Faith Comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God
The fundamental truth of this Word is that the more we know and experience of the Word of God the greater our faith and the more confident we are in the truth of it and the power it holds to accomplish God’s purpose through it. Our faith is only faith when it is applied to our lives in tangible, measurable ways. Faith both speaks and acts.
Most likely, we have all read this passage and heard it preached many times. But have we fully considered it’s meaning? Perhaps! But let’s look at it again.
“But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:6-9
Imagine faith is a person, you. So, you could say, the Righteous of me speaks this way. “Don’t think that your answer will come by physically transporting yourself to some far distant place in the realm of the Spirit, Heaven, where you can bring Christ’s authority and power down for Him to minister to our situation. Nor do I ask who will descend into hell to bring Christ up from the dead because I know He is already alive from the dead. Therefore, I, faith, do not base my actions on the hope that I can give anything of life to God. What I do in Word or deed adds nothing to the power of God. But power has been given to me to speak a Word from the store of God’s Word in my mouth and in my heart.
What I say in confessing that Jesus, The Word, is Lord, and what I believe in my heart that it is God’s power that raised Him from the dead, that is the same power that His Word (His life) spoken in faith will bring to bear on whatever situation or circumstance that concerns me.
When faith speaks it only speaks the Word of God. In doing so, it is speaking the Life force of Jesus into the atmosphere, into the heart and the mind of the hearer. So then, faith comes by hearing the Word and hearing comes by the Word of God. The ability to hear and understand the Word of God comes by hearing it again and again and again…
That is why Jesus told us to ask and keep on asking, to knock and keep on knocking, to seek and keep on seeking. Not because God needs to be reminded that we prayed, but because we need the exercise of repetition in speaking and hearing the Word spoken from our own mouths. Each time we do we deepen our faith in that Word and in God who gave it to us.
“For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, [The Word], that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son, [The Word], into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him [The Word] might be saved. “ John 3:16-17
The Word that God sent is His Son, His son is The Word in the flesh. You can have the Son in Your heart by faith. And that is exactly how we got saved. We believe that Jesus is Lord. We believe the Word that tells us God raised Him from the dead. So, we make our confession of faith by our words. And we express that faith in action by the way we live our lives, acknowledging that all of that is true.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
“NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” Hebrews 11:1 AMP
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 NET
“The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” Hebrews 11:1 The Message
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 NIV (1984)
Faith is the substance, the assurance, being sure of the things we hope for and the firm foundation on which everything we believe and know of God rests.
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