A Living Hope

A LIVING HOPE 

1Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide (remain, continue eternally), these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The greatest of these is love – beginning with God’s love for us, because it causes the faith and the hope to exist. God’s love is the beginning and end of all things. That is the source of the hope that we can live in at all times. That is the reality of a living hope.

Everybody needs some kind of hope
Everybody on the planet goes through difficult circumstances and situations of uncertainty and danger and loss, and some people make it through better than others. Those who do best in coming through these experiences are those who have clung on to some kind of hope. 

So where do people generally find this regular kind of hope? 
The answer is they find something or someone, perhaps even themselves, to believe in, and our natural skills and experience can give us hope or confidence, for a while at least. And in this world there are many random things on offer to believe in and it can seem like a guessing game because the certainty of a person’s hope depends upon the reliability and credibility of what they believe in, and nothing in this world is certain, or lasts forever. There are also superstitious and religious teachings that Paul cautions the Church about, to not be ‘tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of teaching, by human cunning, or devices {the word for that is kubeia = rolling the dice – what are your chances with this one?}… Ephesians 4:13) Some new method on the internet maybe, about how to get God to answer your prayer – These things just lead to disappointment, and there’s too much of that. I believe that the need that God desires to meet in each of us, is to be drawn closer to him - rather than just for a sincere cause - no matter how righteous it may seem to that person. (We will get to prayer later) 

A certain hope
However for a Christian, life cannot be a random guessing game. Our hope is based on our faith in God’s loving goodness toward us.  
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the basis (hypostasis – basis – that which undergirds something and causes it to stand) of things hoped for, the assurance of unseen things (things=pragma – activity {of God}). So;
Faith is the basis of hoping – the assurance of the unseen activity of God. 

God’s love is for you – All the time
Your faith is for God - and it blesses him (Hebrews 11:6)
Your hope blesses you – because you can now live a life knowing that someone is personally thinking about you continually, working life out for you far better than you can for yourself. That is a living hope that lasts forever.

Hope is something we cannot live without, and we need the certainty of real hope as the anchor to our soul – hope that lasts, and strengthens our soul. 
Hebrews 6:18 That we might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place of his presence behind the veil, where Jesus the forerunner has entered for us.

What is the veil and how does that relate to a sure and steadfast anchor of hope?
That veil hung in the temple in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus, and it signified the separation between the people and the presence of God, the Ark of the Covenant. Behind that veil was the most holy place, and only the High Priest could enter into that presence once a year on the Day of Atonement. When Jesus died on the cross that veil was torn from top to bottom and the earth shook, and the rocks upon the mountains round about were split. This was an act of God from Heaven telling us that Jesus was the forerunner for us in entering though the torn veil, and breaking down the separation between God and man from that time on – Through his love, forgiveness and mercy, through Jesus our living hope.
Jesus lived each day on earth and went through by that veil because it had no hold over him and created no separation for him, even though he was tempted in all things as with us. He was the first of the New Creation.

That veil is called ‘the flesh’ in the Bible 
Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the veil, that is, through his flesh, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and let us resolutely affirm the declaration of our hope without hesitation, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. 

However that veil for us today is the mindset of the separated-self, called ‘the flesh’ in the Bible. The flesh can generally be described as our humanity in the form of its basic instincts, good and bad, or the ’old man’ or ‘old nature’ that started with Adam when he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and experienced separation from God. Jesus came ‘in the flesh’ but he lived ’in the Spirit’ and experienced no separation from his Father. Our flesh, our veil, stands between us and the presence of God until we go through by faith into what Jesus did, in making us partakers of his divine nature through his death and resurrection and sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The separated-self mindset (the flesh) is a negative and distorted self-consciousness that has found ways to cope with all of the things we struggle with in life. There are the struggles of the past – the disappointment and loss, failures and errors. And there are the uncertainties of the future – the anxiety, perplexity, and danger. Our assurance of faith that we are now a new creation in Christ and the unfailing hope in God’s love and good will for us gets us through that veil of separation and into the living presence of God, where all things become new.
When we go through the veil of negative self-consciousness in this way, we experience the positive God-consciousness of faith hope and love in our soul. 

How do we push through the veil?
The first thing we need to do is to reflect upon the love that God has for us. God’s love for us is not a passive love, it is the activity of his goodwill towards us at all times.
Our attentive reflection brings his love into the central focus of the present moment of what is happening. It shifts all the past disappointment and loss out of the way and puts them out of mind. It moves the uncertain future and anxiety out of the way and puts them out of mind. It leaves us only with the reality of the love of God for us – a love that is eternally creative and powerful and purposeful for us 
Psalm139:17 How precious are your thoughts to me O God! 
This is always the starting point. The consciousness of God’s love for us then generates the faith and the hope.

Our prayers
It is from this place of faith with the peace of God ruling in our hearts that we bring our prayers and petitions into God’s presence with a real faith in his love and faithfulness to us. We trust his love to attend to our needs and the needs of others according to his good will for all of us. Real hope and real faith operate through the love of God.

Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two mentions two prophetic fulfillments of Old Testament Scripture. The first was from the prophecy of Joel, that wrapped the whole world up in the love of God because the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon ALL flesh, which means that humanity is now ‘In Christ’, not just ‘In Adam’. The second was from Psalm 16 that wrapped the whole world up in a living hope like David had, who was able to dwell in the presence of God because of the hope of God’s love in his heart.
Psalm 16:7 My heart instructs me in the night seasons. I see the LORD always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my speech was glad;
Moreover my soul also will rest in hope. You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

Pentecost was the first great move of God’s Spirit coming to humanity and making history in the Earth, causing us to become a New Creation. There have been many outpourings of the Holy Spirit since, and I pray that this new and certain hope in the love of God for us is going to be the essence of the next move of God’s Spirit in the earth.
This is something that will soften people’ hearts so that their souls will be rescued from the false hopes and disappointments. This will bring a sure and certain hope in God’s healing love to us, Spirit soul and body.