FAITH AND POWER

“And Stephen, FULL of FAITH and POWER, did great WONDERS and signs among the people” – Acts 6:8

Understanding Power requires that we appreciate the relationship of FAITH and POWER: “And Stephen, FULL of FAITH and POWER, did great WONDERS and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Stephen was full of FAITH and also of the POWER of God, and great miracles were accomplished by him. It takes both Faith and Power! Hebrews 11:1 reveals: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The word “faith” here is translated from the Greek word pistis, meaning “conviction” or “firm persuasion.” Faith is not presumption or optimism. What assures us that God will act is that He cannot lie or fail to keep His Word (Isa.55:10-11). If He has said something, we can rest assured that it will be as He has said.

The supernatural is an eternal realm, where all things exist and are complete; it is the perennial “now” that is accessed only by Faith. Faith is the divine ability given to man to go beyond the natural realm. Faith is our response to the mind of God as revealed to believers by the Holy Spirit so that we might operate in, and exercise dominion over the natural – the dimension of time, space, and matter. Faith enables us to “see” into the supernatural realm. God created the natural realm, and while He manifests Himself and His works in visible form in the physical world, He is not bound by the natural realm. He is much more than time, space, and matter. God set time in motion, but when He created human beings, He placed within us a yearning for eternity and enabled us to live in both dimensions – the natural and the supernatural. Faith allows us to cross the limits of the natural realm and to reach eternity.

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Heb.11:3). Trying to believe God with human intellect or reason alone won’t work. Faith is the ability given to the believer to believe the “impossible.” Paul succinctly expressed the link between Faith and Power by reminding the Thessalonians that they needed to have faith with power: “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of FAITH with POWER” (2 The.1:11). Paul again reminded the church at Corinth that he came to them in the Power of God – manifesting miracles and wonders – so that their faith would not rest on human words but on God’s Power: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1Cor.2:2-5).

We might ask ourselves what our faith rests on. Our faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. Many Christians place their faith in many things other than the Power of God. Sometimes they have faith in their positive confessions. We need a faith that rests on the Power of God; a faith that knows that His Power is available and able to produce miraculous things. A passive faith is no faith at all. It takes both faith and God’s Power to achieve miracles for God’s glory. Many of God’s people only have “head faith” or mental assent concerning the supernatural power of God, hence the lack of power manifestations. When we were filled with the Holy Spirit, we received God’s Power. What is lacking is authentic Faith to put to use His Power that is already in us: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Eph.3:20). That’s why: “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb.11:6a). Turn on the switch of faith and step up into Supernatural Power!