Thanks for the reply. If I may ask, how do you then believe?
By FAITH my brother.
Rom 12:3 says...…….
" ... God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
Rom 10:17 says ……..
" ... faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ."
So faith is a gift from God that we receive from the word of Christ, which in this dispensation we get from the Bible rather than from a burning bush. So in His time He will allot faith to us as needed from the word of the Bible. In 2 Cor 10:15 we see that faith can grow, so as we study the Bible God can add to our faith.
Rom 5:1 says, ……….
" ... justified by faith" and Rom 4:5 says, " ... his faith is counted as righteousness".
We clearly see from these verses that faith is not of our doing for that would be a works-based salvation and we know from Eph 2:8, 9 that salvation is surely not from works.
However Eph 2:8 says something else that I never hear proclaimed and that is...…
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
In Eph 2:8 the "it" refers back to faith, which is consistent with Rom 12:3 and the other scriptures above and speakers very seldom talk about that. Faith is a gift from God.
Rom 3:28 also says,...……..
" ... a man is justified by faith."
We read in Rom 9:32 that Israel did not arrive at righteousness because they did not pursue righteous by faith but as though it were by works. If we must muster up our own faith then justification is by works and again we know that is not correct. We also see in
Heb 12:2 that...….
" ...Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith."
That fits in nicely with what we have already seen. Jesus is not only the author -- the originator of faith --; He is also the one who perfects it in us.