Hope

Romans 15: 13


Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our God is hope. We have an uncommon peace because it is the peace Jesus left for us. It is the peace that comes from having faith in the Holy One; from knowing that He is on your side and is watching over you.

I feel for the people who do not know God. They are without hope. But no matter what our problems; whether sickness, a lost loved one or any of a multitude of things, we have hope because we have God. There are people out in the world who have no hope. They have no expectation that things are going to get better. We can have hope even when we do not see any way for our circumstance to improve because we know God and know Him to be a miracle worker. Maybe you have been in a hopeless situation and seen God deliver you. In Him there is always hope and that is a truly great thing. Our hearts need not be burdened with the worry because we know He is there for us.

I pray, along with Paul, that you will “abound in hope” and be filled to the fullest by the Holy Spirit. Don’t let the problems get you down because where there is God, there is always hope. May you be filled with the joy and peace that comes from believing in Him. May you overflow with gratitude that you always have a hope and a prayer.

My People

Jeremiah 31: 33

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Relationship; that is what this whole Christianity thing is about. At a very basic level Christianity is not a religion. Religion is what happens after people believe in our Father but the fundamental desire of our Father is not to be worshiped and served. His fundamental purpose is to be in relationship with us and to provide the means by which we can be in relationship with Him. The reason Jesus came to the earth was to restore that “way” to the Father for us. Jesus is “the way” (John 14: 6). By and through him we travel back into a close, personal relationship with the Lord, our God.

A relationship of any kind requires input by more than one person. In other words, relationships require two-way communication; give and take. Many Christians have a very one dimensional connection with the Lord. We can have so much more and it is God’s desire that we do. As we open our minds to what it means to develop a good relationship with another person, we begin to also open our hearts to what it means to do the same with our Father God. As we open our hearts and minds to Him, He is better able to direct us and thus lead us into a deep and meaningful relationship with Him. He really will teach you all kinds of things about walking with Him like Adam and Eve walked with Him in the Garden of Eden. As we treat him as a person of value rather than as a distant God, we will really move into an intimate place with Him and I can think of nothing greater than that.

Stirred, Not Shaken

Psalm 16: 8


I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

That is a good feeling, to know that God Almighty is at your right hand.  King David, the author of this psalm, had practice walking with God.  He had experience with Him.  David was confident in God’s ability to take care of him.  David took the first step though.  He placed God at the center of his world.  The Lord was continually before his eyes because David put Him there.  David established the Lord in his life and he learned that by so doing he could walk through the world without being shaken.  Even when trouble came, David knew that God would see him through it.  What a sense of peace that must have given him.  We can attain to that same relationship with our Dad too and even greater because we are living in the New Covenant.

We can do the same thing.  Look at where you are sitting right now and imagine Jesus sitting to your right.  We know that he is with us all of the time so why don’t we have a more tangible appreciation of him with us?  Part of David’s confidence was his realization that God was with him at all times.  Let this revelation grow bigger in you and I believe that you too will not be not be shaken.

The Facts Don’t Count

Romans 4: 19

And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

If you want to know one of the secrets to living successfully in the Spirit it is this, don’t let the facts interfere with the truth. Abraham had a promise from God that not only would he and Sarah have a child but that he would be the father of nations. How does an old man whose body is as good as dead and whose wife is not only elderly also, but who has always been barren, have a child? Well, in the natural, and according to the facts, they don’t. But, you see, that is where we must depart from the reasoning of this world and move over in to Jesus thinking and Jesus faith. 
Abraham did not become weak in his faith. Now what is faith really? Sometimes I think we make it too hard a concept. Here is a simple illustration. If I tell you that I am going to give you a pen when I see you will you be expecting to receive a pen? How confident are you that you will be given a pen? That is the measure of your faith in me? If you have a high expectation, even an assurance, then you have a lot of faith in me. That is all faith is, believing. You believe that what I say, I will do. Now, how assured are you that Dad is going to do what He has said? Somehow, Abraham was able to believe God’s word over the evidence which he saw in the world. Which one do you think you would have a tendency to believe? When you believe God, then that belief turns into trust. In the example of the pen, do you trust me to give to you what I promised?

Verse 18 says that Abraham believed even though there seemed no cause for hope. He saw the evidence that the world presented to him and chose to instead believe what God said. That is so hard for us to do but it is a super-key to living in the supernatural blessings of God. If we want to walk on the water, and who doesn’t, then we have to renew our minds with this kind of thinking. We have to ignore the facts. We don’t deny their existence we just deny their power. Abraham decided that God’s word was the final word, that it superseded the physical facts. That is the way we need to be, the way we need to think if we wish to walk in the kind of miracles that Abraham did, the kind of miracles that God wants to be our everyday experience.

TODAY

Exodus 8: 8 – 10

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and begged, “Plead with the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people. I will let your people go, so they can offer sacrifices to the LORD.”

9 “You set the time!” Moses replied. “Tell me when you want me to pray for you, your officials, and your people. Then you and your houses will be rid of the frogs. They will remain only in the Nile River.”

10 “Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.  All right,” Moses replied, “it will be as you have said. Then you will know that there is no one like the LORD our God.”



What a nut! Why didn’t Pharaoh answer Moses with, “Do it TODAY! Do it right now!”? But are we really any different? Don’t we look to tomorrow for our prayers to be answered? Are we waiting until tomorrow to receive our healing? Our prosperity? What is wrong with today after all? Is this just some kind of fear? Do we need a day to prepare to receive God’s miracles? Well, I don’t know the answers to these questions but I do know that today is better than tomorrow. Why put up with frogs if you don’t have to? Or is it that our problems become so familiar that there is actually some comfort in them. That is to say that because change is so uncomfortable to most people we actually rest with our problems rather than challenging them. Would you really prefer to be miserable with the problems you know because there is familiarity in the status quo than getting completely free of them? Are the frogs you know more tolerable than the risk of facing them even if you are already guaranteed that the Lord will banish your frogs? When we learn that we really can trust our Father and that the words He has given us are truth and life, will we then be able to tell Him that we want the frogs gone today? I hope so. I hope we can take a step towards allowing God to free us from all the snares in which we are entangled. I pray that we take at least one small step in that direction TODAY.

Rest

Matthew 11: 28 – 30 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

You’ve heard the song and now read the book. Come unto me for I give you rest. Are you tired, weary? Jesus gives restoration and healing. He is not arrogant, demanding or boastful. He is gentle and nurturing. He will not lay on you a burden. He will not charge a high cost for his rest and reassurance. The price is already been paid.

Do you know anyone who is worn out? Who has spent their energy striving only to fall on their faces or find that the prize was not worth the effort? Send them this word of encouragement. I just cannot think of a better word of encouragement. Jesus, himself, offers that which so many people are desperate for. Send this to someone today and spread this great news. We don’t have to strive any more. Jesus already paid the cost for our rest. We have only to go to him and receive that which he is warehousing for us. What do you want? What do you need? Jesus has it in abundance for you today.

The Holy Spirit Speaks

1 Corinthians 14: 18


I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.

Speaking in tongues is not something we discuss often and I have decided that is error. No one wants to offend others so we avoid topics which are not understood or which are easily misunderstood. This is a topic, however, which we must not hide under the rock any longer. To do so is utter foolishness and simply the result of fear. We fear that someone will become upset with us because we open up a subject with which they are unfamiliar. Well, let us be unfamiliar with the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues no longer.

Tongues is a language God gave us so that we can communicate with Him. One of the most significant aspects of speaking in tongues is that this ability is a gift which we gain through the Holy Spirit of God. It was prophesied about in the Old Testament. Paul recounted this old prophecy from Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 14: 21 where he wrote, “IN THE LAW IT IS WRITTEN, ‘BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE.” This verse is only a couple of verses after the one where Paul says that he thanks God that he speaks in tongues more than anyone. The immediately following verse reads, “So then tongues are for a sign” (v. 22). My point is that he is still writing about tongues throughout these verses. In the second verse of this fourteenth chapter Paul gives us more insight into speaking in tongues. He wrote, “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.” Whoa! That is fabulous. God gave us a language so that we can speak to Him. Perhaps it is God’s own language which He gave to us. We are led by the Holy Spirit to speak from our spirits rather than from our minds. Praise God! Now ask yourself, “Why would God do that?” Well, Paul must have had the same question because he gave this answer, “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8: 26).

God gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us and to be our teacher. He is able to pray for us, and through us which is great because, honestly, most of the time we really don’t know what or how to pray. He leads us in our prayers and helps us to pray the deep things of our heart. It is such powerful prayer because it does not have to go through the filter of your mind which is full of rules and regulations and ego and questions. You are able to pray right out of your spirit, right from the deepest place of who you are. You can be completely honest with God, with yourself and with your emotions because there is no judgment being levied by the mind. It is like having a direct pipeline between you and God. That pipeline is the Holy Spirit.

Paul taught about the gift of speaking in tongues and also the ministry gift of tongues which is different but the same. Paul said that praying in tongues for our personal prayer builds us up (1 Corinthians 14: 4). The ministry gift of tongues is for edifying the church.

The clearest demonstration of the gift of tongues in operation can be found in Acts 2. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the followers of Christ who had gathered together. The scripture says tongues as of fire rested on them and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance” (Acts 2: 4). There were witnesses from many different regions all about who, when they heard them speaking in tongues, marveled that they heard them speaking in their own languages even though the men were Jews. You will be so blessed to read the account and try to imagine yourself there witnessing this divine event.

This gift of speaking in tongues is such an important expression of the grace, power and love of God. It flows through the integration of our will and spirit with that of the Holy Spirit. It is high time we learned more about this third person of the trinity who is, in fact, God and it is so important that we learn his role and how we can cooperate with him. Additionally, it is really vital that we learn about this gift of speaking in tongues but really not so much learn as participate in. It is not important that you be able to teach a class on speaking in tongues, just that you do it. Paul said, “I wish that you all spoke in tongues (1 Corinthians 14: 5). I second Paul’s wish. There are too few people who are following this leading of the Holy Spirit and teaching of the Apostle Paul. We need to teach it in our churches, facilitate other’s learning and receiving and most of all never downplay or minimize its significance in the modern church, and as Paul said, “Do not forbid to speak in tongues” (1 Corinthians 14: 39).