How Faith Comes? Message By Kenneth E. Hagin

How Faith Comes? Message By Kenneth E. Hagin. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17, But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. – Hebrews 11:6.

Notice particularly the first part of Hebrews 11:6:

“But without faith, it is impossible to please him….” If God demands that I have faith when it is impossible for me to have faith, then I have a right to challenge His justice. But if He places within my hands the means whereby faith can be produced, then the responsibility rests with me whether or not I have faith.

Faith Comes by Hearing the Word

God has told us that without faith it is impossible to please Him, but He has also told us how to get faith.
If we don’t have faith, God is not to blame.
To blame God for our lack of faith is nothing in the world but ignorance.
If we lack faith, we are to blame.
This is also true concerning faith for salvation.
Faith for salvation also comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).
Paul said in Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
We know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, but how are we to get faith to get saved?

Romans chapter 10 tells us.

ROMANS 10:8-10,13,14
Verse-8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, THE WORD OF FAITH, WHICH WE PREACH;
verse- 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Verse- 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation …
Verse- 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Verse- 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and HOW SHALL THEY BELIEVE IN HIM OF WHOM THEY HAVE NOT HEARD? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Men are saved by hearing God’s Word because the Scripture says, “. . . faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). You cannot believe and have faith without hearing the Word.
In Acts 10 and 11 we read about Cornelius, who, although devout, had not yet been saved. He had not heard the gospel yet, so how could he have been saved?
No, Cornelius was not saved until he heard Peter preach.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius (Acts 10:3).

The angel who spoke to Cornelius couldn’t preach the gospel to Cornelius because angels can’t preach the gospel; God sent men to preach. Remember Jesus said, “.
Go YE into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
But the angel could tell Cornelius where to go to get someone who could preach the gospel to him (Acts 11:13).
The angel instructed Cornelius to call for Peter: “And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do” (Acts 10:5,6).
Acts 11:14 reports that the angel said that Peter would preach the gospel to Cornelius: “Who shall tell thee WORDS, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.”
This verse also shows us that men are saved by hearing words – God’s Word: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

You can’t believe it without hearing.

So many are trying to believe without hearing.
How does faith for healing come?
The same way – by hearing the Word of God concerning healing.
In Acts 14 we are told the story of the impotent man who received his healing because of what he heard.

ACTS 14:7-10. Verse 7 And there they [Paul and Barnabas] PREACHED the GOSPEL.

8 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked:
9 The same HEARD Paul SPEAK: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
The casual reader of the Word of God might say, “Isn’t it wonderful how Paul healed that man?” You’ve heard that said, and so have I. But Paul did not heal the man.
The man was not healed because Paul was an apostle.
The man was not healed by Paul’s faith.
The man himself had the faith to be healed.
But notice what had to take place before this man was healed: “And there they [Paul and Barnabas] PREACHED the GOSPEL” (Acts 14:7).

So Paul did three things:

1. He preached the gospel to the man.
2. He perceived that the man had faith to be healed.
3. He told the man to rise and walk.

The man also did three things:

1. He heard Paul preach the gospel.
2. He had faith to be healed.
3. He leaped up and walked.
The man was not healed by some special power that Paul had.
The man himself had faith to be healed.
Where and how did he get faith to be healed?
He got it from what he heard!

Remember Acts 14:9 says, “The same [man] heard Paul SPEAK. . . .” What did Paul speak?

Verse 7 says, “And there they PREACHED the GOSPEL.” If Paul preached what we call the gospel of salvation, how did the man get faith to be healed?
The man got faith to be healed because Paul preached what the Bible calls the gospel, which also includes healing.

How I Got Faith To Be Healed?

More than fifty-five years ago on the bed of sickness as a young denominational boy reading Grandma’s Bible, the more I read the Word, the more I learned.
I realized that I had never heard the full gospel, just part of it.
The fullness of the gospel hadn’t been taught in my church.
But the more I read the Bible, the more I realized that I didn’t have to die.
The more I read God’s Word, the more I realized that I could be healed.
Of course, the devil was right there trying to tell me that healing had been done away with.
I had been taught that God would heal if He wanted to.
But saying that God could heal, but that He might not want to is an even bigger insult than saying He couldn’t heal.
Both of them are lies.

I read the Word concerning healing.

But the devil was right there to try to oppose me.
The devil brought to my remembrance all the doubt and unbelief I’d ever heard.
He brought to my remembrance all that I’d been taught on the subject of healing.
Something that helped me immeasurably was that even though people had told me that healing had been done away with, I couldn’t ever remember hearing that faith had been done away with.
I’d never heard that.

As I studied the Word of God, I saw that faith had not been done away with.

For example, the text in Acts chapter 14 says that the man at Lystra had faith to be healed.
And in Mark 5:34, concerning the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus said, “Daughter, THY FAITH hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”
Therefore, the Bible clearly shows that faith has not been done away with.
The man at Lystra had faith to be healed, and concerning the woman with the issue of blood, it was her faith that made her whole.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Notice in Mark 5:34 that Jesus didn’t say that His power or His faith had made the woman whole.

Jesus said to the woman, “THY FAITH hath made thee whole.” (Mark 5:34).
When I saw this, I knew that if her faith made her whole, then my faith could make me whole too! And, thank God, it did. My faith tapped into the power of God and I was made whole!
My paralysis disappeared and my heart condition was healed.
Since then I’ve been going at a hop, skip, and a jump, and I have been preaching the truth of the gospel, including healing, ever since.
Let’s look more closely at the man at Lystra who had faith to be healed.

How did he get that faith? From what he heard. What did he hear? He heard the Word of God. Is there something about hearing the gospel that would cause a life-long cripple to be healed?

Decidedly, yes.
Emphatically, yes! Healing Is a Part of the Gospel Paul preached the gospel of salvation which includes healing.
The Bible simply calls it the gospel.

How do we know he did? Look at Romans 1:16.

ROMANS 1:16- For I am not ashamed of THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST: for it is the power of God unto SALVATION to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
The footnote in the Scofield Bible says, “The Hebrew and Greek words for salvation imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness.”
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ!
It is the power of God unto deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Paul preached the full gospel, not just part of it.
We also know that healing was a part of the gospel that was preached because other scriptures indicate it as well.

ACTS 8:5-8

Verse- 5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and PREACHED CHRIST [the gospel] unto them.
Verse- 6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing THE MIRACLES which he did.
Verse-7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were HEALED.
Verse 8 And there was great joy in that city.

Notice in verse 7 the miracles that followed the preaching of the Word – the gospel.

Those healing miracles and deliverances all came about as the result of preaching Christ.
The New Testament knows no Christ without Christ the Healer.

Physical healing – divine healing – is a part of the gospel.

If there is no gospel of healing today, then none of us has a gospel of salvation to preach either because healing is included in the atonement (Isa. 53:4,5).
P. C. Nelson was a great Baptist minister. He said, “Healing is part and parcel of the gospel.” During the time Rev. Nelson was pastoring a church in Detroit, Michigan, in 1921, he was run over by an automobile.
The doctors said that one of his legs would have to be taken off at the knee.
They said that if by some miracle it didn’t have to be amputated, at the very least it would be stiff for the rest of his life.
But P. C. Nelson related that as he lay there in the hospital, the Lord began to talk with him.
The Lord brought to his mind James 5:14 and 15.

JAMES 5:14,15

Verse- 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Verse- 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Rev. Nelson said that he tried to excuse himself by telling the Lord they didn’t practice that in his church.
He said that the Lord reminded him of a man and his wife Rev. Nelson knew who believed in the anointing with oil according to this scripture.

The Lord told Rev. Nelson that he should call them and have them pray for him.

So Rev. Nelson contacted them, and they came to pray for him.
They anointed him with oil and prayed, and he was healed.
His leg didn’t have to be taken off, and his knee wasn’t stiff.

God’s Word is good.

The Bible says, .. faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
Down in Texas several years ago, a fine denominational minister had a very outstanding ministry.
Many of the denominational churches would sponsor him in citywide meetings.
In his evangelistic endeavors, he became sick.

And by his testimony, within a couple of years, all of his own money was gone.

He had had $10,000 in the bank, and that was a lot of money back then.
But in two years, his money was gone.
He had to sell his automobile, his home, and most of his books to pay his doctor bills.
He had been everywhere, including the Mayo Clinic to try to receive help, but was none the better; rather, he grew worse.
Finally, he was hospitalized in California.
The doctor said that he was going to die.

The minister contacted his brother who lived in California to borrow some money so he could go home to Texas where he could die.

Their eighty-two-year-old mother lived in Texas and he wanted to see his mother before he died.
So his brother sent him the money and he went home.
The minister went to live with his mother at the old home place in Texas where he grew up.
His mother was so glad to see him.
He told his mother that he had come home to die.
His dear old mother had a nineteen-year-old boy who lived there with her who did the chores around the place.
This nineteen-year-old boy became the sick minister’s nurse; the boy had to turn the sick man on his bed and dress him.

One day the boy said to him, “Why don’t you let the Lord heal you?

The Bible says that if there is any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church, and let them pray for you” (James 5:14,15).
Here was a minister who supposedly knew the Bible and yet didn’t even know that these scriptures were in the Bible.
He had gone to school and studied everything but the Bible!
The minister told the boy to get his Bible and find that passage of Scripture, but the boy had never learned how to read.
The man asked him how he knew that passage of Scripture was in the Bible.
The boy said that his preacher had told him it was in the Bible.
So the denominational minister looked up the scriptures and read them.

The boy told the minister that his preacher was having a healing meeting under a brush arbor and invited the minister to come.

Arrangements were made for the minister to come to the meeting; someone brought an old Model T Ford and made a bed in the back of it for the minister.
They drove up as close to the brush arbor as they could, and after the service, the preacher came out and anointed the sick minister with oil and prayed over him.
It was about midnight before the minister and the boy returned home.
When the minister got home, he asked his mother to let the boy fire up the woodstove so she could fry him some ham and eggs.
He had been eating baby food and soft foods because he couldn’t eat any solid food.
He hadn’t had anything to eat except baby food in two years.

The man told his mother that he was healed.

He told her the preacher had anointed him and prayed for him.
The mother said later that as her son related this, she thought he had lost his mind.
He also wanted his mother to make some old-fashioned country biscuits for him to eat too.
She thought that since he was going to die anyway, he might as well die happy, so she did what he wanted and made the biscuits and fried ham and
eggs.

He ate that meal and didn’t suffer any ill effects whatsoever; he was completely healed!

This minister then began to write about his healing and send articles in for publication in various magazines.
Calls began to come in for him to hold revival meetings.
He arranged a citywide meeting for Kansas City.

The boy told him that before he went to that meeting, he needed to get filled with the Holy Ghost.

The minister said that by that time he was ready to believe anything that nineteen yea old boy told him, so he asked the boy what he should do.
The boy explained to him how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and invited him to another brush arbor meeting.
When the invitation was given, the minister went to the altar, and he received the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues.
That minister has long since gone on to glory, but his writings have been a blessing to many of us, including the denomination he was a member of.

How did that man get faith for healing?

He got it by hearing the Word of God.
Mark 5:25 tells us that there was a certain woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years.
The Word tells us that she had spent all of her living and had gone to many physicians, but was no better.
But then she heard about Jesus.

MARK 5:27,28,34

Verse-27 WHEN SHE HAD HEARD OF JESUS, came in the press behind and touched his garment.
Verse- 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole,
34 And he [Jesus] said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole of thy plague.

Where did this woman get faith to receive healing?

She got faith when she “had heard of Jesus. ..” (Mark 5:27).
I was preaching in Dallas in 1953 for several weeks in a Full Gospel church.
Then I stayed on an additional three months while the pastor took a leave of absence.
Besides preaching at different times during the week, I had a daily radio program, and I also conducted some special missionary services on the weekend.
One Friday night after the services had been dismissed, one of the ushers came and told me that a man and a woman from Forth Worth had come to see me.

The woman was sick and wanted to be healed.

I met with them, and the man related that he had been going to work one morning and had heard my radio program.
He said that I had taught on the radio that healing was for everyone.
He told his wife about that statement I had made, and they began to tune in to the radio program every day.

The man told me that his wife had had two serious major operations, and she was facing the third one.

They had been praying that if it was the will of God for her to be healed, God would give them faith to believe that she would be healed.
They had come to me so I could pray for her.
I told them that it was unscriptural to pray to God for healing using the words, “If it is Thy will.” When you put an “if’ in your prayer in praying for anything God has promised you in His Word, you are praying in doubt.

Some people think they are being humble when they pray that way, but they are being ignorant.

In other words, when you pray in faith, you don’t use an “if.”
You will get no answer to the prayer of faith if you put “ifs” in your prayers.
But when you are praying a prayer of consecration, committing your life to the plan of God, then you can use the phrase, “If it is Thy will,” because you don’t know for sure what the Lord’s will is.
When you are praying the prayer of consecration, you are not praying to change something.

But the prayer of faith is the prayer to change things.

“If’ is the badge of doubt, and the word “if’ shouldn’t be used in your prayers if you are trying to change a situation.
I had given some scriptures on the radio concerning faith, but they hadn’t registered on this man whose wife was sick because he still wasn’t sure it was God’s will to heal his wife.
I asked him, “If the New Testament said that Jesus took your wife’s infirmities and bare her sicknesses, then wouldn’t it be God’s will for her to have her healing?”

He agreed that it would. So we turned to Matthew 8:17.

MATTHEW 8:17
Verse- 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES, and BARE OUR SICKNESSES.
This man jumped up and exclaimed that it was the will of God for his wife to be healed.
His wife saw it too.
Then we turned to First Peter 2:24.

1 PETER 2:24

Verse- 24 Who his self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: BY WHOSE STRIPES YE was HEALED.

Then we turned to the Book of Isaiah. ISAIAH 53:4,5

Verse- 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed.

The margin reads, “Surely he hath borne our sicknesses and carried our diseases” (Isa. 53:4).

This couple said that all they needed now was faith.
They knew that it was God’s will to heal.
They said that they knew they were saved; they had gone forward in a church when an invitation was given and had prayed the sinner’s prayer.
So I knew that they were saved.
I asked them if they had asked the Lord to give them faith to be saved when they had gone down to the altar to be saved.
They said no.
The man related that the pastor preached that they could be saved.

The pastor had read the Word to the people.

In other words, they heard the Word concerning salvation.
They had faith for salvation because the Bible says, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
So I told them that they had faith for her healing, too, for the same reason they had had faith for salvation.

They had heard the Word.

This man said they were going to have to throw their first prayer away because it wasn’t any good.
I agreed with him. You see, as soon as the light comes, faith is there.
This couple already had faith because they had heard and understood the Word.
The woman agreed with us. She said that all she had to do now was to accept Jesus as her Healer.
So I laid my hand on her head and prayed.
Then I asked her if she was healed.

And she said that she surely was and that she knew it because the Word says so.

Sunday night during the service at that same church, the vestibule doors swung open and there was that same fellow again.
He asked the pastor if he could say a word to the congregation.
The pastor permitted him and the man told the congregation what had happened.
He said that when he and his wife got home Friday night, she pulled her brace off and threw it into the closet, and said, “Thank God, I’m healed.”
The next day when he came home, he found her stooped over the sink washing her hair, something she had been unable to do.

The woman had been completely healed!

I also laid hands on the husband and wife, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in tongues.
Years later, the wife was still healed.

How did she get faith?

From hearing the Word!
This man had also brought his mother to be prayed for, who was in a wheelchair with paralysis.
After we prayed for her, she got up out of the chair and walked out of the building that night completely well.

In the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is provision for every need, salvation, deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Whatever need you have, the faith to receive your answer comes from hearing the Word of God. As you determine to feed upon the Word continually, you will see your faith grow to be able to receive the wonderful promises God has provided for His children.

https://youtu.be/dNrhfz6LxQI