”Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The word for hearing in both locations is the Greek word ‘rhema’, which implies more of a face-to-face communication, and not a mere reading of a word or message. We read the written Word for hope (to know God’s possibilities), but we hear the spoken Word for faith (the ownership of those realities). That is why hope is always future tense and faith is always present tense. Hope tells us what can happen and faith tells us what will happen.
Hope is the seed of the will of God planted in our heart, and faith is the harvest of the will of God gathered in our life. God says He only looks at faith. This is why it is so important for us to keep the soil of our hearts clean and deep. I believe our love walk determines the depth of our soil, and holy living keeps the soil clean and weed free. Faith, or unbelief, is God’s simple indicator of all that we are. If we were a tree, it would be our fruit, and if we were a company, it would be our profits. God has only to look at the level of our faith to know if everything else is correctly in place in our life.
”Faith is the substance (title deed/ownership documentation) of things hoped for (desired possibilities), the evidence (before God’s bar) of things not (yet) seen.” Or, as Kenneth Hagin Sr. used to say, ”Faith begins where the will of God is known.” When faith comes peace comes, and we suddenly have the confidence to walk and wait – because we now have ownership of our hope, and we now know the outcome of the game. Once we have faith in our heart, it is easy to speak the answer out of our mouth. The Bible says that, ‘out of the abundance (or overflow) of the heart the mouth speaks.’ Paul says in Romans that ‘we believe in our heart and say with our mouth unto salvation.’