 When we're going to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9, we're looking at the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the apostle Paul is writing and sharing with the Corinthians concerning the spirituals or the spiritual gifts. And we've already begun looking at this passage. We'll begin at verse 4 just to have a lead in, but we're going to look at verse 9. In verse 4 of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning there and reading to verse 9, Paul writes, Now, there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all. The manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For the one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit to another, the word of knowledge through the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit. And so what we're looking at is the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, when you look at verse 11 of chapter 12, notice with me that Paul writes, One and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, notice as he wills. And so the Holy Spirit distributes gifts as he wills, as he intends or as he desires. And so Paul is laying the groundwork for us, he's laying the foundation for us so that we might know that as it relates to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it's God who is the one who distributes his gifts to his church. So it's God's part to distribute the gifts, but it's our part in relation to the gifts of the spirit to earnestly desire that which is best. He says at the end of the chapter in chapter 12, verse 31, eagerly desire the best gifts. And so it's God's part to distribute as he wills. It's my part to desire that he might gift me with the gifts that are necessary to do the things that are pleasing to him and to do so faithfully. And so we're going to be looking at verse nine, one of the gifts that he speaks about. And verse nine speaks about faith, he says again, to another faith by the same spirit. So he's speaking concerning the gift of faith. So in order for me to lay a foundation to look at this particular gift, the gift of faith, I'm going to first give a simple definition and I'm going to speak for a few minutes laying a foundation here. So first we'll begin by addressing the question, what is faith? Because when he speaks here concerning the gift of faith, the first thing I would be thinking is not just what is the gift of faith, but what is faith itself? That is faith, one of the closest synonyms that you can get in the English language to the word that is translated faith is the word trust. So the word trust and faith are very similar in that when you speak concerning faith, you're really speaking about the one whom you have trust in. And so we're looking at what faith is to lay that foundation and faith would be the belief with the predominant idea of trust or confidence. So faith is belief with the predominant idea of being a confidence or a trust. In Hebrews chapter 11, when you read through the book of Hebrews, you get to chapter 11 and you look at verse one, the writer said, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So when he says faith is the substance, that word substance is a word that can note a sense of assurance. It speaks of a steadfastness of mind that will keep you firm. And so he's saying faith is a living hope that is so real that it provides absolute assurance and peace. Faith is a confident assurance in the integrity of God and a confident assurance in his word to man. And we can have a confident assurance in God because as numbers 2319 says, God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent. Has he said, shall he not do it? Or has he spoken, shall he not make it good? And so faith is a confident assurance in the integrity of God in his word. And it is the evidence or the divinely given conviction of things that have not been seen. We can, we can say it, see it this way. None of us were present at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this room was there. That happened 2000 years ago, yet every Christian believes that he lived. Every Christian believes that he taught the word. Every Christian believes that he, that he died, that he was resurrected, that he ascended and that he's returning. We believe all of those things and yet we've never seen him personally. We trust him because we know that, that he doesn't lie. In 1 Peter in chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 it says, though you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So though I wasn't present at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, I believe him. And I believe that Jesus lived. I believe that Jesus died. I believe that he was resurrected. All of this is faith. So to come to God and to be pleasing to God requires faith on our part. That's the substance of our Christianity. Christianity is actually a structured system of belief, a structured system of belief in God. And that's why in Hebrews 11 verse 6 it would say, without faith it's impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And so in order to please him, I come to him by faith. No, going a little bit further as we read our Bibles. You see the word faith used, but it's used in different contexts. There are different ways that faith is expressed. For example, it's been said there is a faith that receives, a faith that receives. That's the kind of faith that will receive the promise, a promise that God gives to us that he'll save us. So you're seated somewhere, whether it's driving or whether it's home, whether it's in a church service. And you hear a message. And the message is speaking concerning salvation, how you can be saved and what you need to do. And as you're listening, there's something that wells up within you and you say, I will receive that. So there's a faith that receives. There's a faith that moves because it's received. It's like when Noah believed and built an ark or when Moses believed and delivered the nation of Israel. So there's a faith that receives and then there's a faith that risks. There's a faith that says, I'm going to trust God in this and I'm going to do what God has called me to do. Like when Jonathan and his armor bearer are there and Jonathan says, let's see whether God will deliver these people into our hands. And so there's that risk that takes place that God just blesses in and God moves. And there are times that you receive, there are times that you risk, there are times that you simply rest. There's a faith that you can have that you're simply resting in the promises of God. You're just waiting on the Lord to move and God does move. And so you rest in him as you wait on the Lord. Like it says in Psalm 2714, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. Well in the context of the gift of faith, we're looking at something that is supernaturally given to you at that moment. So I'll begin with what it is not in order to lead to you, lead you to what it is. So the gift of faith is not having the kind of faith that's needed to be saved. The gift of faith is not that living faith or that atmosphere that we live in, even as it says in Romans 117, the just shall live by faith. The gift of faith is not my daily walk of faith in which I make a day-to-day decision like you said in 2 Corinthians 5-7, walking by faith and not by sight. And the gift of faith is not the faith that's required to serve God. The gift of faith is supernaturally imparted faith. It's that faith that God gives you in a moment when you have a need. And there are times you'll see a supernatural expression of faith even in the Old Testament, that God is imparted to that person at that moment as he responds to the promises of God and sees God move. When you read concerning Abraham and Sarah, read the story and you'll see what an amazing faith Abraham had. And what an amazing faith Sarah had. You know, Sarah goes so far as to say, am I going to begin nursing at 90? I mean, think of that for just a moment, ladies, okay, stop. Abraham receives strength to be able to produce a child at 100. I'm still amazed by that, you know, and think about it, you know. I teasingly tell people that raising kids and having kids is for the young. You know, when you get older, no way. You know, I would hate it if Marie Sarah Rosales came up to me and said, guess what, I'm with a child. I'd say, are you kidding me? You're 60 years old, baby. We're going to go through this again? I don't think so. How tough would that be? But at 100, he received strength to be able to trust the Lord to keep his promises. And so you see expressions of faith in the Old Testament that really had a supernatural origin to them. And you see that in, like I said, in the example of Abraham. There's a time in the New Testament when the apostle Paul was being shipped off to Rome. And as he was being shipped off to Rome, there's a storm that hits. And the ship that he's on begins to sink. And the people who are aboard this ship all make it to the small island that is called the island of Malta. And the Bible tells us that it was very, very cold and it began to rain. And the people began to huddle around some fires that had been built there on the shoreline. And so the apostle Paul, wanting to serve and to help, begins to gather some sticks. You know the story. He gathers up some sticks and he starts to place the sticks on, this bundle of sticks on the fire. And as he does so, there's a viper, you know, a very, very dangerous and very poisonous snake that was in the bundle of sticks. And the Bible says that the viper latches on to the hand of the apostle Paul. And what does Paul do? You know, as this snake is coiled on him and biting him, he shakes the snake off his hand into the fire. And when he does that, well, I'll read it to you. It's found in Acts 28, verses 4 through 6, when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, no doubt this man's a murderer whom though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live. But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. So picture them. They're just staring at them. They're saying any minute now he's going to just swell up and he's going to die and they're just watching him waiting and they wait for some time. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said he was a God. And so that's interesting to me. He's no doubt a murderer and justice is found. That's a God for sure. You know, that's how fickle human beings are. And it's because he shook this viper off of his hand into the fire, didn't swell up and didn't suddenly die. And so you see amazing things happen. And in the life of Paul, there's no doubt that he knew my time is not up. God is going to do a work through me. Let's get rid of this snake and go on with the work of the Lord. So you see these amazing things in the book of Acts. And you see evidences of a moment of supernatural faith where God meets you in a very special way. Now recently I have been sharing out of Acts 3 because that's something that's been on my heart. And I want to turn you to Acts chapter 3 and show you something and develop the gift of faith by looking at an example found in Acts chapter 3. So if you'll turn your bibles there, we'll look at that for just a moment. What you see in Acts chapter 3 interestingly enough is an example of supernatural faith, the gift of faith. And you're going to also see as we read this passage beginning at verse 1 that the gift of faith actually operates in what has been referred to as a gift mix. Very often in other words, a gift will be working in conjunction with another gift. And you're going to be seeing that in just a moment how that works here in this particular portion of scripture. Now once again, we know that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are intended by God to minister to people. And we know that spiritual gifts are never intended to draw attention to the one who's exercising the gift. You see, when the gifts of the Holy Spirit are in operation, it is intending to demonstrate to us that God is present with us. And one of the human things that we do is we have a tendency of giving glory to the individual who is performing the works and failing to realize who is actually doing the work through that person. You have a hammer, you have a nail. You hold the hammer in your hand and you drive the nail. You finish the construction and nobody walks up and looks at whatever it is that was nailed and fixed and says to the hammer, man, hammer, you're something else. And nobody walks up to the nail and says to the nail, man, you are the greatest nail. I am so glad that you were present to do it. No, what do you do? You always give thanks to the one who did the work. And unfortunately what we have today in the church, and we see quite a bit of that now, is a lot of attention and glory given to the one who's being used by the Lord. And rather than God getting glory sometimes, very often unfortunately the one doing the work gets the glory. But that's not how it's supposed to work. The Holy Spirit when he's in operation is actually drawing our attention to Jesus who brings us to his Father. In John 16, 26, it says when the helper comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. So when the working of the Holy Spirit is actually occurring through the gifts of the Spirit, the vessel being used by God does not receive the glory, God himself does. And so here we have in Acts chapter three, you thought I wasn't gonna read it, I am. Acts chapter three, beginning at verse one, an incident where a lame man is healed, beginning at verse one. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, which was three o'clock in the afternoon, the ninth hour, and a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms to beg from those who entered the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones receive strength. So he leaping up stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. So here we have an incident that illustrates supernatural faith. So we see that Peter and John went to pray and as mentioned it was three o'clock in the afternoon. And let me give you a few things because in ministry when God wants to operate, he gives you his principles. And so if you want to be used by the Lord you can see certain things in here that go along with the exercise of the gift of faith that I'll mention to you. And so one of the things that I'll point out to you is when it says here Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer it gives to us some insight. This may be of help to you. It gives us insight that they were men of prayer, that this was a habit that they had. If you want to be used by the Lord you need to have certain spiritual disciplines. And one of those disciplines are very basic disciplines. It's not some huge, deeply terrible, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. It's just so constantly kind of thing. They're very basic disciplines. One of the disciplines you want to be used by the Lord be a person of prayer. It's just a very basic thing. They had a habit of going to pray. And that's where God begins to meet them. As they're exercising the normal discipline of a spiritual life. In the days of Jesus if you were to be categorized by those who did such categorization as a religious person, there were just some very basic things that would evidence that you knew the Lord. Or that you were religious at least. One, is you fasted. Two, you gave alms. And three, you prayed. Those are the three basics. Those are the three basics Jesus speaks about in Matthew chapter six. When he begins to speak of the hypocrisy of man because he says you fast to be seen, you give to be seen, you pray to be seen. And all Jesus was doing which we in the 21st century wouldn't really recognize or understand if we don't know the Jewish culture at least in this context. All Jesus was doing was saying look it, you have the religious aspects. You live in a religious way that all the religious Jews and all the Jews who consider people to be religious, you do those things. You pray, you fast, you give your alms. Well one of the basic disciplines in the old as well as the new was for those things to be evident in your life. If you were truly a follower of God, you're gonna be generous because God is generous and therefore his children are. And it just made sense. If you're gonna be used by God, you're gonna be a person who takes time to get away with the Lord and get away from the world and you will fast. There'll be times that you do that. Every religious person does that. And so you're gonna be a man of prayer, a woman of prayer, fasting and giving. And so they had a habit and they went up because it was their habit and it was part of the religious practice of their day. Now Psalm 5517 reads evening, morning and noon. I cry out in distress and here's my voice. Evening, morning and noon is another way of saying three times a day I pray. So that was the habit and they were going there for the hour of prayer. Now there's an unnamed man. He's been crippled according to chapter four verse 22 for 40 years. And it's his daily routine to be placed at a gate. And while he was there at this particular gate, he would beg and he would beg for financial aid. That's what he did. Again, the giving of aid is important to devoted Jews. In Proverbs 1125, it says, the generous soul shall be made rich and he who waters shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 1917, he who has pity upon the poor lends to the Lord and that which he has given will he pay him again. And so he knew that a good place to be, if you're gonna get help, a good place to be stationed would be at a gate where people who are religious are walking in because it is a basic fact that the most generous people are the faith-filled ones. And so that's why he would be there and that's why he would be stationed there asking for alms. Now he's there by this gate and this gate is called beautiful for a reason. There's a Jewish historian by the name of Josephus who says that this gate was made of Corinthian bronze. It was plated with gold. It was plated with silver. It was larger than the other gates. It was 65 feet high. And its weight was so great that it took 20 men to move it. And that's the reason why it was called the beautiful gate. And so there he is stationed at a great location to ask people for alms when Peter and John come in. It says in verse three, he sees Peter and he sees John about to go into the temple. And so what does he do? Well, he asks him. He says, can you give me something? Again, religious people are more generous than non-religious so it's a good place for him to be stationed to ask. And so as this is all taking place, verse four, fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. He's expecting to receive something. He had a need and he's expecting to receive something to satisfy his need, but for him, he didn't really expect anything to take place that was going to be supernatural. I mean, my goodness, he's been there so many times. And incidentally, there's no doubt that Jesus himself went through this gate many times. And that's one of the things that I think a lot about. I think, my goodness, how many people did the Lord Jesus Christ pass by who didn't receive an immediate healing? You look at some of the stories. You know, when Jesus went to Bethesda, house of mercy, and there was somebody there that Jesus approaches and asks, do you want to be made well? Well, I can't get into the water every time I try to get into the water. Somebody gets in front of me and cuts me off. You have to think of it like this. There were people all over that place in that particular area. Jesus more than likely threaded his way through until he came to a certain individual that he was going to minister to. Think about it for a moment. Why didn't he just heal everybody who was there? But he has a way of selecting the one he's going to work with. And Jesus would walk through the gate called beautiful. And this man by habit was there. Jesus ministered often in the city of Jerusalem. And there's no doubt because Jesus would enter in and out of that temple quite often that he passed this man. And yet the man remained there all through the times Jesus would go past him and Jesus never looked down and healed him. And so the man is used to seeing people pass him by. Even Jesus himself did. Not this time. This time here comes Peter and John. And as they're going on the way to pray, the man says, can you give me something? And then Peter stops. And the drama of that moment would be wonderful. We could recreate it, but the drama of that moment must have been so suspenseful because Peter stops and looks at him and he stops there. And you know how it is, especially if you're down on the ground and there's movement all around you. And you can sense when there's someone stops. You can sense that. And so he senses that that's taking place. And the apostle Peter says, look at us. And so the man looks up but he's sticking his hand out expecting to receive something, some money. And that's one of the amazing things here because Peter, silver and gold have I none in the King James but such as I have, give I be. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I say unto, rise and walk. What an amazing moment that would have been. Peter wasn't giving him money. The man needed something a lot more than money, didn't he? He needed a touch from God. And we know theoretically, we know that money isn't the answer to everything. As I was mentioning the other day, you know the old saying, money talks. You know, we Americans know that phrase, money does talk, it says goodbye, we know that. Money answers all things is one of the proverbs. And you know, we understand the motivation to go out and pursue wealth. We understand those things because the United States is filled with people who do pursue wealth sometimes for its own end. Others will use wealth for the glory of God. But in this particular case, the man needs something an awful lot more than simply a little money to live for another day. And the apostle Peter knows that. And so the man looking up at him to receive from him something is surprised when Peter says, I don't have any money. Silver and gold have I none. I don't have any money to give to you. I'm not carrying money to give to you. And by the way, I have something better. I have something that you really need. Another, by the way, another ministry principle is when the Holy Spirit is moving and he wants to do a work, he will give you a sensitivity to the needs around you. And when you're walking in the spirit, he will make you more sensitive and will make you available to be used by him. And if you understand that what you have is more precious than just money. If you understand that you have the word of life, then you're gonna be somebody who's willing to give that which really matters. And so that's what happens here. And so that's why Peter says, I don't have any silver and I don't have any gold. But what I do have, I will give you. Now this is the example of supernatural faith because what he's doing, I wouldn't do, would you? Would you go walking by? How many of you have walked by people in wheelchairs? And we have members of our fellowship in wheelchairs. My mom has to be seated in a wheelchair. My mom has to lay in a bed with a rail so she doesn't roll off and injure herself. My mom doesn't walk like she used to, can hardly walk even now. Can you imagine how many times I as a believer and even before I knew Christ, wished that I had the ability to reach down and touch somebody so that they could rise and walk? It takes supernatural faith that got in parts at that moment and that's what's taking place here. I wish that I could walk into our church because every Sunday we have people who are brought in in their wheelchairs. Every Sunday I wish that I had the ability to just walk up and say in the name of Jesus, rise your feet and walk. Pastor Chuck tells the story of how somebody came to him many years ago now and wanted him to pray for this gentleman and the Lord gave Pastor Chuck just a sense of I wanna do a great work right now. And so they said, can you pray for my dad? And Chuck said, yes. And he prays for this man who's in this wheelchair and he says, in the name of Jesus, rise your feet and walk, right? Reaches and takes the guy by the hand and pulls him and the man stands and he was healed. And everybody's going amazing because my dad has a cold. We just wanted you to pray for his cold. Chuck wanted to go on the road, healing ministry, Chuck Smith. But the Lord gave him that supernatural faith that knowledge of God is gonna do a miracle right now and that does happen sporadically but it doesn't happen all the time because what God will do in that moment is impart to you that which is necessary for that moment. Now the apostle with this faith that he's exercising does what is not humanly possible. Now we need to remember that he had experience in the past with the Lord giving him the ability to do things that were supernatural. All the way back in Matthew chapter 10 verse eight, Jesus was sending the men out to do ministry and he had said to them, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. He had experience with the Lord. He had seen Jesus do that. He had had experience when the Lord had imparted on him that which was necessary to do works of healings. But here in this particular case, once again, as he's there, Jesus is not physically present. He exercises his spiritual gift. And as he does so, it results in a miracle and God again, receives all the glory. Now as you look at this, I mentioned this is a gift mix because you see him having supernatural faith but you also see a healing take place and you also see a miracle. So this is a mixture, a mix of gifts that are being exercised at that time. And so as we look at this, is it possible that one day the Lord may say to you, do this? It is possible. You just have to be waiting on the Lord and see what he wants to do. It's just an attitude of Lord, I'm willing to do whatever you want to do. I want to be used by you. There's this attitude of, not of presuming, presumption is a terrible, terrible sin because it's destructive. You don't want to presume. It's what Satan tried to do with Jesus when he said, if you're the son of God, then climb on the pinnacle here and jump down because Malachi prophesies that the messenger whom God is going to send shall suddenly come into his temple. What would be more sudden than if you jump and the height of the pinnacle was over 400 feet and you come hurtling at the speed of gravity when suddenly the angels appear out of nowhere and lift you up because the scripture says he shall give his angels charge concerning you and they will hold you up lest you should dash your foot against the stone. So that was the logic Satan was using against Jesus and Jesus says, you're not to tempt the Lord thy God. And so that's called the sin of presumption and there are some who have succumbed to that. That's not the gift of faith, it's presumption. Many years ago now, there was a little boy, young boy, I believe his name was Wesley and I believe that Wesley was around 12 years old right in that area, happened in San Bernardino. His father had been going to these what we would call faith conventions and he was ministering and he had gotten to the belief that his son, Wesley who was diabetic was healed by God because he believed that God heals everybody and that's a gift that you all can have and he had prayed for his little boy, the son of his heart Wesley and said, Wesley in the name of Jesus you're healed and the next morning little Wesley got up to take his insulin because he knew his body was in need of it and no healing had taken place but his father would not allow him to take his insulin and so he said, no, stand on the promises, Satan is lying to you, stand on the promises of God to his little boy. Little boy went into a diabetic shock and ultimately went into a coma and ultimately little boy died. The father believed it was all lie from the enemy to the degree that even at the funeral he said, you know what's gonna happen? The resurrection. God is gonna do something that's even more remarkable than healing my son of diabetes. He's gonna resurrect his little body from that casket and even at the funeral home in the funeral for his son he would not let go. He was going to trust God, he was gonna believe, God was gonna do this work, he was gonna show himself strong because after all the evangelists who taught him these things he couldn't possibly be wrong. They finally buried little Wesley and the man was prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter for contributing to the death of his son. And while he was there in jail dealing with all the things that he had to deal with he began to read the Bible because he'd been reading other people's material and faith things that try and boost his faith and he thought I ought to read the Bible. That ought to be the solution to all of this and then he finds out that there are great things like faith and love but the greatest of these isn't faith. He said the greatest of these is love. And he ended up writing a book, I Killed My Son. He wrote a book, I read that book 20, 25 years ago. I Killed My Son. And he said, I had all the faith in the world. Faith wanted my son to be healed but love would have given him the insulin. He said I did not think, I didn't think biblically and I saw my son die. See, presumption is not just silliness. Presumption can be fatal. I don't act presumptuously. I want the Lord to move me. I want it to be without any uncertainty that God is saying do this. So the gift of faith is exercised as the Lord is moving you to do that. The apostle Peter, knowing that God is gonna do a work exercises faith, there's a miracle, there's a healing because the glory goes to God. As a matter of fact, later on, you know this man is standing there and people are witnessing, well notice first 11 here in Acts three, the lay man who was healed held on to Peter and John. All the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Why do you look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate. When he was determined to let him go, you denied the holy one the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom we see and know yes the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. The gift of faith, supernatural faith, the faith that comes from him has made this man every bit whole in front of you. How do you determine the difference between faith and presumption? Well one, faith does not try to force God to do something and secondly, supernatural faith, the gift of faith brings glory to God and not to the person who is performing the work. George Mueller was a German evangelist who lived in 1805 to 1898. He's very famous as a man who ministered in Bristol, England. And I'm gonna read something to you as an expression of a man who had a tremendous faith, he's known as a man of great faith. The work of Mueller and his wife with orphans began in 1836 with the preparation of their own home at Sixth Wilson Street, Bristol for the accommodation of 30 girls. Soon after three more houses in Wilson Street were furnished, soon after three more houses were furnished growing the total of children cared for to 130. In 1845, as growth continued, Mueller decided that a separate building designed to house 300 children was necessary and in 1849 at Ashley Down Bristol, that home opened. The architect commissioned to draw up the plans asked if he might do so gratuitously. The architect commissioned to draw up the plans asked if he might do so and was permitted to do so. 1722 children were accommodated in five homes. Although there was room for 2050. By the following year, there were 280 orphans in number one house, 356 in the second house, 450 in houses three and four and 309 in the fifth house. Through all this, Mueller never made requests for financial support. Nor did he ever go into debt, even though the five homes cost a great deal to build. Many times he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children further strengthening his faith in God. For example, on one well documented occasion, they gave thanks for breakfast when all the children were sitting at the table even though there was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on the door with sufficient bread to feed everyone and the milk band gave them plenty of fresh milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage. God has a way of supplying and this is a man who understood faith and this is a man, George Mueller, who exercised it on occasion in a supernatural way. He's very well known and you could read the biography of George Mueller and it would be a blessing to you to do so. This is a man who understood faith. The gift of faith is when God gives to you that supernatural sense that he's about to do something and you simply open up and say, here am I, Lord, it may all glory go to you. The gift of faith is still exercised today. Not often, but it does still exist and still is exercised when we wait on him and see what he can do.