Spiritual Gifts, 10

 ~ The Spiritual Gift of Faith ~

Opening Comment  ~  “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:16-18). 

Source Gifts  ~  The first of the Construction Sector gifts is Love!  Love is the foundation of all our building.  The second is faith which provides the framework for our relationship with Christ and the building together with other believers.  Genuine Biblical faith works through love.  “The righteous will live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38).

Spiritual Gift of Faith  ~  This gift might be defined as the God given insight which allows a person to see through life’s problems to the ultimate resource of knowledge.  A person with this gift is able to completely rely on both God’s ability and God’s willingness to accomplish the needed result. 

Scripture  ~  “Now concerning spiritual gifts …  There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit … to another faith by the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:1-9).

Comments  ~  Faith is the source of power for exercising our various gifts. 

Closing Comments  ~  “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.  Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.  Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.  Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.  Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.  Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:12-16).

“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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