But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” 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? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.   Romans 10:8-17 NKJ 

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Doubt and unbelief come from listening to the world’s opinions and ideas and the devil’s lies. Faith means simply ”believing that God will do what He says He will do”. Your faith in God is built on what you know about Him and His plan for you and His will for your life. There is only one place you can go to find what you need to know about God and that is His Word.   Shortly before you were born again, you heard the Word of God and faith rose in your heart. You acted on your faith, believing in your heart that God’s Word was true – that Jesus died for you and that God raised Him from the dead and so you confessed with your mouth that He is your Savior and your Lord and you were transformed. Faith for healing and the blessing of God comes to you the same way – you hear the Word. Your faith is what makes the promise of God as reality in your life. Jesus made this statement regularly, “YOUR faith has made you whole!” At other times He rebuked people for their doubt and unbelief. YOU are the one who chooses to walk either in faith or in doubt.  

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them– the children of Israel. “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.  Joshua 1:1-3 NKJ “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:8-9 NKJ 

 God told Joshua to take the children of Israel across the Jordan because He had given them all the land of Canaan. He told Joshua that He would be with them and would cause them to be victorious over their enemies. Joshua had never fought a battle, never mind led anyone else into battle. He had to use his faith and trust that what God said would be, would be. God gave him some sound advice to build up his faith and give him wisdom. God told Joshua to take the Book of the Law and read it and study it and meditate on it. He needed to get it from his head into his heart. You will never move God’s Word from your head to your heart, unless you meditate on it constantly. It must become part of you so that you see it as your ultimate reality and you believe every word and your faith is established in and on God.  The Hebrew word “meditate” also means to murmur; to ponder; to imagine; to mutter; to roar; to speak; to study; to talk; and to utter. If you want the Word of God to build your faith, you must take time to not only study it, but to speak it out loud to yourself all day. Even if you just take one scripture and mutter it to yourself over and over – the Holy Spirit will cause it to become revelation to you and it will drop down from just being head knowledge into a heart understanding. Knowledge without understanding is not very effective. Faith comes from your heart so you must put God’s Word deep down into your heart.  People want God to just pour faith into them without any effort on their part. Some people wait many years for this to happen, but it never does. God is not going to just douse you in faith. You have to make a decision to fill yourself up with God’s Word and when you do, doubt will never bother you again. You will be saturated in God’s Word and infused with faith in God. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God!