unwishful thinking
I watched Sod Roth with Ricardo Sanchez last night and something very interesting was said about hope. Sid asked Ricardo to tell about the difference between worldly hope and Kingdom hope. Ricardo said that worldly hope is from worldly desire for worldly things, but Biblical hope is the sure expectation of what will be in Christ's Kingdom. I saw that this touched on something my friend John H. taught us around 36 years ago. “The hope of the world is to wish it be so.” It is said “Wishing never made it so.” Worldly desires can arise our of desire for what God does not give, and we should know the difference between what God won’t give and what He longs that we receive! It will be perilous to wish to long and to passionately for what the world offers, for I fear one may will suppress the truth in the unrighteousness of desires and leave the Lord to obtain those unworthy things. Romans 1:18-32 ought to bring us to our knees often in HOPE OF, that is in prayerful faithful EXPECTATION OF our God’s true mercy and grace!
Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
They became vain in their imaginations? their wishes? In their desires? They had forgotten God, and lost the knowledge and relationship with God by which their hopes and desires could be pure, and for pure things. In their hope of what they might have apart from God in this world, they became vain, empty, and lost in the futility and frustration of that which is passing away.
Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
The hope of the believer is to expect the Kingdom, and anticipate it’s arrival, it’s becoming so, because IT IS coming !!!
Is it not this: in the unbelieving mind the imagination remains unconnected to the reality of the King and His Kingdom? Unbelievers imagine, wish for and get passionate about very dangerous and evil things! And they often obtain such things, everything from illicit sex, to dangerous drugs, to dangerous weapons, and even to dangerous occult powers. Is it that the devil responds to their wishes, their desires?
So perhaps we need to see hope in it's God approved context of righteous desire and expectation and everything else as lust for evil, corrupt and temporary things.
So perhaps we need to see hope in it's God approved context of righteous desire and expectation and everything else as lust for evil, corrupt and temporary things.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Are hope and faith not very close “cousins?” I think they are.
Another friend, John M. told me that a definition of the word “king” is “can do.” Jesus can do almost anything, except sin and deny Abba, Holy Spirit and Himself. In the Messiah our God can do... and often does more that we ask or imagine! Nonetheless, let us ask! Or will we rather “have not because we ask not”? (James 4) And when we ask we should expect, we should HOPE without doubt that our prayers are heard and answered! Otherwise why pray at all!
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
1 John 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Essentially the crisis is always one of faith. And the attack is always on our faith in the form of a question : “Hath God said...” An "amplified" version of satans question to Eve might read: “Do you really believe God said don’t eat from that tree. Look at the fruit, look Eve. You won’t die, that fruit will open your eyes, you will become like God and you will know everything!”
Now we need to be on our toes in the Holy Ghost , but think with me. satan gave Eve a hope, he gave her an expectation. And she bought it. And Adam bought it. And he literally “bought the farm.”
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:17-19
So there is a false hope offered by the god of this world, we call it the lie.
Expect an answer to your prayers, but be in Biblically grounded truth and the God ordained hope, not the false hope of satan and his propagandist lie spreaders!
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Expect a gift, and expect many gifts. God wants us rich in Spiritual gifts and generous with Spiritual Gifts, and He is not opposed to richness in material wealth, if we will not horde it! If we will be wise stewards, five talents will become 10 here and in this life and we should expect (hope for) this to happen.
I have expected that God would teach me, that the Holy Spirit would guide me into all truth, and He is doing this! I hoped for this when I had lost the expectation of receiving from man what only God can do (the King “can do” !!!) I came to see that if I did not get validation from God what men were teaching and preaching, I had no real relationship to the Master Teacher Jesus! I was not able to be made new in my mind solely by the words of men. Man cannot substitute for God for any of us. I hope He will teach you and renew your mind too. That is: I expect without any doubt at all that He will, all you must do is expect it. Do what ever He leads and commands to receive the holy substance of faith, and renewal in the mind of Christ. Not to wish for it and blow out a candle, but we must expect, we must hope for the substance, the real appearance of the substance of faith, your faith.Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
All our “christianese” “words” and “terms” are connected, though we tend to study them as isolated ideas. They are in fact like the 12 different fruits growing on ONE tree. Faith and Hope and power (by which God can do!), Love and holiness, salvation and sanctification, even covenant and dispensation, I believe others will occur to me later... grace, mercy, humility, meekness, goodness...
God is not schizophrenic. His mind is one mind (in three agreed Persons). We are made in the image of God and were created that we would be forever in His likeness. We were constructed architecturally to look like God looks. We were made that way to be vessels of His Spirit and as one body of the Messiah for every one of us to "house" His likeness. We should Hope for this, it is our sure expectation! I do and Jesus does! We should, we must HOPE for we are called for restoration, to the 100% flawless perfection Jesus planned and prophesied for us as believers from long before we appeared in life! His Faith and Hope and Power, Love and Holiness, Salvation and Sanctification, Covenants and Dispensations, Grace, Mercy, Humility, Meekness, Goodness... EXPECT THEM ALL! Count on it to be yours! They are your inheritance as children of God grafted into the great Assembly!
Expect them, if you are born again from above, for they were downloaded from heaven, and installed in your operating system. When God made all things new in you, in me, he deleted all the old things, we are scrubbed cleaner that any computer hard drive ever has been or ever will be! In the new creation, all the data, all the programs all the memory are in God’s perfect order and are available for use according to our need AND the needs of others, without limitation, expect that it IS SO!
What ever deceit trips us up, however hard we fall, our HOPE, NOT OUR WISH, OUR EXPECTATION IN FAITH is that the Lord will old us up!
Psalm 37:23-25
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
We are made good men and women by faith in Jesus, we KNOW Jesus the TRUTH and He is making us free from the law of sin and death and sustaining us in the law of the Spirit of Life in the Messiah. !!!!!!!!!!!!
What ever deceit trips us up, however hard we fall, our HOPE, NOT OUR WISH, OUR EXPECTATION IN FAITH is that the Lord will old us up!
Psalm 37:23-25
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
We are made good men and women by faith in Jesus, we KNOW Jesus the TRUTH and He is making us free from the law of sin and death and sustaining us in the law of the Spirit of Life in the Messiah. !!!!!!!!!!!!
The Lord has led me to Ephesians Ch. 4 in this moment and I find is so amazingly to the point! We need to EXPECT the truth of this chapter make us free, for the truth of it is Jesus and when we know the truth He makes us free! Free to live in the Spirit of God, in the Holy Perfect Spirit of God walking as holy perfect sons and daughters of God!
The chapter (as does the book and the whole Bible!) stands as an undivided work of Truth, which we must eat, for man shall not live by bread alone.
Verse 4 is the only mention of hope in the chapter, yet is is completely, fully, perfectly wedded and embedded into the whole of the message. Not only do we have a sure expectation, but we are called to life in the arrival of all the fulness of that hope, which is one hope, the hope of God from God, from the King of His Kingdom. If we will latch onto this hope, this unbreakable Promise of God in the faith of God, there is any reason to think that anything is this life will be more worthy than this Kingdom hope, this which is the sure expectation of unending and uninterrupted Glory in the Presence of God? “Thy Kingdom COME in earth as it IS in heaven” ought to, yes? no?- it ought to move from being our prayer to being our HOPE to being our reality as we live in Christ the truth.
Ephesians 4
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
