Often, when we ask God for something and don’t receive an answer for a long time, the first thing that comes to mind is: “I probably don’t have enough faith.” We also hear sermons about weak and strong or great faith, like that of the centurion and the Canaanite woman, and about the faith of the woman who suffered from bleeding for twelve years, and we think: “If only I had faith like theirs, then the breakthrough I need would come.” Faith becomes a stumbling block to receiving God’s blessings. Beloved, we do not need more faith or stronger faith.

Jesus told His disciples that even faith as a mustard seed can move mountains, so that settles the question of the size of faith at once. A mustard seed is a very small seed, probably the smallest. “Then I have no faith at all,” you will answer.

I once heard a preacher talk about a so-called oxymoron, saying that there are unbelieving believers. That is, supposedly there are believers in Jesus who don’t believe in anything, and Thomas was given as an example. My friends, there are no such unbelieving believers. When Jesus spoke with Thomas after His resurrection, Thomas was not a believer and born again. He did not believe that Jesus had risen, and he also did not receive the Holy Spirit when Jesus appeared to the disciples, because he was not with them. That is why, the next time Jesus appeared and Thomas was there, He said to him: “Do not be unbelieving, but believing” [Jhn.20:22-28].

If a person has received Jesus into his heart, he is now a believer forever, and he has the same faith as the apostles Peter and Paul. Peter writes: “Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” [2 Pet.1:1]. When we received the Holy Spirit, we received the same precious faith as Peter.

“If I have the same faith as Peter, then why doesn’t the situation change, and what is the reason?” There is no need to dig around and analyze what the reason is, why something isn’t changing or why everything happened. When Jesus’ disciples saw the man blind from birth, they asked: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [Jhn.9:2] Their eyes were on human works and how they affect the situation. The Lord turned their eyes from human works to the works of God when He answered: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him” [Jhn.9:3]. Some translations add the words “this happened so”, which are not in the original, so Jesus simply said: “Where there is a problem, there the works of God will be revealed.”

The grace of God always abounds much more where sin abounds [Rom.5:20]. When we think of sin, what usually comes to mind is pictures of fornication, drunkenness or doing something indecent. In fact, the Greek word for sin means to miss God’s mark. Any condition that does not match God’s standards is sin. Sickness, financial problems, family troubles — all of this is sin, because such conditions in no way match God’s heavenly standards. In heaven there is no sickness, no financial need and no trouble. That is why the more serious the sickness, for example blindness from birth, the more grace there is around that situation and the more of God’s power is at work there. The Lord said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” [2 Cor.12:9]. The greater the weakness, the more grace is there, and the power of God is at work there.

All Things Are Possible to Him Who Believes

When Jesus’ disciples could not cast the demon out of the boy and the Lord came down from the mountain, the child’s father turned to the Lord: “if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us“. Jesus answered him: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” [Mar.9:22-23]. Reading these lines we think: “Well, if only I could believe, then I could do anything.” Beloved, Jesus was not talking here about people and how they need to believe. Jesus was testifying about Himself. If the boy’s father had had faith for his son’s healing, why would he need Jesus? Since Jesus’ disciples had not been able to help the boy, his father began to doubt that Jesus could do it, so Jesus testified about Himself when He said: “all things are possible to him who believes.” And there is only one who believes here — Jesus!

About Abraham it is written: “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” [Rom.4:19-21] Notice that it is not written here that Abraham believed a son would be born to him; on the contrary, Abraham was convinced of something else — he was convinced that God was able to perform what He had promised. He was convinced of God’s ability to fulfill the promise — to give him a son. Also in the letter to the Hebrews it is written about Abraham that he was “concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense” [Heb.11:19]. And about Sarah it is written that she “received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised” [Heb.11:11].

You see, it is not about our faith. Abraham, like Sarah, was convinced and knew that He who promised is able and faithful. They were convinced of the power and faithfulness [faith] of the Lord. If you have received Jesus into your heart, you have the same faith as Abraham, and I think you don’t doubt the power and faithfulness of our Lord for a second.

The Growth and Size of Faith

“But it is written that our faith grows. Here Paul writes to the Thessalonians: ‘We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other‘ [2 Ths.1:3]. What do you say to that?” Jesus is our faith, so it is not faith itself that grows; what grows is our knowledge of Christ Himself. In the next verse Paul explains: “so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure” [2 Ths.1:4]. Now let’s compare this with what he wrote to the Philippians: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings…” [Phl.3:8-10]

We cannot have more of Jesus or less of Him. Either He lives in our heart or He doesn’t. There is no third option. We can only grow in the knowledge of Him. And the more we know Him — not with our brains, by receiving some information, but with our heart, by receiving revelation about Him — the more we realize our righteousness, which is not from the works of the law but from faith in Christ, and the greater our fellowship in His sufferings, because legalists, carnal people and unbelievers will always persecute us for His righteousness, just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, and the Pharisees and scribes persecuted Jesus. In the same way, the love of Christ, about which 2 Thessalonians 1:3 speaks, abounds in our lives through the knowledge of Christ. Paul writes to the Ephesians: “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” [Eph.3:17-19].

“All right, but what about where it is written that God has dealt to each one a measure of faith? Does that mean each of us has a different measure of faith?” We already established at the beginning of the article that we, like Peter, have obtained like precious faith. The same Spirit of Christ and the same faith that all the saints have lives in our hearts. That is why we are called believers, and not “little-believers” or “weak-believers”. The whole context of Romans chapter 12, where the measure of faith is mentioned, is actually about the Body of Christ and each one’s ministry in that Body: “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function” [Rom.12:4]. The measure of faith is the gift, or the work and ministry, that the Lord has dealt to each one, which is why Paul goes on: “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith” [Rom.12:6]. That is, depending on the revelation we have received about Christ, we manifest one gift of the Lord or another.

So, precious treasures of God, you don’t need to try to build up your faith. Simply come to know the beauty and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection! May the love of Christ abound in your life, as you know that you are valued and loved by your heavenly Father!