Motivations Behind Having Faith

There are some who suggest that a person must have pure motivation behind having faith; and they mean by this, that a person must have faith consistent with the rules outlined in the law of Moses. As I indicated here, a person can in fact ask God for anything he wants (while believing that he will receive it), and this action is in and of itself righteous, and makes that person righteous.

It is important to realize that a person never brings righteousness to a relationship with God: a person only walks away with righteousness from a relationship with God. That is what Paul meant in the following scripture:

Philippians 3

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

The above can more clearly be seen in the following:

Ephesians 2

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

The scripture above indicates that salvation never allows someone to be able to boast about righteousness produced by himself. Therefore if someone advocates that someone else take a position that allows him to be able to boast to people about his own righteousness (such as, "Look! I asked God to do something out of a pure heart!"), then that is a dead giveaway that the instructor actually teaches righteousness through works, or the law - rather than righteousness by faith.

The above underscores the fact that a person can ask God for anything he wants, or else be guilty of practicing righteousness through works, by asking only for things that the law of Moses seemingly suggests he should. (Please note however that when someone asks God for something, he must believe that he will receive it  in order for his exercise of faith to be valid ( James 1:5-8.))

Now if a person can ask God for anything he wants while having faith correctly, and this action is only produced by the Holy Spirit (see here for more information), this means that a person's motivation behind having faith in the above manner can only be pure - since it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to impurely motivate someone to do anything, including having faith.

(Please realize that it is only when someone has faith incorrectly [i.e. not via the practice of asking God for things and believing he will receive them], that his motivation behind the act can be called into question, because the Holy Spirit does not inspire or produce that kind of behavior in anyone.)