By: Peggy Kannaday

Faith is based on the substance of things hoped for. The substance then must come from the Holy Spirit of God because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

John 1:l In the beginning was the Word and the and the Word was God.

The Word of God reveals where our hope should rest. When we believe, trust and expect the Word to come true; our faith is birthed

Amos 8:11 There will come a famine for the hearing of God. The word will again become precious to the Christians. Hallelujah!

We need to hunger and thirst after God and His Word in order to be filled and to have our hunger and thirst satisfied.

The Word of God will be our constant source of hope. People will ask us for the reason for our hope in the days to come.

1 Peter 3:15, But sanctify the kind God in your heads: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

How do we sanctify our hearts? John 17 says to sanctify yourself through the Truth; The Word of God is truth.

WHERE IS YOUR HOPE? Search your hearts for your source of hope.

DO WE NEED TO WAIT FOR ANYTHING ELSE?

Psalm 39:7," And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee."

Our hope is in the Lord who made heaven and earth. He is our real future: our hope is in Him.

All other hope is misplaced!

Psalms 146:5, Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

WHAT IS HOPE?

ELPIS=EL PECE=HOPE BRINGS THE PBACE OF GOD.

Hope is the Opposite of Fear:

1.) Expectation of evil=Fear

2.) Expectation of good=Hope

3.) In the Christian sense hope is a joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.

4.) Hope is one of the 3 main elements for Godly Christian character ( 1 Cor. 13:13 ).

Hope works by love and with faith. Eccl. 4:12B, and a 3-fold cord is not quickly broken. Keep your priorities in order and keep the main things foremost.

5.) Hope is essential in the successful Christian life. We can hear or read the Word of God, but if we do not understand it, believe or expect it; the enemy can come and snatch it away.

6.) It is the whole glory of the Christian vocation or calling. What is glory? Col. l:27, Christ in you; the hope of glory. Glory=Doxa=Honor, praise, dignity, worship, majesty of the King who is the supreme Ruler, absolute perfection of the deity, most exalted state, and a thing belonging to Christ.

Ephesians 1:18, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

What is a calling? It is a divine invitation to embrace the salvation of God. What is salvation? It is deliverance, rescue, safety, welfare, prosperity of the soul, victory and preservation. A. W. Pink (4-fold salvation is being saved from the penalty, power, presence and most importantly the pleasure of sin).

7.) Jesus Christ is the center or object of the Christian's hope. God is the author and foundation of the things that are hoped for; in, through and by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

What do you need to have hope? The Holy Spirit in you, and when the Holy Spirit in you meets the Word of God which is God, then it becomes the living, life- transforming Power of God. This power is produced by faith, which is the evidence of things hoped for. Our hope must be in God, and then faith is produced.

Then the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.

WHY?

The truth about God is revealed in the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the Truth, the Way and the Life. When we have the truth quickened to our understanding; it produces hope and hope produces faith and faith activates God in our hearts. The power of God is then manifested in our lives.

Hallelujah!

Will hope ever disappoint you or cause you to be ashamed?

ROMANS 5:5 AND HOPE MAKETH NOT ASHAMED BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY GHOST WHICH IS GIVEN UNTO US.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF HOPE?

1.) IT PURIFIES-1 John 3:3, And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.

2.) IT ACKNOWLEDGES THE TRUTH-Titus 1:2, In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

3.) IT DELIVERS us from the earthly boundary as we know that we will be resurrected into new life someday: 1 Peter 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4.) HOPE BRINGS FAITH in the fact that the veil between ourselves has been rent in two by the blood of Jesus Christ. He died for our sins.

Hebrews 7:19, For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

5.) We EXPECT to have God dwelling within as we are His temple and through Him we can overcome the world. Hebrews 3:6, But Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Hope brings rejoicing in the midst of sorrow as we expect the best, and Jesus Christ is the best, and God has provided His best for us. He wants the best for us, and He is on our side. With Him all things are possible that are good for us.

6.) He is the SOURCE of all hope and then faith, and He is the reason for our love. 1 Timothy 1:1, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope:

He will never, never leave us and He will never forsake us. He is our firm, immovable foundation as we trust and hope in Him.

7.) HOPE COMES THROUGH GRACE. THE GRACE OF GOD.2-Thessalonians 2:16, Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.

8.) HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GOD?　1 Thessalonians 5:8, But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

The word 'Good' is mentioned 655 times in the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. God is good as it tells us in 1 John 4:8, he that loveth not knoweth not God and God is love. Love produces goodness. 1 John 4:16, he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Genesis 50:20, But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Exodus 14:14, The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

Deuteronomy 20:4, For the LORD your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

Jer. 24:6, For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

Jer. 24:7, And I will give them an heart to know Me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be My people, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.

Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

James 1:17, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

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

HOPE IS THE KEY TO FAITH. WE MUST STUDY THE WORD EXPECTING THE GOOD IN IT TO BECOME A REALITY.

We can't have faith without hope, and we can't have hope without the HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRED WORD OF GOD.

Psa. 27:13, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Jer. 29:11, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.