How Does Faith Come?
By David W Hall
The crowds surged excitedly around Him as He walked through their streets. They had been hearing startling rumours for months, and now He was here in their own town. What miracles would He perform among them, and what power would He demonstrate? He had already opened blind eyes, healed deaf ears and even raised some from the dead. Many had told of how He had twice fed multitudes from a single basket of bread and fish. It was easy for the people to follow Him because the evidence was here before their eyes. It was exciting! Who could doubt it?!
Yet, in all the excitement of the miracles and spectacle there was very little faith. It took only a short time before this same multitude was crying out, ‘crucify Him!’ Which all serves to demonstrate that faith does not come by seeing miracles or supernatural signs.
Of all of Jesus’ life prior to His crucifixion, the most important thing was not what He did but what He said. The miracles served primarily to get people’s attention. A miracle could change circumstances for a day or a lifetime, but His Word had the power to change a person forever! His Word has the capacity to generate in the heart of a man or woman the divine element of God’s faith – yes, the faith of God! Sadly for the people of Jesus’ nation, His Word found no lodging in their hearts, and thus there was no faith to receive Him as their Lord and Messiah.
Do not misunderstand me. I do believe in the power of God to still work miracles today. My own mother was miraculously healed of TB. Her faith enabled the miracle, but her faith itself was far more important than the miracle.
When Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into all the world with the gospel, He said miraculous signs would follow their declaration of the word. That is exactly what happened. The word came first, and then the miracles followed. Mark 16:17 & 20. Notice the order – the word first, then the miracles. Why? The answer is simple. When people receive the messengers of Christ, and embrace the word in their mouths, then faith is generated in their hearts. This resultant faith is not just for miracles. It is for the entire package of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that the Word of the messengers declare.
The apostle John wrote, ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us’. The same passage also reads, ‘as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name’. Jn 1:11,12, &14. Jesus did not just bring a divine word – He was the divine Word in human form! The message He brought, which is still being proclaimed today, is that through faith, we can become sons of God. That is why He died on the cross – so that the way could be opened for us into full relationship with God. This is the message that has the divine capacity to create faith within us, if we will receive it. That is because God’s word is not just information, it is the very seed-life of God in spoken form. When that seed lodges in our hearts it germinates and springs up to produce the fruit of God’s life within us. Nothing short of a miracle happens inside us!
The apostle Paul wrote, ‘faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God’. Simple, is it not? Faith does not come by witnessing miracles, nor by visible evidence, nor by impeccable logic or convincing argument. It comes by hearing and receiving God’s word in the mouth of His messengers.
Faith is a divine element provided to us by God. Paul said, ‘by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God’. Eph 2:8. Once it is operating in us we immediately begin to see its effect in our lives.
• Faith saves us from sin. Eph 2:8
• It delivers us from condemnation and judgement. Jn 3:16, 17.
• It raises us to the heights of relationship with Christ and the Father. Eph 2:8.
• It releases God’s hand to work on our behalf. Mat 13:58.
• enables us to live as God designed us. 1 Pet 1:5
Above all, the faith that God provides to us is the faith to join Christ in His life of self-sacrificing love. Paul declared, ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me’. Gal 2:20.
