Faith Comes By Hearing God

In Romans 10 vs 17, the Apostle Paul explains the great effect that hearing from God can have on our faith. In the New King James Bible version, the passage appears as follows:

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Apostle Paul, Romans 10 vs 17

In the simplest terms, anyone who claims to be a Christian, or to have Christian faith, or to be in the Christian faith must have at some point heard from God. Faith comes as a consequence of hearing.

In this regard, it is important to note a number of things, namely:

The source of faith (which is Jesus Christ);
What is said (e.g. that God is good, or that God heals, or that God changed someone’s life);
The voice or voices that say what we hear (which could be anyone, including Jesus Christ himself);
What was heard? (e.g. that God is good, or that God heals, or that God changed someone’s life);
Who was heard? (e.g. God, or the person who was speaking).

Hebrews 12 vs 2 conclusively identifies Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of everything we believe in the Christian faith. Through His humility to come to the Earth to become a man and redeem man from sin; to be born; to serve in love; to endure the cross, death and the grave because of His love for the world; and to resurrect back to life; through all this is the template for the faith we are to practice as Christians found. The Christian faith is then about imitating Jesus Christ’s life, as He leads us (because he is the author of faith), and living for God and to His glory.

(N.B.: Some people, unfortunately, abuse the idea of God leading them, when they are in fact leading themselves, and use it to manipulate other people to their advantage.) However, if in doubt, let it be known that there are no allowances for manipulation by any Christian. The same high standard is expected by God from everyone regardless of their status, family background or any other factor. God does not and will never tolerate sin.

To dig deeper, if Jesus Christ is the author of our faith and faith comes by hearing, it suggests that to have faith we must hear from Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, however, our knowledge of Jesus Christ and some of our faith is based on other people’s reports about Him (e.g. friends, family, the priest or pastor, or even a total stranger). Sometimes, and perhaps in a lot of cases, our knowledge may not necessarily be based on any personal auditory experience of Him. In fact, Christians try to reach out to non-Christians by giving their own personal reports about Jesus Christ.

So, can faith come by hearing what is said to us by someone who is speaking to us about Jesus Christ? The answer is no because, as author of our faith, it must be Jesus Christ we hear and it must be Him who begins our faith. Faith comes prepackaged with the realization that God ‘is’! The voice that speaks is proof of Him. It must be based on real proof of God, which includes hearing Him.

So, when someone speaks to us about Jesus Christ, at some point, if we give what we are hearing a chance, a voice will be heard that is different from that of the physical speaker. It may not be instantaneous and it may be much later, but the important thing is to be open.

Faith requires action. James, the earthly brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, put it this way: “Faith without works is dead.” Essentially, no one can have faith without some sort of action and this action may be as simple as giving what you hear (or read) a chance.

To conclude, faith comes by hearing God speak. It comes as a result of what we hear in a moment or after we have read, heard, or seen, (or whatever the case may be) something about Jesus Christ.

Be blessed.