Faith Comes by Hearing
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17
I had such a revelation when I dug deeper into what this verse is really saying. I have read it many times. I have gotten so many great things from this entire chapter of Romans. However, the Lord kind of magnified this ONE verse before me. It was quite an experience.
I looked up all of the words in their original Greek and they are all basically cut and dry. They mean what they say. So, I asked the Lord, “OK, what am I supposed to find?” I heard, “Get your Thesaurus.” I did. I looked up each word and discovered something very interesting about the words come and hearing in there antonym (opposite) forms.
I always like to look at the “flip side” as I call it. What does it mean if I do not do this…or if I turn the word around. Many times it opens a whole new world for me.
Let me tell you…I got a whopper today! I will not keep you in suspense any longer…We all know what the following words mean, but let’s look at the opposite…
Come – go, go away, depart, leave, withdraw, retreat.
Hearing – ignore, reject, disapprove, disagree with.
You see, when we are not listening to what the word says a.k.a GOD, we are telling faith to leave, depart, go away. We are ignoring, rejecting, and disagreeing with God.
What we hear MATTERS. Whether it is coming from a cd player, movie, television, or people in our lives. What we HEAR directly affects what will come. Faith COMES by HEARING.
By the Word of God is simply telling us the source of where the faith can come from. It comes from HEARING the Word of God.
Let me give you some practical examples:
We will not find the faith we need to help a dying marriage if what we are hearing is all about infidelity, casual sex, and sin from soap opera. However, we CAN find the faith to go on, if we study God’s Word and SPEAK it out so we HEAR it. Or, if we listen to a good Christian marriage teaching tape.
We will not find our way to the purpose that God has for us if we listen to what PEOPLE say. If we listen to others criticize, belittle, or try to change what we know God has called us to do, we will fail. We will begin to doubt and question. However, if we are careful about WHO we let speak into our lives we will save ourselves a heap of trouble.
If we are teaching our children purity, and let them listen to sexually explicit lyrics we are harming them and setting them up to fail. They will believe what they HEAR. Do not think for a minute that just because you are saying it, you can counteract the lyrics. We need to TEACH them to guard THEIR EARS.
We will not have the strength to live a consecrated life in this dark world if we allow an overload of the culture into our head. If all we listen to is the world’s news…the world’s music…the world’s entertainment…the world’s causes…the world’s belief system…We will begin to have a worldly mentality. We will begin to find ways to adapt God’s Word to the culture. We will begin to find ways to make excuses for what we KNOW is sin. We will lose the good fight!
Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned, and for which you confessed the good confession of faith before many witnesses. – I Timothy 6:12
How can we fight the good fight of faith if we are telling faith to leave, depart, go away. How can we fight the good fight of faith if we are ignoring, rejecting, and disagreeing with God by not hearing the Word of God.
Think about this…
The flip side of faith is; doubt, uncertainty, skepticism, unbelief, mistrust, denial, dissent, discredit, infidelity, rejection, agnosticism.
Beware of what you allow yourself to hear.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17
Let’s Pray
Daddy God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that it has all the information I need to live a happy, peace filled, and consecrated life. Help me to guard my ears. Help me to recognize the things I listen to that are not pleasing to You and steer me away from YOUR purpose. Help me to find the right things to hear. Give me strength to let go of the things and people that I listen to the are faith robbers. I love You, Lord. I want to stand before You at the end of my days and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant, Well done!” I want to FIGHT the good fight of faith! Help me to teach my children to do the same. THANK YOU! Praise Your Holy and Magnificent Name. You are Worthy. Thank You. In Jesus Mighty Name, Amen!
Your Homework:
Look up hearing and hear in your concordance and find Scriptures that go hand in hand with what you learned today. :)
Also, pray. Ask God to reveal to you what or whom you may have speaking into your life that needs to be set aside.
Study the Following Scriptures:
- Proverbs 18:21
- Deuteronomy 30:19
- Ecclesiastes 7:5
- Jeremiah 5:21
- James 1:22
In His Love and Service,
Lara ;)
Copyright © Lara Velez, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved