How Does the Word of God Produce Faith?
“What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true and every man a liar…” ––Romans 3:3-4
The Word of God is clear and specific when it comes to faith. What we hear affects what we believe, and what we believe affects how we act. God’s Word empowers, encourages, and equips us to carry out God’s plan for our lives. Therefore, we need to read it, learn it, love it, confess it, pray with it, and act upon it! God watches over His word in order to perform it; hence, it will do what it is sent to do. God’s word will cause faith to “come” to anyone who hears it. If faith comes by hearing God’s words, then it is safe to say that doubt comes by hearing Satan’s words. God’s Word is truth, so our faith increases as we hear it.
“…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” ––Romans 10:17
What is Truth?
Truth is the highest level of reality. Some dictionaries define it as the true or actual state of a matter. There is a relative truth and an absolute truth. Relative truth changes, but the absolute truth is final with no implication of change. A baby will weigh 7lbs 7oz; this is true on the day of his birth, but that truth is subject to change with each passing day. Absolute truth is complete, whole, not limited by law, perfect, not depending on anything else; in other words, it never changes, and since Jesus and His Word are absolute—they never change—we can depend on them!
Faith is acting on God’s Word
“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ ‘You see the people crowding against you,’ his disciples answered, ‘and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’’ But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’” ––Mark 5:25-34
The woman in Mark chapter 5 had been suffering for 12 years. Many people are suffering around us; some we know of and others we don’t. What happened to this woman that led to her miracle?
She heard of Jesus.
She acted on what she heard.
She confessed the Word of God (The word confess, in Greek, means to say it continuously)
She exercised her faith
She received her miracle.
She heard of Jesus, faith entered her heart, and the power of God was activated enabling her to receive her healing! How much of the Word have you received and what have you done with it? Did you confess it and believe it? Your miracle is around the corner, waiting for you to confess the Word you have heard; after confessing it, over and over again, you must exercise your faith.
Now that you know that faith comes by hearing God’s Word, it is time to help others receive faith by sharing God’s Word with others so they, too, can hear and live by faith.
“How, then, can they call the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” ––Romans 10:14