Category: Hope

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The Lord sees us

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him. Do you want to be healed?( John 5:6)

The Lord was actually asking this man if he was willing to pay the price for good health. He was asking if he was willing to part with the sin that put him in the condition he was in.

Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. This is what He said to him after he saw him in the temple, following healing him. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”(John 5:14)

The man did not comprehend this. The sick man answered, “Sir, I have no one here to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am trying to get in, somebody else gets there first. (John 5:7)

This man was disgruntled. His entire efforts of getting in the pool were thwarted. Pain and suffering has a tendency of making us selfish and self centered. Everyone at this pool was pursuing their own healing. This man was seeking assistance from individuals who were incapable of such a task which unveils his state of mind. The mind is designed such that when we hold a conscious or subconscious belief in our minds, to seek experiences congruent with that belief, establishing a form of confirmation bias and proving us right.Our minds will specifically tailor and seek out these experieces for us on the basis of our belief . Our beliefs set the stage for our experiences. Succinctly, you experience what you believe. Hence the Lord said all things are possible to him who believes. He was  goading us to believe correctly. 

 It did not dawn on this man that those present were likewise, invalids just as he was, yet he was offended by their lack of courtesy. His illness affected his judgment. The fact that he was expecting aid from these individuals indicated that he was entitled, blaming them evidenced a sense of self pity and pride. We cannot demand assistance from anyone, even when we are ill. This man sounded offended. 

The wounded soul

When we sin and remain impenitent, it gives the enemy a foothold and an opening. Consequently, he can attack us and that includes making us sick. Sin wounds the soul, giving the enemy legal grounds to attack. It is quite common for an internal soul-wound to give way to a physical ailment. Conversely, the trauma associated with a prolonged physical illness often results in the wounding of the soul.Of course, not all sickness is a consequence of sin. 

When an area of our lives is affected by sickness or otherwise, we are required to guard the other healthy areas.  

This mans circumstances necessitated  the Lord to make him whole.  Not only was he infirmed in his physical body, his perception and mindset required His healing touch. His soul was wounded. The Lord needed to empower him to stand on his own again and regain his independence. Hence, he told him to pick up his mat and walk. He did not offer to help him to get up. 

This man was at the pool just as everybody else due to it being the avenue that was provided for healing. Yet,this was not yielding the desired outcome. The Lord provided another way for him to attain freedom. 

Suffice it to say, sickness possesses the capacity to warp a person’s mindset and paradigm when precautionary measures are not exercised. Subsequently, more measures will be required to attain wellness and wholeness, as observed with this man who required wholeness and not healing alone. 

There is a story cited in Evangelist Diga Hernandez’s book, Carriers of the glory, becoming a friend of the Holy Spirit. He held a crusade with his unnamed prophet friend and a woman who looked utterly hopeless, wallowing in her illness was in the prayer line. He was ministering to one individual when he glanced at her. He then thought to himself that he will minister to her next. When he got to her and wanted to pray, the woman said she wanted to die. He wanted to pray for healing however the Holy Spirit halted him and said she required a prophetic word first. Diga does not possess the gift of prophecy so they went to his prophet friend who prophesied accurately to this woman. He told her everything that she revealed to Diga when they were conversing. Subsequently, Diga prayed for her and she was healed instantaneously. 

When this man was pursuing his healing and failing at every attempt, Jesus saw him. The Lord sees us in our struggles. He met him where he was. He did not give up thus the Lord created an alternative way for him. Nobody could assist him but God. We at times may despair due to people forsaking us . Yet, this story reminds us that even when others forsake us or their aid fails to alter our situation,as it was with this man who was brought to the pool only to fend for himself, the Lord remains able to intervene where our circumstance is impregnable. He can still make a way where there is ostensibly no way. 

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Wait upon the Lord

I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait i say on the Lord-(Psa 27:13-14) Believers will inevitably encounter seasons of waiting in their Christian walk. The Bible says there is a season for everything under the sun. It is doctrinal fallacy to presuppose that the Lord’s victory equates to immediate reception of all His promises in the present moment. That is unscriptural. Many can attest to having  prayed prayers that the Lord has not answered to date. Rest assured, the Lord hears your prayers. His eyes are on the righteous and His ears are open to hearing their cries(Psa 34:15). The Bible says through faith and patience we obtain the promises. Do not feel condemned by these false teachings.

Many people in the Bible waited. Our Lord had to wait until He was 30 years old to start His ministry.Joseph had to wait 13 years while Abraham had to wait for 25 years.David waited 12 years. Waiting is not a sin nor does it mean that the Lord has abandoned or rejected you. He says I will never leave you nor forsake you(Heb 13:5). Waiting however can induce exhaustion to the soul, causing it to grow weary and to resort to poignant longing for withheld provisions.

What do we do in these moments?

The Lord says ” For I will satisfy the longing soul and every languishing soul I will replenish( Jer 31:25). For He satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things( Psa 107:9). Remind the Lord of who He has promised to be for you in these moments. He has promised that these moments of waiting will not leave us depleted. 

Why does the Lord make us wait?

  • To refine our character.
  • To prepare us for what He has prepared for us.
  • He heals deep wounds
  • We are given a new perspective and paradigm to assist us with the next chapter He is bringing

To excise traces of self dependence and to teach us to depend on Him

  • It exposes our human limitations as we are placed in a vulnerable position where our aid can only come from God
  • It fosters growth
  • During this time the Lord unearth’s hidden sins and iniquities that may hinder what He has prepared for us thus, He delivers us from it
  • He challenges our limiting beliefs and faulty mindsets.
  • He is going before us to make the crooked places straight(Isa 45:2)..
  • He imparts wisdom and gives us understanding.

What do we do as we wait?

We wait and hope. Our wait should not distress us. At this juncture of our journey in Christ, hope in the Lord provides luminosity amidst obscurity. Feast on the Lord. The Lord is your portion( Lam 3:24)Believe in the goodness of the Lord. Don’t permit your circumstance to vilify or besmirch His character. Trust that He is working out all things for your good. It is Charles Spurgeon who said “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken And when we can’t see the Lord’s hand we must trust His heart”.

Serve or use your gifts to glorify Him.

This season demands an intentional deepening of spiritual roots and a rigorous resistance against the adversary’s attempts to utilize material lack as a catalyst for spiritual estrangement. Resist him. Don’t permit worldly assets or the lack thereof to take your Lord away from you. We are but sojourners in this earthly realm. Our home country is Heaven.

This earth is transient, it is passing away. The Lord said Heaven and earth will pass away..(Matt 24:35). So do not leave the Lord because He is “tarrying to move on your behalf”.  He says at the right time I will make it happen ( Isa 60:22). We must remember to fix our gaze on Him and not the perceived delay. The Word that was planted among thorns  was choked by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches,making that one unfruitful(Matt 13:22). We need to exercise caution and ensure that our desires don’t make us unfruitful. The cup bearer and chief baker found Joseph in prison yet they left ahead of him. They were in prison for a short while. Sometimes we wait long because our purpose demands it. Joseph’s wait was longer than his fellow prisoners because his purpose was far greater. The Lord does not desire for the blessing to swiftly morph into a curse and destroy us. He ensures that our shoulders are fortified to carry the blessing with grace.

Pragmatic insights

To navigate this season, one should refrain from social media if it breeds comparison, jealousy, or covetousness. Focus on your unique path. Do not compare your life to anyone else’s. Petition the Lord for mercy and grace to get through the wait. Pray and intercede for others. This will assist in prohibiting us from getting self absorbed in the wait. Resist the urge to resort to ungodly ways that contradict scripture in order to railroad the miracle to occur. We must not abandon our posts or succumb to ungodly desires out of impatience, for settling for less is a rejection of the Lord’s best.  

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Called to hope against hope


Believers are called to go against the grain. We are called to dare to believe in the face of dismay and hopelessness. Where this world reaches a terminal point of potential, believers are not halted but empowered to proceed. Rom 15:13 says may the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Hope is a gasoline for faith. It fuels it so that we may proceed to remain tethered through faith and not be tossed back and forth. Paul says, “I know in whom I have believed” (2Tim1:12). Romans 4 says of Abraham that he hoped against hope. He looked at his physical body and he refused to succumb to discouragement and remained steadfast. Such a place is available for the one who hopes in the Lord. For the believer, there exists a cushion of hope in the center of hopelessness. It is written; light dawns in the dark for the upright, for the gracious, merciful and righteous (Psa 112:4)


Benefits of hoping against hope

⦁ Hope is like oxygen to the lungs of the believer. It is life giving
⦁ It provides buoyancy so that we are not swallowed up by tribulation and adversity.
⦁ It maintains health. It is a shield against disease and health complications that accompanies hopelessness such as migraines, tension in the shoulders, stress, depression etc.
⦁ It fortifies the resolve to live despite facing adversity
⦁ It shields us from destruction that befalls the hopeless such as poor decision making due to desperation.
⦁ It facilitates dependency on the Lord
⦁ It permits us to be sustained by the Lord
⦁ It fortifies our faith, ensuring that we please the Lord for without faith it is impossible to please Him
⦁ It shields us from bitterness
⦁ It strengthens us to proceed with our walk of faith despite opposition
⦁ It helps us to assist others even while our own trial persists. We see this in the life of Joseph. Though he was in prison, he interpreted dreams for the cup-bearer and chief baker (Gen 40)
⦁ It maintains joy
⦁ It protects us from a hardened heart
⦁ We engage in warfare when we have hope and the enemy loses the battle. His arrows of hopelessness fall to penetrate our heart.
⦁ Hope permits the Lord to be with us in the valley and reveal Himself. It is in the trenches of hopelessness that hope enlightens our eyes to see the truth concerning the Lord in light of the hopelessness. Hopelessness opens the door to lies that blame the Lord.
⦁ Those that see the Lord in hopelessness through the eyes of hope, tend to have faith that is not easily shaken. It is the believer who rarely faces hopelessness that tends to have weak faith
⦁ Hope strengthens us to face future adversity boldly because we have seen the Lord in the valley.
⦁ It helps us to proceed seeking the Lord’s face and maintain our relationship with Him
⦁ Hope positions us to obtain the promises of God. It aids us in staying and proceeding in position until we obtain the promise.I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living( Psa 27:13)

How do we have hope again when we have lost it and hope deferred has made our heart sick


⦁ Read the Word.As faith comes by hearing the Word of God, our hope is subsequently reinflated
⦁ Be candid with the Lord regarding how you feel
⦁ Encourage your soul. Why are you cast down oh my soul? Hope in the Lord for I will yet praise him who is my Lord and the health of my countenance(Psa 42:11). Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits (Psa 103) The soul is learning to walk with the Lord and will thus put a spanner in our wheels of hope and faith.
⦁ Only say what the Lord has said in his word. This will enable the angels to perform the word on your behalf. You will continue to walk with the Lord in agreement for can two walk together lest they be agreed (Amos 3:3)
⦁ Cry out to the Lord, make supplications unto Him. Cleave to Him. “Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man” (Psa 71:4)
⦁ Let God be your hope, hope on Him. “For you are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth” (Psa 71:5)
⦁ Praise the Lord and offer thanksgiving. “Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with your gory all the day”. (Psa 71:8)
⦁ Let your hope flow like a never ending stream. “But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more” (Psa 71:14)
⦁ Trust that the Lord will deliver you from your tribulation “You who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth”(Psa 71:20)
⦁ Do not permit hopelessness to mar the Lord’s character in your eyes. Proceed to believe in His goodness and faithfulness. “Also with the lute I will praise You- and your faithfulness, O my God! To you I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel. (Psa 71:22)

Hopelessness means we have been taken captive by the enemy. We are in captivity and we need to escape. The bible says give no place or foothold for the enemy to work. Well, hopelessness gives him precisely that. We open a crack in the door for him. The only way out is through having hope in the Lord again. There are times where having hope again makes our stomach churn. Hope deferred indeed makes the heart sick but if you look at the situation with the eyes of the spirit, you will see that hopelessness is a profound liability. It befriends the enemy and gives him leverage. It takes a renewed mind to walk with the Lord, we have to have this set of eyes to truly walk in His victory.
Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave as when one breaks and plows the earth but my eyes are on you God the Lord..(Psa 141:7-8). In hopelessness, we are required to have our gaze on Him again. This will permit His light to dissolve the cataract of lies that have formed over our eyes, consequently hindering us from seeing the truth concerning our Lord. Sometimes the Lord permits us to reach a state of utter hopelessness so that we may learn to depend on Him not ourselves(2Cor 1:8-9). My heart and flesh may fail but God is the strength of my life and my portion forever (Psa 73:26) However, this type of hopelessness is one that transitions to greater hope and faith in God. The Lord permitted Daniel to face hopelessness but he proceeded to hope against hope, praying three times daily. He was thrown in the den of lions but he was not harmed. Hope moves us from the realm of the flesh to the spirit. This means that we fight from a different battle field. The battlefield of the flesh makes us susceptible to the enemy attacking our soul. He can attack our mind, will or emotions and our flesh will feel the effect.This will slow us down tremendously and we will enter a quicksand of dismay. However, when we walk in the spirit we stand on the Word of God. We rebut and refute the adversary’s lies with “it is written”. When we stand with the Lord then “submit yourself to God,resist the devil and he will flee is our portion.