I feel like there are a lot of words we use in Christianity today that we might think we understand but not really know how to put into words (i.e., faith, hope, love, honor, etc.). Well, if this is the case, I'd like to propose we don't really know what those words mean. In some instances, you may not have the language for it yet. But for me, I know that some things the Lord has to reveal or define before I really comprehend it with my soul and my mind.
The Lord had been highlighting the word "hope" to me for months in closing of 2011 until the present. There are quite a few scriptures that I've read that talk about hope, but I couldn't really find one that defined it for me. I think that was because God wanted to do it Himself. You can have a head knowledge of ideas,words, etc., but until God enlightens your thinking and encounters your heart, it simply just an idea, something you don't necessarily integrate into your life.
Until my actual encounters and revelations from God about hope, Bill Johnson defined it for me in one of his podcasts from iBethel (available on iTunes) called 2012 - A Year of Promise. Bill Johnson and several other teachers from Bethel Church in Redding, CA., often speak about things the Lord has pre-heated me for. He warms me up to receive the heavenly downloads so I'll know in my heart that He's talking through these men of God. He said (paraphrased), "Hope is not a wish. Biblical hope is the joyful anticipation for good. It is the absolute rock solid assurance that something wonderful is about to happen and I am leaning into it. I am in expectation for this to happen." He further encouraged, "Position yourself as a warrior of hope, learning how to cultivate an abiding faith." This teaching brought further insight into what the Lord was working in me.
My pastor, Tony Brazelton, said something awesome about hope during an altar call where he encouraged many of the people who responded by coming to the front for prayer. He said (paraphrased) those that feel hopeless are often called to bring hope to others. Often what God calls you to do and graces you to do seems like the opposite of what you experience. Without divine insight and a relationship with Holy Spirit, it is possible to be unaware of what you're called to do or release to others.
As one who has experienced depression, low self-esteem, and hopelessness, it somehow makes sense that I would be chosen of the Lord to release hope to the hopeless. It's something He deposited in me. It's not something I worked up. It's now something I can release because of the Holy Spirit at work in me, as I work with Him.
Luke 4:18-19 (KJV) ~ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (...the day when salvation and free favors of God profusely abound - AMP).
This statement was made as Jesus recognized His personal mission statement and assignment from the Father. It is important that we all get our purpose and identity from Him. No one else can correctly identify who you are except the God that made you. And really... really, ALL He made was and is good.
So what about hope? The definition I now take as my own, until more is revealed to me, has become more personal and simplified. I define hope as, "my expectation to experience God's goodness in my life.... (and the lives of others." I realized that I must experience hope for and in my own life before having real hope for others. And it is the way of the Father to spread goodness to all. No one is excluded from it. Once you've been converted, strengthen your brethren (VCMI vision).
My friend, Ernest, has been on this hope journey too. Through various scriptures and God encounters, he shared his definition of hope:
"HOPE: the act of believing and expecting that GOD [the greatest and richest father imaginable] will reach into HIS infinite treasury of GLORY [and] place in our hearts (our personalities) strength, might and power through HOLY SPIRIT, making our hearts CHRIST'S home; believing that HE will deeply root and ground us in HIS love; apprehending and comprehending by experience GOD's love beyond our natural knowledge or our wildest dreams until we are completely filled and overflowing with HIM; the utter rejection of fear!"
If God has been highlighting, or drawing your attention to certain truths, He is the best one to tell you what He means and how it relates to your life. Other great men and/or women of God may be able to assist you in this process, but ultimately this Christian walk is about your own personal relationship with the Lord. Relationships with others are significant. The five-fold ministry has its place. But God has been consistently telling me, "It's about you and me." He's the One I can hope in.
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