Gift of Faith
In I Corinthians 12:9, the gift of faith is identified as one of the manifestations of the Spirit. The gift of faith is the greatest of the power gifts, the manifestations that do something. In contrast to the working of miracles, the gift of faith is passive. It is a gift of what we might term specialĀ faith for the believer. It is over and beyond the ordinary Christian life. By the gift of faith, one is given supernatural ability to receive a miracle from God; whether that miracle be for supernatural protection from danger, sustenance, the casting out of demons, the raising of the dead, or the impartation of supernatural blessings as is demonstrated in the Old Testament.
When the gift of faith is in operation, whatever is spoken or desired by the receiver will come to pass. One example of the gift is the use of it by the patriarchs in the Old Testament. When Isaac laid his hands upon Jacob, the mighty blessing of Melchizedek that had been imparted to Abraham and passed on from him to Isaac, was imparted to Jacob. We also see the gift in operation when Jesus was asleep in the boat. When awakened, He commanded the storm to cease. Some might say that He performed this miracle because He was the Son of God, but Philippians tells us that He emptied Himself of all of His divine glory in His earth walk. Consequently, all of His mighty acts occurred in accordance with I Corinthians 12.
As with personal protection, we see the operation of the gift in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 6, Daniel is thrown to the lions, but he is not killed. Angels are said to assist Daniel, but they acted in response to this particular manifestation of the Spirit. In Act, we see that Peter was sleeping in prison as evidence of the gift in operation. Paul also evidences the gift in Acts 28 when he stands on deck and says that the ship will be lost, but all the men will be saved. As Howard Carter has written about the gift, An inward calm betokens the possession of the gift, so that a man condemned to die can sleep on the very eve of his execution, while others take their rest in raging storms which threaten to submerge their ships at sea.
As with all the other manifestations of the Spirit, it is provided as willed by the Spirit to or for whom the Spirit chooses. The context of each manifestation in the Word demonstrates that it is usually in evidence to bring further even glory to the Lord or to help effectuate a man’s ministry.