Galatians 3:2-5 “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? -- (3) Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (4) Have you suffered so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? (5) Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
In this section, we will discuss the fourth evidence that helps us identify supernatural manifestations that are not the work of the Holy Spirit: the absence of faith. Faith is required for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be manifested among the saints, but that is not the case with supernatural manifestations that are the work of unclean spirits. The Christian walk is a walk of faith, for it is written that the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17). In other words, there is nothing that we can receive from the Lord, including supernatural manifestations, except by faith (James 1:6-7). There are exceptions to this principle, however, as God does act in His sovereignty from time to time, but this will always be the exception and not the rule.
The apostle Paul, in the above-quoted passage of scripture, confirms to us that we receive both the baptism of the Holy Spirit and all subsequent encounters with the Holy Spirit through the hearing of faith. In an earlier section where we looked at the five accounts of the saints receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, all of them except one showed that the saints received the baptism by faith, including the day of Pentecost, for on that day the saints were expectant of receiving the promised Holy Spirit that Jesus had spoken about. The only account where God baptized the saints in His sovereignty was when the Gentiles were first added to the church, and we said that God did this to convince the Jewish believers that He had also chosen the Gentiles for salvation.
Acts 14:8-12 “And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked. (9) This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, (10) said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he leaped and walked. (11) Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" (12) And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.”
When the apostle Paul preached the gospel, he did so in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Corinthians 2:4). In other words, if you attended one of Paul's meetings, more often than not, you would have witnessed the gifts of the Spirit being made manifest through his ministry at some point in the meeting. Nevertheless, even though Paul operated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as an apostle, he could only do so if there was faith present among those who heard him preach. In the above-quoted passage of scripture, we see the account of Paul performing a miracle by healing the man who had been lame from his mother's womb. I have no doubt that Paul performed this miracle through the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, for each time in the book of Acts when it describes a disciple "looking intently" at someone, it is because they have, at that moment, been anointed by the Holy Spirit to operate in one of the gifts of the Spirit (Acts 13:9). Nevertheless, in order for Paul to be able to operate in the gifts, he also needed the man's faith to be activated, which is exactly what Paul saw in him on that day.
So where did the man get that faith? The scripture says that faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Obviously, Paul had been teaching on the healing power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as a result of the man listening to Paul, this man had faith to be healed. Very clearly, this supernatural manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit took place because faith was present. But there is further evidence from this account to show us that faith must be present before the gifts of the Holy Spirit can be manifested, which is in the way the people reacted when this miracle took place. When the people saw this miracle performed, they declared that Paul and Barnabas were gods, and if you read the rest of the passage, you will see that they wanted to sacrifice to them because they thought they were gods. The reason the people reacted like this is that this was the first time they had seen the power of God displayed among them. Yet this was not the first time they had heard Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel. We know this to be the case because when the miracle occurred, they named Paul "Hermes" since he was the chief speaker, thus indicating that they had heard both Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel before, and Paul had preached on more occasions than Barnabas. And so, if that is the case, why were no gifts of the Spirit made manifest before this particular meeting? The answer is faith, for it was only on this occasion that faith was present, thus allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself.
Mark 6:1-6 “Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. (2) And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, "Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! (3) Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" So they were offended at Him. (4) But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house." (5) Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. (6) And He marvelled because of their unbelief.”
Our Lord Jesus taught us that we cannot be greater than our Master (John 13:16). And so, if our Lord Jesus was unable to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit when there was a lack of faith, then we will experience the same problem. The above is the account in scripture that describes our Lord teaching the gospel in His hometown of Nazareth. After our Lord taught in the synagogue, He invited those who were sick to come forward so He could lay hands on them to be healed. He had followed the same pattern in other synagogues throughout Galilee by this time and had had great success in healing the sick and delivering those who were demon-possessed. But on this occasion, it was different, for very few were healed, and those who were healed only had minor ailments, for the scripture says that He was unable to perform any mighty miracle in His hometown. The reason for that was simply their lack of faith, which is why Jesus marvelled at their unbelief. They refused to believe in Him because they had grown up with Him and were offended that He would proclaim that He was anointed by God to heal the sick. But the point remains that the reason Jesus could not perform any miracles in His hometown was because faith was absent. We are not greater than our Lord Jesus, and so we will also not see the gifts of the Spirit manifested among us if there is no faith present for those gifts to be made manifest. And so, the examples we have looked at in this section clearly show us that when faith is absent, the gifts of the Spirit are not manifested.
There are certain churches and ministries, however, where supernatural manifestations occur without any faith toward God being exercised. In their meetings, members of the congregation, while seated and listening to the minister speaking about no subject in particular, are overcome by some form of supernatural power that comes upon them completely unexpectedly, thus causing them to react in various ways, either through laughter or shaking or some other form of physical manifestations. Those meetings are not displaying the power of the Holy Spirit, however, as no faith is being exercised by the recipients of that power.
Romans 4:20-21 “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”
There are also certain ministries and churches that encourage the saints to be open and yield to whatever "power" comes upon them, and not to question it or use any reasoning with their minds, because that would then "quench" the move of the spirit. The problem with that type of reasoning is that it is completely unscriptural, because faith is based on our understanding of God's promises. It is only when we understand the gospel message that we are able to exercise our faith in that message and thus be born again. In the above passage of scripture, we see that Abraham's faith was directly linked to him being fully convinced in his mind that God's promise would come to pass in his life. And so, ministries and churches that display supernatural manifestations apart from exercising faith in their understanding of the word of God are operating by demonic spirits and not the Holy Spirit.
Michael E.B. Maher
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