When Jesus healed two blind men He told them, “According to your faith, so be it unto you.”

On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples’ faith was radically changed. Their belief that Jesus would fulfill His promises was more clearly demonstrated after the coming of the Spirit than when He was physically present with them.

Acts 3 tells of a lame man who sat begging every day at the temple gate. Peter and John had certainly seen him there many times. But after being filled with the Spirit, they looked at him differently. When the lame man asked for money, Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”

Then Peter took him by the hand and raised him up. The man entered the temple with Peter and John, walking and leaping and praising God. The people who saw him were filled with wonder and amazement.1

After the coming of the Spirit, Jesus’ disciples expected signs, wonders and miracles to happen in His name. What Jesus promised to His first followers still applies to the church today. We can receive guidance, provision, protection, healing and spiritual transformation because of the Spirit’s presence and power. The apostle Peter wrote, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.”2

Human knowledge, ability and effort are not sufficient to meet life’s challenges. We need divine intervention.

For most of us, our personal walk of faith is always changing—either for better or worse. A dying faith diminishes. A living faith grows. Faith energized by the Spirit is a living faith.

Faith is not just what we believe—but how we believe it. The strength of our confidence, both in life and witness, depends on the character of our faith. A particular kind of faith is described in Scripture by the Greek word plerophoreo. It is usually translated “full assurance.”

Paul describes Abraham’s faith as being “fully assured” that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.3 And he wrote to the Colossians about the spiritual wealth that “comes from the full assurance of understanding” and results in a true knowledge of Christ himself.4 Hebrews instructs us to draw near to God with “a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”5

The fullness of the Spirit overflows in hopeful anticipation that God will act in our lives as He promised. Through an intentional dependence on the Holy Spirit, we can receive what Jesus promised His first followers—a fervent, living faith that enables us to expect the miraculous.