Romans 8
24 For
we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees,
why does he yet hope for?
25 But
if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
When someone wants to argue that hope does not precede faith, it is usually a religious spirit that has blinded them to the truth. A religious spirit does not want to do a work of faith, they want to do works of duty. They are duty oriented instead of faith oriented. A good example is when Jesus said to the Pharisees:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matt 23:23
People with a religious spirit want to dot every i, and cross every t, and they will break the commandments of God to persecute anyone that does not do the same. They will overlook mercy, justice, and faith to talk against those who fail to dot every i and cross every t. They consider themselves better than these law breakers who forgot to dot their i's and cross their t's. They strain out the gnats, but swallow a camel in the process! These people are educated like the pharisees, prideful like the pharisees, and want to haggle over every minor jot of the Word of God. We need to let go of the haggling over words, and learn to love people again! They claim to know the deeper things of God like the Pharisees, they have a problem with unlearned men, thinking somehow that their schooling has qualified them to quarrel the finer points of the law. Who am I describing? I am describing the Pharisees of both Jesus' day, and the Pharisee's of today!
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matt 23:23
People with a religious spirit want to dot every i, and cross every t, and they will break the commandments of God to persecute anyone that does not do the same. They will overlook mercy, justice, and faith to talk against those who fail to dot every i and cross every t. They consider themselves better than these law breakers who forgot to dot their i's and cross their t's. They strain out the gnats, but swallow a camel in the process! These people are educated like the pharisees, prideful like the pharisees, and want to haggle over every minor jot of the Word of God. We need to let go of the haggling over words, and learn to love people again! They claim to know the deeper things of God like the Pharisees, they have a problem with unlearned men, thinking somehow that their schooling has qualified them to quarrel the finer points of the law. Who am I describing? I am describing the Pharisees of both Jesus' day, and the Pharisee's of today!
It is so tiring to walk into a church service full of hope, and then leave feeling worse than you walked in, because there is a Pharisee in the pulpit that only knows how to preach the law, void of any of the grace, love and mercies of the Spirit. The pulpits of America are full of these ministers, that are quick to dismiss and discredit anyone who would dare to preach faith, hope, love or mercy! Jesus said this about them:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whitewashed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27
But how can we recognize these modern day hypocrites? They have the same attributes of the Pharisee in Jesus day, they attack people by name. They are fault finders, that are not satisfied with just preaching the Word, like I have done in this blog, and letting the Words fall wherever they lay. These fault finders go after people personally, by name, persecuting, and trying to destroy with personal attacks, just like they did to Jesus. Looking at people around them, trying to find something to trip them up, or to catch them at fault in either doctrine, deed or word, so that they can personally accuse them before other men. They have not the love nor the spirit of God, but have a religious spirit like the Pharisee. On the outside they look like the model Christian, they follow all the 'thou shalt nots' in the Bible to the T. They are threatened by anyone that carries the true anointing of God, and will attack it immediately, considering the real anointing, beneath them, they are too educated and dignified to partake of the real anointing of God. They certainly don't want mankind to be full of hope, because hope doesn't require education and endless haggling over the law to partake of. The truth is one man full of hope (Jesus) can do more than 100 educated men that want to spend their days haggling over every little letter of the law of God.
Does hope precede faith? As stated in the verse above, hope that is seen, is not hope at all. If we wait until we see evidence of God, and then that gives us hope, that is not hope at all, because we had proof evidence before the hope came. Hope is what sustains us, when we have no proof, no evidence. Once we are healed, it is no big DEAL that we are hopeful after that because the trial is over, the evidence of our healing is sound. Once we are saved if we are hopeful after that, it is no great thing, because everyone gets hope after they get saved. If we have a financial difficulty, and God gives us the finances to cover it, who doesn't have hope after they have seen the answer arise. That is NO BIG DEAL. But, when we are like Abraham, and against ALL HOPE, yet, in HOPE we believe, now we have reason to be commended before God! If you have a trial in your life, don't let depression steal your hope and don't let some Pharisee get you down either. Rise up and put your hope in God! Let that hope give you energy, excitement and perseverance! As the psalmist said:
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whitewashed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27
But how can we recognize these modern day hypocrites? They have the same attributes of the Pharisee in Jesus day, they attack people by name. They are fault finders, that are not satisfied with just preaching the Word, like I have done in this blog, and letting the Words fall wherever they lay. These fault finders go after people personally, by name, persecuting, and trying to destroy with personal attacks, just like they did to Jesus. Looking at people around them, trying to find something to trip them up, or to catch them at fault in either doctrine, deed or word, so that they can personally accuse them before other men. They have not the love nor the spirit of God, but have a religious spirit like the Pharisee. On the outside they look like the model Christian, they follow all the 'thou shalt nots' in the Bible to the T. They are threatened by anyone that carries the true anointing of God, and will attack it immediately, considering the real anointing, beneath them, they are too educated and dignified to partake of the real anointing of God. They certainly don't want mankind to be full of hope, because hope doesn't require education and endless haggling over the law to partake of. The truth is one man full of hope (Jesus) can do more than 100 educated men that want to spend their days haggling over every little letter of the law of God.
Does hope precede faith? As stated in the verse above, hope that is seen, is not hope at all. If we wait until we see evidence of God, and then that gives us hope, that is not hope at all, because we had proof evidence before the hope came. Hope is what sustains us, when we have no proof, no evidence. Once we are healed, it is no big DEAL that we are hopeful after that because the trial is over, the evidence of our healing is sound. Once we are saved if we are hopeful after that, it is no great thing, because everyone gets hope after they get saved. If we have a financial difficulty, and God gives us the finances to cover it, who doesn't have hope after they have seen the answer arise. That is NO BIG DEAL. But, when we are like Abraham, and against ALL HOPE, yet, in HOPE we believe, now we have reason to be commended before God! If you have a trial in your life, don't let depression steal your hope and don't let some Pharisee get you down either. Rise up and put your hope in God! Let that hope give you energy, excitement and perseverance! As the psalmist said:
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5
