Acts 3:3-5 (Amplified) says, "So when he saw Peter and John about to go into the Temple, he asked them to give him a gift. And Peter directed his gaze intently at him, and so did John, and said, Look at us! And the man paid attention to them, expecting that he was going to get something from them."
Today's Church is missing the expectation that we will receive anything from the Father. Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified) says, "Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."
The Concordance #1679 says that word "hope" means to "expect or confide; have, thing hope for, trust." #1680 says "hope" means, "to anticipate, usually with pleasure, expectation or confidence-faith, hope."
It seems like we don't expect God to do what we've petitioned Him for. Our faith, hope, trust and confidence is being held back by our senses, because we're waiting for "proof," before we believe or trust God to do it for us. We wait for our senses to reveal it to us, before we will believe.
Jairus asked Jesus to come, lay hands on and heal his sick daughter in Mark 5:35-36 (Amplified). Jesus was dealing with the woman with the issue of blood when Jairus requested this and his daughter passed away before Jesus could reach her. Thus, it says, "While He, Jesus, was still speaking, there came some from the ruler's house who said to Jairus, Your daughter has died. Why bother and distress the Teacher any further? Overhearing but ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not be seized with alarm and struck with fear; only keep on believing."
Surely, the above scriptures are about a time when faith and trust were tested. Jairus couldn't "see" what he had hoped for, but faith in Jesus would bring hope or expectation in the face of total failure to his senses. Jesus didn't apologize for expending too much time on the woman with the issue of blood, but simply directed Jairus to "Keep on believing." The hope or expectation of Jairus had to come by faith and trust in what Jesus said. He didn't "see" his daughter healed, nor did he have hope in what the men said to him. Jairus only had hope, the favorable and confident expectation and faith as proof of things he couldn't see.
The woman with the issue of blood, placed all of her faith into simply "touching His garments." Her hope and expectations were so strong, that she put her life in jeopardy and went into public with her unclean flow of blood. This woman's hope was so strong, that when (and only when) she touched Jesus, her flow of blood was dried and then she felt that she was made whole from her disease. She fully expected, that when she touched Jesus' garments, her healing was there.
We don't define hope as a sense of expectation, but "wishing it might be." Most of our hope isn't faith based, but wishing or dreaming of something far away that might happen someday. We find God's account of Abraham in Romans 4:16-20. God was so impressed by this man's trust and faith and expectation, that God called Abraham "the father of us all" and "the father of our faith."
Abraham was 100 years old and his wife Sarah was in her nineties and had been barren her entire life. God's giving them a son at their age, was so far beyond the natural senses, that it was impossible for men. Verses 18-20 says, "For Abraham, human reason for hope being gone, hope in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been Promised, so numberless shall your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered the utter impotence of his own body which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's deadened womb. No unbelief or distrust made him waver, doubtingly question concerning the Promise of God, but he grew strong and was empower by faith as he gave praise and glory to God. Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His Word and do what He had Promised."
In Genesis 17:21-22 (Amplified) God said, "But My covenant (My Promise and pledge), I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. And God stopped talking with him and went up from Abraham." There was no proof of Abraham's son Isaac, there was no sign of a child, and there was no reason to think Abraham and Sarah would have one. There was only hope based in faith and the expectation that God's Word and Promises were true that, "This time next year, she will bear you a son."
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers in John 20:29 (Amplified). One of His disciples, Thomas, would't believe in Him, until he could see Jesus. "Jesus said to him, Because yo have seen Me, Thomas, do you now believe (trust) have faith? Blessed, happy and to be envied are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed and adhered to and trusted in and relied on Me."
Most of us have never seen Jesus, except by the Word, but we believe that He is. We don't differ much from Thomas, when it comes to the manifestation of His Presence in our lives though. If we can see healings, miracles and the manifestation of Jesus, then we will "believe," like Thomas did. After all, the old saying, "Seeing is believing" got it's start somewhere. We have yet to use our hope as expectation of our faith and see the Truth of Him in the Word.
The Word doesn't say, "Faith comes by seeing." Romans 10:17 (Amplified) tells us that "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." The Israelites in the Wilderness, saw more miracles than anyone could ever hope to see, but their seeing grew dim. Their faith was no longer enough. We go from revival to revival, in order to see the manifestation of His Truth, but after awhile, the revival and seeing begin to wear off. This is mostly sense faith and not necessarily Word faith. Only Word faith will hold onto Truth. When Abraham couldn't see a tangible sign or tangible reason for hope by the senses, his faith in God's Promise made it come to pass.
Every person has his own faith and hope in God and His Word. Many have fought long and hard to hold onto hope that will bring the manifestation of faith into their lives. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." When there's no hope, faith no longer has a goal or a finish to manifest itself in. Now, you can better understand "The Parable of the Sower" in Mark 4:16-17 (Amplified) where Jesus said, "And in the same way the ones sown on stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy; And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble and persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended, become displease, indignant, resentful and they stumble and fall away."
Hope has been destroyed by the destroyer satan and faith is left impotent in manifestation of that hope. Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amplified), "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy." Jesus meant this and He wasn't only speaking about the physical realm, but about the spiritual realm. Faith, hope and Love are all in the Spirit realm. Satan will steal your hope, kill your faith for whatever hope has laid out and destroy your confidence in God's ability to do what He said in this realm. Our hope has been transferred into the life after death and our faith is placed into after we leave this earth. Our love is holding onto "When we die and enter our new home in Heaven." This has happened because, our root in ourselves isn't Word based, but sense based.
Sense knowledge is unreliable in the spirit realm. It can be rooted out by another word or display of sense knowledge. Many have their faith destroyed, through seeing and hearing about what has happened to other believers. We don't have any idea what others truly believe. We might hear them speak about faith, but we still don't know what they truly believe. We must put our faith in God and His Word. We must not be moved by what others believe or don't believe. You must guard your heart from words (seeds) of doubt, unbelief, and the testimony of those who testify against God's Word. Make your walk with God, your own. Be selective about the things you watch, hear and believe. Heed Jesus' Words in Mark 4:19-24 (Amplified) where He said, "Be careful what you are hearing." Word Seeds that are contrary to God's Word Seeds, will produce and become the "thorns
and weeds that crowd out the Word in your life."
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