Faith comes by hearing God speak to us. We must always endeavor to hear the Lord as we pray. Prayer must be a dialogue; never a monologue. Are you hearing God when you pray? Are you leaving enough time and space in your prayers to let Him speak to you?
Romans 10:17: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
‘Word’ here is the Greek ‘rhema,’ which is defined as ‘that which is or has been uttered by the living voice’ (Strong’s #4487). We must read our Bibles, because everything that has been written in that Book was spoken by God at one point in time. Knowing our Bibles inside and out is absolutely an expectation. But this text challenges us to go further than that. We must expect to hear God as we pray. As God communicates with us through His spoken word and we hear Him in prayer, we are refreshed and our strength is replenished.
When the Israelites came up out of Egypt, God gave them manna to eat (Exodus 16:4). Because His people let Him know they were hungry, He satisfied them with bread from Heaven. However, this food had an expiration date. Every morning, the people of Israel had to leave their tents and collect fresh manna; if they relied on manna supplied on a previous day, they would find it spoiled (Ex 16:20-21): inedible and no longer suitable for its intended purpose. Just as the people of Israel had to rely on fresh manna, we must rely on fresh communication from God.
God’s Word does not have an expiration date. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8), and His teachings will always apply. Yet we must go further than this. We must let the Holy Spirit show us how to apply the Word of God to our lives. We must let God speak to us in times of prayer.
-by Pastor Mike White