25 Jun Do We Need To Increase Our Faith?

Faith Is A Matter Of Absolute Importance

The subject of faith has been preached very hard for many years and all over the world you can hear believers pray and ask God for an increase in faith. This usually happens when we are having doubts, or faith is tried and/or we think our faith is no match for the challenge(s) we face at the time.
Faith in God through Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith. No one can claim to be a Christian in the true sense of the word without faith.

But to as many as did receive and welcome Him(Jesus), He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name.
John 1:12 AMP

Believing in Jesus name means believing in all that His name stands for and all that His name can accomplish. Faith is as important as to Christians as water is to fish.

Faith is to a Christian what water is to fish. Click To Tweet

The bible says that we cannot please God if we do not have faith.
But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 AMP
This shows how important faith is. The same faith we applied to become children of God is the same faith we need to receive all that salvation has bequeathed us in Christ. Reading through scriptures, it is very reassuring to know that we all have been given a measure of faith…

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12:3 NKJV

What About When We Face Strong Trials?

It is logical to thinks that for us to deal with strong trials we need an increase in faith. But our faith is not logic.

Faith is not logic.
The same faith that we apply to conquer sin, give forgiveness, get a job, heal disease, bring protection, provide finances… the same faith can produce different miracles.

A very interesting thing happened in the book of Luke Chapter 17
Jesus had just taught His disciples on forgiveness. He taught how they should forgive as many times as their brothers sin against them (This applies to all of us present believers). They thought it was too hard a thing to do and assumed they needed an increase in their faith. This was how they responded;

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.  Luke 17:5

The word translated to increase here, according to Strong’s Concordance is the Greek word “Prostithemi’, a verb that means: to put to or to add to.

They wanted Jesus to add more faith to their faith. Read Jesus’s response;
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. Luke 17:6

Jesus did not tell them to fast or pray that God should add to their faith, He did not speak to their hearts or lay hands on them to add to their faith. In fact He did not answer their request, at least not as they or we would have expected that he would. Rather He told them that they already had all the faith they needed, they had been given faith already. With all the teachings He had given them and a result of their believe in Him, they already have the faith they needed to forgive as many times as someone offends them or conquer a mountainous challenge they might face.

He (Jesus) said to them that even if their faith is of the size of the tiniest grain, it can move mountains if put to use.

So the problem was not a lack of faith or little faith, the problem was a faith that was not strong enough to step out in action.
Let us contrast the above scripture with another one where increase in faith is mentioned. It is found in 2 Corinthians 10:15:
Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly.

Here the word translated increase is the Greek word “Auxano“, a verb meaning to cause to grow or become greater.

This means an increase in strength as opposed to an increase in size as requested by the Apostles in Luke 17. It is like when a person works towards building stamina as opposed to increasing in body size.

Yes, we need to increase our faith, but in terms of strength/stamina not necessarily in size. Click To Tweet

So How Can We Strengthen Our Faith?

• God’s Word
  This is the first place to begin because it is the source of faith.
  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Acts 20:32
• Meditate On God’s Word
  This simply means thinking about God’s word you read from the bible, or heard in a Church service or a Christian gathering. When you keep thinking about God’s word, it takes a stronger place in your spirit and the words you speak become tailored by God’s word and this affects your actions too. Obedience to God’s word is largely dependent on whether we think about God’s word that we read or hear instead of letting it go in and out the ears. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8
• Exercise Your faith
  Like I mentioned earlier, to build stamina, one major way would be to train our bodies, our muscles. We train our muscles by stretching them as we run, walk and engage in other forms of exercise. The more we stretch our faith, the stronger it becomes. If we must increase our faith in terms of capacity and ability, we must exercise it by putting it to use.
• Pray
  When we pray we strengthen our faith. Especially when we pray God’s word. Praying with strengthen our faith and empower us to put our faith to use. Prayer will the carnal mind under and enable us to walk in supernatural.
  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.   Matthew 26:41
  Also Pray In The Spirt
  Praying in the Spirt builds up our faith. So as we spend time praying in the Holy Ghost our minds might not comprehend it but our spirit is being strengthened and our faith is being built up.
  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,  Jude 1:20 

We must exercise our faith by:

Believing God’s word
Speaking God’s word
Obeying God’s word
Acting on God’s word
Sometimes we may not see the results we expect but that should not stop us from continuing the exercising of our faith. And as we begin to put our faith to use, even in the smallest things, we will grow to use them for big things.

A good example is written of David who killed the bear and lion, so killing Goliath and defeating a whole army came easy.
The bible says in James 2:20 that … faith without works is dead.
Lets us put our faith to work and increase our faith’s capacity. Let us exercise our faith on the mountains that stand before us as Jesus has said and watch them tumble into the sea.
Some times the mountain might not tumble into the sea… the important thing is, it will get behind you or out of your way. There are many ways we can defeat a mountain;

• You can bore a hole through it to get to the other side.
• You can level it
• You can go round it
• You can climb over it

The important thing is that it is no longer a hindrance to getting on the other side.
As we study God’s word, meditate on it, speak and obey it and exercise our faith in it, we will find that our faith is increasing in strength, stamina and capacity.

Do you need an increase in your faith?
Are you doing anything about it?

Copyright© Ugochi Oritsejolomisan 2017