Faith is not vital for salvation and eternal life it's vital for progress spiritual growth. Without it there's simply, no pleasing God. Heb 11:6 - And it is impossible to please God without faith. Every genuine Believer wants to please the One who died to save them therefore we take a keen interest in faith.
What really is faith? Hebrews 11:1 gives us the Scriptural meaning! Heb 11:1 - Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Put very simply, faith is the God given ability to believe or trust in the Word God. It has that ability unique ability go beyond what is seen, heard or felt. It looks beyond the circumstance and situations of the natural world and rests secure in the promise of God. It has the depth of divine quality which produces a secure peace of heart and mind regardless of what is happening in the here and now. It simply believes God without a doubt! Definitely a spiritual commodity worthy of our pursuit!
God brings sinners out of the darkness sin's bondage into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. New Life in Christ is all about relationship with Jesus. It's all about personal fellowship and intimacy with Him. It's awesome to understand that out of this relational experience with God comes an ever, increasing faith. All God pleasing faith originates with the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 makes the origin of faith unmistakably clear- "Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith". As it pertains to New Covenant Christianity there is simply no God pleasing faith about from Jesus, therefore any increase of faith in a Believer's heart will be directly related to their relationship with Him.
According to 1 Corinthians 12 there is a faith that can be experienced as a direct and unique gift. It is listed alone with gift of heal, working of miracles etc. These gifts are powerful tools for the edification and strengthening of the Church, the spiritual body of Christ. These gifts are distributed in the Body of Christ as God sees fit. Not everyone has these gifts. I am not referring here to this kind of unique "gift of faith" but rather the faith that is given to every child of God. The faith that you have right! The faith that God gave you in order that you would believe the Gospel message. This God given faith in your heart has the potential for growth.
How has God purposed to grow our faith? Col.2:7 Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. It's one thing to say let your roots grow down into Jesus, but what does that look like? How is this accomplished in a practical way? Jesus given faith can experience growth! This is accomplished as we allow our roots to get deep into Him. How are we supposed to do this? What does this look like? We're told in John 1 that Jesus is the Word. It's as we spend time in God's Word that we are putting roots down into Jesus. We're getting more solidly anchored.
The Word is our spiritual food. Through it we receive power for growth. In the natural, physical world the human body needs the right kind of nourishment if it's to develop properly. God's Word needs to be spiritually digested on a regular basis.
Rom 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. As we read the written Word of God the Holy Spirit takes it and converts it into spiritual energy, (life) which in turn produces faith within the heart of the Believer. This is how the new creation within the Believer is fed and nourished. The Word is our spiritual food.
There are no short cuts. Most of us have grown up in the age of the "instant". You need to quickly settle this issue. There is no such this as instant spiritual maturity. You will not wake up one morning after having spent even hours in prayer the night before, suddenly a giant of faith. It requires steady disciplined relationship with Christ in prayer and Bible reading. I encourage in Jesus name to establish and maintain daily devotions with the Lord. In this case "more is always better".
A study of the various giants of the faith down through Church history draws exactly the same conclusion the religious Jews came to when examining the lives of the early disciples of Christ. Act 4:13 - Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. The Disciples were people who with Jesus when He was physically on earth and they were people who remained in communications and fellowship with Him after He ascended into heaven! Why not seriously consider tithing of your time? Why not seriously consider giving the Lord one tenth of your day? He'd be pleased and you'll be blessed. .
