A Little More Hearing

So often I have heard someone preach or speak on the scripture Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," but I want to take a moment to break this down a little more.

I remember watching a show on TV one time (a documentary type show) and there was this archeologist who loved Biblical archeology. The oddest thing was this man was an atheist. He didn't believe in God or that there even was one and yet he respected the Bible for its archeological accuracy. He read the Bible on a regular basis, studied it, analyzed it and yet he still didn't believe in God. How could this be if faith comes by hearing?

I had heard it preached a couple times to put the Bible on CD and listen to it all the time and your faith would grow. Read the Bible aloud, they would say, and your faith would grow, but yet this man was not the first person I had seen or heard of that read the Bible, heard the Bible, and yet still had no or little faith.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice this, but it irked me at the time. So, after meditating on this scripture and after some good teaching, I thought I'd explain it. It's been a few years since then, but I have a blog now, I can write about it. :)

"Faith comes by hearing..." Okay, so faith comes by hearing, but by hearing what, "and hearing by the word of God." Hearing comes by the word of God, but it doesn't say what I'm suppose to be hearing. It's not saying I am suppose to be hearing the word of God to have faith, but that hearing comes by the word of God. If you are confused, you are not alone. So what are we suppose to be hearing? We are suppose to be hearing the word of God!! The LIVING word of God. Jesus is the living word and revelation comes by the Spirit of God. Don't believe me, read John 1:1-5. When you are filled with God's Spirit, and you read the "written word" or logos, God speaks to you personally through the Spirit, or gives you a "rhema" word. So, faith comes by hearing... Hearing what? The living, breathing word of God from the Holy Spirit, and hearing comes by the word of God..., hearing the living word comes by reading the written word.

In order to do this you need to be born again, you need to be able to hear the Spirit of God within you.

If you need help on what to believe, this is a good site. Take some time to check out the weekly sermons too! If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section and I'll get to them later. Don't want my post to be too long ;).