The Spirit of Faith
In 2 Corinthians 2:13, Apostle Paul, quoting King David in Psalm 116:10 wrote that “I spoke because I believed.” In the same spirit of faith, we also speak because we believe. It is that same spirit that Abraham had. Same with Joshua, David, Paul, and all the people who walked with God. And we have that same spirit; the same spirit of faith.
Pastor Mark Hankins was emphatic in his affirmation that we are not about to have that spirit, neither are we hoping to have it. We already have the same spirit of faith. The same spirit that delivered us from all our fears, so that we can rejoice. In rejoicing, we laugh at our fears because we have been delivered from all of them. The world has thousands of fears, which psychiatrists have called phobias- fear of closed places, fear of spiders, fear of snakes, fear of being single, fear of poverty, fear of death, etc. The Psalmist reminds us in Psalm 46 that even if the earth be removed, he won’t be afraid. In other words, picture yourself opening the door of your house and seeing that the earth is no longer there, you will not be afraid. Why? Because God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.
In his characteristic ebullience, Pastor Hankins offered that the spirit of faith is contagious. He said like fire, it can neither be hidden nor contained. For instance, the 400 men who came to be known as David’s Mighty Men had come to him as poor, broken, disappointed, disapproved men. But when they came in contact with a man of faith, their hearts were set on fire.
Psalm 18: 28-29 reminds us that because he lights our candle we can run through obstacles and even chase down our enemies. People may wonder why we are sounding arrogant, but we are not. We are confident in the Lord and that’s the difference. We are not apologetic for our confidence in the Lord because the Lord is our light and our salvation and whom shall we fear?
In simple terms, faith is laughing at impossibilities. “What do we worry about achieving?” he quipped Hebrews chapter 11 mentioned “By faith” 20 times and “Through faith” once. Do it, no matter what it is, by faith and you’ll get it; why? Because God is always ready to give but we need to adjust ourselves to learn how to receive. God’s giving is already limitless but we still rationalize how to receive. Our God is not a God of “either or”, but a God of “and also”. Grace is God’s grip on us while Faith is our grip on God; and even when our grip slips, His grip never slips.
Continuing his passionate assertion of the infallibility of God’s Word, Pastor Hankins counseled that living by faith is living by the Word. It is living by revelation knowledge instead of sense knowledge. It is living by the unseen. The word, indeed faith, is motion activated with your mouth being the initial and continuing point. Thus, the two ingredients of the spirit of faith are: (i) Believing and, (ii) Saying or declaring what you believe. So, act like the bible is true- because it is.