441. Celebrating God's Grace, The Gift of Faith

The Gift of Faith is given to us by God, when it feels as though you're in a pit. Join Robin Kirby-Gatto and learn about how the Gift of Faith pulls you up out of your pit, sparking great faith! ***** Welcome to Celebrating God's Grace, A Women World Leader's Podcast, I'm your host Robin Kirby-Gatto. Thank you for joining us today as we celebrate God's grace, in our lives, in our ministry, and around the world. Today's title: The Gift of Faith The work of God's Holy Spirit in our lives shows up in different ways. One of those ways is through the gift of faith, for our time of need. "To another [wonder-working] faith by the same [Holy] Spirit," 1 Corinthians 12:9 AMPC There are times in life where you might become discouraged and disappointed. Knowing Ephesians 3:20 well, you're certain God can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can think or imagine, it's just that you need to experience the operation of His power inside of you to believe. In those moments, God provides the gift of faith through the Holy Spirit, to lift you up out of the pit. The Greek word for faith is pístis pronounced pis'-tis meaning, "persuasion, credence, conviction, reliance upon Christ for salvation, assurance, belief, believe, and fidelity." [i] To better understand the Greek word for faith, let's look at the primary Greek word from which it comes, which is peíthō pronounced pi'-tho and means, "to convince, rely, agree, assure, believe, have confidence, MAKE FRIEND, obey, persuade, trust, and yield." [ii] Years ago, when I taught on faith with the different gates of Jerusalem, from the book of Nehemiah, God showed me that faith equals commitment, as well as friendship. You cannot have faith without friendship, and you cannot have commitment without faith. Whoever or whatever you're committed to, reveals who or what you've made your friend. You rely on your closest friends, because of the confidence that has blossomed in the trusting relationship. For example, a husband and wife show their commitment publicly with their marriage vows. Marriages that survive and thrive are those based on Christ Jesus, as well as love and friendship with one another. Likewise, as we mature in our relationship with God, we build a deeper friendship. Jesus told the disciples in John 15:15, no longer did He call them servants but friends. Moreover, that He told His secrets to His friends. Sonship and friendship are the two pillars of our faith, which I write about extensively in my book, Rev 22:2. Our individual faith will never deepen, if we don't understand that we're a child and friend of God. Jesus acknowledges in John 15:14 that those who do what He commands, are His friends. Our faith and commitment to God is based on a personal relationship we have with Him, not on someone else's relationship with God. This is why the primary Greek word from which faith comes, means "make friend."   Holy Spirit comes according to the need, as revealed in the last teaching I did, podcast number 429 "Celebrating God's Grace the Gift of Prophecy." Jesus taught in the parable after the Lord's prayer in Luke 11 on the bread, showing that God supplies the power of Holy Spirit according to the need.   If we, as parents, provide for our children's needs, how much more will God provide us the grace required through His Holy Spirit for what we need. The gift of faith is given to us in times of difficulty and is different than our individual faith. Our individual faith is our commitment to Christ Jesus, as a Christian. This can be seen in Paul's writing to the church of Ephesus. 8 For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) THROUGH [YOUR] FAITH. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; 9 Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law's demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.] Ephesians 2:8-9 AMPC When we come into salvation through Jesus Christ, God's grace works through OUR FAITH. Our salvation isn't based on our own works, but entirely on the grace of God, at work with our faith, the manifestation of what we believe. The difference between our personal faith and the gift of faith, is that the gift of faith IS GOD'S FAITH on top of our faith. Imagine obtaining a mortgage on a house and putting down a 20% down payment. You don't own the house, but have a commitment to buy the house, and arrange for monthly payments. The down payment can be likened to our individual faith. However, the gift of faith would be that you've paid the down payment and discovered you don't have the money to pay the mortgage off. In that circumstance, the Mortgage Company comes in and immediately pays the other 80%. The mortgage company paying the rest is analogous to God's faith operating by grace through the gift of faith. It gets us out of a rock and a hard place. I call these rock-and-hard place times "the pit." These are times of complete darkness, where you feel the only one near you is Jesus Christ alone. You find yourself in a crisis, uncertain as to how you're going to get out or when that might be. Or maybe it is a wayward child for whom you're believing the fullness of salvation and God's deliverance. These pit moments are faith opportunities, which will require more than your faith. It will require the gift of faith! I couldn't help but see the Greek word for faith spelled P.I.S.T.I.S. As I looked at the word and took the first "s" out of it, I saw the two words 'PIT IS." The pit is the place of GOD'S FAITH! Even more, I couldn't help but think of car pistons when looking at the Greek word for faith and seeing it as an example of the gift of faith at work inside of us. Taking the first and last "s" out of pistons you have "PIT ON." The pit is the switch that flips God's faith on in your life. An internal combustion engine of a car generates its power through compressed air that mixes with fuel, contained in individual cylinders. For example, a four-cylinder engine looks like four individual pits. Within each pit/cylinder is a piston. These pistons look like a platform of sort and are pushed down by the mixture of air and fuel coming into the cylinder. It's almost like a suction cup, when the pistons are pushed down. The pistons being pushed down rotate the crankshaft, basically moving the engine parts. Within the cylinder is a spark plug at the top of the pit, where once the air and fuel mixture come in, while the piston is lowering, pulling it in, ignites it with fire! Isn't that powerful? This is a great description of the gift of faith. It is the platform for God to spark our faith with His faith! To get us moving out of our pit, into the place of His promise! I went through an unexpected divorce in 1997 and found myself a single mother of two boys, ages one and six. I'd always gone to church, ensuring my sons had the heritage of being brought up in church. I was in the first semester of graduate school for social work and a week before midterm exams when this occurred. Initially, I pressed into God and tried to look for solace and answers. Within about six months of the divorce, the social worker in me kicked in, and I went to two divorce recovery programs. One was Sunday mornings at the Baptist church, and another on Tuesday evenings at the Catholic Church. Upon attending, I made friends with two women. As I got to know them, we began to fellowship at each other's house. One night visiting, they had a bottle of wine and asked me if I wanted some, to which I replied yes. I then began medicating my pain with alcohol, which led to me becoming a somewhat functioning alcoholic by late 1999. I still attended church, worked, took care of my sons, all the while loathing my addiction to alcohol. Little by little my tolerance built up, to where I was drinking about 12 beers a day, at least 4 days a week. My sheets would get bleached from where the alcohol came out of my body. I finally gave up on anything but white sheets, because inexpensive or designer sheets, no matter how incredible they seemed, would get bleached like a body outline of a crime scene. I married Rich Gatto, in December 2001. He knew that I had some issues, but wasn't around me as much, since he lived in Connecticut and I in Alabama. He commuted the first year of our marriage from Connecticut to Alabama, seeing me one to two times a month. I was in a deep dark pit that I couldn't get myself out of. Around the time of our marriage, God spoke to my heart, and said Robin, you're going to be set free. He brought John 8:32 to my heart, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." God gave me the gift of faith and had me speak that I wasn't an alcoholic. He gave me scriptures to proclaim, Jeremiah 29:11-13, 1 Corinthians 2:16; and 2 Corinthians 5:21. Although, I hadn't been set free immediately, it begin to stir me up with great faith, in God's Word. Then on Resurrection Sunday 2002, Rich and I went to church, when something unexpectedly happened. During the offertory song something special happened, the choir sung Nicole C. Mullin's "My Redeemer Lives." I had the album and been to her concert, and above all songs, this was my favorite. My heart began pounding fast. Freaking out, uncertain as to what was occurring, I looked down at my heart, while everyone was sitting. The pastor was going around the pews shaking hands, and I was silently pleading for him to hurry and pass me, because I didn't know what was going on, and I felt like my heart would explode. As soon as the pastor passed, I heard this voice say "Robin, stand up!" Immediately I stood up, and it seemed as though this amber colored light came from the ceiling on me, I lifted my hands, and my entire body began to shake! I was perplexed and in rapture, clueless as to what was happening. Rich, watching this occurrence, stood beside me with his hand on my back. My legs were weak, but it felt as though I was being pulled up. Then suddenly, the power of God hit me, and chains fell off, where the powers of darkness were completely broken! I was set free! I was no longer an alcoholic! Do you see this, women? The gift of faith in my pit of bondage was the spark needed to lift me up out of the darkness, to know the truth and be set free! Where is it that you need the gift of faith? What pit have you been in? [i] Strong's Concordance Greek word # 4102 "faith" [ii] Strong's Concordance Greek word # 3982 "make friend"