Faith Refresher (Part 2) Hope vs. Faith

(Heb 11:1 KJV)  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

This morning we continue our new series entitled, “Faith and Patience VOL III – Never Give Up!”  I received great responses to yesterday’s message, which provided a quick refresher on faith.  For a believer to live by faith, it’s obvious that he/she must know what it is.  I have taught several series’ on faith and there is an abundance of material on todaysword.org about it.  I was going to move on, but I felt led to share one more nugget that is relatively important to this series, and that is the difference between hope and faith.

Hope is ‘open-ended.’  What I mean by this is that hope is not necessary tied to anything.  People hope for lots of things.  You can hope to be successful in life, hope to be healed of a sickness, hope to be promoted, hope to repair a relationship, and etc.; but in its most basic form, this is no more than wishful thinking.  Lots of people hope and wish for things.  The difference is that faith adds substance to our hope.  Faith is connected to something that God said/promised to you, either through prayer, through someone else, or in His Word.  When we make the connection between what we hope for and what God promised us, then we can have faith (confidence) that it’s already done in the spirit realm and then it is only a matter of time before it manifests itself in the natural realm.  In other words, when we substantiate our hope with the Word of God, it adds another level of validity to what we are hoping for and we can cross over from hope to faith.

Here’s another important point.  Hope says, “I shall receive it tomorrow.”  Faith says, “I have it right now.”  While hope is focused on something that may happen some day, faith actually receives, when it believes and prays, even though the person praying knows that he/she may have to wait a long time before they see it come to pass in the natural realm.  Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).  Notice that Jesus said that we must believe that we have received it (past tense).  John said, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 Jn 5:14,15).  Notice that John said that we have (right now) what we ask of God, just as long as we are asking in accordance with His Will and a surefire way to ask in accordance with His Will is to ask in accordance with His Word!

So what does this mean to you today?  A few things:

1.  Hope is important because without it we will never believe God for anything.  But hope, in and of itself, is open-ended and not based upon anything substantial.

2.  Faith adds substance to our hope and it connects it to God’s Word or something God told us directly.

3.  Faith receives (supernaturally) when it prays, even though the person praying knows there may be a long time between the prayer and the earthly performance of it.

4.  Our goal is to have a faith that never gives up – which is the essence of this series.  If you give up and cast away your confidence before the manifestation of it, you will have a faith-failure.

5.  Many believers have had faith-failures, simply because they could not keep their faith switch in the “ON” position long enough to see (in the natural) what they saw in the spirit.

Closing Confession:  Father, I thank You for Your grace.  By Your grace I am able to live by faith.  You birth a hope in me that does not disappoint.  You are the God of Hope and my hope springs eternal.  I enter every day with an everlasting hope and I add substance to my hope with Your Word and through what You tell me directly and through others.  I am not expecting You to do anything that You have promised me You would.  However, I am expecting everything You promised me.  I pray, in faith, fully believing and receiving when I pray, and I hold on, no matter how long it takes, until I am able to see (with my natural eyes), what I have already seen (in the spirit).  I declare this by faith.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen!

This is Today’s Word!  Apply it and Prosper!