1 Corinthians 12:7-9 “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: (8) for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, (9) to another faith by the same Spirit.”
One way of explaining the gift of (special) faith is that God supernaturally endows the individual with His faith, resulting in the person in that instant becoming “another man”. God does that when He chooses to intervene in the affairs of men through the demonstration of His power in the earth. And so invariably this gift is linked to either the working of miracles or gifts of healings, for both of those gifts also demonstrate God’s power. Because God’s power is released through the operation of this gift it always glorifies the Lord, as those who witness the resulting miracle recognize that God’s power has been manifested.
1 Kings 18:36-40 “And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. (37) Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again." (38) Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. (39) Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" (40) And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!" So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.”
As we look at biblical examples of the gift of special faith it will become clearer as to just how this gift operates. The first example that we will discuss is recorded in the above quoted passage of scripture where we see the prophet Elijah operating in the gift of special faith. In this account Elijah called fire down from heaven in the sight of all of Israel. The context of this account is that displaying great boldness (faith), Elijah had challenged the prophets of Baal in front of the whole nation. His challenge was that he and the prophets of Baal should each offer the sacrifice of a bull on an altar and call upon their God to answer by fire, and the one who answered by fire would be declared to be the true God of Israel. The Israelites enthusiastically approved of the challenge, and so much to the trepidation of the prophets of Baal they were forced to accept Elijah’s challenge. Elijah allowed the prophets of Baal to offer their sacrifice first, and so they called on their god the whole day, with much crying out, prophesying and ritually cutting themselves until their blood flowed freely, but nothing happened (1 Kings 18:1-35). And so we pick up the account at the end of the day when Elijah offered his sacrifice and called upon the Lord. This account reveals that God answered Elijah by fire, which consumed not only the sacrifice but the altar as well. The moment God did that, Elijah commanded the Israelites to kill the prophets of Baal. When we read the rest of this account in scripture it becomes very clear that on this occasion Elijah was operating in the gift of special faith. So how do we know that? We know that because the very next day, when Elijah heard that Jezebel the Queen had threatened to kill him in retaliation for the killing of her prophets, that instead of confronting her in faith as he had done with the prophets of Baal the previous day, Elijah ran for his life (1 Kings 19:1-3). So why did Elijah run? The reason is because the anointing of special faith had lifted off of him and he was now operating in his own daily living faith, which clearly was not up to the task of taking on Queen Jezebel. Obviously even Elijah’s ministry gift faith as a prophet was not up to the task, for had it been, he would have stood his ground and not fled. In other words when God imparted to Elijah the gift of special faith he became “another man”.
Michael E.B. Maher
Commenti