The gift of faith is a special kind of faith that is given as the Holy Spirit wills or desires in order for an individual to receive a miracle from God. We’ve all been given a measure of faith to use in our everyday lives (Rom. 12:3), but the gift of faith is an extraordinary, supernatural type of faith.
Let’s look at a biblical example. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were given the gift of faith. Though they were thrown into the fiery furnace, they did not burn to death, and they did not even have the smell of smoke on them (Dan. 3). It took a divine gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift of supernatural and extraordinary faith, to overcome the fear of death and the spirit of death in order to overcome this deadly situation. Even the guards outside of the fiery furnace died instantly from the heat of the flames, but not Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They first put their natural faith in God, and then they turned the situation over to Him. Thus they were given a gift of faith to overcome death. Even those outside the fiery furnace could see from a distance that Jesus Christ was with them. One truth that I pray will resound in my writings is that God honors faith.
Another example of the gift of faith in operation is from my own life. After our son Marcos was raised from the dead and while we were battling one impossible situation after another, our faith remained unshakable. We could look death in the eye every day and not be moved. This was a special kind of faith that the Holy Spirit gave to us so that we could receive our series of miracles from God for Marcos. Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the beginning of the battle we exercised our everyday faith in Jesus Christ at first. God honored our faith, and at some point in time, we were given a supernatural kind of faith to do what we did. Everyone who was looking from the outside of our fiery furnace could see that Jesus was walking with us in the midst of the flames.
And I encourage you with this teaching and testimony today, that regardless of the situation you face, activate your natural everyday faith and continue to exercise your faith in the redemptive power of the blood of Christ until the Holy Spirit releases the supernatural gift of faith.
