Hope – the backbone of faith

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

Have you waited for something all your life and thought you were finally about to get it and then, just then, everything vaporizes and you are left feeling empty, unfulfilled, unwanted or a failure? Have you ever thought you are living your dream only to find that it was not the real thing? Have you ever had a man or woman walk out of your life when you thought they were the one? I believe most of us will say yes to at least one of the questions above; I want you to know you are not alone. The Word of God is so true, as always, when it says hope deferred makes the heart sick; many people have ended their own lives when they think all hope is lost; some people have compromised when they think there is no hope, others have settled for whatever comes their way because they stopped hoping. When hope is absent, the anchor for our soul is missing (Heb 6:19); he that stops hoping stops living. We can not afford to stop hoping - hope is the backbone of faith.

1 Corinthians 13:13 - Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.

Though hope is not as much spoken about in churches compared to faith and love, it is one of the three things that will last forever. Faith is anchored on hope; without hope, there is no faith. Why? Because faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Heb 11:1). We can clearly see that in the absence of hope, faith cannot exist, which means the absence of pleasing God (Heb 11:6). So, it is important to understand what hope is. What is hope? Let’s look at other translations of Heb 11:1

God’s Word Translation: Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.
Jubilee Bible 2000: Faith, therefore, is the substance of things waited for, the evidence of things not seen.

In these versions of the bible,hope is interpreted as expectation and a waiting for; expectation or a waiting for what? Romans 4:18 provides the answer to this question:

Romans 4:18 - Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be (NIV).

Abraham hoped against all hope, expected, and waited for the promise God made him; his hope, expectation, and waiting for was totally based on a promise God made to him. So the hope that is the backbone of faith in God is based on the Word/promise of God. From these scriptures we can see why sometimes the claim of being in faith about something may not be necessarily true because a number of times, the hope/expectation are not based on the Word or promise of God. Psalm 119:114 also affirms this truth:

Psalm 119:114 - You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope (NLT).

Your word is my source of hope! This scripture confirms what we see in the life of the father of faith, Abraham. The source of hope that brings about true faith is the Word of God! There are also expectations based on the lies of the devil and his words; these expectations also bring about results, but results that are not God's will for our lives. Now, my question to us is: what is our hope or expectation based on? If it is not based on God’s Word or a Word from God, we need to search the scriptures for a Word to anchor our souls in regards to the situation. When our hope is based on the Word of God or a Word from God, then our faith can be in God.

Promotion from above

Context: Daniel 1-3

It is God that qualifies (Colossians 1:12) and promotes his children, regardless of the land or workplace. It is rather common for non Christians and Christians alike to throw people under the bus, or be busy finding ungodly ways to get promoted. Eye service, back biting, working endless hours, and the list goes on of things people do in order to get promoted or "favored" by supervisors at work, but true promotion comes from above. Christians do not need to behave like the world because we are seeking promotion at work; we need to remember we are working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23-24) in whatever we are doing.  He will promote us in due season, if we do not waiver from him and if we avoid crafting out ungodly ways of getting to the top (Jeremiah 29:11).

The book of Daniel chapters 1-3 describes how Daniel and his friends got promoted to high positions in a strange land; this story shows us that the promotion we seek comes from above. What was common to Daniel and his friends? They refused to defile themselves with the king's meat; how does that translate to today? Christians have absolutely no need to play up to their managers or supervisors, because we have only one true boss, God. Managers and supervisors can easily ask us to do things that compromise our Christian faith, and it could even be a standard in that workplace. If it is the way of doing business that is against the Word of God, then we need to walk away from that job and trust the Lord for another. The bible tells us to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God... We need to comport ourselves in workplaces in a way that is pleasing to God and not in a way to feel accepted by co-workers. We cannot go around talking about people and back stabbing others and expect God to promote us. When we partake in backstabbing, judging, and condemning others, we just denied ourselves the privilege of God fighting for us when others come against us - remember that when there is a seed time, an harvest time is sure (Genesis 8:22).

This is not advocating not doing our  jobs and going around preaching at work; that would be robbery because they are not paying us to preach – they are paying us to work for them. This article is advocating doing the work in a way that will please the Father of light in whom there is no shadow of turning. Christians are actually to be the best at what we do; we can see an example in the life of Daniel. We can be friendly without being a friend of the world; remembering that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4).

Daniel and his friends sought the face of God in regards to challenges in their Jobs (Daniel 2). Instead of crying, losing our peace, and complaining endlessly about our jobs, Christians should go to the father in prayer. When Daniel did this in regards to the king’s dream, he not only got the dream and the interpretation to the dream, he got promoted because he solved a problem no one else in the kingdom could. He prayed in place of complaining about the challenges of his work. Not only did he get promoted, but God became exalted in a strange land because of his manifestation through Daniel. God wants to be glorified in all of our workplaces, but we need to invite him into what we do at work and ask him for innovative solutions to challenges and problems at work. In the end, we get the problem solved in ways that amaze our colleagues; we get promoted and God is glorified. People at work will start asking questions on how we have the best solutions to problems and we can use that opportunity to tell them about Jesus. 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not compromise their stand in God to keep their positions (Daniel 3). When the three Hebrew men refused to bow to the idol the king had made, they took a stand that could have cost them not only their jobs, but their lives. What compromise are we into at work? What is that thing we are doing that we know is wrong but are doing to keep the Job? That is what is delaying our promotion. Stop it now! Stop it now! Stop it now in Jesus name. That compromise could be costing that very thing we are looking for. What we may have "benefited" from this compromise cannot be compared to the promotion that comes from above. Let us stand out for God and not compromise our faith to buy the favor of our managers, supervisors... Our promotion comes from above.

His will?

Mathew 7: 21

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter"

We can do so much in the name of God and still not enter into the kingdom of God! The very thought of this is humbling and a warning that religion, spirituality, the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are no guarantee of spending forever with the Master.

It is apparent from Mathew 7: 21-23 that a man can move mountains, heal the sick, raise the dead and do so many things in the name of Jesus and not be in God’s will and could be in complete disobedience to God. Verse 23 calls such people wicked, evil doers, and other descriptive words depending on the version of the bible you read. Healing, raising the dead in themselves are God’s will because they are based on his word; the life of the person through which these signs and wonders are accomplished is what is brought to question in this bible verse. What matters to God as verse 21 explains is that we are obeying God i.e. that we are in his will for our lives. It is just as 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 explains about love; we could do all kinds of admirable things but without love, it is nothing. Why is it nothing? Because the love command, which is the will of God is more important to him than the acts that are suppose to portray love.

In our days, very little time is given to personal bible study, which is the number one place where the will of God is made known to us. There is also the will of God for each person’s life that is unveiled in his presence, but spending time to know the will of God has been overlooked, and sometimes the very principle of waiting on God to know his will has been left only to pastors. So many Christians depend on their pastor to know the will of God for their personal lives; I do not despise pastors confirming what we have received from the Lord, but basing major decisions of our lives solely on what a pastor tells us to do without receiving a confirmation from God ourselves is not for the new testament believer. Many people are in trouble or serious problems because they made a major decision solely based on what someone told them that God “said”! Let us spend time in his presence to know what he thinks about various situations in our lives before we make a decision. If we are truly his child, we will hear him speak to us. We will not be going into more details in this area of God’s will because this article is not focused on knowing God’s will in regards to decisions like choosing a career, where to live, who to marry and things that are very specific to our individual everyday life decisions. This article is more directed towards God’s will written down in the scriptures for us to understand. 
 

We cannot live a victorious Christian life if we are not a student of the word of God. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4).  So, if our faith is the key to victory, we have to meditate on God’s will (his word) because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17); faith is absent when the will of God is not known. Knowing the will of God requires a level of sacrifice that many of us are not willing to pay; the time to spend in the scriptures to get to know his will, the time to be quiet in his presence, and the humility to accept his Word to be the only way. There is only one way to knowing the written will of God, and that is to spend time in it. Because of the lack of study of the word of the Lord, there are a number of things people believe about God’s will that are not scriptural. For the remainder of this article I would like to talk about some things that some believers have come to believe to be God's will.

I have heard it preached a number of times that there are three levels of God’s will i.e. there is a good will, the pleasing (or acceptable) will and the perfect will of God. This is usually supported by quoting Romans 12:2. The bible passage reads as follows:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

I am not an English language major, and neither by any standard can I claim to be an authority in the English language; however, I know that the comparative and superlative of good is better and best respectively. One of the definitions of the word Good in the dictionary is “that which is pleasing”, and another definition for good is “complete”. One definition for perfect is complete. So, we see that the three descriptive words used in this passage were referring to the same thing. There is nothing like three levels of God’s will, there is only one will of God concerning situations, circumstances, and our life and we need to find it out and not settle down with just anything.

I have often heard believers say that a sickness or disease is God’s will to teach them this or that; this is not scriptural. It is never God’s will for us to be sick or have any sort of illness. This state of mind only prevents us as believers from exercising our authority and living a life free of sickness and diseases. 

Galatians 3:13 reads:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”.

Sicknesses and diseases are under the curse, why do some believers then believe that it is God’s will to use sickness or disease to teach them something? How does sickness and disease in the life of his children bring him glory? James 1:17 clearly states that Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. Sickness and diseases are not a good or perfect gift; they are not from our father. How would a father put sickness on his child? Matthew 7:11 also explains: If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. Our God gives us good things and not evil. 

Isaiah 53: 5 reads:But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 

Another school of thought is that it is God’s will for them to suffer for sins committed in the past; my brothers and sisters, the scripture above clearly shows us that Christ paid for every single one of our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:17 also states Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Halleluyah! When we come to Christ, our old man that committed the transgressions is gone, and the person we are in Christ never sinned! However, there is a kind of pain and suffering that believers will have to endure, and that is the pain and suffering that comes from persecution due to our faith in God. 2Tim 3:11 shows that this is the kind of pain and suffering Paul suffered and Rev 2:10 talks about the same kind of suffering.  There is no scripture to back the belief that God teaches us lessons by bringing us under the curse. It is the devil that does this and we have been given the authority to live above him, his agents, and his appearance in any form or shape, which includes sicknesses and diseases.

Ephesians 1:20 – 21 and Ephesians 2:6 reads

Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places^, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

We need to give ourselves to the ministry of the word to enjoy the fullness of life that God has for us, because only in the Word can we become acquainted with his will. The bible declares “and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. How free we are depends on how much of his will we know and live by. It is not enough to know his will; we have to live out his will. Only in obedience to his word do we get the promised results. Isaiah 1:19 reads: if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.  

Lastly let us remember verse 21 of our text: “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter" Sons and daughters of God, let us not be foolish; let us understand what the will of God is (Eph 5:17).