When I am in spiritual dialog with people, I often get repetitive questions. One of those questions that I often receive is about faith. Where does faith come from? Does it originate from God or is faith something that we must acquire?
Let me go through some revealing scriptures with an answer to this common question.
Faith is define as a solid assurance or substance:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
(KJV)
Faith originates from the Holy Spirit:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
Faith is a wonder-filled and glorious gift of the Holy Spirit:
“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.” – 1 Corinthians 12:7-10
Faith comes by hearing the “spoken” word of the Lord:
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” – Romans 10:17
The Greek for “word” in this verse is ῥῆμα rhēma and means, spoken or voiced word. This flows in context with the eternal principle that hearing causes faith to manifest. So, to hear the voice of the Lord results in faith.
There is an allotment of faith that God gives to us:
“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” – Romans 12:3
Although there is an origin of faith in us that comes from God, and although the glorious faith that comes from our heavenly Father is precious beyond compare, there is a measurement of that faith which differs from person to person.
An officer of the Roman army, a Centurion, came to Yeshua, and the Master alluded to some kind of measure of his faith being great – or greater than – what He knew of in Israel at that time:
“Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly (Amen) I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” – Matthew 8:10
So, we see that there is a “great faith” in measurement. {great = τοσοῦτος tosoutos ; from τόσος tosos (so much) and so great, so much, plural – so many}
But there is also a “littleness of faith,” as well. Jesus spoke of His disciples a half dozen times about their “littleness of faith”. ὀλιγοπιστία oligopistia; little faith:–littleness or small in measurement.
“And He said to them, ‘Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.’” – Matthew 17:20
Faith is energized by love
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” – Galatians 5:6 ἐνεργέω energeō; to be at work, to work, to do, effective, effectually worked, performs… work or working. This is the word that we get the word “energy” from. It is an acceptable term to say that “faith is energized by love” or “love energizes one to faith.”
James teaches us that there is a necessity of a working faith in our lives, or there is not life at all: “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” – James 2:17 [You can learn more about this working of faith in the context of this scripture.]
When we look at this current flow of scriptures about faith, I believe that we can see that faith comes from the Lord, but it must be stewarded by the believer. Thus, how well it is stewarded is directly related to the growth of faith. The works of faith are referred to throughout the Old & New Testaments. Hebrews eleven tells of the heroes or patriarchs of faith throughout the ages. Although our faith comes from the Lord, it is expected that we will steward this wonderful living faith gift and “work the works of Him who sent Me.”
“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” – John 9:4 (ESV)
So, then is appears that faith is a spiritual substance that comes from Yehovah but is handled by the child of God. It has organic growth (seed) that causes phenomenon, or manifestations, upon the earth. And it is the responsibility of the believer.
Faith should not be taken for granted. Faith is a precious thing and should be constantly at work in every believer.
The Faith manifested in the past should be the least of our confessions.
The Faith for what we are believing for right now should be the greatest of our confessions.
Faith is substance of what is hoped for not acclaiming the things of the past.
“But now abides faith, hope, love, these three, but the greater of these is love.” – 1 Corinthians 13:13
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Much of this can be found in our book “Revealing Faith – Moving Mountains In Your Life by Wayne C & Stephanie Anderson [standsure.net/faith]