Faith is one of many spiritual gifts that are identified in the New Testament. It is the miraculous demonstration of faith as opposed to the saving faith that all Christians express in Christ. There are some debates on whether miraculous faith continues today and in what forms it may take.
The main body of text that informs our understanding of this gift is 1 Corinthians 12-13 and several other examples of miraculous faith in the gospels. Some consider several other passages in Acts as examples of miraculous faith, particularly in relation to martyrdom.
How to receive the gift of faith?
Scholars agree that the gift of faith refers to a miraculous sign of faith as opposed to saving faith. However, there are no verses that give instructions on how a believer may acquire this faith except that the Holy Spirit gives it to believers for the common good of the church.
When Paul writes of the gift of faith in 1 Corinthians he writes as such:
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2
Paul is portraying the same metaphor that Jesus suggests if we have faith like a grain of mustard seed, then we could move mountains:
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20
The overarching message of 1 Corinthians is that love is eternal and these signs are temporary, even faith and hope. While it may be considered impressive to have faith the size of a mustard seed, it's neither essential for salvation nor encouraging the church - much to the joy of petrologists that would find mountains moving as an alarming development.
What was the purpose of faith?
In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he does not give any examples of how the gift of faith may be used to encourage and build the church. In chapter 12 he is providing a non-exhaustive list to demonstrate that all these gifts originate from the one and same Holy Spirit:
For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
1 Corinthians 12:8-11
In Chapter 13 the apostle Paul also mentions the gift of faith, but is using the gift as hyperbole. He contrasts the miraculous faith of a person that can move a mountain is nothing if it is done without love:
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2
The only example of miraculous faith being used to control the earth would be Jesus taming the winds in Luke 8:24-25:
And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Luke 8:25
Therefore the purpose of faith seems to be miraculous in nature to testify that God is truly working among his people. With that said, the words of Jesus Christ have already been testified and codified into Scripture so it may not be necessary today.
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