By Tom Denegre
Do you trust God to have faith in His Word?
Today’s scripture reading states that faith comes from
hearing the Word of God. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the
message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
Romans 10:17 (NIV)
Perhaps it not as simple as this scripture states. For example;
·
Lucifer knew the Word of God. Look how he turned out.
·
Billy Graham acknowledged that perhaps only
10-15% of the people who attended his crusades accepted Jesus. They too heard the Word of God.
·
When Jesus shared the parable of the sower of
the seeds, he too acknowledged that only one out of four people will hear the
word of God and have faith in him.
·
Today there are so many rebellious Christians who advocate the murder of unborn children while aggressively
promoting sexual immorality. Clearly, their
actions and beliefs are contrary to the Word of God.
· All share a similar pattern, their unbelief is focused on talking to
themselves and not God. Being filled with pride and self-centeredness they are unteachable; a self-destructive virtue. Unwilling to hear and accept the Word of God.
I came across The Passion Translation, and this version
states, “Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed
utterance of the Anointed One.” Romans 10:17 (TPT)
Well isn’t that a much different translation! Faith comes
from hearing God’s Word while opening your heart to it. The reason Jesus
scorned the Pharisees, is because intellectually they knew the Word of God, but
it didn’t live in their hearts. Or,
another way of looking at it, the Pharisees acknowledged God from their soul
(mind, emotions, will), but not from their spirit (Communion with God John 4:24,
Intuition or spirit to spirit communications with God 1 Cor 2:11, and Conscience
with God Hebrews 9;14).
I learned from experience that I must trust someone to
believe in them. Without trust I will
have doubt and unbelief. Equally
important, to have a relationship with a person comes from the heart and not
from the intellect.
Therefore, by trusting completely in God’s Word I accept
the large faith that God’s promises and provisions can be depended upon. Jesus once said, “If you obey my commands, you’ll
live in my love.” John 15:10.
To obey I must trust.
Knowing that I am radically loved by God, because he died for my sins, I can trust his word into my heart. By living in life union with Jesus I discovered that his love will nourish and empower my faith. More so, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, will infuse the faith, knowledge, revelations, and love that I will need to believe in the unseen. So, Jesus encourages all of us to open our hearts and our mind to accept and taste His Words. Then we will have the faith to move mountains!
To obey I must trust.
Knowing that I am radically loved by God, because he died for my sins, I can trust his word into my heart. By living in life union with Jesus I discovered that his love will nourish and empower my faith. More so, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, will infuse the faith, knowledge, revelations, and love that I will need to believe in the unseen. So, Jesus encourages all of us to open our hearts and our mind to accept and taste His Words. Then we will have the faith to move mountains!
