Faith Comes by Hearing the Word of God

When the Devil was given dominion and man became a being of body and soul, what happened to man’s relationship with God? Ephesians 2:11, 12: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. They were without God because when man sinned he lost his spirit, his innate relationship with God. Man, being without spirit, was without God and without hope in this world. Ephesians 2:1: And you hath he quickened , who were dead in trespasses and sins. What does dead mean? Man appeared to be lively. He had body and soul, but was dead in trespasses and sins because he had no spirit. Psalms says that all men are conceived and born in sin. This does not mean that the parents were sinful in the way in which they had intercourse. Man is conceived and born in sin because he has no spirit. Having only a body and soul, how does a natural man ever again have a connection with the spiritual realm? Spiritual things can only be known by the spirit, even as things in the natural realm can only be known by the five senses. Since natural man cannot know God, what is the bridge that spans the chasm between the natural man and God? The bridge is faith. But natural man does not have faith because faith is a spiritual element. How then does he get faith to span that chasm? Romans 10:17: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes to the natural man by hearing. The man of body and soul can hear. The man has freedom of will and he has a mind so that he can believe if he wants to. “So then faith cometh by hearing....” By hearing what? What John or Henry says, or what Reader’s Diges t, Life , Look and Time say? Faith does not come that way. Faith comes by hearing one thing