The Gift of Faith (The Victor's Mentality 41)

We have been looking at different phases of faith while we have been considering the victor’s mentality as our broad theme.

As we can see from our grand text in Ephesians 6:16:

“Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The shield of faith is one of the armour God has given us as a victor so that we can keep winning.

And I remember I shared that the shield covers and protects the other armour. That’s why you would see in the text that the Scripture says, “above all.” That informs you that the shield of faith is a covering over all the other armour.

That is, if every other armour will not be exposed to attack, then we need to always take up our shield of faith.

That has led us to begin to see what faith is and the different phases of faith. We have touched on five phases, which are saving faith, justifying faith, living faith, overcoming faith, and defensive faith.

In this article, I will share the last phase, which is the Gift of Faith (special manifestation of faith).

In 1 Corinthians 12:9, we can see Apostle Paul let us know that there is the gift of faith:

“To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit.”

The gift of faith is a ministry gift, not with the aim to show off, but primarily for God’s glory to be revealed as He uses us to maintain a kind of spiritual balance in our lives, our environment, and in the church of God.

So, the gift of faith is a supernatural enablement by the Holy Spirit that gives extraordinary confidence in God for a specific moment to produce a miraculous result. It is a supernatural impartation of faith by the Holy Spirit for a specific situation, to the end that God alone can be glorified.

Let me break it down:

I don’t know if you have ever been in a situation where you know that the kind of faith you are manifesting at the moment is not such that you have entered that realm. You knew you had not been manifesting that kind of faith, but God, because of His grace, suddenly you just experienced a surge of an impartation of faith to accomplish that particular task, to the end that God is glorified.

I call it a sudden faith that you just reach the pinnacle of the faith Christ operates with. Even though you are not there literally, the Holy Spirit takes you there to achieve an assignment.

Let me share my personal example before we see God’s Word.

I remember I was with a very dear one to me, and at that time she was already gasping, breathing her last breath. I was just a year old in Christ, and I had not prayed for the sick before, not to talk of praying for a dying person to be restored to life.

But suddenly, I literally felt a kind of impartation on me that gave me such confidence, and I commanded in Christ’s name that that dear one be restored to life. And glory to Jesus, she was. I knew I was not the one.

Another example.

While I was on campus, I was privileged to be the village evangelism coordinator in my fellowship. We would go to neighbouring villages around the school vicinity.

In this particular village, we had been told that there was a stronghold, a babalawo. But God had already inspired us to go to the village. So we went, and lo and behold, we were confronted with the babalawo. Virtually every one of us was kind of quivering, even me who was the coordinator, because we had not encountered such an incident.

So the man got to the point that he said that none of us would get back to campus safe and sound. At that moment, there was a surge of faith imparted upon me that caused me to confront the man back and say, “No! You are the one that we will not meet here next week.”

I sincerely had not confronted a babalawo before, but that day I did. I was so confident that God would honour my declaration, and lo and behold, the following week we didn’t meet the babalawo because his shrine was burnt down and he needed to leave in shame.

At the moment when you experience this pinnacle of faith, it causes you to be audacious. You begin to dare to take on what you have never imagined before. It just takes hold of you at the moment. You really don’t have control over it.

Look at someone like Daniel in Daniel 6:22–23:

“My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”

“Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God.”

I am sure Daniel was not building faith in God to be able to live with a lion and not be hurt, but at the moment when the situation came, that surge of faith caused him to have a strong belief in God that the lion would not hurt him.

So as to get you to understand, this gift of faith is not a substitute for our daily faith in God. It is not for us to stop building up ourselves in faith in God. Otherwise, you will be disappointed, because it just comes upon you momentarily for a particular task.

However, this kind of experience is to be desired every day of your life. Because we are in a fallen world, we will see things every now and then that we have never imagined. At that point, you may need this supernatural surge of faith so that your confidence in Christ will reach that height so as to draw from His supply.

I be sharing with you in the next article on how we can position ourselves to always have this experience. Even though many times it is sovereignly given by the Spirit of God, we have also seen from Scripture that a man can position his heart to receive this gift.