Faith in Hope

Is Seeing Believing? Is Feeling Believing? What is Reality to you?

If you see something, is it real? If you can feel it, is it real? What is real to us? Our five senses? Or is this just a perception we've learned to live with and adapt to that is good, but can actually hinder us from the actual "Reality" God has for us. Paul talks about our "carnal lifestyle". It seems strange even impossible at times to grasp the understanding of the Supernatural Lifestyle when we live so deeply in a world of carnality (our five senses).

I like to refer to it as the Opposite realm, because it seems to go against everything we know through our experiences of our carnal reality. We gain, when we give. We live, when we die. He is strong, when we are weak. Though seeing you will not see, though hearing you will not hear. There is a huge heirtal for us to over come, and unless we renew our minds to God's potential, God's reality, and die to our own. We will find ourselves limiting God by our carnal senses. Wrap your mind around that.

I would say Biblical Hope is what we call "Believe" in todays scociety. I would not call it Faith as most would put it in that category. Hope in biblical times is way different then we know Hope to be today. Today Hope has a high percentage of failure. (I hate that meaning of the word HOPE we use today) Biblical times, hope did not disappoint.
Hope is the realm where Faith grows.

Faith is being SURE of what we Hope for, And CERTAIN of what we DO NOT SEE. (Hebrews 11:1) NIV or NKJ (Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things Hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen.) I like the NKJ version better! Evidence of things not seen. In court Evidence holds up. You can not deny Evidence. The tricky part is getting past that reality we live in (carnal senses) and seeing that Evidence. That is FAITH!

There is a fundamental building block of Hope first, then Faith. And Faith is what moves mountains. "So then Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)

Faith, Hope and Love. Love is the greatest of these. We know Love as it is in a way, tangible. We can feel it emotionally. But it does not mean that we neglect the other two. We typically view faith in a carnal way. (I had faith to sit on my chair today that it would sustain me.) Most folks who think they have/use "Faith & Hope" don't really understand the full meaning of the biblical definition. Faith & Hope flourish in the realm we don't live in. We've learned to trust Our 5 Senses. We can rely on them. We own them. They have proven them selves to us again and again. And they haven't given us any reason to DOUBT them. So we use them as our guides in our day to day life. Is that wrong? No! We live in a world of senses. If I am near something hot, my body tells me, I pull away to protect my body. But yet we look at Shadrac Meshak and Abendigo. Their Faith superceeded their senses of this world. (not a great example as they didn't have a choice) How about Peter who walked on water. There we go he even began to sink because of his senses taking over.

Doubt is the element that destroys that what Faith allows to bring from Heaven to Earth. (On Earth as it is in Heaven) Almost every Miracle that Jesus did that was hindered in some way, was due to "doubt". But we see the opposite of doubt is "faith". And if one had stronger Faith, that is what brought about the Miracle. (The woman with the issue of blood) Her faith made her whole. But those who knew Jesus in His own home town, limited Him, and because of their lack of faith, He could no miracles but only heal a few. Yes, there is a deep meaning to the word "Faith" that we are not grasping. My eyes have understanding of this, yet I find my struggle and grasping it. I have a high road to cross to get there because of my senses I've become so dependent on. BUT I will bring up my children with my new insight so they will not be limited or hindered to retrieve that what Jesus set up for us. If they can grasp it, they will teach their new generation, and then they teach their generation, so we will break this cycle of limitation.