Tag Archives: faith comes by hearing

October 2, 2023 · 5:45 AM

Dealing With Doubt

Doubt is one of those things that we don’t really talk about when we go through it. The thoughts come in, we try to dismiss them away, but sometimes they linger. If you grew up in church and come from a family of generational Christians it’s natural for the enemy to try to plant seeds of doubt in your mind, especially after a tragic event or death of a close family member. We don’t talk about it because of the way we were raised, but if those thoughts linger, they will begin to show up in our actions. The good news is that when we go through periods of doubt, research shows that it gives us a chance to strengthen our relationship with Jesus and to let our roots grow deeper into Him. Doubt often produces a stronger faith. The faith we talked about our whole life becomes real when we experience God intervening in our life and revealing Himself to us.

In John 20, Jesus had resurrected from the dead. Peter and John had been to the empty tomb, but only Mary Magdalene saw Him. Doubt filled their minds I’m sure, but Jesus appeared to all of them that night with the exception of Thomas. He wasn’t in the room. When they tried to tell him their experience, he didn’t believe and famously said, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side” (verse 25 NLT). We’ve nicknamed him and shamed him by calling him “Doubting Thomas”, but the truth is we all doubt at times and need God to reveal Himself to us in a real way. We all look for those moments we can look back on and say, “I know that was God!”

In Psalm 94:19 David says, “When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” Even King David, who slayed a giant, experienced doubts but he always went back to God’s Word and found comfort in God. Romans 10:17 reminds us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. When doubts arise, read the Bible, go to the Lord in honest prayer and let another Christian you know and trust pray with you. We all experience periods and moments of doubt. Let them drive you to know God more and to have that moment where you place your finger in His hands and put your hand in His side so to speak. He is willing to let you experience it to grow your faith. Don’t let doubt chase you away. Use it to grow deeper in your relationship with Him.

Photo by Worshae on Unsplash

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April 17, 2023 · 5:47 AM

Hearing The Word

Dr. Masaru Emoto was a Japanese scientist born in the 1940’s. Since the world is mostly water, he spent his life studying water to try to understand it better. He found that water has both energy and memory. In one of his experiments, he spoke a word over water and froze it. When he spoke the words, “I hate you. You’re a fool. You’re ugly,” and froze the water, it wormed crystalline structures that were non-symmetrical and plain. When he spoke the words, “You’re beautiful, I love you. Joy,” the water formed beautiful crystalline structures. What we know now is that not only is the earth made of mostly water, but so are our bodies. The words you say and the words you hear can have a profound impact on the molecular components of your body.

In 2 Kings 22, we read the story of King Josiah. He was just a boy when he became king. He was one of the ones who did what was right in God’s eyes. Eighteen years into his reign, he decided to make repairs to the Temple Solomon had built. During the repairs, someone found the Torah and brought it to him. As they read it out loud, he felt conviction from how the nation was living. They had been living from traditions rather than the Word of God and had been doing things that God opposed. He tore his clothes and sought forgiveness. He also made radical changes throughout the kingdom that brought the nation back to God like no other king. Hearing the Word of God changed him and the entire nation.

Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (AMP). When you hear the Word of God, it grows your faith and permeates every aspect of your being, changing you molecularly. Try listening to the audio version of the Bible or reading it out loud. Let is get into your heart and mind so that you are changed by it on every level. God’s Word is powerful. It’s able to divide the soul and spirit, as well as the bone and marrow (Hebrews 4:12). We must let it have its home in our lives to bring physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing so that it changes us and how we live.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

If you would like to see a video of Dr. Emoto’s work, click here.

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July 1, 2022 · 5:25 AM

Avoiding Spiritual Famine

Did you know that just like we experience famines throughout the globe, there can be spiritual famines as well? One such famine is found in Amos 8:11. God said there would be a famine of hearing His Word. 2 Timothy 4:3 says there will be a time when people will quit listening to wholesale teaching. In each of these cases, we can experience spiritual famine by our inability to listen or hear God’s Word. To avoid a spiritual famine, you and I must take time each day to listen to God’s Word. We must be intentional on hearing what He’s trying to say to us. So we can apply it and live by it.

Here are some Bible verses on listening to God’s Word.

1. Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.

John 8:47 NLT

2. As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God.

Ecclesiastes 5:1 NLT

3. So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.

Romans 10:17 GNT

4. “The one whose heart is open let him listen carefully to what the Spirit is presently saying to all the churches…

Revelation 2:11 TPT

5. My soul keeps Your testimonies [hearing and accepting and obeying them]; I love them greatly.

Psalms 119:167 AMP

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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June 1, 2021 · 6:04 AM

Speaking In Faith

Several years ago I taught a psychology of sales class. As part of the curriculum, we dealt with the rejection that all sales people face and how to overcome it. One of the methods was to speak out loud positive things about yourself that you wanted to happen. One exercise in particular had participants write down one attribute they wanted to be stronger in. They would get up in front of the group and say, “I am more courageous!” Then the rest of the crowd would shout back, “You are more courageous!” They were then encouraged to keep repeating it at home over and over until they became whatever it was that they chose in order to get it into their subconscious. Psychologists have proven that you can change your behavior, your mindset and even your attributes by creating new neuropathways for your thoughts to travel down. In order to do that, you had to create new paths and those began by speaking out in faith, if you will, about the new way you wanted your brain to think.

The apostle Paul was a person who faced a lot of adversity after he converted to Christianity. He was thrown in prison, he was whipped five times, beaten with a rod three times, stoned, shipwrecked, put in dangerous situations and so much more. If anyone had a reason to speak negatively, it was him. Yet despite all the troubles he had, he held firmly to his faith and spoke words of faith to the churches of that time. He stayed faithful to God despite what his circumstances were. In prison, he sang praises. In storms, he encouraged others, In pain, he trusted in God’s grace. In whatever he faced, he reminded himself that nothing could ever separate him from the love of God. He knew that his words were powerful not only for himself, but for others as well. He wrote many of his letters, which are the books of the New Testament in the Bible, from prison. He understood the importance of staying faithful to God and speaking words of faith in the most trying times. If Paul did it, so should we.

Psalm 116:10-11 says, “Even when it seems I’m surrounded by many liars and my own fears, and though I’m hurting in my suffering and trauma, I will stay faithful to God and speak words of faith” (TPT). Like Paul and this psalmist, you and I must stay faithful to God and speak in faith about all He has done and will do. Many times our situation and circumstances stand opposed to who God is and what we know of Him. In those times, we must trust in the unchanging nature of God rather than what our physical eyes and mind are telling us. We should sing praises and Bible verses out loud to get them into our mind and subconscious. Remember that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Don’t be afraid to read the Bible out loud, to pray out loud and to sing out loud when you feel surrounded by your circumstances. You will find strength, encouragement and faith to keep moving forward and to keep trusting in God’s plan for your life.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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July 6, 2017 · 5:00 AM

The Walk Of Shame

Throwback Thursday is a new feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.


One of the things I love about our car is when you get low on gas, not only does it notify you, the navigation screen automatically shows you where all the gas stations are. If I keep going, the alarm will continue to let me know every few miles that it’s time to fill up. So far I haven’t run out of gas in it. That’s a good thing because I know what it’s like to run out of gas and to have to do the walk of shame to the gas station.

What about you? Have you ever run out of gas? Have you ever run out of gas spiritually? Again, I’m guilt of that too. I’ve let myself run out gas spiritually and I’ve stalled. There were warnings that I over looked and things that I did that caused me to run out. One of the first things I quit doing was reading the Bible daily. It was more of a box to check off for me at the time and I saw it as a chore. When I quit reading my Bible, my faith took a hit.

Romans tells us that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I increase my faith by putting God’s Word in me. I wasn’t doing that, and I quickly found out that I was susceptible to attacks. It turns out that faith is also our shield that helps protect us against the fiery darts of the devil. I then began to slip in areas I had never had trouble in. I started to go places and to do things that I never dreamed I would have.

After that, I noticed that my church attendance began to slip. “I wasn’t getting anything out of it,” I would say. I wasn’t getting anything out of it because I wasn’t trying to. I wasn’t listening because I didn’t want to be convicted of the things I was doing. I didn’t want to be questioned by people at church when I did go, so I started leaving as soon as the pastor ended his sermons. I cut myself off from the community of believers.

Hebrews 10 tells us not to forsake the assembling of fellow believers. I looked up “forsake” and dictionary.com said, “to quit or leave entirely.” Because I did it, I know why the writer said we shouldn’t. I left a group of people who loved me, prayed for me and lifted me up when I needed it. Church is more than just a group of believers going to hear a message. It’s a place where we connect and find a sense of belonging.

After I left, it didn’t take long before I ran out of gas. When I couldn’t move forward in my life anymore, I decided to take that walk to the altar. The good news is that this walk isn’t a walk of shame. It’s a walk of rejoicing because God comes in, fills us with His love and restores us to a right relationship with Him. If you’re on empty today, you might have made the same mistakes I did. The good news is that He’s waiting to fill you up again and to restore your life. He did it for me and my church accepted me back with open arms. There’s no shame in walking home. 

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February 27, 2017 · 5:00 AM

Actionable Faith

 

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In Luke 17, the disciples asked Jesus for more faith. I’ve fallen into that trap myself: believing I could have more or less faith and that my amount of faith determines God’s response. They felt like it was the amount of faith Jesus had that gave Him the ability to do the things He was doing. The response Jesus gave them in verse 6, proves it isn’t the amount of faith you have that motivates God.

Jesus said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it” (MSG). There isn’t a size of faith. Either you have faith or you don’t. If you have faith that God will do something, you will act on that faith. If you have faith, you can speak to things and they will move.

James tells us that faith without works is dead. He’s saying, if you really have faith, you will act on it. If you aren’t doing anything by faith, you have none. Either you have faith and prove it daily, or you have none and prove it too. Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” He understood that you will always act according to what you believe. If you don’t believe God will answer, you won’t really pray. If you do, you will pray and show you believe it.

Faith isn’t about size, it’s about action. When the disciples asked for more faith, they got schooled by Jesus. When a man in Mark 9 asked Jesus if He could heal his boy, Jesus responded in verse 23 with, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.” Our response should be like this man’s. He replied, “Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!” You only need a greater faith than your doubts if you want to act on it. If your faith isn’t strong enough to act on, then ask God to help you with your doubts.

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