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Hearing and Believing
by Henry Miranda Romans 10:17 (KJV) 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The two steps in salvation are hearing the gospel and believing it. Truly hearing and believing are what make up your faith. Hearing is fairly straightforward; we must hear the gospel because it is by hearing the Gospel that we are introduced to Jesus Christ. However, it is one thing to just hear the Gospel, and another thing to believe it. Many Christians are fine with hearing God's Word, and even studying it, but many have a difficult time with believing it. I think we know that we truly believe God's Word by the ways that it takes shape in our lives, and by the transformation of our heart and mind. We act differently when we move from simply hearing, to accepting the Word. During the lifetime of Jesus there were many people who did not believe Him and He was performing miracles right in front of their eyes. Believing is a little more difficult because what it takes for a person to believe is base entirely on the conditional response of the person. Some people can believe based only on hearing a sermon, while others need to thoroughly research every detail. Neither of these positions is wrong, though they require different approaches. Sometimes people tell us things that are too hard for us to believe. It's one thing to hear about something and another to believe it. Its one thing to hear the Gospel and then another to choose to reject it Romans 1:16-17 (KJV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. In Acts 26 we find Paul defending himself and the Gospel. It is In this chapter we find the most exhaustive defense of all of Paul's defenses recorded in the Book of Acts. He was telling King Agrippa how he became a believer. King Agrippa said to Paul "You almost persuade me to become a Christian". King Agrippa is like most people who hear the gospel, they don't want to surrender their lives to Christ. It's like, they like what they are hearing but yet they are hard-pressed to believe because they don't want to change their life style. It takes preparation to conquer the disbelief that is ingrained in us. Preparation of our hearts and minds comes with reading the Word of God. The Word is true; we must come to the point where we believe it beyond a shadow of a doubt. To see the promises of God come to pass we believe His Word. We believe God's promises in the Word and by God's power they are brought to pass in our lives The word "believe" is a verb which connotes action. Therefore, believing the Word of God, taking the Word of God literally and acting upon it, brings results. This is the law of believing and this is the action that will bring release and victory to your life in every situation. You have to believe in God and in whom He is and that he can do whatever he says he would do. Only by believing, are all things presently available to those that believe. For there is nothing impossible for God Mark 9:23 (KJV) 23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Take a miracle for instance, if it didn't happen to you, you would be hard-pressed to believe it. We can hear the Word of God by listening to our pastor giving us the message or we can hear by reading the Word. Both ways are an excellent way of learning about the Lord and believing the truth. Evangelist Henry Miranda earned a Bachelor of Christian Ministry degree @ Christian Leadership University. Evangelist Henry Miranda is a Bible Teacher, Author, and Guest Speaker and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, has written ten books. You can reach @ //www.evangelize-for-jesus-ministries.co Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |