How to Strengthen Your Faith

Learning how to strengthen your faith is a common quest for many believers in Christ. This article explores a powerful yet often overlooked method: speaking in tongues. Rooted in biblical teachings, this practice offers a unique way to deepen your spiritual connection and grow your faith.

Whether you're familiar with the gift of tongues or new to the concept, this guide provides valuable insights to help you tap into this divine gift. Discover how speaking in tongues can transform your prayer life and take your faith to new heights.

How to Strengthen Your Faith by Speaking in Tongues

By Don Bell | ⏱️ 7 minute read

How often have you found yourself thinking, "If only I had more faith?" Jude emphasizes the importance of building ourselves up in faith by praying supernaturally in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20, 21).

Remember this key spiritual principle: "The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things" (2 Timothy 2:6, 7).

What does it mean? Imagine shopping at a farmer's market and asking a peach grower what his peaches tasted like. Suppose he replied, "Oh, I've no idea. I'm afraid to taste them!" Why would you commit to buying any?

Similarly, how can we hope to encourage and build up others, if we don't "partake of the gifts" ourselves? We must first walk in the gifts of the Spirit before we can impart their benefits and blessings to other believers.

While we can learn and improve upon our natural abilities, our supernatural abilities can only be manifested and strengthened as we step out in faith and exercise them, as we're called to do!

How to Build Faith Through Tongues

Speaking in tongues requires an act of faith each time it's practiced. By exercising our faith in this way, we can increase and strengthen the measure of faith we have.

Therefore, to excel in the gifts of the Spirit and minister effectively to others in love, it's crucial that we first build up our measure of faith through praying in the Holy Spirit.

This might help to explain why tongues is so often the first gift to manifest after receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As we exercise our supernatural prayer ability, our faith increases thereby enabling us to exercise other gifts of the Spirit and minister to people's needs.

Edify Yourself First

False humility would say, "My main desire is to build up others!" However, it's not realistic to focus on building up others while neglecting to build up yourself in faith!

Jesus teaches, "'You shall love your neighbor as YOURSELF'" (Matthew 22:39, emphasis added). Primarily, you must first love and edify yourself; otherwise, you will find yourself having limited ability to love and edify your neighbor.

God's desire is for each believer to be strong in faith. That's because your measure of faith helps to set the benchmark for how effectively you can love and edify your neighbor!

Jesus promised that signs will follow those who believe (Mark 16:17); however, believers with little faith are unlikely to see many signs following. 

Faith Is a Substance

The writer of Hebrews declares, "For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise; … Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony" (Hebrews 10:36; 11:1, 2).

Strong faith enabled the elders to step out in obedience to God's will and they obtained remarkable results. Before we can step out in faith and obtain remarkable results, we too must first build up our faith.

Since faith is the "substance" of things hoped for, whenever you're prompted by the Holy Spirit to minister to the needs of others, you must have "substance" to back you and impart or you will fail to obtain the things hoped for.

Understand Your Measure of Faith

Luke says, "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.' So the Lord said, 'If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, "Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea," and it would obey you'" (Luke 17:5, 6).

The comparison of faith to a mustard seed is often misread to imply minimal faith is enough, but the meaning lies not in the seed's size but in its potential for growth.

Earlier Jesus had said to them, "'What is the Kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches'" (Luke 13:18, 19).

While the apostles had asked Jesus to increase their faith, He instead encouraged them to increase it themselves. He implied that faith is meant to be strengthened; that's our responsibility.

The Apostle Paul cautions, "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3).

The Greek word μέτρον (metron) translated as measure implies a small portion; hence, a seed. Each of us has been given a seed of faith, a seed having a God-given capacity for growth.

Paul is warning us not to have an exaggerated opinion of our faith capabilities, but to be aware of the portion of faith that God has entrusted us with, knowing it must be nurtured and increased to bring optimum results.

How to Nurture and Grow Faith

Building strong faith is a process and a necessity: "For in [the gospel of Christ] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith'" (Romans 1:17, emphasis added).

Since strong faith is so vitally important in our lives, God has provided us with practical ways to nurture and grow it.

Paul reminds, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). So, when can we hear God?

• When studying the Scriptures
• When praying and interceding
• When receiving words of revelation
• When fellowshiping with other believers
• When we obey God and witness the positive results
• When our spiritual eyes and ears open to the Holy Spirit
• AND, when we spend our time praying in the Holy Spirit

God has planned it that our faith is increased each time we exercise the gift of tongues or ANY gift of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that amazing?

Consider this: Exercising a gift of the Spirit entails functioning within the Kingdom realm of the supernatural. While receiving a word of knowledge or speaking a word of prophecy takes minutes, we might spend up to an hour or more speaking in tongues.

Could our time spent exercising the gift of tongues be a factor in the gift's supernatural ability to edify and build ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 1:20)? I believe so!

Paul's instruction to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) backed by his example of a faith-filled victorious life should be enough to convince us to make serious use of the Holy Spirit's vocal gift!

The Vital Importance of Faith

The writer of Hebrews says, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).

Faith is essential for pleasing God. As believers, we believe in God's reality, but we also must have strong faith and confidence in His role as a "rewarder" when we seek Him with our prayer requests, and obey his promptings to minister to the needs of others.

Tongues Is Our Faith-Building Tool

Clearly, we must grow our faith to mature in Christ and excel in the gifts of the Holy Spirit so we can effectively minister to others in love. Strong faith enables us to be an open conduit for God's blessings!

Therefore, as you seek how to strengthen your faith, it's not surprising that among the various ways that God has provided to build faith, exercising the gift of tongues is considered the most practical and efficient.

As Jude urges, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 1:20, 21).

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By Don Bell, a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. As the author of Kingdom Anointing, he shares decades of insights from his spiritual journey to encourage and empower ordinary believers to seek God's Kingdom first and lead extraordinary lives guided by the Holy Spirit.

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Hi, I'm Don, and my prayer is that Kingdom Anointing™ will help you build faith, walk confidently in the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and realize your full potential in the Kingdom of God.

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