Faith Life 4 (FAITH IN RELATION WITH HOPE)

GRACE ABOUNDS ONLINE BIBLE STUDY
THEME: FAITH LIFE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS (Part 4)
TOPIC: FAITH IN RELATION WITH HOPE
SPEAKER: Peter Ayoola Fakeye (PAF)

Hebrew 11:1

It is very important we talk about hope when we are dealing with faith. It is very important because the Bible says Faith gives substance to whatever we have hoped in God. Just like a leather ball, when it has been deflated, it will definitely not bounce. But when air has been pumped into it in the right proportion, then the ball will be able to bounce. But when you puump air inside a tore leather ball, it can never bounce.

Hope is like the leather ball and faith is like the air pumped inside it. The reason we are not bouncing is because there is no hope available for faith to work in. Or your hope has been tored just like the tired leather ball. Therefore, it is very important to understand hope as much it is important to understand faith.

So what is hope?
Hope is an expectation of God's manifestation in our everyday experience. We need to always be expectant of God's goodness reaching out our everyday living. When you are expectant,  you will not be surprise when God's blessings comes one way or the other in his life. You might actually be thrilled by the process but you can't be suprise by the result because you are expectant. The test that we have been operating in hope is when we are not surprised whenever we see the manifest hand of God in our lives. This means there is an expectation in the first place.

 Romans 15:3, 
From the above scripture, we will see that God also is the God of hope. God will not call you into what He is not because we were made in His image. The Father will not ask His children to go in a direction He is not going. The Bible calls God, "the God of hope" which means God also expect things. For example, during creation, God had an expectation of what He wanted to see when He was releasing the creative word (Genesis 2). Also when God gave His Son to the world, it is with an expectation that many sons will be called into His glory (Hebrew 2:10). This means God expect things as a result of the faith He has in His Son, Jesus. We must understand that the same way in which God operate is the same way He want us to walk, because we are His Children.

The Bible says we should abound in hope (Romans 15:13). This means our expectations to receive God's grace should be on the increase. Just as the Bible says we are to abound in faith and love, it also declare that we are to abound in hope also. We are admonish to raise our hope. Though it's not a mechanical process and it is different from positive thinking. Positive thinking doesn't have a basis, but biblical hope has a basis. We are not expecting something that has not happened and we are not just fantasising. We hope because we know that Christ has already made what we are hoping for available.  Therefore, our hope is not just hanging on some fantasy, or just some random thinking, but on Christ Jesus and what He has done. And if this is the basis of your hope, then you need to raise it higher and higher. As I have said it is not mechanical, but we can oy abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:5)

Roman 8:24-25
The Bible says, "hope that is seen is not hope." This means what we hope for is not something that is physical. It is something that has happened in the spirit realm, where we are complete and where all perfection exist. This is where the Holy Spirit comes to play, to give you illumination and to make you see what has been set up for you in the spirit realm. The Holy Spirit therefore raises your hope and expectations by unveiling to you what you already have in your Spirit man.

In conclusion, the reason we settle for less and we are not expectant of big things from God is because our eyes are not open to what we already have in Christ Jesus.

God bless you
Grace Abounds!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE VICTOR’S MENTALITY 17 (Knowing Jesus Is Knowing Truth)

Calvary greetings, my beloved readers! Today, we’ll continue exploring the armor of God, focusing on the belt of truth, which we began discussing last time. This armor equips us to stand against the wiles of the evil one. We’ve shared quite a bit about the belt of truth already, so to catch up, please check out our blog site for the full teaching . Here’s our key text:“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,” (Ephesians 6:14 NKJV) One thing I don’t want us to forget is that truth is how God sees things. That’s the truth! For our belief system to be firmly rooted in Christ, we need to see things the way God sees them. So, today, we’ll dive into how to see things as God does. This is foundational to cultivating a victor’s mentality. Let me start by declaring that Jesus is the truth:“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6 NKJV). No one—living or dead...
Read more

THE VICTOR'S MENTALITY 9 (The devil is a Liar)

  In this article, I will begin sharing about the second phase of our series: understanding who our opposition is. We’ve already explored the first phase, which focused on the type of strength we have and its source. Let’s revisit our reference text:   "Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11 NKJV)  It is crucial to know who our opposition is—the one who does everything possible to hinder you from walking in everyday victory. Many grace-based believers argue that it’s unnecessary to talk about the devil. Sure, we are not devil-conscious, but as ministers, there’s nothing wrong with presenting the devil the way Jesus and His Apostles did. My issue is with those who attribute to the devil what he does not possess. Nowhere in Scripture do Jesus or the Apostles describe the devil as having any power or authority. If we can see the devil as the Bible presents him, that alone is the victor’s mentality. Th...
Read more

THE VICTOR’S MENTALITY 20 (Knowing Jesus Is Knowing Truth 4)

By God’s grace, in today’s article, we’ll finish what we started about knowing Jesus intimately in the Scriptures. We’ve already discussed three ways to see Jesus intimately through the Scriptures: • Photographically in the Gospels • Doctrinally in the Epistles • Prophetically in the Old Testament By God’s grace, I’ll share two more in this article. You can check the previous article to get the full experience of what we’ve taught. Another way we must know Jesus, who is the truth, is: 4. Experientially in the Believer’s Life We need to understand that knowing and seeing Jesus goes beyond theological or intellectual knowledge; the aim must be to know Jesus personally and experientially. That’s what I intend to share with you in today’s write-up and this is the aim of the Scriptures. We’ve talked about knowing Jesus through the Gospels, Epistles, and Old Testament—all to these is to an end that it leads us to a living relationship with the person of Christ. To have an experiential relat...
Read more