Eternity Daily Bible Study
(A ministry of Eternity Christian Fellowship)
Walking In The Spirit - 45
Studies in this series can also be found online at www.globalchristians.org/walkspirit/
Topic: Spiritual Senses – Hearing - 2
Date: 21st September 2009
Do you want to grow in faith? Then switch on your spiritual sense of hearing:
Romans 10:17 MKJV Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Galatians even refers to a miracle working 'hearing of faith':
Galatians 3:2-5 MKJV This only I would learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing of faith? (3) Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, do you now perfect yourself in the flesh? (4) Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it is even in vain? (5) Then He supplying the Spirit to you and working powerful works in you, is it by works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
So we see that salvation, receiving the Spirit, the supply of the Spirit and “working miracles among you” all result from this hearing of faith. This is a key to Christian living if ever there was one! Everything we receive in the New Covenant lifestyle comes through the hearing of faith. We live 'from faith to faith':
Romans 1:17 MKJV For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
It is not just knowledge of God's Word that saves us, it must be combined with faith:
Hebrews 4:2 MKJV ... But the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
The hearing of faith is a simple heart response to God and is not a new legalism:
Romans 10:4-9 MKJV For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. (5) For Moses writes of the righteousness which is of the Law, "The man who does those things shall live by them." (6) But the righteousness of faith says this: "Do not say in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven?" that is, to bring Christ down; (7) or "Who shall descend into the deep?"; that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. (8) But what does it say? "The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart"; that is, the Word of Faith which we proclaim; (9) Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
And is available to all: Romans 10:12-13 MKJV For there is no difference both of Jew and of Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on Him. (13) For everyone, "whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Hearing with faith is believing what God says so that you respond in some way such as calling on God or acting in obedience to a command. Jesus does a miracle and you give glory to God and ponder on what the miracle means. Jesus speaks a parable and you ask for the interpretation and 'get it'. The hearing of faith is having the inner conscience tuned to God's wavelength and ready to believe what God says. When the word of the Lord comes to us (via preaching, the Scriptures, our conscience etc) we can respond in a number of ways including the following:
Faith = fully believing what God says will come to pass, and being obedient to it
Doubt = being unsure about the factuality, safety or wisdom of what God has just said
Unbelief = a flat out refusal to believe what God says, foolish mocking, scoffing etc.
Rebellion = deliberately doing the opposite of what God has said
Torpor = being totally asleep spiritually so that God is never heard or perceived at all
Abraham is the preeminent example of the hearing of faith:
Romans 4:18-22 EMTV who, contrary to hope, on hope believed, so that he should become a father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." (19) And not weakening in faith, he did not consider his own body, already having been worn out (being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb, (20) he did not waver at the promise of God in unbelief, but was empowered by faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to do. (22) And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."
Abraham believed God despite all the circumstances around him. He did not waver at the promise of God. God was everything and the difficulties and 'impossibilities' were as nothing. When God spoke Abraham heard deep within his being, so deep that nothing else mattered at all!
Now most of us do not hear God so deeply and absolutely. Like Peter we see the wind and the waves, or like Phillip at the feeding of the five thousand we ask 'what are these few among so many'. Abraham must have been totally unguarded with God. Abraham pinned all his dreams, all his hopes, and even the life of his precious son Isaac on the faithfulness of God.
The hearing of faith is not just intellectual assent to theological propositions. The patriarchs, prophets and apostles were not formally trained theologians. The hearing of faith is believing what God says even when the world, common sense and reason says precisely the opposite. It is deeply agreeing with God in your inner being, in your conscience, in the most fundamental part of who you really are.
The hearing of faith is the sure knowledge that God is true, no matter what appearances might be. It is hearing with your heart. It is staking yourself on the nature and character of God because something tells you, in an undeniable way, that this is where the true Truth is.
Satan tries all that he can to destroy this – through doubt, fear, apathy, hardness of heart, distraction, anxiety and making us forget God's goodness to us in the past.
The parable of the sower - and the seeds that fell on the the stony ground, the shallow soil, among the weeds and on good soil give us a clue to the difficulties here. The seed is the word and the soils represent our ability to receive it by faith (the hearing of faith) and hardening, persecution and worldly distraction seem to take out ¾ of the seeds. Only the seeds sown among the good soil bear much fruit.
We need to be determined to listen to God with faithful hearts, putting aside all worldly distractions and not being discouraged by life's circumstances. We need to remember God's goodness to us in the past so that we put today's troubles in the perspective of God's forever faithfulness. We need to meditate on His Word and His promises and we need to follow the example of those who have gone before us in the faith.
We need to abandon legalistic striving 'do this, do that' and simply open up to trusting God in all things. Instead of trying to do a bunch of things to please God or to be spiritual we need to just trust God's character moment by moment each day, believing that all things are possible with God. O Lord, help us to hear You and to truly believe!
Blessings,
John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph)
Pastor – Eternity Christian Fellowship
Chairman/ CEO Cybermissions
http://www.eternitychristian.com
http://www.cybermissions.org
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