Apostolic and Prophetic Life StrategiesRAIN International SA RAIN International SA
Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom
Facilitating conformity to the Image of Christ
The School of FaithThe School of Faith

Faith comes by Hearing Scripture and Faith Moves

I. Foundation Scriptures:

Romans 10:12-17, "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Galatians 3:22-26, "But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

II. Faith always comes! Regardless of feelings, etc.

A. From the two passages above it is clear that faith always comes by hearing Scripture. However, the condition for faith to come is that the Word of God is heard. Faith is not a product of human reasoning, but it is a natural outflow of the human spirit when the Word of God is heard.

2 Corinthians 5:7, "for we walk by faith, not by sight". Faith cannot be reasoned out or understood without our spiritual senses. When we rely on our five senses to make sense of faith, we will be misled because the five senses are in the natural realm and not the spiritual.

It is also clear from these passages that there is a time when faith is absent and a time when faith is present.

The element that causes faith to come is the hearing of the Word of God. The moment we switch over from listening to the Word of God with our natural ears to our spiritual ears, faith will come.

We know from Hebrews 11:6 that "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him".

This means God not only requires faith, but through the hearing of the Word He has provided the means for faith to be generated within the human spirit. As born-again children of God we therefore have no excuse for not having any faith and not walking by faith.

B. Provided we have accepted the Word of God as infallible and we count the Word as the final Authority for life and faith, we do not ever have to doubt again. We can live an overcoming life through faith in the Word of God and the Power of the Holy Spirit.

We can know with a deep assurance that faith will always come to our hearts when we are firmly established in the Word of God (Psalm 112:8; Hebrews 13:9).

Faith will come when we do due diligence to the Word and meditate upon the promises of God (Joshua 1:8; 1 Timothy 4:15).

III. The God kind of faith comes to whosoever will

A. Mark 11:23, "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."

From this verse it is seen that not only is faith a product of the heart, but it is released by speaking it forth with the mouth.

When our mouth lines up with the Word of God that is alive in our hearts, and we speak this "alive" Word forth, faith will be released.

This principle is valid for "whosoever" will believe. Any Believer in the Word of God can and will walk in this if they simply apply it.

Are you a "whosoever"? If you are, faith will arise in your heart when you put your trust in the Word of God.

B. Romans 12:3, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

Paul says here to the Roman believers that "to every man" that is "among you" the measure of faith has been given. This means amongst the Roman believers in Jesus Christ. He is not referring to non-believers but Christian Believers.

The measure of faith has been given to every person. Through the grace of God this "measure" has "come" to every person who believes in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8). What we do with this "measure" is up to us.

The ability to exercise faith has been built into the human spirit by the Lord, because faith is the means of "exchange" in the spiritual realm. Faith pleases God so He has made full provision for human beings to operate successfully in the "faith" realm.

However, this measure of faith can only come to its full fruition when it is brought into subjection to the Word of God - the first step is to be born-again by the Spirit.

Whosoever therefore submits to the Word of God and exercises their measure of faith, will please God. 

C. Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

Faith as a gift we receive from God when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and we are born-again of the Spirit of God.

In fact, the gift to believe is given the moment we actually hear the Word of Salvation the first time (Romans 10:12-17). This happens because God's Grace is ministered to us by the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Grace). We are then able to "begin" believing because through grace He has prepared our hearts to receive His Word.

So even the ability to start our walk of faith with the Lord is not something that we initiate, it is entirely initiated by the Lord, so that we cannot boast in our own abilities (Ephesians 2:9).

Galatians 3:22-26 is therefore confirmed in that before God gives us the gift of faith, faith has not yet come, but after we received the gift, faith has come.

So it can be surmised that whenever we are faced with a situation in our lives where we need faith, we can rest assured that faith will always come when we put our trust in the Lord and His Word.

The onus therefore rests entirely upon our shoulders to use this gift for the purpose God designed it for, and this is to please Him by believing Him for the manifestation of His will in our lives.

As a father I expect my children to use the gifts I give them and put them to good use. I do not expect them to pack these gifts away and forget about them.

Two of my children have each received a motorcar from me. I expect them to drive these vehicles and not to leave them parked in the garage all the time. I expect them to take care of these vehicles, service and maintain them, obey the rules of the road, etc.. I want these two vehicles to work for them. These cars must produce for them.

So it is with our faith. God expects us to put this gift of faith we have received from Him to good use! It must work for us and produce God's will and provision in our lives.

D. Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them."

God is a God of faith and everything He has created He created by faith. We are His workmanship which means we are the end product of the faith of God.

Not only are we the end product of God's faith, He created us in Christ Jesus "to good works" which means He expects us to produce good works by faith in the same way we have been produced.

In fact it says we are ordained to walk in these good works. Everything we do must of necessity be a result of our faith inspired by the Word of God (James 2:17-20).


E. 2 Thessalonians 3:2, "...for all men have not faith"

Only those people who have been reborn by the Spirit of God have faith. Those who do not have the Spirit of God dwelling within their spirits, do not have God's faith (Mark 11:22), merely human faith and hope. Refer to paragraph IIIB above.

In Mark 11:22 Jesus says to His disciples "have faith in God". The original rendering actually means, "have the faith of God".

IV. Faith grows out of the Word, not by praying for it

A. Luke 17:5, "And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith."

The response of Jesus to this request in verse 6 is, "...If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed..."

He did not say some "magical" words to increase their faith. He did not lay hands on them to increase their faith. He did not tell them to pray for more faith. He did not say, "if you had prayed harder you would have more faith".

He said, "if ye had faith". To me this means that by this particular time Jesus thought they should already have had some measure of faith in their hearts.

We already know from Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, which means that had the disciples been listening to Him with their spiritual ears they would at least have faith the size of a mustard seed able to move trees into the sea.

B. Prayer does not cause faith to work; faith causes prayer to work.

One of the worst things we can do is to pray for something before we have an established faith in the Word within our hearts.

The irony is, however, that most Christians do pray in a state of faithlessness and fear. Not an ounce of faith in their prayers, thinking that if they pray more and more, faith will come in their hearts.

Nowhere in scripture are we encouraged to pray for more faith. However, scripture is full of verses where we are encouraged to meditate on the Word, to store up the Word in our hearts, to have faith in the Word, etc..

C. Why pray for something you already have?

I want to use an example to illustrate this point, although the example may be slightly ridiculous;

Many of us have at one time or another worked for a boss. Usually there is an agreement about the amount of salary, as well as when it will be paid (weekly or monthly).

When payday arrives, your boss comes to you and gives you your money, and you go your way.

Won't it be strange if after having received your money you continue to ask your boss to pay you? Or even more ridiculous, we continue to pray to the Lord asking Him to speak to your boss to pay you.

Why pray for something you already have?

From our study so far we have conclusively seen that the Lord has already given us faith - so why ask for it?

God is a Faith God, and because God and His Word are one His Word is filled with faith. Therefore when we meditate on His Word faith will come in our hearts.

V. Faith moves; it is a tangible spiritual force (Heb. 11:1).

A. Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Not only does faith have substance, but the manifestation of our faith proves the existence of unseen things in the spiritual realm.

B. When we study the Bible it appears as if God created everything out of nothing. However, this is not completely true.

We have seen that God is a Faith God, He does everything by faith, and He has created us to live and move by faith. So faith is the "secret" ingredient that makes it all happen, and it is clear faith comes straight from the heart of God.

The conclusion we can draw is that if God places such a high premium on faith, faith cannot simply be a mental concept or an ideology. We know faith originated with the Spirit of God, that God does everything by and through faith, and faith is a product of the human spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit when mixed with the Word of God.

The entire creation we see around us has substance which it obtained from the substance of faith when God spoke it all into existence. This tangible manifestation proves the existence of unseen things.

C. Hebrews 11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

The creation we see around us was made from something that cannot be seen with the natural eye. If therefore the natural creation has substance, so must the unseen "things" it was created from have substance.

This unseen substance is faith which originated from the heart of God released through the words He spoke in Genesis chapter one.

The Word of God is the "frame" or "container" that shapes the substance of our faith. The word "frame" also means to "fit" something into place, which in our study implicates that the Word causes the substance of our faith (that which we believe for) to be shaped and fitted properly.

Due to the fact that faith has substance, it therefore stands to reason that faith can "move" or exert "pressure" on the natural realm in order for the natural to conform to the Word and Will of God.

Jesus taught His disciples "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth" (Luke 11:2).

Jesus was saying that it is necessary for us to believe God for the manifestation of His Kingdom and Will on earth as it is in heaven.

Faith is the substance that will move that which is not in line with the Kingdom out of the way and manifest God's will.

Faith will manifest the substance and blessing of Heaven in the earth.

VI. Faith should never be allowed to stand still

A. Because of its dynamic nature, faith should never be allowed to remain static. Faith is filled with the Substance and Life of God and when it is not used, it will grow weak and lose its strength.

Faith was designed by God to be used to manifest His Kingdom in the earth, and when we fail to walk by faith, we do not glorify God (Romans 4:20; 1 Peter 1:7).

B. Before and during the actual creation, God was not resisted by any principality, power or person in fulfilling what He had set out to do.

From this we surmise that it was a much greater act of faith to raise Jesus from the dead, simply because by this time principalities, powers and people were resisting God in every way they could think of.

Nevertheless, faith always overcomes. 1 John 5:4 reads, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

Have you been born again by the Spirit of God? If so, you have world overcoming faith dwelling on the inside of your spirit.

With the world overcoming "faith of God" residing inside you, you are able through the leading of the Holy Spirit to manifest the Kingdom of God on the earth.

You can lead people to Christ and get them born again. You can pray for people to be healed. You can believe God to meet all of your physical needs. You can have good relationships. You can be mentally and emotionally sharp.

C. Faith is what pleases God, faith that works through love.

Galatians 5:6 reads, "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."

Notice that faith "works" through love. Faith is a "doing" word and our faith will only come to fruition when it is allowed to work. However, the driving force behind the working of our faith must be love.

Do you want to be a man or woman of faith? Start filling your heart with the Word of God today and as faith arises in your heart, do the works of faith the Holy Spirit prompts you to do.

In His Love and Grace

Jan van Rooyen

Download "Faith comes by Hearing" as an eBook

Previous Page | Top of Page


© 2000 - 2024 RAIN International SA
P.O. Box 648 - Edenvale - South Africa - 1610
Contact RAIN International South Africa
Website Maintained by JvR Online Marketing SA