“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…”  (Galatians 5)

“For to one is given by the Spirit… to another… by the same Spirit… to another faith by the same Spirit …to another…to another…to another…But all these worketh that one and [S]elfsame Spirit. dividing to every man severally as He will.”  (1 Corinthians 12)

“Thy faith hath made thee whole…”  (The Gospels)

“[A]s God hath dealt to everyman [of God] the measure of faith ]that God has measured specifically to him].  (Romans 12; Words bracketed are my own and not found, but implied  and therefore inferred in and from the Scripture.)

 

Reader,

There is faith and then there is faith.  Every Christ-ian goes from faith to faith, meaning every believers faith is meant to grow as all living and thriving things do. Faith is living but unfortunately not every persons faith grows or thrives and that is no them and not upon God.  It is true that God is the giver, gifter, maintainer, and increaser of faith and it is also true that one way He extends and increases one’s strength is by the exercise thereof. One exercises one’s strength by overcoming worry, fear, doubt, suffering and all other odds with faith as, “faith is the victory.”

Every man that put faith in God and believed did so due to the personally given and personally gifted and personally received personal faith.  Each and every person who has faith in Christ has been given that faith as a gift from God  (Ephesians 2). Reader, Do NOT rob God of the glory by thinking “you put your faith in God.”  No man has ever put his own faith in God to the saving of his soul, left they received it as a gift of grace from the riches of God.” Reader, every person who has believed and forever believes does so because the “faith of Christ” allows him to (Galatians 2).  As the Lord liveth and as the Lord be my witness, no man has any faith of his own to put in Christ, as everyman is dead in trespasses and sins. Everyman is spiritually dead, everyman is born spititually dead and has no faith as faith is spiritual.

Therefore, if a person puts faith in Christ to the saving of his soul it is because God has granted him new life and the gift of faith.  Everyman that believed and believes has been allowed to believe because of “the faith of Christ.”  Know this truth and boast not in your decision to put your faith in Christ…Literally, and it is literal…Christ has put His faith in you…that substance called faith (Hebrews 11).

Having written about the faith that is common to all believers we now seek to write (DV) upon the various measurements of faith the Spirit divided to everyman as He wills.  As the stars in the heavens have their own brightness, so does each and every Christ-ian have their own specific, particular, precious, and peculiar amount of faith.

It is specific because it is divinely measured, it is particular because it is divinely measured to each individual saint’s needs. It is precious because every divinely measured amount of faith is particular to the particular or certain saint…it is their own measurement, no one has the same amount. It is precious like the Blood of the Saviour is precious, there be none like it.  It is pecular because it is specific, particular, and precious to the individual who is, hand-picked, God-elected, and So very lovingly selected saint(s) of the Only True and Living God.

We have heard persons say, “I wish I had the faith of David or Daniel.”  Some have said this in honesty and others in the want of attention.  There be two (2) things to say to this comment.  One (1) David and Daniel had not the faith of David or Daniel until it was needed.  The disciples, after being told to be forgiving of others, said to the Master, “Lord, Increase our faith.”  God is the increaser and maintainer of the faith we be blessed with and that we now call our own. Two (2) We will never have the faith of David or Daniel, why?  We have been given the “faith OF Christ”  Reader, there is a difference between “faith in Christ” and  “the faith of Christ.” The former speaks to action, as in, having faith in Christ, and the latter speaks to possession, the faith of or belonging to Christ.

Reader, Paul tells us that love is greater than faith and hope.  Why is this? When Christ returned to heaven (Psalm 24- read this Psalm), he needed not faith, as faith was made sight.  Christ had no more need for hope as His hope had been answered, but love…but love, reader, goes on and on, never ending for all of eternity.  This is why love or charity is greater. However, as faith is a gift and the substance of things hoped for and since faith dies not, what happened to “the faith of Christ?”  The Spirit of God planted it inside each one of us as Christ had faith without measurement.  His faith is divided up, severally as [H]e wills among the faithful!!! What happens to our faith then when we arrive home to Heaven?  Our faith on earth graduates to hope, and when we realize our hope in Heaven, it shall graduate to love as we see Him, Whom we believed and Whom we loved without seeing.

Reader, there is the first measure of faith that is given each of God’s chosen which enables them to believe.  There is then a faith that is, as I wrote above, specific, particular, precious and peculiar to each of us.  Some have a greater measurement of faith than others and some have less faith than others at any given time. However, we each have the faith we need and this faith will increase and decrease as we have need.  This increase and decrease is one of faith’s traits that let us know our given and gifted faith is alive and thriving.  It is this increase and decrease that tells us….He Lives…He Knows… He Abides…He is very Present.

Let us all go from faith to faith and let us all grow from faith to fa-ITH to f-AITH to FAITH.

Let no one and no thing rob you of your faith, hope, joy and love.  What Glory is to God, faith, hope, joy, and love is to you.  God will not share His glory with another and no one will steal or rob Him of it, thusly the godly and the Christ-like will not share his faith, hope, joy, and love with another and no one shall steal it or rob him of it, lest he allows it.

As to why faith is mentioned so late in the fruit of the Spirit,  Faith is listed so late because faith grows and it take time for faith to grow and it grows after and through the graces preceding it on the list.

As to faith making one whole, One must know that it is through faith that one looks to the Author and finisher, the Creator and Giver, the Increaser and Decreaser and the Maintainer and the Very Source and Focal Point of our faith. We are made whole by and with the very faith of Christ, itself.

And as to those that know not God but still boast in some kind of nebulous and or new age faith, they are similar to those who are thankful to no One on Thanksgiving day….they be similar or they be the same, I know not which.

Godspeed.