55. Romans 10:17

The End Time Men
W.W. Fischer
Scriptures Referenced in This Chapter:
          (Follow the Scripture links if you want to study the Scriptures for yourself.)
Lk. 22:42 π Jn. 14:14 π Jn. 15:7 π Rom. 10:10 π Rom. 10:17; 2nd π Gal. 2:20 π 1 Ths. 1:5

“So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” ( Rom. 10:17; top )

This verse has been glibly and often repetitiously quoted as the only procedure of obtaining faith. So it implies that if we spend a great deal of time reading Scripture, we will build up enough faith to ask whatever we wish, and then we’ll receive. It sounds admirable, and certainly you can’t discount the emphasis on Scripture reading. However, it seems this approach has detoured around many principles of Scripture that have great importance, such as death to the self-life, or surrendering our wills to the perfect will of the Father, and the glorifying of God by letting the same spirit that ruled Jesus rule us. These all cost us something, and we would rather gain something through the application of faith than the costly procedure of losing the desire of promoting the program to receive “things.” It is appealing to our egos and self-life to believe we can do exploits by applying our great faith, but it is devastating to our egos to have to pray as Jesus did, “Your will be done.” ( Lk. 22:42; top )

If our desire is to be like Jesus, then our procedure ought to be one of following His greatest commandment, of seeking Him and the Father with our whole heart. Jesus’ impenetrable faith came through His relationship with the source of all faith, His Heavenly Father.

The Scripture, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance,” ( 1 Ths. 1:5; top ), proves we have much to learn about all four sources; and they are all focused on the Father Himself. We will not totally know the “word” until we possess the nature of Jesus.

Could it be that Rom. 10:17 is telling us that faith comes when we hear the Rhema word of God and as we are obedient to it then God provides the necessary faith for everything He promotes? Then everything would be accomplished without failure, every time we obeyed just as Jesus did. Is this sort of faith worth seeking for? Obviously Paul thought so, for he said, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” ( Gal. 2:20 ) Is it possible that the word “hearing” in this verse means hearing in or with your heart or spirit? Verse 10 says, “With the heart man believes...” Then, if our heart or spirit is one with the Father, “if you shall ask anything in My name I will do it.” ( Jn. 14:14; top )

“If you abide in Me (totally united and surrendered to Me) and My words (Rhema) abide in you (the same as they did in Jesus), you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.” ( Jn. 15:7; top )


54. Poverty π 56. Isaiah 55:11
The End Time Men

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