My apologies for budding in here, but…
It seems that if you have faith, it is something that has been given to you, and is not “yours.”
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Just a thought,
blessings,
brian
I think it has more to do with ability and seeing things a little more clearly. The faith we hold is ours - not an implant. Christ talked about ‘your faith’ in addressing people about their faith.
So all this talk about whatever people are believing as ‘The Gift from God’ is, frankly, insane. The ‘gift’ is the object and enough clarity to see it (Him). Now what you ‘see’ can be quite different from the next guy. But you both have and own your faith.
My apologies for budding in here, but…
It seems that if you have faith, it is something that has been given to you, and is not “yours.”
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Just a thought,
blessings,
brian
Hey Brian
1 Cor 2:14 Paul is teaching that a natural man does not have the capacity to understand the fullness of the things of the Spirit of God because the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. In other words, one must have a born again spirit to understand the fullness of spiritual things. But fallen man does have the capacity to believe unto salvation and understand spiritual things to some point intellectually…otherwise no one would receive salvation…because God does not violate your will and believe for you. No where in the bible does it say that man is not able to believe the gospel on his own. ( Rom 10:17)
The gift is grace…The faith comes from us. 
…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s the gift, Aaron. Believe it or not.
…eternal life in Christ is the grace of God, Ran.
“…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Roman 6:23
Let’s let Paul speak for himself. THAT’S the gift! Believe it or not. But don’t change it if you don’t believe it - ok?
Agreed. What does Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit say in Acts 20:24, Ran?
But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
There’s a lot of that testimony to that Grace going on around here by the Ambassadors of Reconciliation. So what’s the problem? Too much Grace?
Grace alone saves no one…but grace mixed in with our faith=salvation. Hebrews 4:2 " For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it].
Christ preached to the disobedient dead - what if they heard and believed and confessed Him as Lord? If you say that’s impossible - then I would ask: Why would Christ preach to them if he knows what you know?
What in the world are you talking about, Ran? We all are disobedient dead in our spirits before we accept Jesus.
You know what I’m talking about. So are you agreeing that the disobedient dead (the dead dead!) can accept and confess Jesus as Lord? Again, was Christ wasting His time preaching to them. What would you have advised Him to do. Rub it in?
If you are referring to people who die spiritually dead…absolutely not. Our time to confess Jesus as Lord is in this lifetime, my friend. No remedial punishment in hell flames to come to faith… I believe we are off topic…
OK. So you have advised Christ that He was being a fool for preaching to them. Is that correct? You and the Great Accuser are buddies now?
‘Get thee behind me, Satan.’ Do you understand how he can say that to believers?
Aaron, you’re an ego begging to be humbled. You got some hard lessons coming…every accusation you pour on mankind will come back on you until you come to realize what this means: ‘Forgive as you have been forgiven.’
Your ego, the great strutting born-again Aaron, will be taken by surprise and reduced to nothing. Then you will cry out with the rest of humanity.
Okay, we are agreed that grace is a gift. Absolutely. I am glad we agree on that.
But what kind of grace? The kind that simply blots out sins and gives a person a second chance? Or the kind that changes their nature from the inside out? And if the latter, then even their ability to believe is affected.
Now, you say that none of this can be effected until the person believes. But if ‘faith’ is a ‘thing’ then that ‘thing’ has obviously been severely damaged throughout history since we believe all KINDS of ridiculous things that have no merit. And as you’ve mentioned the ability of a non-believer to see the things of the Spirit is zilch. But you make a leap from there when you say that they then have the ability in themselves to agree with the revelation of God. How, unless God enables them?
Yes, people have to come to a certain point in their experience - often of desperation - before they believe. But in no way can they force themselves or create their own faith. Even this is a gift, for we are not our own, but created by an eternal God and bought with a price. As Oswald Chambers said, we are condemned to salvation through the cross. Ever read C.S. Lewis’ story? Much as he tried to run from Christianity, it crept through the back door again and snatched him when he wasn’t looking.
That’s the kind of God I’m in love with, I fully believe the early Christians were in love with, and the kind I could never be dissuaded from following.
Jesus’ blood not only deals with the acts of sin, but also deals with the byproduct of sin (sin nature or spirtual death nature). It replaces your death nature with the nature of God. (Heb 9:12-14 ; Col 2:11 ; Rom 2:29)
“Spiritually dead” does not mean man cannot have faith. Spirtually dead means " no spiritual righteousness". Man can’t seek God on a spiritual level that God requires, but has the capability to believe God… Hebrews 11 is the hall of fame of faith…all throughout the Old Testament people are shown as believing in spiritual things: God’s dealings with Moses, Abraham, and Noah… all of the Old Testament prophets, Saul going to the witch of Endor (this is a “negative” example), all of the people God warned Israel not to associate with because they worshipped other gods (another negative example - people who believed in spiritual things, albeit the wrong spiritual things), and on & on it goes. Spiritually dead does not mean spiritually unaware. Spiritually dead means those who do not have the spiritual life of God.
The difference for Christians is that now, with God’s spiritual life, we have the capacity to understand the fullness of the spiritual things God desires us to know. This is explicitly brought out and clearly identified in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
I understand the point you are making, however… I am curious to know how that fits in with what people like Noah, Abraham and Moses did; they all believed and accomplished great things for God; in fact, they couldn’t have become born again no matter how much they believed God. How was supernatural faith imparted to them?
Faith in God is based on a conclusion by the individual which is arrived at through some kind of experience: the person who hears a sermon…the scientist who sees the complexity of nature and cries out ‘Oh God, you must be out there somewhere. Nature is too complicated to have evolved. Whoever you are, God, I want to know you’…and so on.
Further, God says in scripture that Abraham believed Him and He counted is as righteousness on Abraham’s account. The only reason the righteousness could not have been imparted to Abraham was because there was not yet an “avenue of salvation,” which is Jesus. In other words, Abraham believed God so much that if Jesus had already completed His work on earth, Abraham would have been born again…all of this without the New Testament gospel having yet been delivered to humanity.
God bless,
Aaron
I disagree that they weren’t born again - whatever that may mean. They were filled with the Spirit, how could they not become born again?
You say that it’s righteousness, not faith that is given to us, then go on to point out that Abraham’s faith WAS his righteousness. 
Abraham’s faith was one of action; it WAS righteousness, because it was an active faith in God: ‘he went out, not knowing where he was going,’ he went up the mountain to sacrifice his son, etc. These were acts of obedience and therefore righteousness. Paul’s point in making this statement about Abraham is that righteousness does not come by a mere observation of the law, but through an interactive relationship with God where you actually do what he says based on trust, or faith.
Abraham believed God like a son - yet he wasn’t born again? I am puzzled by this. 
Yes, but the power to believe comes through the actual revelation: how would we have the power to believe that nature is real without encountering it first-hand? Nature itself gives us the power to believe; not the capacity, but the power. There’s a big difference. We have the capacity to do all kinds of things, including being righteous, or we would never ever be able to attain it. But we don’t have the power. That’s given to us by a very real encounter with God.
See what I mean now?
Agreed! My experience is exactly this.
My friends and I were all deceived in our lifestyles. None of us “had faith.” (In fact, I meet people everyday who don’t have faith!) God set me free, but left them in darkness.
It is important, if not crucial, to understand that none of us would be here talking about the things of God if it hadn’t been HIM to overshadow us.
Yes, we read in scripture that He “calls” us, but He knows that it requires His intervention.
Preaching Christ is foolishness to the world, because the natural man sees the things of God as foolishness. Our faith has been imparted to us by God. We have nothing within us that can “come to God” or “get its act together.”
Unfortunately, many Christians are thankful, yes, to Jesus… but even more thankful to themselves for their “free will choice.” They believe that they have done something to “earn” heaven. And this is where self-righteousness begins.
No man cometh unto me, except the Father draw him. And the Father is not drawing everybody at this time.
Blessings,
brian
This is off topic… I will make a new topic for this discussion when I have time.