’t you link it to your Facebook or Twitter to make it available to your friends? You can also use the e-mail link to pass it on. Please also pray for the spreading of it to those who need it. Please feel free to ask questions or discuss thoughts.