Romans 4:19-22 “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. (20) 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. (22) And therefore “It was accounted to him for righteousness.”
In this series we will look at each of the power gifts in turn so that we can more clearly understand how each gift operates. The first gift listed as part of the power gifts is called the gift of faith. Before we can discuss this particular gift however, we first need to understand two spiritual truths about faith. The first truth that we need to understand is how faith works, and the second truth we need to understand is that the New Testament teaches us that there are in fact three different levels of faith. And so the first spiritual truth which we will discuss is just how faith works. God endows every human being born into the earth with the gift of faith, and that faith resides in the mind of man. It is because all men are endowed with the gift of faith that children have what is often referred to as childlike faith (Mark 9:42). Because faith is part of the DNA (so to speak) of every human being, everyone (without exception) believes something. Nevertheless the faith given by God was always intended primarily for the individual to be able to appropriate the promises of God in their lives, including the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. So how does an individual exercise the faith that resides in their minds? In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul uses Abraham as an example to teach us about that concept. The context of the above example is that God had given Abraham His word that he and Sarah would have a son in their old age. And so we see that the first step in exercising our faith is that God must reveal his word (promise) to us. In other words God must give us understanding of His word. For example, because God does not give certain unbelievers understanding of the gospel of salvation, they cannot exercise their faith to be saved (Mark 4:11-12). Paul then goes on to teach us in this passage that Abraham became fully convinced that God could do what He had promised. In other words Abraham became fully convinced in his mind that God’s word was true (Romans 14:5). Some will ask the question what it means to be fully convinced in one’s mind about the truthfulness of God’s word. It simply means that all doubt is removed, and so whereas the individual may have been in two minds about a subject before, they have now become single minded on the subject i.e. they are now fully convinced in their minds (James 1:6-8). And so we see that the second step in exercising our faith is to renew our thinking to become fully convinced about the truthfulness of God’s word on a particular subject. To become fully convinced in our minds as to the truthfulness of God’s word is the same thing as believing in His word. When that happens the saint’s thinking becomes fully focused on the reality of God’s word to the exclusion of the natural reality of their circumstances. In the above example we see that Abraham no longer considered either his or Sarah’s physical conditions and became completely focused on what God had said on the subject. And so we see that it is only when we are fully convinced in our minds that our faith is then finally activated. Some get to this point however and go no further. For example, when Jesus walked in the flesh there were many scribes in Judea who believed (i.e. they were fully convinced) that He was the Messiah, but the scripture teaches us that they did not confess Him because they feared the Jews and didn’t want to give up their places in the Jewish synagogues (John 12:42-43). In other words they chose not to act on that which they believed. And so we see that the third and final step in exercising our faith is to make the wilful decision to act on that which we believe. The apostle Paul cautions the saints in this area however, for he warns us not to act before we are fully convinced, because to do so would not be an act of faith and in fact those actions would be considered sinful (Romans 14:23). Nevertheless for those saints who are fully convinced, the next step is to act on that which they believe. The apostle James put it this way, “by works (our actions) faith is made perfect (or complete)” (James 2:22). It is only when our faith is completed i.e. fully exercised, that it releases the power of God which transforms our natural circumstances to line up with the reality of God’s word. In other words our circumstances are changed to conform to God’s word. And so we see that when Abraham and Sarah finally acted on God’s word, Isaac was conceived.
Michael E.B. Maher
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