Faith

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Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when the desire comes, it is a tree of
life.”

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HEART DIS-EASE:
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Many people today in the body of Christ are walking around with heart ‘dis-ease,’ other wise known as “hope deferred.” They look like they have their act together. After all, they sing in the choir or on the worship team where they can shout and praise the Lord with the best of them. They smile. They jump and dance. They do all the right moves that would suggest to anyone looking on that they are spiritual beings full of life. But are they? Do they have it all together? What’s really going on behind the smile and the shout? If you leave the church feeling empty and lifeless on the inside, this is a good indication that you’re experiencing hope deferred.

Many of God’s children come into church on Wednesday night and Sunday mornings wearing a mask of smile’s and hallelujah’s to hide behind. But behind the mask, they’re dying inside from hope deferred. They have a heart that is in dis-ease and they are tired. They are so tired and so weary of keeping up the front. Of carrying the load of themselves, their life and families among many other things. They’re tired of dreaming of a better day for their life, their family, their business, their ministry, their marriage, etc. They’re tired of visions and talk of destiny that never seems to come to pass. They’re just plain tired. They are experiencing hope deferred.

When hope deferred sets in, you’re not able to win in life, let alone run and finish your race here on this earth. You’ve become too tired to keep going---to even try. Hope deferred causes heart dis-ease, either physically or spiritually and hinders you from running your race effectively. Sometimes, you don’t even want to continue in this race.

Heart dis-ease will causes discontentment. It causes you to run out of steam quickly, like a person with actual heart disease gets out of breath when theres too much exertion. You need a fresh infusion of the “zoe” life of God to flood your being and revive you. You need a personal revival of the fire of the Holy Ghost. Prov.4:20-23, talks about “life being in God’s Word and how it’s health to all your flesh.” God’s Word is medicine for the ailing heart thats suffering from hope deferred. When consistently applied over time, it will cause new life and health to spring forth.

The loss of hope is crippling, often causing a person to lose the will to live. A person with no hope feels like they have nothing to live for and many people, saved and unsaved comtemplate suicide. Some actually go through with taking their life. They feel that their life is woth nothing. But your life is very precious to God because He’s the One who gave you the gift of life in the first place. He is the life-giver. Satan is the theif who comes to steal your life and kill you in the process if he can (John 10:10). You are very precious to God and His desire is that you have an abundance of His life and blessings that Jesus came to give you.

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WHAT IS BIBLICAL HOPE?
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The Bible’s definition of hope is earnest expectation, confidence, assurance, trust, boldness, saftey and refuge.

Bible hope is not a wish. It’s a vital life-line of connection to God, our heavenly Father as we abide in Jesus and His Words abide in us. Abiding in Jesus as the Living Word of God is to live in continual ‘hope’ because He is our “living hope.” It’s to be in continual expectation, assurance and trust.

Hope is to have a dream or a vision dropped into your spirit by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, “Without a vision, the people persih”(Proverbs 29:18). Hope is striving (pressing toward) after something of substance. Hope is to persue after, to gain something, to go all out for. Like Paul said, “I’m pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil.3:14-15). Paul set his hope, his expectation and he went all out to keep pressing forward to gain the prize of glory in Christ Jesus.

Unless we have a vision of God fulfilling His promises to us...
Unless we have a dream of God manifesting His goodness in our lives each day...
Unless we’re persuing after God with the expectation of obtaining what we’ve been promised through a prophetic word...
Then, we have no hope.
Our situation then, is hopeless because you believe it is and as long as this is your expectation, there is no substance of faith working (Heb.11:1).

Hope is taking what God promised in His Word as the absolute truth. If God said it, you really can believe and trust Him. You can know (be fully persuaded) that He will do what He promised. And in light of that, you need to say with hope and faith, “He will do it for me.”

Hope is putting trust in God and in His Word.
Faith is going to God with His Word and expecting Him to do what He promised. (He watches over His word to perform it).

What happens when a person lose’s sight of hope? You’ve lost sight of Jesus and you’re now focused more earnestly on something else.

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SYMPTOMS OF HOPE DEFERRED:
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(these can be to different degrees and in different forms in different people)

1-Discouragement--(without confidence, hope, or spirit, to hamper, to deter)

2-Depression---(feeling sad, hollow, inability to concentrate, insomina, or too much sleep, feeling
dejected and hopelessness).

3-Doubt---(to be skeptical, uncertain, a lack of trust, a wavering--James 1:6-7).

4-Cynicism---(One who looks more at the negative instead of the positive. Tends to believe that
bad in thew world outweighs the good.

5-Grief---(Deep mental anguish, sorrow, annoyance ot frustration).

6-Suicidal tendencies---(a person who is in despair and who has lost complete hope).

HOPE DEFERRED PRODUCES:

1-Isolation--(retreat from life and people).
2-Fear
3-Unbelief
4-Loss of passion

Hope deferred “imprisons the soul” (mind, will, emotions). Psalm 142:3-4,7

SOME CAUSES OF HOPE DEFERRED:

1-The death of a loved one
2-A failed marriage, or several, or one that never occured
3-A business that failed---you built it but people didn’t come
4-Family members still unsaved
5-A promise from someone not kept (keep your word)
6-Betrayal---(affair, broken trust of confidence in person)
7-Rejection---of you blatantly, of your work, your gifting
8-False accusation---lies of gossip spread through the body about you
(David experienced this kind of thing)
9-A brave fight of faith that you seemingly lost---such as praying for a person’s healing and they
die anyway.
10-Destiny that seems lost---due to age, past, family, financial circumstances, etc.

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IT ISN’T WORKING!
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We have the infallible word of God but many times, we feel like it isn’t working in our lives the way God says it will. Then we feel shame and condemnation because we dare to question God about His Word. But the answers we seek are in His Word. His powerful word that we feel like isn‘t working. The strategies we need to be victorious in warfare and for daily living in God’s blessings are there in His Word. “If you will be obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” We continue to read about the blessings and promises of God coming to pass for others but they don’t seem to be working for you.

Something is wrong. What is it we ask? You conclude that something is wrong with you. Thus, we believe that we’re defective (just a failure, can’t do anything right) and we feel hopeless because the devil says we are and we‘ve believed it. But the devil is a liar! The Bible PLAINLY says, “we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works that were prepared for us to walk in before the foundation of the world”(Eph.2:10). God did not create defective people. You were created in the image and likeness of God almighty and that makes you top quality just like your Father God. Chances are, we’ve probably gotten off track somewhere in our journey but that doesn’t make us defective.

When you accept the lie that there is something wrong with you, it often will bring a heaviness upon your heart. It will seem like a dark cloud of gloom and doom, which is really depression that settles down over you like a blanket. Now, along with the feeling of defectiveness is the feeling and belief that you are such a failure. It becomes hard at times to put one foot in front of the other one to keep going. It seems almost like an impossible effort. Just to go on living becomes a tremendous struggle.

A person who reaches this point is in despair and they are struggling to keep the will to live alive. You would desparately just like to run away from it all because you feel like you will break apart and shatter into a million pieces if just one more thing comes that you have to deal with. You feel like you can’t handle one more problem that smacks you in the face and reminds you of hope deferred and put’s your heart in dis-ease.

Hope deferred is when the dream dies or when, if its still there, its mixed with fear. If it now hurts when you think about the dream God gave you and it seems like it‘ll never come to pass, you may be experiencing hope deferred.

If passion has all but left and you feel weakened spiritually, emotionally and mentally,
or if apathy (I don’t care--whatever) has settled in, hope deferred is probably at work.

INDICATIONS OF HOPE DEFERRED:

1-If disappointment seems stronger in your life than joy
2-If tears come to your eyes when you think of a certain person
3-If you can’t go to some particular place in your mind and heart without discomfort or negative
emotion.
4-If the promise (whatever it may be) sparks disillusionment or cynicism instead of faith.
5-If the statement, “God is going to come through for you” is met with doubt and questioning,
even anger, then you’re probably in the stages of hope deferred to whatever degree it may be.

GOOD OR BAD:

Experiencing hope deferred doesn’t make you bad, doomed, weak, an outcast, one who’s washed up, or unspiritual. Practically speaking, it makes you ‘human.’ A human being who has a need. There are no super spiritual people on planet earth. Just human beings who have been supernaturally born again by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit working with the Word and the blood of Jesus. All born again believers are going through the same process by the Spirit of God, Who’s at work with the Word and the blood in us to comform us, and transform us more into the image of Christ.

PROGRESSION OF HOPE DEFERRED:

1-Discouragement---the early stage
2-Confusion---(God is author of peace. Instead of warring with them, you question your dreams, destiny, prupose, God, etc.)
3-Unbelief---At this stage hope is lost and expectation gone along with your joy and peace.
4-Disillusionment---the first stage of bitterness, which usually involves questioning God’s
character (God, if you loved me, you wouldn‘t let me suffer).
5-Bitterness---In this stage there is deep feelings of resentment and we blame God and others
for whats wrong.
6-Cynicism---A complete loss of faith and hope---a dead heart (God‘s going to do ‘that‘ for me?
yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see it).
(to continue)

Plain As Day Ministries

Shirley Williams

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