Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
The first step is faith is always hearing from God. The second step is believing what God has said to you.
Some people try to have faith that God will do such and such when they have not heard from God about the matter at hand. In such cases, their faith is based on their own desires. This will not work.
Abraham (the father of faith) heard God speak to him. That is always the beginning of faith, the foundation for faith. "Did God command you?"
Romans 4 ... Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness...And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
The gates of hell will not prevail against that which God has revealed to us by HIS Spirit. Faith in the matter at hand is built upon the word God reveals by HIS Spirit.
When we have a problem. We pray. We wait. We do not know what to do. We must not jump out and start doing things until we hear from God by His Spirit. Sometimes it will be immediate. Other times it may take years before we know what to do. But we can't do anything until we hear from God.
When I lived in Clovis in 1990, I built a house. The kitchen was a nightmare. The contractor couldn't get the house to fit on the lot and without discussing it with me, he cut down the size of kitchen and garage. If two people tried to work in kitchen at same time we were always running over each other. I kept talking to God about it each time the problem occurred. This went on for about 3 years. Then one day I went into kitchen and a light went on in my head and I knew immediately how to take care of the problem. I saw I could move the pantry to garage and put refrigerator where the pantry had been. This would open up the work space in the kitchen and get the refrigerator out of our path. When I did that everything worked out fine in the kitchen. Notice it was about 3 years of prayer before God revealed this to me.
God speaks to us by His Spirit in the form of a thought. God gives us a dream to show us information that we would know what to do. God reminds us of scriptures and by that we see what to do. But all is done by HIS Spirit.
The Spirit of God searches the heart of God and reveals the will of God to us on the specific issues at hand.
Then after we hear from God and are persuaded it is God who spoke to us we take appropriate action. Our faith is always based on the belief that God told us what to do.
So first God speaks. Then we believe. Then we act.