HOPE IS A CERTAINITY

HOPE IS A CERTAINITY

Preached by: Carolyn Sissom , Apostle of Faith

September 7, 2008

This is a continuation of the series:

Faith is a Fact, Hope is a Certainty and Love is a Reality.

What is Hope?  How is it like or unlike Faith and Love?  What is false hope?  What is hope deferred?  I saw a vision of the Words written out in the Spirit on a book.  In the vision, the book was written by me.  If the Lord showed this to me, then the truth has been written deep within my Spirit.  It is a quest.

1 Peter 3:15 is a command to obey:  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

Of Hope, the Lord gave us an oath by which it is impossible for Him to lie.:  Hebrews 6:17:  “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters  into that within the

Veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest; for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

This anchor of hope ties the Christian securely to the place of God’s presence.  If we can see the metaphor of the anchor tied to our Faith which is the rope.  Our Faith and hope are two separate things.  Our hope is a solid anchor beyond the veil in Heaven (Spirit realm).  It is a certainty.  There is no “perhaps” or “maybe” about it.  It is guaranteed by God’s promise and backed by His oath.  Our line connecting us with our hope is our faith.  Though we live in the world of flesh, because of God’s promises, we seize that hope by faith and cling to it with confidence.  As life’s storms rage, that anchor holds because it lodged in the solid, Rock, our forerunner, Christ Jesus.   We need not worry persecutions or afflictions come against us.  Our future is bright.  We can walk through any storm when we know better days are ahead.

Our hope in Jesus is our anchor.  Normally in a storm, the anchor on a sailing ship is thrown over the side that it might become lodged in the unseen bed of the sea. But the anchor of our souls, our hope, rises upward.  It passes through the veil into the most holy place of heaven and becomes lodged in the throne of God.  Our hope is “locked in” to the unchangeable God Himself.  We are as safe as God is true.

Hebrew 7:19:  “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope; by which we draw near to God.”  …The Lord swore and He will not repent, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec: a surety of a better testament.”

Jesus is the hope that is “set before us”.  Now it is possible for us to draw near to God to worship truly which is one of the fundamental elements of redemption.  Ps. 120:7: “O Israel put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.”

Hope is our helmet.  1 Th. 5:8: But since we belong to the day, let us be self controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

This hope of salvation is based on the fact that God has no intention of letting us experience His wrath.  To the contrary, He chose us to be delivered from it through our Lord Jesus Christ, whose death was for our sake.  He died sot that whether we are awake or asleep, we will be in fellowship with Him forever.

1 Peter. 1:21:  Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

This hope is a certainty.  This Hope enters within the veil to find God’s love in all its fullness and majesty.  Only His love has power over sin.  Only His love has the strength to draw us away from all that is not pleasing to him.  His love, not His rules and laws, not even his judgments cause us to walk away from the flesh.  Although I do have a fear of God.  I do not ever want to be separated from His Presence.  It is that Holy Presence that is the strength of my life.

Here with Him we are transformed by this love, and sin’s stronghold is broken once and for all.

Faithfulness to him becomes a way of life.  We are no longer a sinner struggling for divine approval.  We are a son, washed in His blood and victorious because of His great love for us. 

Earthly love keeps you faithful to your spouse.  Agape Love will keep you faithful and devoted to the Lord.  God did not send His Son to die so we could continue to be unfaithful to Him. 

The Power of His love is released through the new covenant.  This love calls us into Holiness.  It is out of this intense desire to please Him that His love has the power to break sin’s hold on us.  Through Jesus entering in beyond the veil as the forerunner, we have the hope of the Glory of God.

We are joyful in hope.  We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God.

His love sets us free.  His love keeps us free.  Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

What if you told your spouse, “Honey you know how much I love you.  You know I am committed to you, but I cannot be faithful.  I cannot be true.  I will love you, serve you, and be your friend.  I will do all I can to make you happy, but I cannot be faithful.  It is not my nature.”  This is not true.  Yet, we say those words to the Lord.

I believe we can be faithful!  We can keep ourselves wholly for Him, but only through His love and Grace.  It is His love that will have the power to fulfill your destiny and purpose.

Is this depth of relationship really possible?  Can there be continual presence of His Glory?  The Word of God says that is our Hope.

We are to know the hope of our calling of the riches of the inheritance in the saints.  We were all called on one hope.  “That we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.0

If we continue in our faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for us in heaven and that we have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He has obtained eternal redemption for us.

The Hope of Glory is Jesus Christ within us.  The blessed hope is His glorious appearing.  Being justified by his grace, we have become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

1 Pet. 1:13:  Prepare your minds for action: be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

We have the hope in God that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. (Acts. 24:14b)

We have this Hope on the grounds of God’s word.  Romans 15:4:  “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.

1 Th. 1:3:  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we find wisdom, there is a future hope and your hope will not be cut off.

We are to be prisoners of hope.  Zech. 9:12:  “Return to your fortresses, O prisoners of Hope; even now I will restore twice as much to you.

Romans 15:13:  “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.