3 Categories Of Faith A Believer Ought To Posses

     

Hello fellow pilgrims, it's a privilege to share some thought on the subject "faith". Faith has always been a subject in the Bible that catches my attention each time it is discussed or preached on. This led to my pant to dig more into this subject ....

    This post is not assumed to be the absolute, it's just a write up sharing an understanding by the help of the Holy Spirit on faith and the categories of faith.Diving into this study, below are questions I wanted answers to by the scriptures..

1.  What are the categories of faith?
2.  Is there a correlation between the different categories of faith?
3.  And are we supposed to possess all categories of faith as believers? 

     What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

    Faith is our response towards God himself, it's also described to be total obedience to every word of God, and the word of God is God's love towards us, cos in it we have our freedom and victory over the devil and his viles.

   The focus of the write up is to answer the above three questions as stated. First let's list out  the categories of faith and talk about them accordingly.

We have,

1. Faith (foundation faith | faith unto salvation) 
2. The faith
3. The gift of faith.

   Faith(foundation Faith | faith unto salvation)

         Faith as defined by the scripture in Hebrews 11:1 is what I type to be the foundation faith or faith unto salvation. This is what we put in action in response to God's love (justification)...
 Explaining God's love, God's love is picking us up from our wayward lifestyles, and assuring us of being forgiven. Interesting right? our response to this love is where faith is put into action. Cos what faith does for us is, it give us an assurance of salvation, (Romans 5:1). Faith in God's love is accompanied by peace.
         Hence faith is a must have and a foundation to starting a walk with God... Abraham calling out in Genesis 12 :1 depicts this, he was called out from his country (his convenience, way of life...), with no idea of where he was going, but faith came in place in kick-starting a walk with God,  first in obedience and trust, and this was his origin to knowing more of God.... In all phases of life, even in expectations from God (Romans 4:3) (Romans 3:22)NIV.
            Now let's move to the next category which is "The faith"

     "The faith"

          We have been able to establish the foundation faith which I also term faith unto salvation, this is what we must put into action to actualize the grace that has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11) bringing salvation to everyone that believe (have faith). The next category is very important to making our call unto salvation worth it. (1 Peter 2:10) To make this calling and election sure, we must prioritize the next category of faith (The faith).
     Jude 1:3 emphasized on this category of faith and how we ought to contend for it knowing fully well men assumed to be pastors have polluted the faith which was delivered to us by our apostolic fathers. This post focuses more on the Categories of faith,  our next post is on, what actually is "the faith"?
         Now this category of faith appears to be the most important one to posses as a growing believer. This category of faith contains all doctrinal instructions, spiritual practice and many more biblical instructions, which God has used his apostles to establish for us to follow. It takes a man with faith To contend for  "the faith". watch out for the next blog post on "the faith". Let us talk about the last category which is the gift of faith.

       The gift of faith

        The gift of faith is a category of faith that is meant for every believer, but varies in measures, I can also say it's the foundation to all other spiritual gift, just like faith is the foundation to attaining the perfect stature of God (2 Peter 1:5-9), so also is the gift of faith, to function properly in your God-given gift as a believer. Once again It cannot be over emphasized to say the gift of faith is meant for all believers even though it varies in measures, a believer is meant to have the gift in a certain measure,and why should that be? cos it's a foundational gift in walking in your potential or acting spiritual gift.

         Before I conclude this last category I want to point out some understanding which I got doing a study on this subject.

1. Abraham who is the father of faith, he walked with God in the three categories of faith (yes), I have read through post where it was emphasized that Abraham Did not have the gift of faith rather he just had the foundation faith to receive God, I believe he had both the foundation faith,  "the faith" and also the gift of faith in a very high measure if not the highest measure.

2. There is no correlation between the gift of faith and "the faith", However, the people who have "the Faith", can still possess the gift of faith

And more so people with faith unto salvation can still posses the gift of faith without having the last category, "the faith"

     A thorough study on the life of Abraham, starting from his exodus from his father's country, to the giving of tithe (the faith) and other responses to God's love, it's obvious he has all categories of faith.

     In conclusion strive to grow in faith in all categories
Shalom
God bless

Note: Am not assuming this post has the best of revelation, am open to hearing from you on this subject matter.

Thanks.