FAITH; WALKING WITH HOPE AND PATIENCE

God promised, ‘Yes’ He did, and He has fulfilled All His promises.  

For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. 2 Corinthians 1:20.

The above scripture tells those of us who are still waiting or believing God to fulfill His promise He made to us in Psalms or in any of our favorite scriptures that He had fulfilled all of it. God is not withholding any promise from us; there is nothing we want or ask for that he hasn’t fulfilled or made available in Christ.

“As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 2 Peter 1:3.

When we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we receive His very life and not just the forgiveness of sin not at all; it’s far more than that. But, unfortunately, most people only believe and settle with the forgiveness of sin but come back to God begging for healing and financial blessing.

If we say we have been forgiven after accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and personal Savior, which is true, but when we come back to Him pleading for healing or financial wealth, we are walking in doubt and unbelieve. It doesn’t make sense to ask Him for what He has already given us or what He has already done.

We say we have been forgiven because we felt we hadn’t done wrong, but in health, we feel the pain, or in finance, we don’t have the cash in our wallet. It means we walk based on how we think and not on what God’s Word says.

For we walk by Faith, not by sight. 1 Corinthians 5:7.

We don’t have to feel righteous to be righteous, we don’t have to feel healed to be healthy, or we don’t have to have money in our wallet to be wealthy, but we believe what God said to become of it.

 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 

1 John 5:11-13.

This eternal life is God’s kind of life that was in the Son. As we receive the Son into our lives, we receive His life. The indestructible life of the Father, The Son, is now residing in us. Zoe, the quality of life. As Christians, we can’t afford to live below this life that is in us.

The hard life we Christians are experiencing is not because God is unfaithful. On the contrary, God is always faithful to His Word. It is our ignorance that has kept us away from benefiting from the kingdom’s inheritance.

Psalm 82:5-7. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

Christians are suffering from an identity crisis. When we don’t know who we are as Christians, our lifestyles will not differ from those of the unbelievers.

WE NEED FAITH AND NOT A FEELING

Hebrews 11:1. Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

“Faith is having trust in God’s Word.”

Psalms 125:1.Those who trust in the Lord Are like Mount Zion, Which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

When we trust God and His Word, we become unmovable, untouchable, and free from every satanic harassment. Trust is essential in our daily lives because it destroys friendships or relationships if we can’t be trusted.

We have to prove ourselves to be trusted; it requires closeness, spending quality time. Trust is in different categories; it all depends on how long we have built the relationship.

It benefits us when we trust God. And God loves to be trusted and hates to be doubted. Trust is a solid foundation in any relationship. There are two gentlemen in the bible that their character attracts different responses from Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to him,  “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. So blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29.

Thomas wants to see, feel and touch before believing; that is not a better way of living a Christian’s life. That kind of life may not produce favorable fruits for us as Christians.

When God speaks, He speaks from the spiritual, and our active belief will bring it to the natural. If we want to see, feel, and touch before believing, then we are not Christians.

While we do not look at the things seen, but at the things that are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18.

Thomas doubts, and the response he receives isn’t lovely. On the other hand, Nathaniel trusts and believes, not waiting for anything touchable. That single act took him to the next level; Trusting God is rewardable. Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” John 1:50.

If we want to experience health in our bodies or any other thing that life requires, we must respond to God’s Word through Faith and not our feelings.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. Romans 8:9.

Look at the next verse; this is mind-blowing:

Verse 10, And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

It means that even though our body was under the influence of death because of sin, now that Christ lives in us, the Holy Spirit gives it life because of righteousness. Now that Christ dwells in us, the body ceases to control us. We are no longer governed by our sensory perceptions, the voice of our body.

We are different from those who live according to the body’s feelings, who behave according to their sight, what they hear from outside, taste, and smell. For example, they feel pain, so they say, “I have a stomach ulcer.” We are different now; the body no longer controls our life; it is not dependent on the blood. The same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us. He quickens, makes us alive, and vitalizes our bodies. He is currently the source of life for our bodies.

CHOSEN TO KNOW HIS WILL

Faith will not work where the will of God is not known. God’s Word is His will, and everything He has said in His Word is His will for us. 1 John 5:14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. (According to everything in His Word)

We develop trust in God when we become addicted to His Word. The scripture says Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.

Hen he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. Acts 22:14.

The unregenerate man can’t discern or walk in the will of God; God’s will and ways of doing things are mysterious to him. 

1 Corinthians 2:14 says, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But this is not so for you that are born again. Jesus said it’s given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Mark 4:11, Luke 8:10). You are chosen to know God’s will. It’s our heritage in Christ. That means there shouldn’t be doubts or uncertainties in your life; you can discern and walk in God’s perfect will at all times. 

Most people have been in situations where they were trying to decide and didn’t know what to do. No! That shouldn’t be your experience. In Colossians 1:9, we read something instructive. The Christians in Colossae, at the time of Paul’s epistle, were still babies in Christ. So, Paul and Timothy prayed for them to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will:  For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 

They couldn’t have been praying for the Colossian Christians to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will if they themselves hadn’t been filled with the knowledge of His will.

That’s why we emphasize meditating on the Word and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. God and His Word are one, and His Word is His will expressed. More so, the Word of God is the wisdom of God, and wisdom is walking in the will of God. So get to know the Word, and you will never walk in confusion.

Ephesians 1:9 tells us that God has made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He had purposed in Himself. So, even now, say to yourself, “I’m chosen to know God’s will. I have insight into mysteries and secrets of the kingdom.” 

HOPE:

Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a sure thing to happen. It is a positive expectation that life will get better—a sense of trust. From this definition, we can also learn that hope can also be known as a possible imagination.

Most people give more importance to love and Faith than they do to hope, but that’s not what scripture says. In 1 Corinthians 13:13: And now abideth Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Since love is the greatest of the three and hope is just before love, hope is the second greatest, even above Faith. Hope is more powerful than we realize. I think hope is a positive imagination. It is a spiritual force that connects Faith and love to the best of my understanding.

Romans 8:24-25 says, For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? Verse 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it.

Paul was saying that hope is for something that isn’t seen, something that isn’t present. Once it becomes present, there’s no longer any reason to hope for it. So, hope means you’re looking at something that you can’t see. You might be thinking, Well, if you can’t see it, how are you looking at it? But, you can see things with your heart, which is why I believe imagination has a connection with hope.

Isaiah 26:3. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Here, the word “mind” is translated as “imagination” four other times in the Old Testament. So, you could quote this verse this way: “The Lord will keep you in perfect peace when your imagination stays upon Him.”

Most of us would reject the idea of imagination because it has been corrupted through Yoga practice. But your imagination is your ability to see with your heart what you can’t see with your eyes, and you use this every single day. You may not have thought about this, but did you know that you couldn’t get home if you didn’t have an imagination? It’s because in your mind, you picture your house and how to get there.

When God instructed father Abraham to see, He was telling him to imagine in Genesis 13:14,15. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

You think in pictures. An example of this would be if I said “an apple,” you wouldn’t see the letters a-p-p-l-e—you’d see an apple. You might picture a red apple or a green apple, but I could refine what I wanted you to see by saying “a big red apple.” The more words I used to describe the apple, the clearer the picture would become in your mind. Whether you know this or not, you can’t think of something you can’t picture. You need to be able to imagine something to comprehend it truly.

Your imagination is how you think, how you meditate, how you understand, and how you remember things. You really can’t do anything without a vision. So you have to take the Word of God and let it excite your imagination.

Genesis 6:5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The scripture above talks about deep thoughts, not just surface thoughts. We can receive our healing faster by being hopeful. That is having positive images of our health. 

Hope is more than “I want this to happen” or “I wish this would happen.” Hope is your imagination. Every time the scripture positively talks about imagination, it uses the Word hope. So when Paul spoke about hope, he saw things with his heart. He was taking the promises of God, and through those promises, he was seeing God cause him to succeed. Sad to say, most people, because they don’t understand this process or how important this is, allow their imaginations to be controlled by other things—and they see themselves failing or being sickly.

But what God has told you becomes a vision on the inside of you; you will wait for it with patience. Rom. 8:25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 People who quit and give up are people whose imagination is negative—they see the negative side of something instead of the positive side. They don’t have hope.

Whether you know it or not, your imagination is dictating how your life goes.

Whether you know it or not, your imagination is dictating how your life goes. And if you aren’t aware of what I’m talking about and don’t think this is important, all it means is you aren’t controlling your imagination. It’s being manipulated and managed for you, and you see the negative.

Prov. 23:7a. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. 

The way you think is the way your life is going. And this may not bless some of you, but it’s intended to help you: If your life isn’t going well and if things are a mess, it’s because you’ve conceived it in your imagination. Your imagination is like soil. Soil doesn’t care what kind of seed you plant in it; the moment it’s grown, the ground starts producing. It’s the same thing with your heart and your imagination. Your imagination will conceive something and automatically start making it come to pass, whether it’s positive or negative. It’s like your spiritual womb. That’s a big statement.

The imagination isn’t moral or immoral; it’s what you focus your attention on that affects it. You get to choose whether your imagination is positive—which is hope—or negative, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Luke 21:26 says that people’s hearts would fail them for fear, looking at all the things happening on the earth. So you have to stay in God’s Word and let it dominate your thought, or I guarantee you, the unbelief of this world will extinguish your positive imagination. It’ll make it vain.

God will put a positive imagination, a hope, in you that’ll make a difference, and you’ll be believing and looking for better results than you ever have. Hope is powerful. Again, it’s the second most significant thing in the Christian life, greater even than Faith. You’ve got to understand the power of your imagination if you’re going to harness the power of hope. I believe that this could establish some things in your life that would move you in a positive direction and make a massive difference for you.

If you’ve been hopeless and you know you’ve been looking only at the natural circumstances and negative things in your life, my prayer is that you would change your focus and start seeing the positive things God has for you.

Hope is what keeps life moving, and there is hope for every child of God. Job said  

“Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches. 

Job 14:7.

Patience:

That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through Faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:12.

Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (Faith walk with patience)

God’s Word is a seed. When you plant a seed, you wait for the seed to grow. That waiting, in other Word, is someone being patient. Hebrews 10:36. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 

When we have no patience, we destroy the seed. Most times, we dig out our roots through our negative actions. Maybe the way we talk and react.

2 Timothy 2:3 says, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” In various Bible translations, different words are translated with patience. However, the best synonym that describes patience is “endurance”; the ability to be patient in tribulation; that is, enduring hardship with hope. It means you’re able to face any opposition and remain unflustered, knowing the Lord is with you.

Proverbs 24:10 encourages us against giving up or giving in, in the day of adversity; instead, we’re to maintain our victory. Maybe you’re at the beginning stage of developing your Faith, and things may be looking tough and very challenging, have confidence in the Word. Be patient and give the Word time to work in your life and your circumstances. Endure. That situation is for your testimony!

Some people don’t know how to stick with what they believe. For example, once they’re criticized for their Faith, they tend to be discouraged; that’s wrong! Endure such criticisms, for they’re designed for your promotion. Don’t renounce the Faith just because a colleague at work made derogatory remarks about you or Christianity. Instead, be proud of your identity and association with Christ. Keep winning souls.

It won’t be long before those who may be criticizing you acknowledge the glory and power of God in your life. Therefore, endure with hope the tests or trials you may be experiencing right now. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 21:19, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” Endure challenges with hope, knowing that you’ll never be disadvantaged or defeated. Be hopeful and confident of a better and brighter day ahead! Create that picture in your mind—the image of victory and triumph, and hold on to it.

Hebrews 10:36. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. It becomes scriptural when patience goes side by side with God’s will.

What we need to do while waiting for the seed of God’s Word to grow:

1. Show the expression of joy. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3.
2. Speak what you believe. We having the same Spirit of Faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; 2 Corinthians 4:13.
3. Call forth what you want.” before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Romans 4:17b.
4. Keep your expectation alive. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. Proverbs 23:18.

The faith-filled, the hopeful, and the patients will always experience the promise of God.