I want to go back again for a moment to Romans 10:17: Faith comes from hearing, hearing from the rhema of Christ. I want to explain something to you which I’ve learned and experienced which is of inestimable importance in value if you can grasp it. It’s how faith comes.
I lay in a hospital bed for a year on end as a Christian. The doctors were not healing me. I knew that my only hope was in God. I kept saying to myself, “If I had faith I know God would heal me.” But then I always said, “But then, I don’t have faith.” And then one day Romans 10:17 came to me, “Faith cometh by hearing,” and I leapt at it. Faith comes. If I don’t have it, I can get it.
And then I looked at the rest of the verse and I pondered and I prayed and I sought God and gradually God opened up to me how faith comes. And so, I received the faith for my healing. I thank God for the ministry of doctors and nurses, but they weren’t able to heal me. Healing had to come to me that time direct from God and it came when I heard the rhema, the spoken Word of God. It brought faith.
So you see, there’s a process by which faith comes. Lay hold of this. There are three stages in the process. First of all, God’s Word, God’s rhema, God speaks. Secondly, your response, hearing; you’re open to the Word of God. Later I’ll explain more about hearing. Thirdly, out of hearing faith comes.
Now usually there’s an element of time in hearing. Hearing isn’t usually something instantaneous. We have to get into a certain attitude. We have to come to a certain frame of mind. We can sit reading the Bible or maybe listening to a sermon and it’s just words flying past us. But then we settle down into a kind of inner stillness. Our mind is at rest. Our busy mental processes are suspended from them. We’re hearing. And out of that hearing, faith comes. Let me advise you, cultivate this ability to hear. Be open to what God says to you personally. It will be in line with Scripture. It will never be out of line with Scripture, but it will be Scripture quickened, made alive, made personal by the Holy Spirit. That’s how faith comes, that way, by hearing the voice of God.
Father, I’ve always wanted and prayed for more faith, but now I understand how my faith can grow, and how You increase my faith! Help me, Lord to take time to quiet my spirit in Your presence, every day, so I can listen to Your voice and my faith may grow. In Jesus’ Name, amen!
