Which Comes First?

[Retorth]

I'm a little confused...I read a few posts on prayer answering and it seems you must first truly believe in god before they can be answered.

The issue here is this:

If I want to experience god, to have my prayers answered, to feel his presence, christians say I have to truly believe in him before I can feel or hear him. I am thinking, if I want to believe in him, I need to feel his presence and have my prayers answered, and hear his voice speaking to me then I know he is there.

So which should come first:

To believe in something then be able to see it;

or

To see something then believe in it?

I say the latter makes more sense.