Question and answer Wednesday...
Serenity asked…
Explain the difference between hope and faith.
This is a whopper. I had a whole lot more wrote here but Iwent above and beyond her general question. However, this is a good one. I messed this one up for years. Granted I had some faith accidents, but I could never duplicate them.
I start of course with my little disclaimer--I am no expert…I am sharing not only what I have been taught but also what works in my life. There is so much to this question so I’ll do my best to highlight the most important things.
Faith is the law and process in which we operate in to cause the promises in the word of G-d to show up in our lives. They just don’t show up because we are in covenant with G-d. If that were true then all of us that are saved would all be living on the same level. However, most us live well below what G-d desired for us and promised to us. It's largely due to not klnowing what he promised and not knowing how to operate in faith.
Hope, to me, is thinking that something will happen without really doing anything for it to happen. It’s when we really haven’t planned or prepared or made adjustments in our life for things to take place. It’s commonly known as “Pipe-Dreaming”.
Believe it or not faith requires a great deal of work because it requires that you establish the word concerning what you are believing G-d for in your life. There is a scripture for every need in the word. Faith requires that you sow that word concerning your desire every day. I have been taught to sow that word in the morning and in the evening according to Ecclesiastes 11:6 because Mark 8:11 says that the seed is the word of G-d. It’s more than simply thinking that something will happen because it’s in the bible. It requires renewing the mind because we don’t simply believe something because we heard it one time. We have to sow that word over and over into our minds until it becomes pregnant in our spirits. That whole process changes the way we think, act and most importantly speak.
This is where most of us mess it up. We say we believe but we speak contrary to the word concerning things. If you are believing G-d for wealth, you can’t say “I’m broke” and expect faith to work for you. If you are without finances, you still confess being rich because that's what G-d says. You can't allow your circumstances to change the way you think or your confession. If you are believing G-d for healing you can’t say I’m sick--which we aren’t supposed say anyway according to Isaiah 33:24. Our words have to line up with what we are believing. Otherwise we slow up our manifestation when we fail to do so.
Faith causes us to move when we are scared to do anything other than what we have already been doing. It requires action on our part. Hope sits still. We hope it will change because G-d is in control. (Which is a misconception--but that's another post as well).
Now, I don’t want to get all deep into the message since I understand that we all operate differently. So I just gave you the basics. There is so much more to operating in faith. So many other things that determine whether you are just hoping instead of genuinely believing I.e. operating in faith.
I hope this was a good answer. If you need more, I have it. I just didn't post it all.
Be Blessed.
Chosen.
