WHERE DOES REAL FAITH COME FROM?
By Ernest O'Neill
WHERE DOES REAL FAITH COME FROM?
By Ernest O'Neill
Faith comes from one place only. That's the flaw in us believing that our faith is stirred by reading stories of others' healing. I know we all feel that. We all feel that's why we love to get hold of those books. "Oh God did it for that person, he did it for that person, he did for that person", and it's our rational way of thinking. If he did it for that person then he'll do it for me and we think we're strengthening our faith. Your faith is not strengthened by that one iota; your human hope is strengthened by that; your natural mind is strengthened by that. Only one thing strengthens faith and it's Romans 10:17, loved ones.
Romans 10:17, "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ." That's the only thing that strengthens our faith. Faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the word of God or from the word of Christ, from God speaking to you in quietness in your own prayer times. From God coming through and speaking to you through his word at times, or bringing his word to your remembrance in prayer, that's what builds up your faith. Faith doesn't actually come from reading all kinds of records of others' healing. That is just a study of the visible means.
Now, do you see the position that Susan is really in? She's not in a worse position than all of us for believing for healing. She's in a better position. She is in a better position. Her body is breaking up all over. There are no visible means available to her. There's no sign that she's naturally going to get well. There's nothing but defeat in the visible means. She's in a far better position to have absolute faith in God.
So loved ones, you who are here this morning you know, if the old body is in trouble or if your own life is in difficulties or your family or your finances are bad or your job situation is in difficulties, you're in a far better position to have faith in God than when everything was going well. Don't think, "Oh, if it were easier. If it were an easier situation, God could work in it". No, no, thank God that in human eyes, the situation is hopeless.
Thank God that in human eyes, the situation is hopeless and then look to God, and then He's sure that there'll be no glory shared in the deal. There'll be no, "Well, I had a good doctor", or, "Well, we were rather clever with our advertising", or, "We were rather clever with the way we arranged our investments", there'll be no sharing of glory. There'll just be God's glory only because God works apart from visible means, apart from sight of any kind, and faith in him is not helped by visible means, it is hindered.
So the worse your situation is, the better is the opportunity for you now to put your complete faith in God and I would encourage you whatever the situation is this morning, whether it's with your body or it's with your business situation or your finances or whether it's with a relationship that you have, I'd encourage you to put your faith now in God and then not to look for any cracks in the walls of Jericho, not to start living on tenterhooks to see the first sign that God is answering. Be moved not by what you see but by what you believe and go out of here absolutely confident that the Lord God is going to answer you independent of visible means.
We have a dear friend, well really he is Gentry's friend first but he's a dear man who had his leg twisted like a corkscrew in a motorcycle accident. The doctor X-rays it, he says, "It's not healed", but the man walks flawlessly and has walked so for 5 or 6 years. God operates independently of the visible signs of health and the visible means of financial success that we have grown used to. God works through our faith, not through our sight.