Topic: The Secret to Great Faith [Daily Grace Inspirations | Joseph Prince Devotional 2 January 2022]
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The Secret to Great Faith
When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”. . . Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.
Matthew 8:10, 13
Do you know that there were only two people in the Bible whom Jesus said had “great faith”? The first was the Roman centurion whose servant was healed by Jesus’ word (Matt. 8:5–13). The second was the Syro-Phoenician woman, whose demon-possessed daughter was also healed by Jesus (Matt. 15:21–28). I encourage you to take a minute and read both accounts from your Bible right now, before proceeding with the rest of today’s reading.
Also Read: Open Heaven 2 January 2022 Sunday Daily Devotional – The Beginning Of Months II
As I was reading these two accounts one night, the Lord said to me, “Son, look for the common denominator between these two people and you will discover the secret to great faith.”
I had always thought that the secret to the centurion’s great faith was that he understood authority. Because he was a military man of authority, he thus understood the authority of the Lord Jesus. But that does not apply to the woman, who was probably a homemaker. So what’s the common denominator to their great faith?
After I had tried to figure it out for a while, the Lord said to me, “Both were Gentiles. They were not Jews. Neither of them were under the law of Moses, and therefore they did not disqualify themselves. They were not under condemnation by the law, and so they could have great faith to receive from Me.”
Wow, what a powerful revelation! They were both not under the law, which is the opposite of faith, that’s why they could have great faith!
The Bible itself plainly says that “the law is not of faith” (Gal. 3:12). And in another place it says, “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect” (Rom. 4:14).
You see, the law will disqualify people from receiving any blessing from the Lord. It is only faith in His grace that qualifies God’s people and stirs up great faith unconsciously to receive what they need from the Lord. This is the secret to having great faith for any situation in your life!
I see this so clearly in the experience of Naomi who lives in South Africa. She became unemployed and was left with no place to stay, having been rejected by her family. She and her son ended up finding shelter in a village with a poor family in deplorable conditions, sometimes eating food taken out of dustbins. Despite extreme hardship, she wrote:
I truly believed that the Lord was in full control of my life and that things were in the process of changing. Through it all, I chose to put all my faith in God, knowing that He would restore and change my life. I knew that God loved me and that it hurt Him to see me go through all of this. I also knew that He would bring to pass what He had promised in His Word.
During that period, I fed on God’s Word and His grace and chose to focus on the many blessings I was already enjoying— health, joy, peace, and having Jesus in my life. A year later, the Lord blessed me with a good job, a car, a home, and a wonderful man who is also madly in love with Jesus. My son also sleeps peacefully now. We are sold out to Jesus and the gospel of grace, sharing it wherever we go.
Here is the key to Naomi’s faith. She said, “Thank you, Pastor Prince, for revealing the beauty of our Lord Jesus in such a simple but powerful way. It just made me fall in love with Jesus.”
My friend, the more you see Jesus—His beauty and His finished work of grace—the more faith arises in your heart. You will have unconscious faith to believe what God’s Word says about you and to ask boldly of Him. It’s truly all about Jesus, seeing His love, and allowing Him to love you and be gracious to you!