09-Mar-2024 – Faith is not just believing

Published by Sunil Binkam on March 9, 2024March 9, 2024

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal… For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit…To another faith by the same Spirit -1 Corinthians 12:7-9

This verse teaches us that, our faith is the gift of God through Holy Spirit. I don’t know about you but when I read this, I got this question. If faith is the gift of God, then he could give faith in Jesus to everyone right?

Today we will understand a bit more about this aspect of faith. What does the Bible say about our salvation?

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. -Romans 10:9-10

Here it talks about believing something about God. When do we believe something? When we see or hear about something, then we will either believe it or not. Believing is related to the thing till then we didn’t know or didn’t accept.

If we look at Romans 10:9-10 with this understanding, “If though shalt confess…” that means till then you did not confess. “And shalt believe in thine heart…” that means till then you did not accept. Once you believe or accept as truth about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his Lordship over your life, you will be saved.

Once you are saved, you are made new and you are a born again believer. You are now enabled with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. -Acts 2:38

Now you have the access to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of heavenly Father and the guiding fellowship of Holy Spirit. In this condition you will get the “gift of faith” from the Holy Spirit.

Now what is faith? we know the definition from Hebrew 1:1, but like we defined believing, let us also understand faith. Faith is trusting the truth you learnt about something.

Believing is accepting something as true which you did not accept till now or did not know till now. While faith is trusting in the truth about something you learnt. For example, let us take the same Romans 10:9-10. First we accepted the truth of the work on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins and confessed with our mouth. Now, we learnt a truth that we are no more sinners and Jesus is our Lord. So, when we trust this truth, we are having faith in Jesus.

This faith is the gift of Holy Spirit. How? When we hear the word of God which is the truth of God, the Holy Spirit will help us to understand, extract the meaning and the practical application. This will develop faith in you. That’s why it is written –

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. -Romans 10:17

Because, when you hear the word of God, the Holy Spirit of God will work in you to explain it to you according to the measure of grace that is given to you by Jesus Christ. Eventually you would understand the truth of the word of God and you will be enabled to have faith in that truth.

That’s why “Your Faith is the Gift of God”.

Prayer

Dear loving heavenly Father, thank you for your love and grace. Thank you for teaching me about the difference between believing and having faith. Help me to read the word of God more deliberately to extract the truth, so that I can develop faith in me. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!