Faith is an appropriate human response to a heartfelt conviction or assurance, which is based on a personal revelation from the Holy Spirit.
The first step towards receiving faith for a miracle from God is to hear something from Him to that effect. The Bible says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). Just as it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6), it is also impossible to have faith without a word from God. The heroes of faith recorded in the Bible all received a personal revelation from God, as the basis of their faith. Genuine faith is not a product of human contrivance. Often, people attempt to work up faith, as though that were possible. Elijah’s faith in God to restore rainfall in Israel, after a long period of drought, was neither a product of his choice nor of his effort, but of the heavenly sound he could hear to that effect: “Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain”” (1Ki 18:41).
Like Elijah, you need to hear the heavenly sound. That sound is the revelation of God’s will (on a specific area of interest to you), without which it is impossible to exercise genuine faith. This sound may come in form of a dream, a vision, a still-small voice, an inner witness, a divinely quickened scriptural verse or passage of the Bible, or a divinely-inspired recollection etc. The means by which you hear is not as important as the fact you have heard. Though some means of hearing from God are more spectacular, none is superior to the other, they are just different. Therefore, do not dictate your preferred method of guidance to God. Let God decide how He wants to speak to you.
Every child of God hears Him, but whether he or she recognizes the heavenly sound is another matter. Never believe the lie that the ability to hear God’s voice is reserved for an elite class of Christians. In fact, it is impossible for anyone to become a Christian without having first heard from God. You did not, and could not have become a Christian, until the Holy Spirit communicated with you and convinced you of your condition as a sinner, and of your need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. You received faith for your salvation when the Holy Spirit spoke to you as you listened to the gospel. The way you received faith for the miracle of salvation, is the same way you will receive faith for any other miracle from God. The way in is the way forward.
However, to hear the sound from heaven with a sufficient degree of clarity as to inspire faith, you need to tune in to God’s frequency, like Elijah did. You can only pick up God’s signals if you are on His frequency. Sometimes, people fail to receive the word of God, not because He is not transmitting, but because they have not tuned in to His channel. In order to hear from Jesus, you need to give Him your attention like Mary had done, when she sat at His feet listening to Him (Lk 10:39). Though Martha had done a commendable thing by having welcomed Jesus into her home, she failed to give Him her attention. “… Martha was distracted with much serving…” (Lk 10:40). Though her intentions were good, her priorities were misplaced. She had put service to Jesus ahead of communion with Him, and the Bible calls that a distraction. We often make a similar mistake. We need to sit at the feet of Jesus first and listen to Him, before we can serve Him satisfactorily. Notice how Jesus responded to Martha when she complained that her sister, Mary, had left her to serve alone: “And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10:41-42). Choose the one thing that is needed.
You may wonder how you can give attention to someone whom you cannot see. Not to worry, we have the Holy Spirit and the Bible. When we prayerfully read and meditate on the word, we give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to reveal Jesus to us. “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25). Look into the the Bible and continue in it with much prayer, then you will HEAR. Shalom.
