“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23, NKJV). “For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:7-8, NKJV).
Hebrews 10:23 says that we need to keep on confessing unswerving hope in God’s promises for He is faithful. James 1:7-8 says that a double minded man in unstable in all his ways, and he shouldn’t think he will receive anything from God. We don’t want to doubt. We want to believe in His promises.
Faith is what is needed to believe in God’s promises. But it is not just any faith. Our human faith doesn’t have the power or sustainability. Human faith wavers. Human faith doubts. Human faith can’t see the substance of what is hoped for. It can’t hold on with unswerving hope to evidence that isn’t seen. Human faith is what we muster up. Human faith is our work and not the Lord’s work of faith in us.
“I am crucified with Christ,” Paul wrote, “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” (Galatians 2:20, KJV).
In the KJV version of Galatians 2:20, Paul said he was living by the faith “of” Christ. Other versions read that we live by faith “in” Christ. The faith we have received to live by is the same faith that we received when we first believed in Christ in our hearts and were saved (Romans 10:10). The faith of Christ is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that begins the moment we believe in Jesus and continues to work in our lives to the degree that we allow. This faith came to us by hearing the Word, and it flourishes in our lives when we continually hear it in our hearts (Romans 10:17).
Paul said that he was living by the faith “of” Jesus. Paul said this same thing twice just a few verses earlier in Galatians 2:16. Paul received the faith of Christ from hearing God’s Word in his heart. We, just like Paul, receive the believing faith of God from hearing God’s truth and His life revealed in His Word (Romans 10:17, John 6:63). Human faith is human effort that profits us nothing. Only the supernatural faith of Jesus revealed in the Word brings truth and life (John 6:63.)
Romans 12:3 says every believer has been given “the” measure of faith.
“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3, KJV).
God has given every believer the same measure of His faith. There aren’t different measures of His faith. We have all received the same measure of faith. Paul said that the faith he was living by was the faith of the Son of God. Isn’t that the measure of faith God has given to every believer? We all have received the same mustard seed of faith in Christ (Matthew 17:20). It isn’t human faith. It is the faith of Jesus that offers great potential in our lives. How we exercise faith is what makes faith appear greater in some believers than in others.
In 1 Corinthians 12:9, Paul speaks of a “gift of faith” that is imparted by the Holy Spirit. This is not referring to the measure of faith given to each believer. Each one who believes in Jesus has the same measure of faith that must mature and grow through the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2-3). Having great and little faith is mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 8:10 and Matthew 8:26. Each one of us can exercise different amounts of faith—be it great or little. The gift of faith mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:9 is not the faith received at salvation. It is a supernatural imparting of faith by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of helping those who are struggling to believe. Many things we need in our lives come “according to our faith” (Matthew 9:29). If the faith we received at salvation has not matured through the hearing of the Word, then we need to strengthen the faith we have been given or find a person with the gift of faith to encourage us.
We, humans, are so spiritually needy that we can’t even believe in salvation with our own faith. It took the faith of Jesus to save us. We had to exercise God’s supernatural faith (Ephesians 2:8) that came to us as a gift through the hearing of God’s Word (Romans 10:17). Our human faith is limited and believe what we experience in this natural world. The supernatural—God’s kind of faith—goes beyond what we see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. The faith of Jesus sees the substance of those things hoped for as if they already are (Romans 4:17).
The promises of God are “yes and amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). They are yours to receive by the faith Jesus has given you. You believed in the Lord to be saved. You can also believe in the truth God’s Word reveals. It is God’s will that “by His stripes you were healed,” (1 Peter 2:24). You choose to exercise the faith of Christ and believe. And you receive by His faith the substance of the promise you can’t see. And you draw from God’s spiritual truth by the faith He has given you into the reality of your life.
God tempts no man to fail. He tests no man to fail. He wants you to win. He believes in you. When you are tempted and tested by the trials and evils of life, the faith Christ has given you is strong. His faith in you is greater than what happens around you or in you. His faith is proved in you by what you believe.
© 2023 Lynn Lacher
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