Supernatural Faith??

Ok so this phrase has been resonating in my spirit for a little while. It was actually during a teaching at a Friday night EGS (Encounter God Service) that the phrase just kind of jumped out at me, and that created a spark of interest in just wanting to know what it meant to have supernatural faith. So after EGS is over at around 10ish, the Forerunner Christian Fellowship building (that we meet in Friday and Saturday nights for service) turns into the global prayer room and they stream live from there until about 12am. During that time I just started journaling and writing down a bunch of questions, pretty much asking the Lord different things and really wanting to get a better understanding of this whole supernatural faith thing. A few of those questions were “What does supernatural faith mean?”, “How can it be attained?”, “Can this be compared to the equivalent of having the spiritual gift of faith?”, “Is this more so an occasional Super Man mode of faith kicked into action during those times of testing OR is it something that you can actually walk in all the time as a lifestyle?”, etc. These were just a few of the questions that I had written out and throughout the past few days I find that my interest has been growing more and more!

I do feel like over the course of the past few years the Lord has been building up my faith in a tremendous way and it’s definitely coming in handy nowadays (oh yea). And so the area of faith for me has been more of a hands-on & experiential learning process as opposed to initially starting out searching through the scriptures for understanding on it. And so now I think He’s bringing me to a place where I can not only live out a life of faith through life occurrences but that I can also understand the aspect of faith from a scriptural standpoint, by digging deep into the Word & meditating on related scripture and also studying the lives of people in the bible that lived lives of faith. So far I’ve been meditating on Hebrews 11 (which gives an account of many of the major acts of faith throughout the bible and how they’re faith caused them to trust God for what was promised to them - AWESOME chapter. Go ahead, read it. I’ll wait…) & Romans chapters 4 & 5 (Chapter 4 being specifically about Abraham and how he lived a life of uncompromising faith in the Lord –Oh to be called a Friend of God ::sigh:: …and then chapter 5 on how JOY is a guaranteed result of having faith!) Below are a few of the verses that have stuck out to me:

Great Examples of Faith

 ¹ Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see…³³ By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. ~ Hebrews 11:1, 33 &34

Faith Brings Joy

¹ Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. ² Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. ³ We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴ And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵ And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. ~ Romans 5:1-5

The Faith of Abraham

 ²⁰Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. ²² And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. ²³ And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded ²⁴ for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ~ Romans 4:20-24

And so the Lord has been taking me on somewhat of a faith-strengthening journey in discovering what it means to acquire and grow in faith as well as many scriptural references that help to build my faith in the process and so far I’ve been learning a lot! One thing I’ve learned for sure is that when you ask for an increase of faith it’s most likely not going to just pop up in your spirit out of nowhere (I mean it could, because God can do whatever He wants) BUT these things usually come with some amount of “hands-on” experience in which your faith is then built up by trusting God through a series of events. Another example would be in praying for humility. You’re definitely NOT going to just start being super-humanly humble out of nowhere, especially when you specifically ask the Lord to make you humble. There will more than likely be some situations that come up where you’ll have to choose to be lowly which then strengthen your humility muscle. That’s like a body builder wanting to attain a certain muscle goal without actually exercising their body. You won’t get “swole” by just wanting it, you have to act it out (or in this case, work it out) ::rant:: So anyway, I’ve just been receiving revelation of what He’s been taking me through and showing me the desire that He has to strengthen his children to the point of absolute faith in that when He says He’s going to do something we’ll just believe it as FACT. Whether it’s in the area of financial provision, the hope of a family member or friend receiving salvation, contending for healing or any kind of needed breakthrough the solution is actually pretty simple. TRUST THE LORD! (Sometimes we make this a lot more complicated than it really is) This is what He wants us to do.

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ~ Phil. 4:6

He speaks the word - His words don’t come back void - It’s GOING TO HAPPEN…GUARANTEED...so believe it. His track record is impeccable and He is outstandingly faithful in all that He does. He’s the PERFECT father who loves to provide & take care of His children, so let’s actually believe Him when He says that He’s going to do it! ;-) As for supernatural faith, I think that it's a matter of believing that God is going to make a way out of no way, even when it seems impossible. Having a sense of surety of His promises and hope that is beyond human understanding of all that God is capable of and faith that surpasses the seemingly hopeless state of any circumstance (with large amounts of JOY involved!). And so, I’m still learning a lot about faith and I’m excited for all that the Lord is going to be showing me along the way. Let me know what you think about the topic of supernatural faith (or faith in general), share any additional scripture or thoughts that He’s placed on your heart and maybe a few ways that the Lord has been helping to build YOUR faith! I'd REALLY like to hear from you! (^_^)