The 7 Companions of Faith

It can be frustrating.

You’re reading the Word every day. You’re making the right confessions. But…something isn’t working. You aren’t seeing results.

The temptation is to think, Maybe I just need more faith. Here’s food for thought: What if you don’t? What if your faith is just where it should be, but you’re missing another key ingredient?

Pastor Nancy Dufresne recently raised that question while ministering at Eagle Mountain International Church. She likened it to baking a cake, saying, “When you bake a cake, you need the right amount of each ingredient. If you don’t have eggs, you can’t just add more flour and think it’s going to turn out right. The same is true of faith. If something isn’t working, you can’t just double up on faith. Faith needs something added to it.”

Where is the recipe for faith that works?

Second Peter 1:5-7 lists the 7 companions of faith — the things that keep us on course and cause our faith to work. Faith itself is not a substitute. Nancy Dufresne says, “If something isn’t working, you can’t just throw more faith at it.” You need all seven of these companions of faith to see a manifestation and victory in your life!

1. Virtue Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith, virtue” –2 Peter 1:5 (NKJV)

Virtue in this verse is translated as moral excellence. You know, the world mocks morality, but God is a moral God. The government may legislate things as acceptable, but if God doesn’t call it moral, it doesn’t matter who else does. You can legislate sin all you want, but it’s still sin.

We go to the Word, not the world, to find our standard of moral excellence.

A lot of people want to give Jesus their heart but stop short of giving Him their lives. If He’s Lord of your life, He wants to have something to say about how you live—what you say, what you do, who you fellowship with. All those things matter to Him. YOU matter to Him.

Having virtue doesn’t mean you’re perfect. It means you’re putting in effort and making progress. It means you’re producing fruit. It is who we are when no one is looking.

Sin puts us right into the devil’s territory, and when we’re in his territory, he has a right to attack us. Sin binds people and takes them captive. Jesus came to make you free. Virtue won’t ever willingly participate in anything that is going to hold you captive.

So, how can you get free from sin?

Nancy Dufresne says, “You can get free from any sin if you decide to hate it.” She shares how you choose to hate sin by faith. Your flesh may really like it, but you can make a decision to hate that which you think you like. That’s important because she says, “You’ll keep everything you’re OK with.”

You don’t get free from sin by willpower. For every opposition we face, we have something in the spirit that exceeds that opposition. Romans 8:13 says, “Through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature.”

That’s why the devil will keep you occupied with trying to get rid of it. He knows you can’t get rid of it by struggling in your own ability. You get rid of it by pouring in the Word that washes it out. Quit trying to remove what’s wrong from your life. Just pour in what’s right and flush it out.

Honor and integrity—virtue—will keep you from having weak spots in your life. When you’re living in moral excellence, there is no place for the devil to get in.

2. Knowledge Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith…knowledge.” –2 Peter 1:5 (NKJV)

Faith is not compatible with ignorance. So, if you are without the right knowledge of the will of God, your faith won’t be supported. Ignorance doesn’t mean stupid—it means untaught or not being a good student.

Faith is only compatible with knowledge. That’s why the devil is counting on our ignorance to work his plan. Knowledge of the will of God is an important support to the bridge of faith.

How do you get knowledge? By the renewing of your mind.

You may listen to teachings every day, and ministries are wonderful, but the most important thing is for you to renew your mind every day by reading the Word. No one else can do that for you. Kenneth E. Hagin used to say, “Your mind doesn’t stay renewed any more than your hair stays combed.”

Stay in the Word every day!

3. Self-Control Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith…self-control” –2 Peter 1:5-6 (NKJV)

Faith is going to have a tough time of it without self-control. That’s because God designed self-control to keep us safe.

Your body was never designed to lead your life. But you have to allow your spirit to take the lead and remind your flesh to back down. That’s why we have to give ourselves spiritual, mental and physical boundaries. But just like anything else, we can’t do this through human ability. We have to have the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

Nancy Dufresne says, “Your faith won’t work right when you let your body do whatever it wants. Your greatest defense against the devil is a submitted body and a renewed mind.”

A very important part of self-control is not letting our mouths say whatever they want to say. “Just because you think it doesn’t mean we need to hear it,” she reminds us.

You can make all the faith confessions you want but undo every bit of what they could accomplish by what you say. That’s why Proverbs 13:3 says, “Those who guard their lips preserve their lives” (NIV).

Beyond controlling your body and words, it is important to exercise self-control in our thought lives, as well. Worry will weaken the support of temperance in your life. Bitterness, unforgiveness, fear and anger are all the result of an uncontrolled thought life, and these things will hinder faith.

4. Patience Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith…patience.” –2 Peter 1:5-6 (NKJV)

Patience is what keeps your faith going. Gloria Copeland sums it up this way, “Without patience, faith will quit.”

It is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God (Hebrews 6:12). If we’re not patient, we’ll settle for the wrong thing. We’ll accept something that comes quicker to satisfy us. We’ll accept the wrong spouse because we’re tired of waiting, or we’ll accept the wrong job because we didn’t want to wait for the right one.

Patience is not a calendar watcher. Real faith ignores the calendar because it is fixed on what God says, not what the calendar shows. Sometimes people blame the devil for things that were caused by stepping out of patience with God.

When we’re ready, He will bring us into the things that He has put in our hearts.

5. Godliness Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith…godliness.” –2 Peter 1:5-6 (NKJV)

Godliness is God-likeness in all we do. If He wouldn’t think it or say it or do it, neither should we. Godliness is being interest in His plan and His will. If we’re going to be like God, we have to be interested in His plan, not just our plans.

Godliness is doing the will of God with joy—being glad to do what He wants you to do. That is a critical companion of faith. The further you go with God, the less you’ll care about your own preferences. You’ll prefer what God prefers.

Godliness is also consecration—it is an intentional keeping away from anything that will rob you of what God makes available to you.

The willing and the obedient will inherit the land (Isaiah 1:19), and godliness will strengthen your faith to get there.

6. Brotherly Kindness Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith…brotherly kindness.” –2 Peter 1:5-7 (NKJV)

There is a distinction between love for our brothers in Christ and love for all men. There’s a divine order in things, and we find that order in Galatians 6:10, which says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (NIV).

The way you treat the Body of Christ matters more than how you treat a stranger at a store. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter how you treat strangers, but there’s a divine order to things.

For example, of course you’ll be kind to the neighbor children, but you’ll show even greater love for your own children. The same needs to be true in the Body of Christ.

We’re not walking in love if we’re volunteering for secular activities when we aren’t serving the local church, or if we’re giving to the homeless but not tithing. It’s not right to give to random people when you aren’t giving to your assigned location.

Walking in brotherly kindness will undergird our faith and keep it working!

7. Love Is a Companion of Faith

“Add to your faith…love.” –2 Peter 1:5-7 (NKJV)

Love is perhaps the greatest companion of faith. Galatians 5:6 tells us faith won’t work without it!

If you’ve been feeling stuck in your spiritual life—not seeing manifestations of what you’re believing for—your love walk is a critical place to check. You’re stalemated, and if you’re not walking in love, your faith won’t work.

To take love to the next level and walk in love as God has commanded, you will put others’ interests ahead of your own, and you won’t be touchy and easily offended. This is the divine love gauge. As long as you take account of the evil done to you, you’re not walking in love. This might seem difficult at first (it takes practice!), but the reward is great.

As you put these 7 Companions of Faith into action, your faith will flourish, and you will always receive what you need. Second Peter 1 doesn’t just list the seven companions of faith, it also tells us, “If anyone lacks these things, he is blind” (verse 9, TPT.) It’s tough to fight the fight of faith with a blindfold on. So, make sure the companions of faith are always at your side!