Posts Tagged ‘expectation’
Kenneth Copeland — More Than Wishful Thinking
Posted by admin | Filed under Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Understand this, though. When I say hope, I’m not talking about the weak, wishful thinking kind of attitude most people call hope. Real, Bible hope isn’t a wish. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for….” There’s no room for faith in wishing! For example, take the statement, “I sure do wish God would bless me financially.” There’s no place in that statement for faith. It just won’t plug in anywhere.
The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed….” If you’ll look up the two Greek words translated earnest expectation and hope, you’ll find they’re two different words that both mean the same thing. So hope is earnest expectation.
There’s plenty of room for faith in earnest expectation. Say, for instance, “I earnestly expect to receive financial blessings. I earnestly expect to be free from poverty.” Faith can plug right into that statement. It just follows naturally. Faith becomes the substance of that statement.
Someone might ask, “How can you so intensely expect to prosper when the unemployment rate is up and the economy is down?” You can answer, “What I’m earnestly expecting isn’t dependent on the world’s economy. It’s based on what God has promised in His covenant. Because He said it, I earnestly expect it!”
Can you hear the faith in those words? Certainly! Real, Bible hope just opens the door so faith can walk right in!
Why don’t we see more of that kind of hope in the Body of Christ? Because it is born out of the promises of God’s covenant. And most Christians are using their believing faculties to believe in some sort of religious system that men have designed instead of believing the Word of God. Despite the fact that they’re born again with the seed of hope inside them, baptized in the Holy Spirit and walking around with a Bible tucked under their arm, they’ve become strangers to the covenants of promise.
You can tell those folks that 2 Corinthians 8:9 says Jesus became poor so we might be rich and they’ll answer, “Oh, yes, amen. I know it says that, brother. But I just don’t know whether to take the Bible literally or not.”
The reason they don’t know whether or not to take the Bible literally is because they’re not spending any time in the Word as a covenant. That’s what the word testament means. Did you know that? The New Testament is the new covenant! It’s not some kind of religious book. It’s God’s will and testament written down. It’s a covenant of promise God’s blood-sworn oath.
I want you to imagine for a moment that you made a blood covenant with someone. You both cut your wrists, bound your hands together, mixed your blood and swore an oath to each other in your own blood. That would be serious, wouldn’t it?
You know it would! But you have a covenant even more serious than that with Almighty God. It’s a covenant ratified not by the tainted blood of a sinful man, but by the sinless blood of Jesus.
I’ve meditated on that fact until it’s real to me. So when I pick up the New Testament, I’m not just reading a history book. I’m reading a copy of God’s will and testament and in my mind, I have Jesus by the hand and His blood is flowing down my wrist. Once you get a revelation like that, hope is no problem!
Gloria Copeland
