On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it…20As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:12-14, 22-24

This whole episode with Jesus and his disciples is odd. What was the point of cursing an innocent fig tree and then talking about speaking to a mountain to be cast into the sea? None of this seems to make sense. There may be a few lessons some can derive from this event, but I see this as training about the nature of supernatural faith. I believe the mountain tossing thing was a metaphor for impossible tasks, and Jesus was telling us how to do impossible tasks.

I believe the key to this is in verse 22. The proper translation of the phrase, “Have faith in God,” is disputable. As one commentator said, translating this phrase depends on your theology. In other words, it is not unambiguous. The other translation I favor is “Have the faith of God” or “Have God’s faith.” Without getting too deep in the woods, the Greek word, God, is in the genitive case, the same as the English possessive case. This is almost always translated “of God,” as in the kingdom of God. To arrive at “in God” requires either a particular theological bent or a context that requires something other than showing God as the possessor, as “of God” or “God’s.”

With that established, let’s look at what Jesus did. He is walking along with his disciples and gets a little hungry. He sees a fig tree and looks for some fruit to snack on. There is none. Jesus curses the tree. It reads like he was ticked off at the tree for not providing a snack. I don’t believe that was the case. I think he was setting things up for when he and his disciples came back by this tree on their way back. His disciples commented that the tree he had cursed was now withered. Jesus responded with, “Have the faith of God.”

The nature of faith

The Bible tells us unambiguously that faith is a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8-9 among other passages) There is no argument against that proposition. But the other issue is, can I increase or grow my faith?

There are some things we can do to increase or aid our faith. We can read and listen to the word of God, we can pray in the Spirit, and our faith is enlivened and strengthened as we obey God’s word and act on the faith we have.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (NKJV)

Jude 1:20-21

 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:26

Through the word

Through the word of God, we learn the provisions of his covenant with us, not only the promises but also the obligations. We only know we can trust God for those things he has promised in his covenant with us in Christ. Reading the word of God also allows us to get acquainted with God’s character. We learn that he is trustworthy. One of my favorite passages that feeds our understanding of him and solidifies our faith is Exodus 34:5-7.

 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:5-7

Through praying in the Spirit

Jude is one of the shortest books in the Bible and contains one of the most practically potent verses. It explicitly states that we can build up our faith when praying in the Holy Spirit. What exactly does that mean, praying in the Holy Spirit? Here are a few passages that will shed some light on praying in the Spirit.

  •  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  (Ephesians 6:16-18)
  • Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
  • For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. 16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. (1 Corinthians 14:14-17)

So, praying in the Spirit is the prayer empowered by the Holy Spirit. In the body of Christ at large, praying in tongues is somewhat controversial since some folks believe this gift has ceased. Without getting into the controversy, Paul says that his spirit is praying when one prays in tongues. Since the gift of tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it is logical to conclude that when one prays in tongues, they are praying in the Holy Spirit. Is this the only way one can pray in the Spirit? I don’t believe so. The other passages speak of praying in the Spirit without praying in tongues. It would seem logical that if the only way to pray in the Spirit were to pray in tongues, these other passages would make at least a passing reference to it.

Through obedience

James’ statement about faith without works being dead is very important to the understanding of building up your faith. A paraphrase of this passage goes like this, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from corresponding actions is dead.” This paraphrase defines the nebulous word “works.”

Faith always says something. The proof is a living faith is that we take action on what our faith says. My faith says I have died with Christ, and I am raised with him to the newness of life. The old man who was dominated by sin is now dead, and I, in my new life, am free from the dominion of sin. A living faith acts on that proposition, and I now walk free from sin that used to dominate my life before I came to Christ. Living in this obedience to Christ because of his finished work is my corresponding action to what my faith says.

As I continue to live a life of obedience to Jesus, I act on my faith, and like a muscle gets stronger when exercised, my faith gets stronger when I walk in obedience to Jesus.

The faith of God

Now, what about having the faith of God in Mark 11:22? In this context, Jesus is demonstrating and talking about an unusual level of faith. Speaking to a tree and it being dead in a matter of hours is unusual. Not only is it a little weird, but it is miraculous as well.

When Peter called attention to the withered tree in a manner that revealed that he was shocked by this demonstration, Jesus responded with our disputed response, “Have the faith of God.” Then Jesus goes on to tell them that they could say to a mountain to go into the sea and it would obey them. The ability to literally command a mountain to go into the sea is extraordinary and would require extraordinary faith. Again, I don’t believe Jesus meant this to be taken literally since there doesn’t appear to be any redemptive purpose to sending a mountain into the sea. I take it to refer to things God calls us to that appear from a human perspective to be impossible to do. So, where does the faith for such miraculous feats come from?

Have the faith of God, that is, have the faith that comes from God. I Corinthians 12:9 refers to the manifestation of the Spirit called faith; verse ten refers to the manifestation of the Spirit known as the working of miracles. This gift of faith is the kind of faith that works the miraculous. It comes as a gift or manifestation of the Spirit that is in addition to the saving faith all believers have. It is temporary and is intended to affect whatever supernatural act God wants to be done through a believer.

In verse 24, Jesus explains that when you believe that you have received it, it will be yours. Some teachers teach that you can build up your faith through some spiritual discipline so you can believe that you have received anything you pray for before you have actually received it. It is as if I can work up this kind of faith. I think this is mistaken. I believe God wants to perform the miraculous through his children, and he has shown us the pattern for doing these kinds of acts of faith.

Jesus said he never did anything except what he saw the Father doing and never said anything except what he heard the Father saying. In other words, everything Jesus did came from the Father, and Jesus, fully empowered by the Spirit, did what he saw or heard from the Father through the power of the Spirit. The manifestations of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 were given so the church could do what Jesus did.

I believe that the “faith of God” refers to the gift of faith that is the manifestation of the Spirit. It comes from God as a gift for a specific action, just as the Spirit came upon the Old Testament prophets to perform their different feats, whether to speak the word of the Lord or call down fire to consume a sacrifice. In the case of Elijah, we can see the temporary nature of this kind of Holy Spirit inspiration when right after he defeated Baal’s prophets, he ran from Jezebel in fear.

To answer the question in the title of this article, it is both. Faith is a gift, and we can grow our faith. We should take the actions to grow our faith, read and listen to the word, pray in the Spirit, and act in obedience to God’s word and Spirit. We should also obey God’s word and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, including the gift of faith.