17. Faith
Spirit-given trust for what God will do in particular situations
Open any tile to read that part. Each opens in place.
The verse, and the word behind itScripture foundation▾
1 Corinthians 12:9 — "to another faith by the same Spirit." The Greek is pistis, the same word used throughout the New Testament for saving faith — but here listed as a particular charism given to some, not the universal faith every believer has.
1 Corinthians 13:2 — "if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
Mark 11:22–24 — "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him."
Hebrews 11 — the great roll-call of faith.
Related texts: James 5:14–18 — Elijah's effective prayer; Acts 27:21–25 — Paul on the storm-tossed ship; Matthew 17:20; James 1:5–8; Romans 4:17–21 — Abraham's faith.
How Scripture shows it in motionBiblical picture▾
Every believer is called to faith — saving trust in Christ — and to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). But the gift of faith as a charism is something more specific: an unusual, Spirit-given confidence for particular situations, projects, or moments. It is the kind of faith that takes hold of God's promises with extraordinary tenacity, that prays with unusual boldness, that undertakes what seems impossible, that keeps trusting when everyone else has given up.
The biblical picture is of faith as both gift and exercise. It is given by the Spirit; it is also chosen, exercised, sustained. Hebrews 11 portrays it as that by which "the people of old received their commendation" — Abraham leaving Ur, Moses choosing affliction with God's people, the prophets enduring scorn, the unnamed who endured torture rather than deny their hope.
Faith of this kind is recognised by what it does. It moves. It risks. It builds. It plants. It keeps praying when prayers seem unanswered. It trusts God for finances, for breakthroughs, for healings, for souls, for nations, for impossibilities. And it is, at its core, faith in God Himself — not faith in faith, not positive thinking, not optimism, but settled confidence in the character and promises of the God who keeps covenant.
Paul calls this faith "all faith, so as to remove mountains" (1 Cor 13:2) — an extraordinary expression. Yet he immediately adds: "but have not love, I am nothing." Even the highest faith is hollow without love.
What it looks like in a personCharacteristics of someone with this gift▾
- Unusual confidence in God for particular situations. Where others see obstacles, they see what God will do.
- Bold prayer. They pray for things others would consider unreasonable, and often see them happen.
- Risk-taking initiative. They start things, fund things, attempt things that defy normal calculation.
- Persistence in the face of delay. They keep believing when answers don't come on schedule.
- Calm under pressure. They have a deep inner steadiness when situations look impossible.
- They lift others' faith. Their confidence is contagious.
- They are deeply rooted in God's character. Their faith is in Him, not in techniques or formulas.
- They are saturated in God's promises. They know Scripture and treasure its specific promises.
- They wait well. The gift includes a capacity to wait years, sometimes decades, for what they have believed for.
- They are unimpressed by visible difficulties. Without denying reality, they see beyond it.
- They are unafraid of looking foolish. The faith-gifted often risk reputation on what God has shown them.
- Their faith bears fruit over time. The pattern is recognisable across years.
- They are humble about it. They know the gift is given, not earned.
Questions to sit withHow you might identify it in yourself▾
- Have I, over time, found myself believing God for things — projects, prayers, persons, provision — that others doubted, and seen them happen?
- Do I pray with unusual boldness — and have those prayers borne fruit?
- Do I undertake things that require dependence on God beyond what reasonable calculation would justify?
- Am I able to wait for years for what I'm believing for, without losing heart?
- Does my confidence tend to rise others' faith around me?
- Am I deeply rooted in God's character and promises — not in optimism, technique, or my own strength?
- Have I been entrusted with situations requiring extraordinary trust, and shown a capacity for it?
- Am I unafraid of looking foolish in the eyes of more cautious believers?
- Is my faith always in God Himself, not in faith as a force or technique?
- Do I hold my faith with humility, knowing it is the Spirit's gift?
- Has the fruit of my believing — over years — confirmed the gift?
- Do I love the people I serve, so that my faith is never bare technique but always for them and for God?
Where it can go wrongShadow sides and cautions▾
- Faith as formula or force. Treating faith as an impersonal power that, applied correctly, produces guaranteed results.
- Health and wealth distortions. Twisting the gift into a guarantee of prosperity, health, and success.
- Blaming the suffering for lack of faith. The cruelty of suggesting that those who don't see breakthrough are at fault.
- Presumption. Mistaking one's own desires, plans, or wishes for God's promises.
- Recklessness disguised as faith. Risk untethered from wisdom, counsel, and discernment is folly, not faith.
- Refusing to plan. Faith does not exempt from due diligence, wise counsel, or stewardship.
- Refusing medical or professional help. Genuine faith and ordinary means are not opposed.
- Triumphalism. Visible answers can foster pride.
- Despair when prayers go unanswered. The gift requires the company of theology that holds together genuine faith and the mystery of God's silence.
- Comparison and competition. Comparing one's faith to others'.
- Manipulation. Some have used "faith" rhetoric to extract money, control followers, or pressure others into commitments.
- Exhaustion. Sustained believing is wearing. Without sabbath, prayer, friendship, and Scripture, the faith-gifted can collapse.
- Faith without love. Paul's stark warning. Even faith that moves mountains is nothing without love.
The gift needs the company of wisdom, discernment, teaching, pastoring, the fruit of the Spirit (especially patience, kindness, and gentleness), Scripture, accountability, and a theology that holds together the certainty of God's character with the mystery of His ways.
What it does, day to dayHow it expresses itself in practice▾
Pioneering ministries that require extraordinary trust — church plants, mission organisations, mercy works, schools, hospitals, orphanages, training centres; sustained intercessory prayer over years and decades; faith-based ventures that depend on God for provision; ministries to the unreached; works among the poor that defy ordinary economic logic; long-term care of the sick where faith for healing is sustained against all evidence; foster care and adoption of difficult children; ministry to the persecuted church; works in closed countries; faith for revival and renewal in dry places; financial generosity that exceeds ordinary calculation; sustained prayer for prodigals, for unconverted family members, for breakthrough in long-resistant fields; faith for one's own life — vocation, marriage, family, health — held in trust to God across decades.
In ordinary life — the parent who believes God for a wayward child across thirty years; the friend who keeps praying for a sceptic across decades; the believer who, in the worst seasons, says "I know whom I have believed" (2 Tim 1:12) and rests.
People who carried itBiblical examples▾
Jesus. He is "the founder and perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:2). His own life is one of perfect faith in the Father — going where He was sent, trusting through the wilderness and Gethsemane and the cross, certain that the Father would raise Him on the third day. He is also the cause of remarkable faith in others, marvelling at the Roman centurion's faith (Matt 8:5–13) and the Syrophoenician woman's persistence (Matt 15:21–28).
Abraham. Hebrews 11 begins with him. "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going." He believed God for a son when he and Sarah were beyond age. Romans 4:18–21 says he "in hope believed against hope... fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised."
Moses. "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin" (Heb 11:24–25). His leadership across forty years in the wilderness, his intercession for Israel, his face-to-face fellowship with God.
Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 13–14). The two of twelve spies who said the land could be taken — even though the inhabitants were giants — because "the LORD is with us" (Num 14:9). Their faith stood while ten others' faith failed.
David. The young shepherd facing Goliath: "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied" (1 Sam 17:45).
Hannah (1 Samuel 1). Her sustained, weeping prayer for a son until Samuel was given.
Elijah (1 Kings 17–18; James 5:17–18). The faith to declare drought, the faith to call down fire on Mount Carmel, the faith to pray seven times for rain until it came.
Daniel (Daniel 6). The faith to keep his three-times-daily prayer with windows open toward Jerusalem, even at risk of the lions' den.
The friends of the paralytic (Mark 2:1–12). "When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" Their faith — tearing the roof open — moved Jesus.
The centurion (Matt 8:5–13). "Only say the word, and my servant will be healed." Jesus marvelled and said, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith."
The Syrophoenician woman (Matt 15:21–28). Her persistence, her humility, her witty faith — "Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." "O woman, great is your faith!"
The bleeding woman (Mark 5:25–34). Twelve years of suffering, and she pushes through the crowd for one touch of His garment. "Daughter, your faith has made you well."
Peter. Stepping out of the boat to walk to Jesus on the water (Matt 14:28–31). His faith faltered — but for a few seconds, a fisherman walked on the sea.
Paul on the storm-tossed ship (Acts 27:21–25). "Take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told." His faith stabilised the ship's company across days of crisis.
The unnamed faithful (Hebrews 11:32–40). "Conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight... others were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life." Faith in both deliverance and undeliverance — both equally faithful.
George Müller, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Bakht Singh, Watchman Nee, the unnamed faithful of every age. The pattern continues — believing God for orphans, mission, provision, breakthrough — across the centuries.
A counter-example: the disciples at the foot of the mountain (Mark 9:14–29). They had been given authority and tried to cast out a demon — and failed. Jesus' diagnosis: "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Faith without prayer-rooted dependence falters.
A counter-example: those who claim great faith without love or fruit. "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'" — and Jesus answers, "I never knew you" (Matt 7:21–23). Faith disconnected from relationship with Christ and obedience is hollow.
A pattern across these examples: biblical faith is rooted in the character of God, anchored in His promises, exercised in love, willing to risk, sustained over time, and humble about itself. It moves mountains — and it also endures torture without seeing the deliverance promised. Both expressions are equally faith. The gift is given by the Spirit and exercised in dependence on Him, for the building up of the church and the glory of the One in whom the faithful trust.
The gift at work in the textHow Scripture shows the gift in operation▾
1 Cor 12:9 lists “faith” as a gift of the Spirit, distinct from the saving faith every believer must have. The gift is the Spirit-given conviction in particular situations — a settled certainty that God will act, often in the face of evidence to the contrary, that enables the gifted person to step out, persevere, or remain unshaken. Heb 11:1: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The hall of faith that follows shows men and women whose faith carried them through situations that would have crushed ordinary trust — some saw promises fulfilled, many died still waiting (Heb 11:13, 39–40). The gift sustains through long waiting as well as moments of decisive action. James 5:15 connects “the prayer of faith” to the healing of the sick.
Named figures and key passagesNamed exemplars▾
Stephen — “full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” “full of grace and power” (Acts 6:5, 8). His faith carried him through to martyrdom, his vision of Christ, his prayer for his persecutors. Barnabas — “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24). The men who lowered the paralytic through the roof showed practical, persistent faith (Mark 2:1–12). The Roman centurion's faith Jesus called greater than any in Israel (Matt 8:5–13). The Syrophoenician woman refused to be turned away (Matt 15:21–28). Abraham, the archetype — “in hope he believed against hope… fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised” (Rom 4:18–21). Paul on the storm-bound ship — “Take heart, men, for I have faith in God” (Acts 27:25).
Wisdom for walking in itPastoral notes▾
The gift of faith is often paired with healing, miracles, and prayer. The Spirit gives faith for the moment when faith is needed. Yet faith is also tested. The gift does not insulate from suffering or apparent disappointment — Paul had faith but was not healed; many in Heb 11 “did not receive the things promised, having seen them and greeted them from afar.” The gift holds even when not vindicated in the present. The shadow side: faith claimed where the Spirit has not given conviction (presumption); faith treated as a force compelling God to act on demand; condemnation of those without the same conviction. The right shape is the settled, prayer-grounded, scripture-tested conviction held with humility, knowing that God remains free to do what He wills.
Where it may be calling you todayContemporary application — where the gift may be calling you▾
Where the gift is at home in established Christian work
- Long-term mission and church planting work where progress is slow
- Christian work in resistant cultures, hostile environments, or persecuted contexts
- Pioneering charities and ministries that operate on faith for funding
- Healing and prayer ministry
- Sustained intercessory prayer for situations that look impossible
- Recovery and rehabilitation ministries that work with the most broken
In ordinary Christian life
- Sustained prayer for unbelieving family members, year after year, decade after decade
- Faith for difficult vocational steps — the change of career, the move to mission, the costly Christian decision
- Standing firm in convictions where faith is socially or professionally costly
- Settled trust in the long, slow work of God in your own life and family
- Praying with confidence even where evidence does not yet support hope
Where the gift may be poorly served or unwelcome
In churches that have lost confidence in supernatural Christianity, the gift of faith — the settled certainty that God can and will act — sounds naive. In churches that have substituted strategy and metrics for prayer, faith-driven ventures look risky and inefficient. The gift is poorly served at both extremes. Conversely, where faith has been distorted into name-it-and-claim-it presumption, genuine biblical faith has been damaged and disillusioned Christians find it hard to recover trust.
Possible new expressions
- Pioneering Christian ventures in difficult fields — housing, education, mental health, refugee work — sustained by faith for provision
- Long-term faith-driven mission to resistant cultures
- Sustained prayer ministry for broken situations — estranged families, addiction recovery, broken communities
- Recovery ministries that hold settled faith for those who have lost hope in themselves
- Christian work in declining contexts where strategic outlook is bleak — small churches, struggling communities, post-Christian regions — sustained by faith that the Lord builds His church