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Step 1:
'Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the
message is heard through the word about Christ.' (Romans 10:17)
Faith comes from hearing the message which
is heard through the word about Christ. Faith can ONLY be germinated in us when we hear the message through the word about
Christ. Some people never have faith because they never try to hear the
messages of God or they don't even consider what God tells them.
During some of the darkest times of my
life, I would often call one of my best friends, Barnard, to seek advice.
And since he knew me well, he would always start our conversation with
the question: 'Atta, what is God telling you?'
He knew my ability to hear from God...
And this is the same question I am asking
(especially if you are experiencing troubles): ' what is God telling
you?'
One of the reasons why James tells to pray during times of affliction (reference
James 5:13) is to seek a word from God. After all, prayer is supposed to
be the conversation. The word you will hear during prayer time will germinate
faith in you.
Step 2
'Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)
The germinated message you heard will
create a substance. And in turn, the substance will create Hope. Once
you hear the message from God, there will be Hope. Hope fuels the
willingness to expect from the future. Hope fuels the willingness to look
ahead into tomorrow.
By speaking to you, God even goes further by creating a picture in your
spirit. That picture is 'the evidence not seen to the naked eye'. For
example, in the Old Testament, God would often describe the Promised Land
as the 'Land of Milk and Honey'. By describing it that way, He wanted to
place a picture in the Spirit of His people. That picture is the evidence
not seen to the naked eye'.
Not only you need Hope, but you also need
evidence in the form of a picture planted in your spirit. When God spoke
to Abraham about his descendants, He also used the stars and seashore
sands as descriptive pictures (evidence) of the promise (reference
Genesis 22:17).
Sometimes, the problem with many is in the
fact that they are 'Hope experts' but they never have a picture planted
in their spirits. Hope is important but it has to be combined with a
picture.
This is my question to you:'beyond hope,
what is the picture planted in your spirit?'
It is important to have the evidence(picture)
in your spirit because life will throw real physical images seen through
the news or circumstances. And during those times, you will need the
'evidence' (picture) from God to refute and contrast what reality will
project.
Step 3.
'Faith without works
is dead'(James 2:26)
Activate.
In James 2:14-26, the Bible says a good number of things about faith.
You see, my friend, for years after my
conversation, I lived with the hope that things would change and progress
just because. It is a good thing to hope but it can become dangerous to
adopt permanent and perpetual residence in Hope. The Children of Israel
had Hope for better tomorrows while in the desert but they refused to
step up by fighting for the land. It was okay to hear about the 'Land of
Milk and Honey' but when it was time to fight, they were afraid.
Here is another example illustrating the danger of adopting perpetual
residence in Hope: 'When Jesus came to Israel, most Jewish refused to
recognize Him as the Messiah and instead, they decided to reside in the
hope another messiah. Till today they are hoping.
The reason why so many of the visions and
dreams given by God don't come to past is because the receivers are using
'dead faith'. Hope is good, but the Bible does not say that faith becomes
alive through hope.
Faith becomes alive with works (reference James 2:26).
As much as we believe in the existence of
God, demons believe too! But the works of faith are a differentiator
between them and us.
This is where the line between heroes and villains is drawn.
Just like the Jewish people of Israel, we
can remain stuck in one place by adopting Hope as a perpetual
residence. It took me years of understanding the following
principle:' Hope is good and necessary, but strategies are found in
faith and love'.
Rick Page and professor Akande were right
to say:'Hope is not a strategy'.
It is possible to dwell so much in hope to
the point of thinking that you are advancing...while you are not.
'Hope fuels the desire to look towards the
future. But when we live in faith, we DO according to what God says.
Faith turns into reality the picture planted by God in our spirits.
Raise the level from Hope to Faith
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