Faith or Hope
Hebrews 11:1.
First of all faith is always “NOW” never future. The scripture says, “NOW FAITH IS…” Therefore, if you are expecting God to heal you sometime, provide for you sometime, or bless you sometime, you are praying in hope, not faith. Hope is always future. Hope never receives, but is what most Christians are using for faith. You can ask them “did you receive when you prayed?”, and most of the time their response will be “I hope so”. We do need hope, but don’t get it mixed up with faith. Hope will paint a picture in your spirit of what you desire. It creates an image, the image of the answer to your prayer, but it can never make it a reality in your life. Hope is what comes first when we realize the blessing is available, but faith is what makes the blessing a reality. “Now faith is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED for…” Faith gives substance to the picture your hope painted, and manifest it in the natural realm where you can touch it, feel it, enjoy it. Faith brings it from the spiritual realm (where it is now), into the natural realm. Hope says, “God will do it sometime”, faith says, “I have the answer NOW regardless of what I see or feel”. If you wait until you see or feel something before you release faith, you will never see the manifestation of what you prayed for. Saying “I will believe it when I see it” doesn’t work in spirit realm. Faith means believing what God said before we see the manifestation of what we prayed for. One of the greatest mistakes most Christians make when they enter into prayer about a specific thing is they fail to build the Word of God into their spirits before they pray. You must have a basis for your faith to receive. Faith is the agent that takes the picture hope painted and gives it life. Faith can’t produce life in a promise of God if you don’t believe the promise or you don't know the promise is available to you. If you don’t believe God heals today, the faith God gave you will not work in the healing promises. The seed (the promise of God) is what your answer is going to be made from. The seed will produce if you plant and water it. If it is healing you need, the scriptures on healing is what will become your health. The healing scriptures will produce healing, just like Romans 10:9-10 produced a new spirit in you when you believed, and confessed the Word.
The moment you believed and acted on this Word from God a transformation took place in your spirit and you became a New Creature in Christ. Notice it says, you became a NEW creature. The old man no longer resides there. You became a member of God’s Family. II Corinthians 5:17.
This scripture became a reality in you. The Word of God acted on in faith, brought forth a change in you. You passed from death to life in Christ Jesus. Every promise of God, mixed with faith will produce that promise in your life. The answer always comes first in your spirit, before you see the manifestation. You always receive from God in your spirits first. The answer to your prayers is in the spirit realm, that’s where God lives. Our spirit receives from the spirit realm. The Word of God is spirit and it is life (John 6:63), so we can say it like this, “the Word is Spirit Life” In the Word of God is the life that will produce what you are praying for. Jesus tells us in Mark 4:14, the Word is seed, and if it is sown in good ground (your spirit) it will grow, and produce if you keep it planted. What is it going to produce? Whatever seed (Word) you sow. The problem in most cases (that fail to receive their answer) is not in the sowing. It is keeping the seed planted. Doubting, wondering, and hoping are actions of unbelief and will dig up your seed. These are the tools of the Devil, and he never fails to use them on every believer. If a thought of doubt begins to creep into your mind, stop it with a positive confession. Why did God tell us to take captive every thought and bring it into line with the Word of God? Because if we can control our thoughts, we can control our words. Never allow words of doubt to come out of your mouth. Remember this, having a thought is not doubt, it is when you confess it, agree with it, that you give it authority.
These scriptures tell us to guard are heart and watch what we say. If God took the time to let us in on this secret, we need to be smart enough to obey His instruction. He wants to let us know that words are powerful and they will determine your success or failure in the things of God. Just like God created this world with words, we are creating our world (our tomorrows) with the words we speak. Make every effort to always watch your confession when you have precious seed planted. Return from this Hope or Faith page to Home
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