How to Keep Increasing Your Capacity for Faith
As many of you know, I love to run. I don’t just love talking about it, I actually get out there and do it. For me, running isn’t just about physical fitness; it is a sacred space. It is the place where I am alone with the Lord, and it is where some of the deepest revelations hit me.
This past week, while pacing through my route, my mind drifted to a concept many runners know very well: VO2 Max.
For those who might not be fitness nerds, VO2 Max is simply a measurement of your heart and lungs’ ability to absorb oxygen and efficiently transport it to your muscles during strenuous exercise. Early sports science assumed everyone had a universal baseline for oxygen absorption. Today, we know better. Each person has a unique, individual capacity to draw in oxygen. Your VO2 Max is an indicator of your current physical activity, but it is also one of the greatest clinical predictors of physical longevity.
As I looked down at my watch and saw my rating was sitting at “Superior,” I celebrated a little. But then the Holy Spirit shifted my focus. I began to realise that this physical reality perfectly mirrors a profound spiritual truth.
God wants to talk to us about increasing your capacity for faith—our spiritual VO2 Max.
Understanding Your Spiritual Capacity
Many believers live under the assumption that God moves identically and equally in every single life, completely independent of our inner state. But Scripture paints a completely different picture. Look at these two powerful benchmarks:
“Let your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion as we have hoped in You.” — Psalm 33:22 (AMP)
“According to your faith [your trust, your confidence in My power and My willingness to heal you] let it be done to you.” — Matthew 9:29 (AMP)
Each one of us has a specific, unique capacity to believe God. We have an individual spiritual lung capacity to absorb His grace, trust His word, and pursue His purpose. Breakthrough happens in partnership. It is the intersection of God’s absolute willingness and our capacity to believe Him.
Jesus set the bar remarkably low when He mentioned mustard seed faith moving mountains. He wasn’t talking about physical geography; He was talking about the towering, seemingly impassable challenges you face in your daily life.
When an elite runner encounters a steep hill, a high VO2 Max allows them to climb without collapsing. In the body of Christ, we often pray for a life with zero mountains. We cry out, “Lord, take this hill away!” Yet James tells us to count it pure joy when we face trials, because the testing of our faith produces endurance. The joy isn’t in a flat road; the joy is having the spiritual capacity to run up the mountain and watch it cast into the sea.
The Two Pillars of Spiritual Stamina: Promise and Oath
If we want to avoid becoming spiritually winded, we must anchor our hearts to the two unchangeable realities highlighted in Hebrews 6:18: God’s promise and God’s oath. It is entirely impossible for God to lie, and these two structural pillars provide us with “mighty encouragement and strong consolation.”
1. The Power of a Specific Promise
A promise gives us an indwelling, supernatural strength. Put simply, you cannot exercise faith if you do not have a promise.
A few years ago, I asked our congregation a simple question: “Who has a specific promise from God written down for their life?” I was shocked to see only about 30% of the room raise their hands.
If you do not know the specific promise God has spoke over your life, I want to challenge you as your pastor: get before the Lord in earnest. Open a journal. Ask Him for a word that is uniquely yours. Just as God called Jeremiah by name before he was formed in the womb, He has approved of you for this exact season. When opposition comes—and it will—you do not respond to the shifting conditions of the mountain. You lock your eyes on the written promise and refuse to deviate.
2. The Power of the Embedded Oath
The second unchangeable thing is God’s oath—His covenant way of doing things. Hebrews 8:10 reminds us that God imprints His laws upon our minds and writes them directly onto our hearts.
Think of this as God’s spiritual GPS. There are many ways you could choose to drive home today, but there is a preordained, optimal route. God has preordained a set way for life to function beautifully. His internal law trains us in obedience. When we align our lifestyle with His structural truths, our spiritual capacity expands naturally.
Avoiding the “No Throw” Lifestyle
Hebrews 6:11 issues a stern but loving warning. The writer desires for each of us to show diligence all the way to the end, “in order that you may not grow disinterested and become spiritual sluggards.”
The original root word for “sluggard” matches a concept we see in athletics: the “no throw.”
Imagine a javelin thrower or a shot-put athlete who repeatedly steps over the boundary line. No matter how much effort they exert, the umpire flags it: No throw.
Spiritual sluggards are individuals who continually do the wrong things, the wrong way, over and over again, wondering why they feel stuck. They ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit, use a blunt axe to try to chop down a spiritual tree, and constantly get called for a “no throw” by the realities of life.
True spiritual training requires consistency. The more you listen to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit and say yes—even when it’s difficult—the easier it becomes to recognise His direction. You sharpen the axe. You learn the rhythm of your spiritual stride.
Walking into Perpetual Blessing
In Hebrews 7, we read about Abraham meeting Melchizedek. Abraham, recognising the spiritual authority before him, willingly gave a tenth of his spoils. Scripture notes a timeless principle here: the lesser is always blessed by the greater.
When we submit our hearts, our resources, and our timelines to Jesus, we are handing our lives over to the One who lives perpetually.
And remember: perpetual life doesn’t start after you pass away. “Perpetual” means it starts right now, in this very moment, and continues forever. A life spent increasing your capacity for faith is the most liberating, joyful, and wide-open way to live.
Take Action: Your Spiritual Training Plan This Week
- Find and Write the Promise: If you haven’t written down what God has spoken over your life, family, or career, spend 15 minutes in quiet prayer tonight. Journal the verses and prophetic words that anchor your soul.
- Examine the “Hills”: What mountain are you currently asking God to remove? Shift your prayer from “Lord, take this away” to “Lord, give me the spiritual capacity and faith to run up this hill.”
- Listen for the Inner Law: When the Holy Spirit prompts you to extend forgiveness, give generously, or hold your tongue, obey instantly. Every act of obedience increases your spiritual lung capacity.
Let’s be a people who don’t walk the top half of the hill. Let’s run out the promises of God together.
Watch the full message here on our YouTube channel to dive deeper into this week’s teaching. You can also explore our previous messages by visiting our Latest Sunday Content.
To read more about the absolute reliability of God’s covenants, read the full text of Hebrews 6 in AMPC Translation.
