THE GIFT OF FAITH 1 Corinthians 12:9: To another faith by the same Spirit.

The Bible treats of a phase of faith differing from both faith in its saving exercise and faith in its fullness; this it very properly designates the gift of faith. When Paul enumerates the gifts sovereignly bestowed upon believers in the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians, the gift of faith is prominent in the list. The gift of faith operates in spheres which are not available to saving faith or to the fullness of faith; it apprehends results which only the supernatural illuminations of the Holy Spirit reveal to the soul as possible to faith. Without such a supernatural revelation the existence and exercise of charismatic faith, or the gift of faith, is impossible.

There is a gift of faith; it has not been withdrawn from Gods people; it, like other manifestations of himself, the selfsame Spirit worketh in them who believe, as hitherto. Several features of the gift of faith may be profitably considered.

I. Its office.

The gift of faith is a divinely inwrought assurance given the soul that God will do in, for, or by the person upon whom it is bestowed, certain apprehended results, and this persuasion is so indubitable that it becomes the very substance of the things desired, and the very evidence (or proof), the conclusive testimony of the things not seen (not verified). Hence this faith is vital in certain of its relations. It is an indispensable qualification for the execution of some divine order by the person upon whom it is bestowed. 1 . This gift is the indispensable accompaniment of the divine missions to which God appoints men.

When God calls one to the work of evangelist, teacher, prophet, or healer, he accompanies it with such an endowment of faith upon the soul as that the fruit of evangelism, teaching, prophecy, or healing shall appear. This gift attends such only in their divine callings, and is effective only for their legitimate work. Sometimes the range of this endowment of faith is narrow, limited to only one phase of results, with one evangelist to the conversion of sinners, as with Philip of Samaria and Thomas Harrison of today; with E. P. Hammond to the conversion of children chiefly; with another to the sanctification of believers principally, as Dr. Sheridan Baker; with Miss Sarah Smiley, to teaching alone; with George Muller, to building orphanages; with Dr. Cullis, to faith cures; with Francis Murphy, to reform inebriates. The divine call is the pledge of the divine anointing of faith for its work. 2 . It is the indispensable antecedent of supernatural results in nature and mind through human agency.

The birth of Isaac in the ordinary course of nature was impossible. Many years after Abraham had believed the covenant promise of God by which he obtained justification, God appeared unto him; talked with him; promised him a son by Sarah, and called his name Isaac. By this revelation of the Almighty God, Abraham is persuaded that what he has promised he is able to perform. He received the gift of faith, gave glory to God, and laughed outright from the delight of assurance which illuminated his soul.

According to this faith, divinely imparted to him, it was done unto him. The miracle of the incarnation was through faith. The angel Gabriel being sent of God, came to a devout Galilean damsel residing at Nazareth; he saluted her: Hail! thou art highly favored; the Lord is with thee. Troubled in mind by the sudden appearance of this seraphic visitant, and his strange salutation, she is assured and comforted by a second message: Fear not; thou hast found favor of the Lord. Thou shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. This supernatural manifestation irresistibly persuaded her that it was the divine purpose that she should be the mother of the Lord.

She consented to the mission, saying: Be it unto me according to thy word.

A divinely wrought faith possessed her heart. The divine Benedictus from the lips of Elizabeth, under the power of the Holy Ghost, confirmed it, saying: Blessed is she that hath believed that there shall be a fulfillment of the things spoken to her from the Lord. Then breaks forth the shout of Marys Spirit. imparted faith in the inspired Magnificat, My soul doth magnify the Lord, etc., jubilant with all the anticipations which had their wondrous realization in the Advent. God gave Mary faith for this mission, and according to her faith it was done unto her. When God would make Ananias an agent for the salvation of Saul of Tarsus, he appears to him in a vision in the person of the ascended Lord, speaks to him, commissions him, discloses to him Sauls state of heart, silences his fears, assures him of the persecutors true conversion, and of the divine purpose to make Saul a chosen vessel. All this brings the heart of Ananias into a sure confidence that the work committed to him shall not fail. He went; he succeeded; he witnessed the salvation of the great apostle to the Gentiles. So it is ever: when God would have an extraordinary work achieved, or some unusual event transpire which is not according to the observed course of nature or mind, he works into some heart the supernatural persuasion that he will do this thing to, for, or by him.

These Scriptural citations are given only as samples of how, in like manner, God now sometimes imparts this gift of faith to his humblest disciples, enabling them to effect results, secure deliverances, promote revivals, and to do other mighty works.

Miss Sarah Smiley had been long an invalid; one day it came to her: The Lord is thy healer! It came so irresistibly that her heart responded, Even so, Lord; it was faith, for her healing. The next day she arose from her bed, grew stronger day by day, and has ever since been a successful evangelist.

A wife was impressed while praying to ask for the preservation and salvation of her husband, who was an officer on a Mississippi River steamer, then distant from home. The assurance of faith came that her desire was granted. The day following a telegram came to her that the steamer had burned, and that her husband had perished. She read it, folded it up, and said to the friend who delivered it: It is not so; he is saved from the flames and the waves, and shall be from his sins. A few days after, he arrived home, was soon converted, and lived for many years, a praise in the Church.

Mr. Finney had visited a place to hold revival services. He was the guest of an excellent Christian woman. After he had held the first service, he determined to leave; his hostess urged him to stay, but he said he would leave. She then said: Well, if you do go, God will send a revival anyhow.

Mr. Finney stayed, and a most wonderful revival followed. She had the gift of faith for a revival. A young lady, backslidden in heart, filled with skeptical notions, reluctantly accompanied her godly father to church one night. Her mother in enfeebled health remained at home. While engaging in prayer, she was drawn out in supplication for her daughters restoration to divine favor; while on her knees, an assurance of faith was given her that her daughter should not come home without being saved. Lo! when she returned home, she reported how the Lord had restored unto her the joy of salvation! The gift of faith is antecedent to and promotive of all such results as lie beyond the range of the blessings of grace promised to saving faith, and the experience of faith in the measure of its fullness, 3 . It is the source of the prayer of faith.

That which is called in the Scriptures the prayer of faith springs out of the endowment of faith. The soul, becoming supernaturally assured by the Holy Spirit through the Word that it is Gods will to do certain things by, for, or to it, instantly takes up prayer for that thing. What are often spoken of in Christian life as special answers to prayer, are those things given which were asked for when the soul was lifted into an assurance that God would grant those very things. The asking was prompted by the assurance of faith that had been given.

II. Its Order.

The gift of faith like every other gift of the Holy Spirit as a special endowment is inferior to the graces of the Spirit; for the apostle supposes it possible to have all faith so as to remove mountains, and yet be destitute of love, the very substance of Christian experience. Indeed, he teaches that if endowed only with the gift of faith, I am nothing. Several things suggest the inferiority of the gift of faith to the grace of faith in its saving exercise and the measure of its fullness. 1 . The gift of faith is not obligatory.

The Scriptures nowhere enjoin that the soul must have faith to remove mountains, or heal diseases, or work miracles. Such faith is not essential in order to please God. It is indeed rather the reward of pleasing him than a requirement for pleasing him. He that cometh to God [for salvation] must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. He that believeth not [unto salvation] is condemned already.

These and other passages teach that saving faith as a voluntary act of the soul, or the fullness of faith as a gracious state of the heart, is obligatory.

The gift of faith is not optional, hence not obligatory. The holiest saint can not have it when he wills. It is neither commanded of us, nor at our command. The Holy Spirit divideth (apportioneth) it to every man (in Christ) severally as he wills, and that which is conferred upon one by divine sovereign endowment is not obligatory. The grace of faith is not an endowment, and is therefore a requirement. The possession of the grace of faith is a duty; the gift of faith is not. No one feels condemnation if he have not faith for the healing of his body, or any other supernatural result; but he does experience condemnation if he does not believe the record which God hath given concerning his Son for the salvation of his soul. 2 . The gift of faith is not a constant experience.

It is not an abiding manifestation of the Holy Spirit; it is transient, variable, occasional. It is not given once for all, for ail things, and in all degrees.

Paul had it for the healing of the father of Publius and others on the Island of Melita, but not for the restoration of Trophimus, whom he left behind at Melitum. But now abideth faith [the grace of faith], hope, charity [love]; that is, these are the staple graces the permanent experiences of Christian character. Whosoever believeth (present tense, meaning, begins to believe and continues to believe) shall be saved; that is, saving faith as a habit of the soul and the fullness of faith as a gracious state of the heart are the constant and not the variable qualities of Christian life. He who finds himself without the faith which brings marvelous things to pass may continue to rejoice, if he still have the grace of faith. But he who finds the faith which brings salvation wanting may well repine; for Its work will not be done, Till we the crown obtain. 3 . The gift of faith is not essential to salvation or Christian character.

It has no saving efficacy; it is no ground of hope. The Savior warns us of the worthlessness of a hope based on miracle-working faith: Many shall say unto me in that day, Have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works? but then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. When the gift of faith has been bestowed, it does not necessarily bring new or deeper grace into the soul. One may be full of the grace of faith; have all the mind that was in Christ; be complete in all the will of God; be as saintly as Fletcher or Wesley, and not have the gift of faith. It does not follow because one is fully sanctified that he will have faith for healing, or other wonders. Yet not a few persons who know of the eminent piety of Dr. Steele or other holy people expect them while full of faith in all its gracious power to also possess the gift of faith which they may not at all have, because it has not been divinely conferred upon them. Not long since a noted man of God-anointed doubtless as a teacher of the deep things of spiritual life, and doing a wondrous work of evangelism, though a great cripple and sufferer as he was entering for the first time a church where he was to labor, a brother present having heard that he was a man of faith, said to another: Why dont he throw away those canes? That remark only evinced how little that person knew of the divine method respecting faith revealed in the Scriptures; that one may be full of faith, and yet not have the gift of faith, or might have the gift of faith for a work of evangelism and not for the healing of the body at all, as happened to be the case which he commented upon. Since therefore the gift of faith is not obligatory, constant, or essential, it is inferior to the grace of faith. But while it underranks the ordinary graces of the Holy Spirit, it is not to be discarded or depreciated, but coveted; for the apostle says, Covet earnestly the best gifts, and then enjoins this order: Follow after charity [love], and desire spiritual gifts; as though he would say: Attain saving and gracious faith, even unto perfection in love, then desire and expect if it be the will of God that he impart unto you the gift of faith with its accompanying endowments.

III. Its origin.

Faith can not exist in any form without evidence. The ground of saving faith is the written Word of the Lord promising salvation. As saving faith and faith in its fullness are given sufficient testimony on which to rest, so also faith as an endowment is provided a sure foundation by the illumination of the soul through the Holy Spirit, assuring it by the Word that God will do a given thing to, for, or by it. There are several conditions under which the gift of faith is bestowed. 1 . When Praying.

He who is a man of prayer, lives much in the closet, takes every thing to the Lord in prayer, most frequently receives the gift of faith at some times and in some degrees. Many of the marked cases of healing, providential deliverances, and unexpected conversions which have occurred, came as the culmination of much submissive supplication, the Holy Spirit at last saying: According to your faith be it unto you. 2. When doing the Lords work.

Those who are abundant in labors for God, who are faithfully executing divine missions, are not infrequently given a faith that is wonderful in its assurances and realizations. He who lives wholly consecrated to God will not be left long without works of faith. There will break in upon such a soul at times divine illuminations of Gods purpose to use it as will beget a faith that shall achieve more than the removal of mountains. 3 . When in great emergencies.

There come soul crises, providential straits, imminent perils, urgent necessities, and glorious possibilities, which make us cry out: Who is sufficient for these things? It is at such junctures that the gift of faith is often imparted, and what hitherto seemed impossible, presumptuous, and irrational becomes credible and easy. 4 . When living in the fullness of the Spirit.

The normal method of the operation of the Holy Spirit in the distribution of his gifts is to confer them upon those who are saved and baptized with the Holy Ghost.

Doubtless, as the Church advances in spirituality, and the number of the fully saved multiply, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the gift of faith will become more frequent. This is not an uncommon endowment now, as some suppose. This gift has not been withdrawn from the Church. Every day is eventful in some as veritable works of faith as in the apostolic times, and these marvels of faith are to increase as the dispensation of the Spirit advances toward its high noon of millennial glory. Praise the Lord!