Growing in Faith
by Steve
Clark
Many
years ago, if people had told me that I
would pray with someone to receive the
gift of tongues, and he would receive it,
I would have thought that they were not
quite in touch with reality. Not only did
my faith in the area not reach very far.
It was almost nonexistent. And yet now, I
expect it all the time. In fact, if I were
to prepare someone and then pray with him
and he did not receive the gift of
tongues, I would wonder why not.
The Lord has made many
changes in me. He has built up my faith far
beyond what it used to be. I expect him to
do more and more. In many areas of my life,
my faith in God is unquestioning. When I
notice lacks in myself in the area of the
fruit of the Spirit and pray for the Lord to
make a change, I expect to see progress. On
the other hand, there are other areas where
my faith is lower. If I pray for someone and
he is healed, I am not surprised, the way I
would have been ten years ago; but on the
other hand, my faith in that area is not as
great as it is when I pray with someone for
the gift of tongues. Moreover, I must
confess, I would be surprised if I prayed
with someone who was dead and he got up. But
then again I would not be surprised to see
the Lord building my faith in that area so
that I might expect to see it happen some
day.
Faith grows. We do not have to be upset when
we notice that we do not yet have faith to
move mountains. Often when people have been
baptized in the Spirit, they begin to feel
nervous and guilty about the way they
exercise faith. They read the promises
Christ made to those who have faith, and
they think they should be able to do all
those things at once. Sometimes they even
become fearful of trying anything, because
they think it might not happen and they fear
that might prove fatal to what little faith
they think they have. Or they do try praying
for something and it does not happen, and
then they start feeling guilty about how
little faith they have.
The
readiness to grow in faith
What the Lord expect from us is
not mature, fully formed faith all at once
(of most of us anyway), but the readiness to
grow in faith. Even more, he wants us to
have an expectancy to grow in faith. He does
not want us to be anxious about the
shortcomings in our faith but he wants us to
look to him and expect him to build faith in
us. In other words, he wants us to know that
faith comes form him and that it grows. As
we expect him to build our faith, we will
begin to see changes.
Often God builds our faith through
experiences. Our faith is fed when we see
God act. After I saw the Kathryn Kuhlman
service I described above, my faith was
different. In fact it has never been quite
the same since. Because I saw what God
could do, I found it easier to believe in
what he would do. As I see him doing more
things around me in a daily way, I find
faith easier and easier. Almost without
thinking about it, I have come to expect
God to do many things as a matter of
course that ten years ago I would have
been very excited about. Just today, some
friends shared with me some sudden changes
in their lives that had come through
prayer. I was happy that the changes had
happened, but I did not think twice about
the way they had happened. I have come to
expect that God will work in that way.
God also builds our faith through
people who have faith. If we live with
Christians who have faith, we will find
faith growing in us. If we live with
Christians who are fearful and who have
little faith, or if we live with little
personal contact with other committed
Christians, we will find ourselves
struggling to keep our faith alive.
Recently the Lord began to speak to
our community about having more faith. He
told us that we did not count on his
promises enough, that we often reacted to
situations as if he were not there or
would not help us, that we often acted
like a group of orphans. That word from
the Lord changed us, and our whole
community began to pray for healings of
all sorts, began to ask him to supply
things they needed but could not find or
afford, began to ask him to fix machines
that were not working, to find things that
were missing. Not only did the community
begin to pray more for big things, but
they also prayed for little things. They
tried to meet each situation more
consistently in faith.
As those around me began to change,
I began to notice something happening to
me. I found myself having more faith and
expecting the Lord to do more all the
time. The change did not come because I
took some special steps. It was more
because the faith of others “rubbed off.”
It felt like I was catching faith from
others. And I believe the Lord wants it to
be that way. He wants us to have our faith
built up by other members of his Body.
The Lord often builds faith in us
by directly imparting it to us
spiritually. When we are baptized in the
Spirit the Lord imparts faith. Many times
he imparts faith as we pray. We experience
the Lord’s presence in a strong way or we
hear him speak to us in a clear way, and
afterwards we find that we have more
faith. The more we come to know the Lord
and the more we experience his reality,
the more faith we find that we have.
Although faith grows in us because
of what God does to us, we do have a part
in the growth of our faith. We can
cooperate with him as he works to increase
our faith. If we learn some simple
lessons, we will find ourselves growing
steadily in faith.
Listen to God’s
Word
In order for us to grow in faith,
we have to hear God speak to us. The words
he speaks to us build faith in us. He
speaks a message to us that frees us to
have faith. Paul explains it this way,
“The Scripture says,
‘Whoever believes in him will not be
disappointed.’ This includes everyone,
for God is the Lord of all and richly
blesses all who call on him. As the
Scripture says, ‘Everyone who calls upon
the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But
how can they call on him, if they have
not believed? And how can they believe
if they have not heard the message? And
how can they hear, if the message is not
preached? And how can the message be
preached, if the messengers are not sent
out? ...So then, faith comes from
hearing the message, and the message
comes through preaching Christ.” (Romans
10:11-17)
It is hearing the basic Christian
truths presented to us that allows us to
have the kind of faith we need.
God’s word comes to us in many
ways. The most important way is through
the scriptures, and therefore if we want
to grow in faith, we should read the
scriptures regularly. But it also comes
through prophecy, through words that other
Christians speak to us that are prompted
by the Spirit and through words that God
speaks to us directly as we learn how to
listen for his voice. God’s word is alive,
and that means that he wants to speak to
us constantly. Moreover, usually it turns
out that the things he wants to say to us
are the same simple things: faith–building
truths.
The truths that build faith the
most quickly are usually the most basic
truths. For instance, one of the most
faith–building truths is that God loves
us. He created us because he loves us and
he wants us in existence because he loves
us. He became man and died on a cross for
us because he loves us. His care and
concern for us is constant, because he
loves us. No matter what situation we are
in, we can know that we can count on his
love. As we grow in consciousness of the
truth that he is a loving Father, we can
pray and act in faith more easily. We know
in every situation that we can count on
him to be for us.
A second faith-building truth is
that the Lord is with us. He does not
leave us, but he is there with us. That
means that whatever situation we are
facing, whatever concern we are wondering
about, the Lord is there with us. We do
not have to act in any situation as if we
were alone. We can always expect the Lord
to be there and to make his help
available. Much of our lack of faith comes
simply from our forgetfulness of the Lord.
A third faith–building truth is
that Christ is in us through the power of
his Spirit. Not only is he with us in
every situation, he is in us. That means
that we can count on him to act through
us, to give us the strength that we need,
to supply us with wisdom, to even give us
faith. Paul says to us, “Surely you know
that Christ Jesus is in you” (2
Corinthians 13:5). To simply be aware of
these truths being spoken to us helps us
to grow in faith.
There are many faith-building
truths. As we listen to the word of the
Lord, we will hear those truths being
spoken to us. In fact, we can count on the
Lord to repeat them to us and draw them to
our attention as they grow dim in our
minds. The more we live in the light of
God’s word, the more we will grow in
faith.
Pray For Faith
The following
suggestion is a simple, obvious one: we
should pray for faith. That is a prayer
that God always answers. We should
persevere in that prayer until we see it
happen within us, knowing that the Lord
wants us to have faith and that he will
give it to us. As it says in 1 John:
“This is why we have
courage in God’s presence; we are sure
that he will hear us if we ask him for
anything that is according to his will.
He hears whenever we ask him; since we
know this is true, we know also that he
gives us what we ask from him.” (1 John
5:14–15)
We should, therefore, not pray for
faith in a begging way, or in a way that
acknowledges that we have no faith. We
should pray for it by turning to Christ
and remembering how much he wants us to
have faith, and how he has given it to so
many others in the past when they have
turned to him for it.
Be Willing To Try
Acting in Faith
When I was first
prayed with for the gift of tongues, I was
afraid to do anything at all that might be
“me”. I would not so much as move my lips,
because I was afraid that I would be
getting myself into praying in tongues.
People worked to get me free from the
fear, and after I was willing to try
speaking in tongues, a change began to
occur. Once one of the attempts I made to
speak in tongues was different from the
others. There was a different ability to
yield to the Spirit, a new spark of faith.
If I had not been willing to try, I do not
know what it would have taken for me to
begin speaking in tongues.
The same lesson applies in more
ordinary areas of our lives. We often do
not relate to people in a good way,
because we do not have the ability to do
so, or at least we do not see that ability
in ourselves. But once the Holy Spirit has
been given to us, we have the source of
the fruit of the Spirit inside of us. We
have a new power to relate to others well
. One of the people I knew well in our
community tended to be shy and had a
difficulty being able to talk with people.
He was afraid that they would not be
interested in what he had to say, or, even
worse, that he would not be able to think
of anything to say. After a few months of
his new life as a Christian, the Lord
began to let him know that he had given
him a new ability to relate to people and
that as he tried using it he would see
that it was there. He did try, and he
could see something new happening. Today
he is able to talk freely with a wide
variety of people and to serve and care
for them in a responsible way.
God wants us to be unafraid. He
expects us to learn to have faith, and he
will give us faith. If we want to grow in
faith for healing, we should pray with
people to be healed, and pray for
ourselves to be healed. If we do not have
the faith to expect God to do things in a
given area, we can at least trust him
enough to expect him to increase our
faith. We may even have to have the
persistence of the man who went to his
friend at night and demanded loaves of
bread; we should be prepared to be that
way, and not shrink back. We should not
hold back until we feel perfect faith.
Do not Try to “Work
Up” Feelings of Faith, But Look to the
Lord
Faith is a gift, not a feeling that
we have to work up inside. I went through
a period of “trying to have faith.” I had
notice that at times of genuine faith, I
often felt an assurance that God would
act. And so when I tried to “have faith,”
I tried to produce that feeling of
assurance inside of me. I would not pray
for someone, or speak, or do anything
until I had worked up a feeling of
assurance. Well, it rarely seemed to work.
It almost seemed, in fact, that the harder
I tried to “have faith,” the less it
worked. Then I learned an important truth.
I began to see that what I was doing was
concentrating on myself. I was having
faith in my feeling of assurance, rather
than in Christ. I was beginning to think
that if I felt a certain way, things would
happen. But I also rediscovered another
truth in the process — that trying to
concentrate on having a certain feeling is
often one of the worst ways of actually
getting that feeling. The more I tried to
produce a feeling of faith inside me, the
harder it was for me to actually
experience it.
We grow in faith, not by looking to
ourselves, but by looking to Christ. What
we need to focus on is not our own
feelings (Christ often works despite
them), but on him — on his power, on his
promises, on what he has done in the past.
What we need to fill our minds with and
our hearts with when we try to act in
faith or pray in faith is the Lord
himself. As we turn to him, he will
increase our faith.
Pray With Confidence
How we pray for things makes a big
difference in our growth in faith. Often
we have a tendency to beg God for things.
Over and over we will ask him to give us
what we want. The very approach of begging
betrays a lack of faith. Whom do we beg
but the person we do not believe will give
us what we are asking for? God wants us to
approach him confidently, as sons and
daughters who are sure of their Father.
When we ask, we should ask with
confidence, thanking him for what he will
do, confessing his power and Lordship,
praising him. Our prayer should be an act
of faith, not an indication of our lack of
faith.
I once observed two acquaintances
of mine who learned the same lesson, but
in a different area. They were in love
with one another, and the man had promised
the woman that he would love her until he
died. When she first heard him say it, she
was happy. But she kept asking him over
and over if he really would love her until
he died. Finally one day they had a fight
over the question, and he wanted to know
if she had so little trust in him that she
would never believe him when he said yes.
She felt so insecure about herself that
she could not believe him. He felt
exasperated and hurt, because her constant
asking made him feel that she did not
think he could be trusted.
We do the same thing with God at
times. We ask him as he were not to be
trusted, or as if he did not really love
us. Sometimes we call his promises into
question. It is true that what that shows
is only that we are insecure. But we are
treating him in a way that a human being
would find insulting. We are praying to
him as if we cannot expect him to help us,
or sometimes as if he does not want to
help us. That gets us into the kind of
relationship with him in which it is
harder for him to do things for us.
Our prayer is most effective when
it is according to the truth. When we
acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord and has
all power in heaven and earth, when we
call to mind his love for us and how much
he wants to do for us, then we are
beginning to pray in the Spirit of truth.
The more our prayer is in the Spirit of
truth, the more effective it is.
Resist
Spirits of Fear and Doubt
There are many things in us which
work against faith: fears, doubts,
hesitancies, confusions, anxieties. There
is a great deal about the way we are which
is an obstacle to growth in faith. But
Peter tells us that we also have to be
aware that we have to deal with evil
spirits who work upon the natural things
in us and stir them up, making it more
difficult to have faith. Peter says:
“Throw all your worries on God, for
cares for you. Be alert, be on watch! For
your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a
roaring lion, looking for someone to
devour. Be firm in your faith and resist
him.” (1 Pet. 5:7–9)
Paul tells us,
“Put on the armor that God
gives you, so that you will stand up
against the Devil’s evil tricks. For we
are not fighting against human beings,
but against the evil spiritual forces in
the heavenly world, the rulers,
authorities, and cosmic powers of this
dark age.” (Ephesians 6:11–12)
And James gives the simple advice
to us,
“Oppose the Devil and he
will flee from you” (James 4:7)
One way in which evil spirits work
upon us is through lies. They begin to put
thoughts into our minds, thoughts which
hinder our ability to follow the Lord.
They tell us, “it will never work” or “you
do not have enough faith” or “God will
never listen to someone like you” or “it
didn’t work the last time” or any number
of different thoughts. When we listen to
those thoughts and believe him, our faith
begins to drain away. Instead we have to
resist them. We have to say to ourselves,
“I know what the truth is, and those
thoughts are not the truth.” If we give in
to all the thoughts of doubt and fear that
go through our heads, we will not be able
to grow in faith.
A big obstacle to our ability to
resist the work of evil spirits is our
tendency to live by our feelings. Many of
us tend to approach situations with the
idea, “if I feel that way, that’s the way
it must be.” We think that if we feel we
cannot do something, we cannot, or if we
feel fearful, we have to act in a fearful
way. But we do not have to follow our
feelings. If we do follow our feelings
evil spirits will have a field day with
us, because they can more easily work on
our emotions than any other aspect of us.
The Holy Spirit give us the ability to
follow the Lord no matter how we feel. We
have to claim that power and begin to act
on it. We have to recall the truth and act
in faith even when we are opposed by
feelings of fear and doubt.
Go To Where Our
Faith Can Be Fed
If our faith is fed
by seeing God act and by being in contact
with committed Christians who have faith,
we should go to situations in which we can
see God act and where we can make contact
with men and women of faith. If we want to
grow in faith, it only makes sense to go
where our faith will be helped. For most
of us that means looking around for the
nearest group of Christians who are
beginning to experience growth in faith
and joining with them. It is difficult to
grow in faith by ourselves.
Of course, we cannot always see God
act when we want to (we could if we had
the faith, the problem is often getting to
the point of faith), nor can we always
find a group of Christians who can help
our faith. Or sometimes we are part of a
group of Christians struggling to grow in
faith, but the whole group needs help to
grow in faith. Then years ago, I would not
have known how to get myself in a
situation in which I could grow in faith
they way I am able to now. In such a case,
books can be a great help. For me, it was
the reading of The
Cross and the Switchblade that
revolutionized my faith. By reading a book
on how God acted, my faith was fed, fed to
the point where I could make a resolve to
do whatever I had to do to grow into the
kind of faith that I saw in the book.
Books, in fact, can often
feed faith, and if we want to grow in
faith, reading certain books can help
us. The
Cross and the Switchblade is
one such book, as is Realities.
I
Believe in Miracles is another,
as are The
Little Flowers of St. Francis of
Assisi and The
Miracles of Lourdes. There are
many books written about how God has
acted in history that can make us see
that what we read about in the
scriptures is not just something that
happened in a Never–Never Land, nor in a
special period of past history, but that
has happened in every age since Christ
and is happening today to people like
us. Amen!
This article is excerpted
from Growing
in Faith, copyright © 1972, 1980
by Stephen B. Clark, and published by Tabor House. Used with
permission.
Steve
Clark is past president of
the Sword
of
the Spirit and
founder of The
Servants
of the Word.
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