vladimirgrebenar 
Extraordinary faith is a particularly important gift of the Holy Spirit for spreading the kingdom of heaven by works that go beyond man’s natural abilities. In its outcome, this charism is very similar to the gift of miracles, but sometimes miracles happen after prayer and after the person praying not having extraordinary faith. For example, one person may pray for another person to be healed of an illness, and through that prayer the Lord may bestow the grace of healing without both persons having the gift of extraordinary faith, but by God giving grace out of His will.
Extraordinary faith is such a gift of the Spirit by which the person who possesses it in the heart feels that a certain event will surely happen and does not doubt such an outcome at all and it is eventually realized. How is this possible and does the ability to do extraordinary things depend on the person himself? It does not depend on a person’s natural ability to do extraordinary things, but on God speaking to a person who has great confidence in Him in his heart what the outcome of prayer will be and then the person cannot doubt such an outcome! The word from God that a person receives is so powerful that a person cannot doubt the outcome of prayer!
Jesus taught His disciples how to receive extraordinary faith: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). Jesus did not want to say that people should have fun doing extraordinary things, but that it should only be prayed if it is really necessary according to God’s will. Thus, Jesus clearly emphasizes that there must be no doubt about prayer that is just, and continues: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).
Therefore, when we pray, we should consider that we have already received the outcome and we must not doubt it, and if we do not see immediately that something is changing, it does not mean that nothing is happening, but that God is preparing grace at the right time to make everything perfect and for His greater glory. Of course, God will answer only those prayers that are pleasing to Him and at a time when He deems it best. Therefore, when we want to pray to the Lord for special graces and blessings, we must first distinguish whether the intention for which we want to pray is the will of God, and if it is, there must be no doubt and hypocrisy in prayer, as well as no negotiating approach.
God performed miracles through Moses and his extraordinary faith in order to get the people out of Egyptian bondage by going through the Red Sea on dry land. After that, the same people were taken to the desert where there was no water or food to test their faith and to grow even more in their trust in God. This temptation was important to the Israelites and to God because of the growth of the people in the faith to occupy the promised land in which the Gentile nations worshiped demons and committed abominations and atrocities. This temptation was necessary for the Law of God to be accepted in the whole world and in all nations, following the example of Israel, who would become a holy, blessed and rich nation living in a land “flowing with milk and honey“ (Ex. 3:8).
Thus, all nations would ask themselves: “How are these people and the country so successful?”, and they would know that it is because: “God dwells among the people!” Unfortunately, instead of accepting such a role and growing in extraordinary faith, the Israelites chose to murmur against God: “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger“ (Ex. 16:2-3).
They simply did not have faith and trust in God even after so many miracles and signs. God prepared a pedagogy for them to grow through trials in extraordinary faith, and they rejected that path, did not want to change, and thought only of themselves and their short-term interests, not of God and the long-term perspective. God expected these people to give thanks in their hearts and pray even when they find themselves in temptation and fasting and thus become a holy people. Unfortunately, instead of glorifying God by works, they tempted God by muttering, turning to the occult worship of the Egyptian false deity – the golden calf.
That is why God warns us never to murmur when we are tempted: “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest” (Ps. 95:8-11).
The Apostle Paul teaches us to give thanks for every opportunity and temptation that God gives us to grow in extraordinary faith: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:18). The Apostle James teaches us: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience“ (James 1:2-3). The path to extraordinary faith leads through the desert where God’s temptations are, but also the devil’s temptations. Wasn’t Jesus Himself so tempted? After His baptism in the river Jordan, Jesus was taken by the Spirit into the wilderness to go through the trial of forty days of fasting.
Through fasting, Jesus gained the grace of an even stronger extraordinary faith. At the end of the fast, after doing what God had set before Him as His will, in moments when He received great grace, but also the greatest physical weakness, an intruder approached who tried to seduce Jesus and transform the gift of extraordinary faith and miracles into a magical act. The assailant tried to deceive Jesus with a trap as he had deceived the people of Israel in moments when they were hungry and thirsty, and when instead of praying to God they fell into the occult worship of the golden calf: “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:3-4).
The enemy tried to seduce Jesus into using extraordinary faith by not asking God, the Father, what to do with that gift, but by listening to His own will, or more dangerously, by listening to his devilish will like the Israelites in the wilderness. That is why Jesus said that He would act only when He received “the word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” and that He would not act of His own free will even in moments of weakness and greatest temptation. What happens when we remain firm and steadfast in the faith to the end, to the limit of reason and human endurance, resistant to physical pain and evil seductive temptations? God always manifests Himself in an extraordinary way: “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him” (Matt. 4:11). In other words, God gives us the grace to grow in faith to one greater spiritual dimension closer to Him.
Extraordinary faith is inextricably linked with the doing of God’s will, and the more a person listens to and does what God puts before him, the more he grows in faith and can receive the gift of extraordinary faith. Therefore, people who are only pious, but do their own will or listen to what others tell them and follow them cannot accept this charism. Extraordinary faith is the fruit of obedience to God, not to oneself or to people.
Before ascending to heaven, the Lord Jesus gave the last and most important command to the apostles and disciples about what they should do to spread the kingdom of heaven and promised that they would be accompanied by signs of miracles and extraordinary faith: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:15-18). It was not only the apostles and disciples of that time who received this call, but also us.
Today, in a time of great darkness over the world, we need to do the same thing that Jesus called His contemporaries to do. We are all called to promote the Good News in the circumstances of life and the environment to which we belong, because we must feel the fear of God lest God’s wrath and condemnation fall upon us as written for the fallen generation of Israel in the wilderness. “They are a people of fickle hearts and do not promote my ways.” Our action in the world must be such that we promote God’s ways at all times and in all places.
The gift of extraordinary faith is a particularly important charism in entrepreneurship that has a major impact on the spread of the kingdom of heaven on earth and is a powerful testimony to the promotion of God’s ways. The entrepreneur has no control over the free market nor does he influence customers to buy his products or services with certainty, but hopes to contract deals and sales that ensure the viability of the business. Such anticipation of work is a real spiritual desert of uncertainty in which he finds himself. The pressures he feels while waiting for God’s intervention can only be eliminated in one way – he must intervene personally for the kingdom of God.
Many faithful believers have testified to me that when they gave up part of their day to spread the kingdom of God on earth in terms of active participation in a lay parish service, writing articles for the Lord, praying by laying on of hands for the sick, praying for the oppressed and freeing them from evil spirits, physical work for the needs of the parish community, prayer activities in the parish community etc., or gave donations for the needy, that the Lord “paid” them inexplicably with excellent jobs and business results.
This fulfills Jesus’ promise, for which the gift of extraordinary faith is expected: “There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30). When you have the mission of an entrepreneur, the best way to manage an endeavor and get rid of stress and uncertainty is to serve the Lord in addition to entrepreneurial work in some direction of expanding the kingdom of heaven on earth that God opens to us as a life mission.
Accepting in the absence of time under the influence of business commitments to expand the kingdom of heaven through some other activity that seems to have nothing to do with business requires extraordinary faith. Rational reason under the influence of fear says: “if you want to succeed, you have to work hard all day as an entrepreneur and not have time for anything else.” The reason of faith under the influence of love says: “It is wise to spread the kingdom of heaven in addition to entrepreneurial activity, because God thus takes on all my business needs and gives blessings!”
Entrepreneurs who have not yet realized this Truth are left to dare: “O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him” (Ps. 34:9).[1]
[1] The article was published with minor changes in: Veritas. Glasnik sv. Antuna Padovanskog. Croatian Province of St. Jerome of the Franciscan Conventuals. Zagreb. Sveti Duh 31. No. 3. March 2022. P. 36.