Every time the Word of God comes alive in your spirit and you believe it, in most cases, it doesn’t deliver immediately; it normally delivers in phases. You, therefore, need the Spirit of faith to keep at it, until the fullness of what the Word has promised comes to light. Jesus explains this in Mark 4:26-29:

“And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come”.

God’s Word delivers in a process; it takes the Spirit of faith not to lose hope in the waiting process. The Word of faith came alive in me concerning prosperity in 1982, and I knew immediately that I was a prosperous man. Yet, there was no proof of any kind of prosperity in my life then. But because I got the Word, a seed was sown.

If the seed is properly nurtured, it will grow and bring forth like the grass. As you continue to nurture it, it grows and begins to flourish. Through pollination, it begins to bear fruits, and when the fruit matures, you put in the sickle and begin to rake in the harvest!

It takes the Spirit of faith to believe that what you have received is fruit, even when it is still inside the earth and has not germinated. That’s why the Spirit of faith and the gift of faith are wide apart.

Many people receive their miracle babies, but because they are not aware that there is a process, the child is aborted in the process, and they lose it. A woman is pregnant, but when she sees blood she is terrified, “It’s happening again,” and then of course, it happens – miscarriage!

The income of our ministry was three thousand naira a month, yet I believed we were a prosperous Ministry, because I saw prosperity from the Word of God. I believed it in my heart, and I knew it was on its way coming in stages. That’s the faith that works! Everything that will work in our lives must be of faith, that it might be by grace (Romans 4:16-21). Paul said n 2 Timothy 1:12:

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day”.

The faith that works is a kind of Abraham’s faith. After Abraham had patiently endured, he obtained the promise (Hebrews 6:15). Every time you’re faced with a challenge, understand that faith is a must.

“He that cometh to God (for a change) must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”. Hebrews 11:6

If God has spoken, then hold on tight to what He has said, as will do whatever He says He will do.

“And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken”. Genesis 21:1

Abraham was not weak in faith, and so he considered not his own body which was as good as dead at the age of 100, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. The Bible says: He was strong in faith, giving glory to God (Romans 4:18-21). It’s at a time like that that you need the Spirit of faith, so you can be stable in the midst of conflicts and contradictions, and be yourself in the midst of the storm.

The Abrahamic kind of faith is a clear demonstration of the effect and the operation of the Spirit of faith at work in a man. Imagine this: you have never heard anyone else’s story before, and God tells you that He’s going to give you a son – and you’re 75 years old!

Then you turn 80 and you still haven’t seen anything, and you did not stagger! That stability must have come by an inner force – by the operation of the Spirit of faith. It can’t be the principles at work, as principles would have long crashed.

Take our case for instance: you are going to build a 50,000-seat auditorium, and you couldn’t wait for the bill of quantities to get started. That’s not a normal operation, but a supernatural operation of faith!

Nobody was taxed, levied or begged, no letters were written to anyone, asking for donations or financial support of any kind; yet the structure was built and finished within one year! That’s a supernatural operation of the Spirit of faith!

The Spirit of faith takes you out of this world. That’s why the faith I’m talking about, here, is the faith that makes you live a life of heaven on earth here (Romans 10:6). I’m blessed and sent to my generation on a mission of the Word of faith, and I’m empowered with the Spirit of faith to prove it.

When you receive the Spirit of faith from those who are endowed with it, you naturally duplicate the grace they carry without struggling. The same way Kenneth E. Hagin choked cancer out in his faith Ministry, we are choking HIV/AIDS out without any effort. It’s the same Spirit.

“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak”. 2 Corinthians 4:13

You can only mimic a man’s message; you can’t mimic his proofs. The Spirit of faith is the force behind the faith that works, and contending for the faith that works is by craving for the impartation of the Spirit of faith from those who carry it…

This text is an extract from the book “THE UNLIMITED POWER OF FAITH” written by David O. Oyedepo. 
We invite you to read the following article “STRONG PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD“.