On Having Enough Faith

Occasionally a friend or myself has prayed for something or someone, and the prayer has not been answered instantly in the manner we might have hoped for. On one notable occasion, at a non-denominational youth camp, a young person was moping around the back of a social time. I asked him what was wrong - he said, close to tears, that he'd prayed for his brother and that 'God didn't heal him because I didn't have enough faith'. That is a completely sub-biblical, dangerous, faith-destroying and damaging nugget of theology. It betrays a poor understanding of prayer, faith and even healing, and I showed this young person the joy of biblical faith and challenged him to continue praying for his brother, because God does heal, but in his timing, not ours. This incident was one of the things that inspired me to look into the Kingdom Theology that the Vineyard, a responsible blend of evangelical and Charismatic Theology, promotes. I read books like George Eldon Ladd's "The Gospel of the Kingdom" and Rich Nathan/Ken Wilson's "Empowered Evangelicals". And I continued to study, think and pray about this nebulous idea of 'faith'.

In some Christian, especially Charismatic, circles, the question or charge is often levelled at individuals who 'do not have enough faith'. This is unfortunate, and can contribute to emotional damage, wonky theology, a negating of the power of Christ, and a practical denial of the power of God. In a book on prayer I've been reading as part of the process of helping someone write a book on prayer, Philip Jensen writes the following;

"Sometimes, when we don't get the answer in prayer that we were hoping for, we are tempted to think that the problem is our faith. If only we had believed a little harder - a little stronger - a little more fervently - then God would have given us what we asked for. In other words, we sometimes think that faith is like a muscle with which we push God. And if we could only push a bit harder, then God would give way and grant our requests.

But this is not what 'faith' is. Faith is active trust or reliance or dependen upon someone. It's relying on the lifesaver to get you back to the shore. The important thing about faith is the object of your faith, not how much faith you might have"

I think Jensen nails it. He nails it by calling us back to Christ, the object and author of our Faith. And when Jesus spoke about Faith - even in the context of commanding miracles and the supernatural - he never spoke about different levels or amounts of faith. In fact, Jesus is very clear in Luke 17 that its not an issue of amount or increase,

"The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you".

The apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. Often we feel like we could do with more faith. But Jesus is very clear - regardless of the amount, you can do amazing things. As the bible scholar Darrell Bock says, "the issue for Jesus is not the amount of faith, but its presence". This is key for us to realise. There are no faith-superheroes in the Kingdom of God. Our new Archbishop of Canterbury called himself an "ordinary Christian". He was right. He was also right to add "but I have an extraordinary saviour". Bock reminds us again that "a small faith can accomplish amazing things and lead to unusual events". The amount of faith does not matter. All of us, even those with titles and hats and robes, are just ordinary Christians. The important thing is knowing Jesus. Knowing the author and object of our faith. 

This Jesus. Of whom the writer to the Hebrews, in chapter 11:22 wrote the perfect description of the core of the Christian life;

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God"

Jesus. Joy. Faith. The results of the Cross. Friendship with God. Wow.
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Jensen Quoted in "Prayer and the Voice of God", with Tony Payne, Bock in "The NIV Application Commentary: Luke".