Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven's Power on Earth (14 page)

Hope is the soil that faith grows in.

P
romises give hope. In fact, the entire Gospel of the Kingdom of God is an ongoing promise that gives hope to all its citizens. Page after page of the New Testament gives us reason to anticipate the extraordinary invasion of God into the impossible situations in life. The Gospel is called the Good News for that very reason. It certainly works in eternity, but the wonderful news is that it also works in the here and now.

The word
hope
should not be connected to the common concept of
wish
. Hope is not a long shot, the idea that perhaps something good might happen if we get lucky. Hope is just the opposite. It actually means “the joyful anticipation of good.” My wife’s parents used to film her and her siblings on Christmas morning when they were getting ready to come into the living room to open their gifts. The movie camera and its extremely bright lights were set up facing the hall where the children were bouncing off the walls with excitement. They were waiting for Dad to say, “Merry Christmas!” They knew something good was about to happen, and they were already happy about it, even though “it” had not happened yet. Their excitement was verbal, physical and emotional. There was no guessing about
their mental condition. The fact that they were filled with hope was profoundly clear to anyone who saw them. This is one of the best examples I know to illustrate the true meaning of this powerful word:
Hope! The joyful anticipation of good
.

Living without hope is really a wasted life. We were born and designed to live with great hope. Of course, this does not eliminate problems or difficulties. We still have to learn to deal with disappointment. That stuff happens to everyone. But hope is greater. Hope is the soil that faith grows in. Faith takes aim at specific situations; hope is general. It is the overall confidence in God’s desire, commitment and ability to make all things work for good.

Show me someone with great hope, and I will show you someone who is positioned to move in great faith. Hope is the byproduct of what I think about, meditate on and fill my heart with. Promises help to create great hope. If I am facing any kind of problem, and I do not have a promise for it, I will be ill-equipped to face it, and I will fall far short of what was possible. When we feast on His promises, we are having intentional impact on the measure of hope we will live and abide in.

Show me someone who ignores the mandate to live with hope, and I will show you someone whose faith does not measure up to the size of the challenge he faces over and over again. This is a serious issue. Hope needs to be in place long before an opportunity to use it arises. This is what enables us to have an immediate response to those things that challenge us. Today’s hope is the soil of tomorrow’s victory of faith.

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, please help me to recognize the promises You have planted all throughout my life, just for me. I do not want to be ignorant of those things. Help me to live full of hope, and may this heart condition be contagious, that You might be glorified.

Confession

God has made it possible for me to live in hope continuously. He has given me promises ahead of time so that I have an answer for whatever comes my way. My life was thoroughly considered and planned for, long before I was born. The great Designer designed me for hope. And I will live with hope, unto the glory of God.

You have reason to question anything you think you know about God that you cannot find in the Person of Jesus.

W
ho among the followers of Jesus would suggest that the sacrifice of animals could atone for our sins? None! Who among us would promote a pilgrimage to the Temple every year to have the priests mediate between God and ourselves? Not one of us! Do you know anyone who would tell the terminally ill that they are unclean, and that they need to announce their presence when they walk down the street?

No one who is a true believer would endorse such practices. Yet do you realize that many Christians actually do similar things? This happens every time we allow Old Testament standards to trump the revelation that we find in Jesus Christ for dealing with sickness and evil. Are we any different when we see Jesus heal all who were oppressed by the devil in Scripture, yet explain that God afflicts people with disease in order to build their character? No. That is an appalling practice.

Jesus came to an orphaned planet to reveal the Father, the Father who is Love. God had never been adequately revealed before as the Father. Jesus came for that purpose. Everything
Jesus said and did had that one primary focus: to reveal the Father. Everything before Jesus served a different purpose: to reveal the lost condition of humanity and point to the only possible solution, Jesus Christ the Redeemer. The Law became the tutor that led people to Jesus as the only answer. In that sense, the Law and the prophets are glorious and absolutely perfect. But their time of application was then, not now. It is a mystery to me why people opt for Law that exposes us, instead of embracing the Good News Jesus came to reveal.

Another surprise for me personally is how many believers get angry with those who give their all to follow Jesus. Instead of looking to Jesus’ example, they point to John the Baptist or Elijah or even Moses. These men were all perfect for their day. But Jesus came to fulfill what they all lived for. He came to reveal what they could not—a Father who loves people and paid the price for their redemption through the sacrifice of His Son. It is the greatest news ever. And it does not need to be muddied by what many call a “balanced” message—a little bit of Law and a little bit of grace. Jesus Christ is the message. He is the Good News. It does not get better than that. It is not too good to be true. It is so good it is true.

When you look for God’s hand in world affairs, look to see what Jesus did with world leaders. When you want to see if God caused a natural disaster, look to see what Jesus did with storms. If you are trying to figure out if it is God’s will for someone to be healed, look at Jesus’ dealings with people in need. How many people did He turn away because it was not His will to heal? Jesus Christ really is perfect theology.

This piece of writing does not answer as many questions as it raises. I do not write this to provide answers as much as I do to set direction of thought and intent. In all construction, the foundation must be solid and straight. If we are not level at the beginning, we will be off by a mile the taller the building gets.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I give You thanks for the whole Bible. Everything in it is priceless to me. Please give me the wisdom to recognize what I need to understand from the past in order to appreciate fully what You are saying to me now. I recognize Your Son as the way, the only way, to come to You as my Father. Thank You for that. I pray for the grace to illustrate His life well, for Your glory.

Confession

I believe the Bible is God’s Word, and that all of it is profitable for my instruction. I believe that while the Old Testament is useful for instruction, its message must never trump what Jesus said, practiced and modeled for us to follow. I believe that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father, and that He reveals Him perfectly. Now it is my turn. As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus now sends me.

Faith does not deny that a problem exists; it denies it a place of influence.

I
am grieved at how often I see believers try to
will
themselves into faith, as though faith were a product of their effort. Faith is not a choice; it is a fruit. An apple tree will bear apples if it is healthy and abides in a healthy environment. There is no fight. There is no travail. Nothing. It just happens as the natural result of its nature and environment.

We are believers. That is our nature. Our sins have been forgiven, and we have received the nature of Jesus as our own. It is in our nature to believe in the same way that it was in the nature of Jesus to believe. We cannot create faith, but we can hinder its creation by living contrary to who God says we are. Abiding in Christ is the answer to more things than we can possibly imagine.

Sometimes, when believers are afraid of appearing weak through unbelief, it becomes a fight for them to prove they have great faith. The problem is that faith does not become evident through such means. It does not parade itself. It is not self-promoting and does not need to prove itself. Faith is born out of rest, not striving. It is the basis upon which we face impossibilities.

When people strive to prove their faith, they often deny that a problem exists, because having a problem seems like a sign of unbelief. That is not true. Jesus acknowledged when a problem existed. So did the apostle Paul and other writers of Scripture. In fact, all the heroes of the faith recognized when they were facing something that had no natural solution. The key is not to give it a place of influence. We do not live in reaction to darkness; we live in response to God.

Other times people do not deny their problems, but carry them in their minds all day long. Some call this an
intercessory burden
. Most of the time, God calls it
worry
. True intercession acknowledges the weight of the problem, yet is ignited by the promises in God’s Word. The two realms are held in tension until the problem gives way. (Some problems have personalities behind them that must be dealt with.)

My wife will carry a problem before the Father and ask, “So what are we doing about this?” She is looking for His heart, His lead. When she gets it, she goes forth in His authority to administer His will in the earth. This basically means we carry the problem only long enough to gain the Father’s heart on the matter. We never carry it to the point of becoming impressed by the size of the problem. That would be living from the problem toward life, instead of living from God toward the problem.

Work to cultivate an awareness of the heart of God for all that concerns you. You will never be impressed by the size of a problem again.

Prayer

Father, please forgive me for wanting to make sure everyone around me was aware of the enormity of my problems. I am sorry for making them bigger in my heart than my awareness of You. Help me live from Your heart toward life. Help me live impressed only by You. I ask that You help me hold the name of Jesus in highest honor.

Confession

I am a believing believer. It is my nature to believe God. I refuse to be impressed by the accomplishments or threats that come from the powers of darkness. All those powers and plans have already been defeated by the resurrected Christ, who lives in me. I am alive for the glory of God.

Any area of our lives for which we have no hope is under the influence of a lie.

G
od is a perfect Father. He has unlimited resources that He puts at our disposal to complete our assignments. He also possesses the ability to look into the future and see what is coming our way. He never commands us to do something and then leaves us helpless to find our way in His assignment. His grace is His enabling presence. It is fascinating to me that He commands me to do something, and as I yield to His commands, He actually performs His work through me. It is Jesus in me who makes the impossible possible.

He is diligent, faithful and wise. He is perfect love, beauty and wonder in everything He is and does. As such, He is the ultimate Father who goes to great lengths to equip us today for our tomorrows. He has thoroughly considered our abilities in light of His purposes for our lives. He took our weaknesses and failures into consideration when He called us. None of our successes or failures, weaknesses or strengths surprises Him. Each was already calculated into His overall plan for us and for the earth. He is the ultimate steward of all He possesses—everything
belongs to Him. It is all at His disposal to enable this mysterious co-laboring partnership we have with Him to accomplish everything He has purposed. None of it is earned. It is all by grace.

God did not leave us without all the tools necessary to live in victory. One of the most essential tools in our toolbox is His promises. Living conscious of our promises from Him enables us to live in hope. It is up to us to pursue the God of the “Promised Land” to give us what we will need for the next season of life. Not that we have to beg; it is already His idea and in His heart for us. But the importance of hungering for His Kingdom, while maintaining a heart that is poor in spirit, cannot be overemphasized. This condition of heart attracts the unlimited resources of God.

Having said all of that, it comes down to this. Every problem I am facing, He has already considered ahead of time and has given me the tools to face victoriously. We were designed to reign in life. But the enemy has worked to cause fear, intimidation and anxiety that we might lose sight of the tools that God has given us. That hopelessness renders us nearly powerless, which is the great contradiction as we have been given access to all power.

I like to look at this issue of promises this way: It is as though God has gone into my future and brought back what is necessary to get me there. And those are His promises.

Knowing God as a loving Father, the only One capable of preparing us ahead of time for all that life dishes out, is to establish us in life in great overall confidence. This is hope. We must be unwilling to live without hope in any area of life. We do not rely on our greatness, significance or even great faith. We rely on a perfect Father who has thought of everything.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for receiving me so completely into Your family. Thank You for Your total devotion to my present and
my future. Please help me never to lose hope for any part of my life. Point out any carelessness that still exists in my thinking, or in my perception of You as my Father. I ask for all of this that I might represent Your Son, Jesus, well. And may all of this bring You glory. Great glory!

Confession

My Father is perfect in every way. He leaves nothing unattended, nor is He careless about my life. I have reason for great hope because the great hope-giver is my Father. I will guard my heart from the lies and distractions the enemy brings. I purpose to be able to say with Jesus, “Satan has nothing in me!” I do these things that I might present my life to God as an offering for His glory.