In this lesson we are going to look at how to nurture faith within a local Church. There are 10 specific activities described in the Bible that have been called the Means of Grace by Christians who lived in the past, and each one of the activities can help nurture faith in our lives.

When we are done looking at the Means of Grace, we will also examine what the Bible says about spiritual gifts which can be used as a result of our faith in God.

#1. Teaching of the Word

The first activity is known as the Teaching of the Word. In Psalm 119:105 (ESV) we are told that “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” In 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (ESV) Paul told Timothy about “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

On a practical level, this means that the time we can spend in Bible reading and Bible study in each book while paying attention to the original languages, geography and the ancient culture can help us become more familiar with how God interacts with people in this world, which improves our ability to trust Him on His terms.

#2. Water Baptism

The second activity is Water Baptism. In the Book of Acts 2:38 (ESV) the Apostle Peter says “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

In the Bible, the word for Baptism in the Greek language that was used to write the New Testament was pronounced “Baptizo” and it meant “to plunge under, dip, or immerse.” Seeing someone being baptized can also strengthen our faith in God, especially if we were personally involved in the evangelism efforts to reach the person being baptized.

#3. The Lord’s Supper (Communion)

The third activity is Communion which we can read about in 1 Corinthians 11:26 (ESV): “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Participating in the Lord’s Supper ceremony on a regular basis with others can help us strengthen our commitment to serve the Lord as well as our sense of community within a local Church.

#4. Prayer

The fourth activity we can use to nurture faith in our lives is prayer. In Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) the Bible says “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. That we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need.”

Receiving answers to prayer in response to our needs can also nurture faith in our lives and the lives of others around us in a local Church community, and deepen our loyalty to God.

#5. Worship

The fifth activity we can use to grow our faith is worship. Just for clarity’s sake, I want to share a definition of worship with you. Wayne Grudem says “worship is the activity of glorifying God in his presence with our voices and hearts.”

In John 4:23-24 (ESV), Jesus Christ said that “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In other words, true worship involves us using our voices and our hearts to participate in what is happening among the spirits we commonly call angels and demons in the spiritual realm that exists outside of our universe.

True worship requires us to commit our bodies, souls and spirits to God so that his kingdom may come and His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

#6. Church Discipline

The sixth activity we can use to grow our faith is known as church discipline.

The goal of Church discipline is to maintain standards on the pursuit of holiness in a way that points the person under discipline towards godly grief which is mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:10 (ESV) which says that “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.”

The Holy Spirit is working to help each member of a local Church pursue sanctification, and if there is anyone associated with the Church who chooses not to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance they need to be excluded from the community of faith.

The reason they need to be left out Is so they will not discourage and distract others from the pursuit of sanctification under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. As soon as the excluded person wants to get back in line with the Holy Spirit, they can be welcomed back into a local Church immediately.

Jesus outlined the process we should use to exclude people in Matthew 18:15-17 (ESV) which says this:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be as to you a Gentile and a tax collector.”

So the basic process has three steps: 1) Start with a private conversation with the person causing the problem, 2) if that fails then bring two or three Christians along with you to try and correct the problem, and 3) if that fails then let everyone in the local Church know who is not following the Holy Spirit’s guidance so they can avoid being discouraged and distracted from the pursuit of sanctification.

Of course, the moment the person causing the problem decides they want to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance, they should be welcomed back into the local Church immediately.

#7. Giving

The seventh activity we can use to grow our faith is giving to others.

In 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (ESV) the Bible says “the point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God love a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

What that means is that the Holy Spirit can let each member of a local Church know when to give and how much to give out of the money they have left over when they pay for all of their living expenses.

This also means that the Holy Spirit may not encourage a member of a local Church to give anything in his heart, because he or she will need it for some unexpected expenses God can see coming their way in the near future.

#8. Fellowship

The eighth activity a local Church can use to help nurture faith is fellowship. In Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) the Bible says “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

In the New Testament we see Christians having private meetings in their homes to celebrate the hope of the Resurrection together. These private meetings were times where people could seek advice and prayer support for challenges they were having in their personal lives.

When someone was struggling with sin and having problems following the guidance of the Holy Spirit into sanctification, they could share the problem they were experiencing with others who had more experience in recovering from the Works of the Flesh that Paul described in Galatians 5.

#9. Evangelism

The ninth activity the members of a local Church and do to grow their faith is evangelism. The work of evangelism involves convincing the followers of other world religions to replace that with The Message of Christianity.

This is the most dangerous kind of faith building activity a member of the local Church can do. In Matthew 10:16 (ESV) Jesus Christ said “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Being wise as serpents and innocent as doves involves asking questions to try and discover who the Holy Spirit has been reaching out to. We will need to spend a lot of time in prayer for help recognizing who we share the Message of Christianity with and who we should leave alone.

The Apostle Paul’s strategy was to visit a city that did not have a local Church, and then he would begin trying to explain in a culturally sensitive way The Message of Christianity.  In 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 (ESV) the Apostle Paul explained his evangelism strategy:

“To the Jews, I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.”

So according to the Bible, when Paul wanted to share the Message of Christianity with Jews, he adopted the cultural habits of a Jewish person. When Paul was trying to reach Gentiles, he adopted the cultural habits of the Gentiles.

Let’s take that way of thinking a step farther: if Paul was going to share the Message of Christianity with Muslims, he would have willingly followed Islamic Law and culture to help save some of them.

#10. Personally Ministering to Others

The tenth activity we can do in a local Church to grow our faith is to personally minister to others. We can be used by the Holy Spirit to provide relief to each other from the challenges we face in life that can cause frustration, discouragement and disappointment when we do not have a local Church around us to be an emotional support system.

On this issue, I want to repeat a passage I shared with you earlier from Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) which says “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

The kind of personal ministry we need a local Church to do for us involves the use of spiritual gifts, which I want to take a look at now.

Spiritual Gifts In the Local Church

Before I begin unpacking what the Bible says about the use of spiritual gifts in the local Church, I want to let you know the Church in the English speaking world can split up into one of two groups.

The first group I am going to call the Pentecostal movement which believes that everything I am going to explain about spiritual gifts is still available to the Local Church; and the second group I will be calling the Cessationist Movement which believes that some, but not all of the spiritual gifts we are going to discuss are available to the local Church today.

A List of Spiritual Gifts Found In Scripture

Before I begin sharing information about spiritual gifts with you, I want to share a list of Bible verses where spiritual gifts are mentioned in the Bible. Here are the Bible passages that I am going to be using to make a list of spiritual gifts: Exodus 31:3, 1 Corinthians 12:28, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, Ephesians 4:11, Romans   12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 7:7, and 1 Peter 4:11.

Now we look at a list of all the spiritual gifts that are found in the Bible. Here is a list of spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible passages I shared earlier:

1) Craftsmanship, 2) Apostles, 3) Prophets, 4) Teachers, 5) Miracles, 6) Gifts of Healing, 7) Helps, 8) Administration, 9) Tongues (Languages), 10) Interpreting Tongues (Languages), 11) the Word of Wisdom, 12) The Word of Knowledge, 13) Faith, 14) Distinguishing Between Spirits (Discernment), 15) Evangelists, 16) Pastor/Teachers, 17) Serving, 18) Encouraging, 19) Contributing, 20) Leadership, 21) Mercy, 22) Marriage, 23) Celibacy, 24) Speaking, 25) Serving.

How to Use Spiritual Gifts

In Romans 12:6 (ESV) the Apostle Paul wrote that we should use them “in proportion to our faith,” which means there are different levels of strength available for each one of the gifts. Just to be clear, I want to give an example.

Let’s say there are two Christians who both have the gift of administration. The first Christian’s faith is strong enough for him to work with a group of 100 Christians, while the second Christian with the same gift is strong enough to work with a group of 10,000 Christians and the Church needs to have both of them working at 100% of their potential.

That is what Paul meant when he said “In proportion to our faith.”

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Instead of going through each of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament one at a time, I want to talk about the “The Gift of the Holy Spirit” that the Apostle Peter mentioned in Acts 2:38 (ESV) because “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39 ESV)

The simple reality is that when we receive the Holy Spirit, he brings all of the spiritual gifts needed to build and maintain a healthy well balanced local Church with him. The problem is that we can quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and that means we will be trying to accomplish God’s goals without God’s guidance.

That means we are going to fail to accomplish anything, even if lots of people keep coming on a regular basis to our local Church meetings. If the ministers in leadership positions at the local Church level neglect “the Gift of the Holy Spirit” there will be an absence of spiritual gifts operating within the local Churches they supervise.

Looking back at Church History, I believe the Cessationist Movement began because the Protestant Church had to explain why “the gift of the Holy Spirit” they had received when they escaped the Roman Catholic system did not allow them to see any kind of supernatural displays of power that we can read about in the Bible.

There was a lack of sanctification within the Protestant Churches that quenched the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) while they were struggling to learn how to receive FORGIVENESS OF THEIR SINS and pursue sanctification without the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

This is why a lot of local churches in the English speaking world cling to morals and ethics encouraged in the New Testament writings as proof they are working with the Holy Spirit in the absence of all the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit brings with him when he is welcomed in.

The end result is that we end up following celebrity Pastors who have natural talents of public speaking and secular organizational skills keeping up with all the latest pop culture trends and current events in politics that threaten our pursuit of happiness and financial prosperity instead of simply following the Holy Spirit’s guidance on the pursuit of holiness.

This should not surprise us, for in 2 Peter 2:1-3 (ESV) we were warned that “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

Their destruction is something we will look at in the next two lessons about the End of Time.