Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17

Faith is not inherent to us as human beings but is a gift from God, who deals to each one of us a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). The size of that measure is not as important as how consistently we cultivate it. Jesus said that a mustard-seed-size faith is enough to move a mountain (Matthew 17:20). Jesus wasn’t saying that all you need is the smallest possible amount of faith; he was saying that even if you start with the smallest possible amount of faith and you water it and you cultivate it, it’ll grow to the point where it can move mountains out of the way.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. Before the word of God comes we don’t even have the capacity to hear it because we’re all spiritually deaf and God has to open our ears in order for us even to hear his word. But the word of God comes and opens our ears and gives us hearing.

In Luke 4, Jesus sat in the synagogue after he came out of the wilderness where he had been tempted by the devil. He asked for the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he turned to the 61st chapter and read these words:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. – Luke 4:18-19

Then he closed the scroll and said, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. The word of God is fulfilled in our hearing . . . that is, as we begin to here it as the word of God, it is fulfilled in our hearing.

Faith comes by hearing, and what faith is all about is the ability to believe two things: 1) that God is, and 2) that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). The category of “unbeliever” does not apply exclusively to non-christians, but includes most of us Christians as well. Non-christians tend not to believe to that God is; Christians tend not to believe that God is a rewarder. Beneath every spiritual malady in your life . . . every sin, every place of rebellion or pride, every place of disillusionment or disappointment . . . is a struggle to believe that God is truly a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. If we really believed that he was a rewarder, we would have diligently sought him. If we do not diligently seek him, it’s because we are struggling to believe that he’s a rewarder!

One of the reasons why it’s so hard for us to believe that he is a rewarder is because it feels wrong to pray and think God’s gonna reward me for this. It almost seems antithetical to the mind of Christ . . . who being in very nature God, considered it not robbery to be equal with God but emptied himself (Philippians 2:6-7). In his incarnation, we find Christ laying down all of the prerogatives of his divinity, taking the very form of a servant, and humbling himself and becoming obedient to the point of death. It seems to me that to have the mind of Christ means to do away with every sense of entitlement to any kind of reward because Jesus was willing to lay it all down for our sakes. And it seems most natural to say that humility would call me to relinquish any expectation of reward and simply seek God because he’s God without expecting him to reward me in any way.

But Hebrews 11:6 tells us that to think this way is to believe something about God that is not in keeping with his nature. He who comes to God must believe that he . . . is a rewarder . . . This means that if I don’t believe he is a rewarder, my coming to him doesn’t even please him!

So in order to understand how this works, I have to find a christological basis for this idea. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind. I want to ask the author of Hebrews to explain how this works in light of the example of Christ. How am I supposed to approach God expecting a reward when Christ laid down everything and became obedient even to the point of death?

It’s almost as if the author of Hebrews foresees that question coming his way, and so he answers it at the beginning of the next chapter.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:1-2

Here’s his Christology: Jesus is an author, and he’s writing a book about your life. The title of that book is The Faith of _______ (put your name in the blank). And the plot he is developing follows the storyline of his own life: who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross . . . Did you hear that? Christ endured the cross because there was joy set before him!

Yes, Christ emptied himself, humbled himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient to the point of death. In the process, he surrendered all of the prerogatives of his divine nature. Yet, there are two things that he never surrendered. The first is the possession of his divine nature. He was never anything less than God very God. The second thing that he never surrendered was the expectation of a reward. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before him.

This theme of the reward for faith is the theme of Hebrews 11 as a whole. Every time the author mentions an individual as an example of what faith looks like, he always identifies the reward they obtained for their faithfulness.

Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice . . . and through it he being dead still speaks (verse 4). Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death (verse 5). Noah condemned the world and became the heir of righteousness (verse 7). Abraham brought forth sons as many as the stars of the sky in multitude (verse 12). And when we get to Moses, it is explicitly stated that what enabled him to endure all of the hardships that accompanied his campaign of deliverance was that he looked to the reward (verse 26).

To be a great man or woman of God, you needn’t be the most gifted, the most talented, the most creative, or the most articulate. Gifted men and woman fail every day. Talented men and women fail every day. Creative men and woman fail every day. And articulate men and women fail every day. But a man or woman of God who refuses to believe that there is no reward for righteousness will never fail!

The test of godly character is not primarily in your ability to avoid unethical behavior; the true test of godly character is in your ability to say no to unbelief! If you doubt God’s faithfulness in the midst of your crisis, you have faltered in your faith, and you need to get back up and start believing again! There is absolutely no way God is going to leave me where I am! There is absolutely no way God will fail to work all things for my good! This is the kind of confidence that lies at the heart of the man or woman of faith!

To be a man or woman of faith you must be fully persuaded that the God who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ! And even if your ability to believe this is as small as a mustard seed, if you are willing to water that seed and to guard it against the birds who would pluck it from the path, the stones that would prevent its roots from growing deep, the sun that would scorch its branches, and the weeds that would choke out its fruit, that mustard seed of faith will grow until it can move mountains!

Guarding the seed of your faith must become your highest spiritual priority. The good deposit of truth which has been entrusted to your care will only be of benefit to your life if you are careful to combine it with faith. The word of God and faith enjoy a certain kind of symbiotic relationship: the power of the word is activated through faith, and faith comes through hearing the word of God. If you need more faith, you need to get more of the word, and if you desire more of the word, you need to get more faith.

But the order is clear: faith comes by hearing . . . the word of God. The word of God comes, and then faith comes. This means that regardless of how little faith you think you have at the moment, you can approach the word of God with confidence, knowing that faith comes through the hearing of it. And if you give your attention to the word of God in an ever-increasing measure, the word of God will (by the power of the Spirit) release an ever-increasing measure of faith in your heart.

This is why memorizing and meditating on Scripture, as I teach you how to do in the Indwell Podcast, is so powerful and important. It may not feel powerful in the moment, and it may not seem important in the process. But in time you begin to experience the release of supernatural life that comes through it. This is the essence of faith’s reward.