REJOICING IN HOPE
(week 50/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
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1Thessalonians 5:16-18 KJV: Rejoice evermore. (17) Pray without ceasing. (18) In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Habbakuk 3:17-18 KJV: Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: (18) Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
In these scriptures above, we are instructed to rejoice for evermore even when there is nothing to rejoice about: when nothing seems to be going right symbolized by lack of fruit in the fig and vine trees, harvest from fields and cattle in the stalls.
How then can we rejoice in such dismal situations?
By rejoicing in hope.
Romans 12:12 KJV: Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Hope is what God, who is love (1 Jn. 4:8,16), desires to give us but which is not yet manifest or seen:
Romans 8:24-25 MKJV: For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? (25) But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience.
The exercise of faith in prayer in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer and travail (Eph. 6:18, Rom. 8:26 and Heb. 5:7-9) and confession of the Word, release creative power that will give substance to hope to make hope become a physical reality and experience.
Hebrews 11:1 MKJV: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:3 NKJV: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
God’s invisible creative power creates and brings into visible, physical manifestation what we hope for when we pray and speak God’s Word in faith.
Finally, corresponding actions motivated and directed by the love of God then deliver to us or cause us to physically possess and experience the hope faith has given substance to and thus created.
James 2:17 AMP: So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
Galatians 5:6 AMP: For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.
So faith delivers the reality of what is hoped for after giving substance and physical reality to it through works or actions motivated, energized and expressed by love.
James 2:22 NIV: You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
So the three eternal attributes of God: hope, faith and love work in synchrony and synergy to make hope become a reality and experience.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Love is the greatest because it is love that gives birth to hope, motivates and instructs faith and delivers what faith creates. So love is the origin and end of hope and faith!
In our article next week, we will examine the 3 levels of hope and how hope will cause us to rejoice evermore.
