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The Gospel Hope! By Pastor Bill Taylor A publication of My Father's House, inc. Volume 6//Issue 6 The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. (Pr10:28) We’re looking at hope versus expectation. If you’re not the righteous then you’re the wicked. And what the righteous is hoping for he’ll get but what the wicked is expecting he won’t get thus the expectation of the wicked will perish. In many churches today people are expecting to go to Heaven but their expectation will perish because they’re not righteous and they’re not approaching the Kingdom of God in the way Christ requires. So those who claim to be Christians but aren’t righteous will perish and their expectation will be cut off because they don’t understand the ways of God and they’re believing in lies concerning their salvation instead of looking at what the scriptures actually teach. Concerning this the first word we’ll look at is “hope.” The righteous have a hope. The wicked have an expectation. Do you see there’s a difference between hope and expectation? The difference is very profound. It’s almost the same as the difference between hope and faith. Faith can take hold of something and believe it’s received and therefore have it now, but hope can’t take hold of something or believe it’s received because what is hoped for isn’t yet given and therefore our hopes have to be attained to. One has to endure until the hope can be made faith. One of the errors in many “churches” is they’ve an expectation of immortality and they’ve applied their faith to believing they’re saved and therefore they act as though they already have immortality when in fact their expectation is false because immortality hasn’t yet been given. The hope or the promise of immortality has been given but not the immortality itself, and concerning the promise there are essential conditions to that promise. (Heb6:19) Our gospel hope is an anchor to the soul and properly understood it will keep us on track and cause us to endure unto immortality but when people believe they’ve already received what isn’t yet given they may cease to pursue it and therefore fail to actually lay hold on it. (1Tim6:12) So those who believe they’ve received salvation in such a way as they can’t lose it, fall into complacency and sin instead of properly pursuing righteousness which leads to immortality. Thus, falsely believing they’ve already attained, they’ll lose their salvation because of their presumptuous confidence or erroneous expectation. There are many scriptures pertaining to gospel hope. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the Truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in Truth. (Col 1:3-6) In hearing the gospel we hear of a hope of something awaiting us in heaven that must be attained to in bearing good fruit. As also, Christ has reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard. (Col 1:22-23) Here we see faith and hope together in one verse. It’s because of our hope of attaining to immortality that we take hold of the faith to be perfected because we can only attain to immortality if we’re found perfect or blameless in the day of the Lord. So one promise we have in the gospel is thru the help of the Holy Spirit and Christ dwelling in us by faith we can attain to a righteous perfection, or the righteousness that comes by faith. (Phil 3:9,11) Because of this, we can be found acceptable or worthy to enter into immortality and the Kingdom of God at Christ’s coming. It’s not just that we have a faith to be saved, but our faith is for Christ to live in us and perfect us and it’s thru this kind of faith He actually saves us! One way of comprehending this is we walk the road of hope thru steps of faith. The goal we’re looking for is immortality; the rapture, the resurrection, or the manifest Kingdom of God; the coming of the Lord. These are all synonymous terms. So we have a hope to attain to that righteousness where we’re acceptable to enter the eternal Kingdom of God. We can’t have faith for this yet, because the rapture is the place where this occurs. That’s when we put on the new body and that’s what our hope is – immortality – to attain to that glorified body! So you can’t have faith to believe you’ve received what isn’t given yet. There’s no promise that you can have it now. The promise is a promise of hope. It’s yet in the future. On the other hand, there are many areas in which God has promised us present benefits. He’s promised Jesus would come to live in your heart. He’s promised in baptism you can receive the power to be crucified with Christ to the world and live a resurrected life unto God. He’s promised that and therefore at the point of baptism you can have faith to believe you’ve received what God has promised. But you can’t have faith to believe your body will be transformed or glorified before the coming of the Lord. That faith won’t come until the trumpet sounds and the archangel shouts. (1Cor15:51,52) So until you hear the shout of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet you must remain in hope. But if you’ve been properly walking the road of hope in steps of faith when that trumpet sounds your hope will become faith and you’ll believe you receive at that time. At that moment of faith you’ll be changed in the twinkling of an eye. But we can’t have faith for that until the trumpet blows! To have faith now, a promise must be given in the sense that it’s already allowable for us to take hold of it. The resurrection isn’t given yet, though we have the promise of the indwelling Jesus. He’s been given. And we have the Holy Spirit. He’s also been given. And we can be “new creations.” That’s been given. We have many promises God has already given and we can take hold of them by faith. By using our faith we can see Christ formed in us and His perfection increasing in us until we can be confident in the day of His appearing we’ll be able to take hold of the resurrection faith for the glorified body. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope…(1Pt1:3) For we were saved in this hope. (Rom8:24) (the hope for the redemption of our body.) Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, (the fruits of the Spirit have been given already and we can have faith for that now) even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. (Rom8:23-25) The call of Christianity is to wait for and persevere in attaining to the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord. (Tit2:13) and the resurrection and the putting on of the immortal body. This is our gospel hope; the hope of the gospel. (Col 1:23) Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. (Col 1:5) What’s laid up for you in Heaven? The immortal body! For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (the glorified body) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. (2Cor5:1-2) So the hope of the gospel is to attain to the resurrection and be clothed with the immortal body which is the redemption of the body, (Rom8:23) and which occurs at the coming of the Lord in the rapture! So many today try to diminish or condense the gospel as though it concerns only the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1Cor15:1-4) and that’s all! You’ve been saved, you’ve been justified, and that’s it. But the gospel is much more than that! The gospel includes virtually everything Jesus, Paul and the other apostles wrote and preached. The gospel is where we learn of all that pertains to our heavenly hope, which causes us to bear fruit unto God because we know what’s waiting for us in Heaven if we’ll but attain to it. And the “gospel” includes all the commandments and things pertinent to our attaining to that hope. So because of the hope of the gospel we’re making every effort to run the race thru patience, to pursue righteousness, to lay hold on eternal life, (1Tim6:11,12) and to be found worthy in that day. How many times has God reminded us we have to overcome and be found worthy of that hope? (See our Glory of His Grace book “Walking Worthy”) You haven’t yet attained to immortality. You don’t have the immortal body. And if you aren’t found worthy in that day, you won’t get it. Jesus warns us to strive to enter the narrow gate (Lk13:24-27) because there’ll be many trying to get into the Kingdom of God who won’t be found worthy. (Mt7:13,14) They’re going the wrong way, the broad way and they’re not going to get in. The foolish virgins won’t get in. People who do mighty works in Christ’s name but aren’t cleansed from their iniquity won’t get in. (Mt7:23) People who don’t multiply the talents God gives them won’t get in (Mt25:14-30) – the wicked and unprofitable servant doesn’t get in. Those who think Jesus is delaying His coming and treat their fellow servants wrongly won’t get in. (Mt24:48-51) The people who don’t have the proper clothing at the marriage supper won’t get in. (Mt22:12,13) Jesus gives warning after warning that many who think they’ll get into the Kingdom of God won’t. They’ll be looking at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and many of the gentiles entering the Kingdom of God while they themselves are thrust out, because they didn’t approach God properly. (Lk13:28,29) There’s a passage in Jeremiah where Ishmael kills Gedaliah who’d been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to rule over the remnant of the Jews after Zedekiah was captured, blinded, his sons killed, and he himself taken to Babylon. And it happened, on the second day after he’d killed Gedaliah, when as yet no one knew it, that certain men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord. (Jer41:4-5) They’re coming to worship God. However they’re coming with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, having cut themselves all which things are forbidden by God. You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the Lord. (Lev19:27-28) So in Jeremiah’s time these people are so ignorant of the ways of God they’re actually offensive to Him in the way they worship. It’s a similar thing to what happened in Uzzah reaching out and touching the ark when David wasn’t properly transporting it. David hadn’t made provision to find out the proper way of transporting it and so a man was killed. And here seventy men are killed while they’re coming to worship God. (Jer41:7,8) Jesus spoke of something similar; There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you’ll all likewise perish.” (Lk13:1-3) They were killed in the act of worship. We saw a news report where a church was destroyed by a tornado and the pastor’s child was killed and all this happened while they were in the church, in the act of worship. God can’t be happy with you if such things are happening. Do you think that church was worse than most of the other churches of this age? Probably not! They’re teaching much of the same foolishness that most contemporary churches are teaching. Likewise those Galileans weren’t worse than the other Galileans but God gets fed up with the whole thing and every once in a while His anger strikes at a token few of the guilty because of all those who aren’t worshiping Him in a way that’s acceptable to Him. They’re offensive to Him in the way they worship. The purpose of the gospel is to produce a holy and a blameless people who shine as lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. (Phil 2:15) We see the fact that we’re called to holiness throughout the scriptures. Anyone who rejects this, rejects not man but God. (1Th4:8) You’re called to holiness in the hope of being found worthy to attain to the resurrection. And this can only be a sure hope if you hold on to Jesus, faith in Jesus, a faith not to be “saved” per se, but to be perfected in Christ; that’s the faith that saves us! Receiving Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith allows Him to work in us in such a way as to cleanse us from all the spots and wrinkles, to wash us and present us to Himself a glorious church and a glorious “believer,” because the glorious church has to be made up of perfected “believers.” So rather than having faith to be saved, we must have a faith in Jesus to work in us to present us to Himself acceptable in the day of His appearing if we’re actually to be saved. Those who have such a faith are trusting Jesus to work inside them to perfect them, to make them holy and He’s doing that – making us sons of God –showing us how to walk in the Spirit – how to hear God – how to do the will of God. He’s doing that in those who have faith for Him to do it. But in general today the so-called “churches” have perverted the idea of salvation into a faith to be saved instead of a faith to be perfected unto salvation. So their expectation is false. They’ll be found among the wicked. They’ve rejected righteousness as a practical thing, they’re considering themselves to be righteous by “imputation” and aren’t pursuing real righteousness, which means in actuality they’re the wicked. Since they’ve rejected the true gospel, and they’ve rejected the true preachers of the gospel, such as what I’m preaching, and they’ve slandered it, called it works salvation and such as that. And since they’ve positioned themselves among the slanderers and the rebellious against the word of God, they’re therefore the wicked. So they think they’re saved because they acknowledge Jesus to be Savior and they think they have faith in Him to save them, but they don’t have any faith for Him to perfect them or to prepare them for the Day of the Lord. They “believe” they’ve a guarantee of immortality in the future while they refuse to believe they can be conformed to the image of Christ right now or even overcome sin in the now. So they put faith in a place that it can’t belong. They put faith where hope belongs. Hope is where they should be when it comes to the resurrection and immortality. They can’t be abiding in faith for these things, for they aren’t yet given. So they’ve reversed the idea; for they put hope in the place of faith to be perfected and they hope to be perfected at the resurrection. While they mistakenly think they’ve already qualified for immortality and the resurrection when they actually need a faith to be perfected now if they’re to really qualify. And if they’d reverse that, then they could have faith to be perfected now and have a hope to attain to the resurrection then, and these things would work rightly, but now their beliefs are out of order. So they’ll end up being the ones whose expectation is cut off; as the wicked – his expectation perishes. What they expect isn’t what they’ll get because they’re not pursuing it in the right fashion. Notice again what Paul says, Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the Truth of the gospel. (Col 1:5) If you were to ask many so-called “christians” today, “What is the hope of the gospel?” they wouldn’t be able to tell you. They think it’s all faith. When I visited the “Faith Movement,” they couldn’t tell me what gospel hope was. They were so into what they thought faith was, that they thought hope was a sin. If you were to talk about hope in anything, they’d say, “Get into faith!” The truth of the matter is you can’t get into faith on some things. Like when it comes to final salvation, it must remain a hope because the promise isn’t given for the present and you can’t get into faith for it. You have to stay in hope. Of course you can stay in a sure and certain hope, that as long as your faith is in Jesus to keep you, and you’re being perfected in Him, you’ll surely attain. If you keep the faith to abide in Him, when the time comes, your hope of immortality will be made faith and your faith will be made sight, and you’ll enter into the eternal manifest Kingdom of God. That will come to pass. But the very reason God does it this way is if you were to believe you received it now, you’d stop pursuing. And righteousness is something you need to pursue. (1Tim6:11) So God would never give you salvation in such a way as it would cause you to stop pursuing righteousness or stop pursuing a closer relationship with Christ. That’s Paul’s heart where he says, “That I may be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness… but the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Phil 3:9) “I don’t count myself to have apprehended. I’m pressing to attain to the hope of the resurrection and for that I count all things loss. I’m running a race to be found worthy of the resurrection. I want to be conformed to the death of Christ and to the resurrection life of Christ and I even want to fellowship in His sufferings that I may know Him. And I won’t allow anything to get in my way because I’m running this race to win. And my hope is sure and certain that if I run with all my heart, I’ll get there.” Yet most “believers” today think they’ve already got it and are making no real effort to run the race, no effort to set aside the weights and the sin that so easily beset them, and run with endurance the race that is set before them. (Heb12:1) Concerning the rich young ruler, it wasn’t sin that kept him out of the Kingdom, but a weight. His riches were a weight that kept him from entering in – a weight Paul would have thrown away. Paul would have cast the riches aside that he could attain to the prize. The importance of attaining to the resurrection is such that nothing must be allowed to get in the way – nothing of this world can be permitted to intefere with our attaining to this hope. And this is the hope of which we’ve heard before in the gospel. (Col 1:5) Now if you haven’t heard of that hope, if it hasn’t been rightly expressed to you then you haven’t really heard the gospel. Only because we’ve been reconciled to God can Jesus present us holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-- (Col 1:21-22) Almost every place in the Bible “present” is spoken of it has to do with the Day of the Lord, that we may be found in His sight at that day “perfect.” Him we preach, (Jesus) Christ in you, the hope of glory. (v27) What does Paul mean by “hope of glory?” Christ in you isn’t your glory; He’s your hope of glory. Your glory will appear the day God decides you’re fit for the Kingdom and gives you and all those who’ve loved Christ’s appearing the glory of immortality. But the unworthy He’ll cast away in eternal shame. On that day the righteous will shine in glory while the wicked who’ve opposed the holy Word of God (that we tried to share with them) and those who slandered, and blasphemed and rejected us and Christ will be eternally shamed. As the righteous, we’ll enter into an eternal glory with Christ having been found acceptable in the sight of the Lord because we’ve lived according to what He’s instructed us. That’s “the hope of glory” that comes out of Christ living inside us; helping, showing, working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. So in that day I’ll be fit to receive the gift He’s laid up for me in Heaven. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, (To attain to immortality, you must get to know the indwelling Christ personally so He can lead you to that place of glory.) Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. (Col 1:27-28) Only the one who’s presented perfect in that day will receive the immortal body, and be found acceptable to enter the Kingdom of God. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1Jn3:3) Because we have the hope of being received into the Kingdom of God and attaining to the resurrection, we purify ourselves! But “faith” that you’ve already qualified for the resurrection doesn’t have to purify itself, it’s already received! Hope, however has to keep pressing towards the prize because it hasn’t yet qualified for it. So if indeed Christ is to present you holy and blameless in that day, then you must continue in the faith to be perfected not in an erroneous “faith” that you’ve already attained. The faith that saves you will make you holy and blameless if you continue in it. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, (Eph1:4) That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Eph5:26-27) He gave some, apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (Eph4:11-13) He’s working in us, to will and do of His good pleasure. (Phil 2:13) Our faith is for Christ to cause us to become holy not in some sort of an instantaneous fashion at our death but that we ourselves must participate in the pursuit of this holiness and Lay hold on eternal life! (1Tim6:12) Pursue righteousness – pursue these things. (v11) Again our part in attaining is expressed in that we put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph4:22-24) And that we mortify the deeds of the body. (Rom8:13) As in And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal 5:24) And Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom6:11) All these verses indicating the hope of the resurrection and the gospel that has shown us that hope has also shown us how to attain to that hope by faith in Christ to work His perfection into us. “That I may know Him and be found in Him having the righteousness which comes from faith in Him!” For it’s only by His life working in me that I may attain to the resurrection. (Phil 3:10,11) So if you have faith in Christ Jesus to live in you, He’ll get you to that prize. Then let’s have faith in Christ to run this race in us, with us, for us! Our faith in Christ then isn’t as though He’s already saved us but that we’re saved because He’s continually and progressively saving us, continually perfecting us until we can be found worthy at His appearing. So our faith is that Christ will complete this work in us, that we can hear “Well done, enter into the joy of the Lord” in that day. But that isn’t the “gospel” usually being preached these days. And how very much this true gospel needs to be preached so the people would wake up and recognize that their expectation will perish if they’re not attaining to the holiness God has called them to. Those who are making no effort to attain to it or to run this race, and those who are believing they’ve already received it are expecting a salvation they won’t get. Whereas to those of us who understand the hope and understand our faith is in Christ, who’ll perfect us on a daily basis to bring us to the place we can attain to that hope; our hope won’t be cut off but our hope will become joy and gladness because we’re attaining to that resurrection thru the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ. (Phil 3:9) And that righteousness arises from the faith relationship we have with “Christ in us the hope of glory.” So we cast off everything that would interfere with that goal of our hope; whether it’s a sin, or a weight; for everything that hinders us must go. (Phil 3:8-11) So Paul says, “We preach this Christ (the hope of glory) teaching and warning every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ” and that’s the purpose of our labors. (Col 1:28,29) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. (1Pt1:3) You’re not born again unless you’ve been born into this hope. How many people are claiming to be born again who haven’t been born into this hope? Rather they’ve been born into a false expectation, because this verse describes being born again and it says you must be born again into a living hope. Now if I’m truly born again Old things are passed away all things are become new. (2Cor5:17) The hope I had before I was born again was for success in this world but when I heard the gospel I found what Jesus was offering me was much better than anything this world could offer, so I put off the desires of this world. I began to run the race to be found holy and blameless and worthy of the resurrection. My whole nature changed in this hope of the resurrection. I’ve been changed not by faith alone but by hope. But what makes this hope attainable is the faith that lets Jesus step by step make me fit to receive what we hope for. So my relationship with Jesus becomes taking steps of faith for more and more of God’s righteousness according to what I’m able to believe to receive: advancing from faith to faith and from glory to glory. I’m believing to have Jesus in my life now. As we were recently seeing so much of prayer should be aimed at the right now. We should be believing to receive right now because if we’re properly asking for it, it must be the will of God we have it. (1Jn5:14,15) It has to be already given to us in the sense that God has offered it to us in the present. So if it’s already available to us, why should we wait to receive it some other time? We should be believing now to receive. (Mk11:22-24) The things that pertain to faith we must believe we receive. We must know that we can have them and they’re already available to us. Whereas the things that pertain to hope we must continue to pursue until that day comes when God can change that hope to faith. So we have a hope of attaining to the resurrection and God’s Kingdom because we’ve a faith that’s changing us now and making us more and more like Jesus in order that we can be found worthy of the Kingdom and the glorified body in the day when God gives it. He has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (and of course because He was raised we can know we can be raised and have a hope we will be raised) to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that doesn’t fade away, reserved in heaven for you, (1Pt1:4) This is synonymous with Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. So we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith. (Col 1:5;1Pt1:4,5) (Faith is what keeps us on the road of hope. This includes faith for Jesus to sanctify us, to make us holy, to keep us running the race – our faith keeps God’s power working on our behalf) Through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, (looking forward to attaining that hope) though now for a little while, if need be, you’ve been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it’s tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1Pt1:5-7) What counts is that at the time of the revelation of Christ your faith be found acceptable; unto praise, honor and glory! Jesus makes some awesome promises concerning prayer. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he’ll do also; and greater works than these he’ll do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I’ll do it.” (Jn14:12-14) “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I’m there in the midst of them.” (Mt18:19-20) If you’re gathered together in My name, that has to be in unity: for there’s one “name” by which we may be saved; one Lord, one body, one Spirit, one faith. So to be gathered in His name you must be in true agreement about what you’re asking for. Again He says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you’ll ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” (Jn15:7) “Most assuredly,” I say to you, “whatever you ask the Father in My name He’ll give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you’ll receive, that your joy may be full.” (Jn16:23-24) Many believers jump into these scriptures when they see the possibilities everything they desire can be granted them, but then they very rapidly wear themselves out because generally their expectations don’t come to pass. For these promises are given to us and we can believe we receive them only if we meet the conditions. For example, you must abide in Me and My Word abide in you. And you must believe in Jesus in such a way that God would say you believe in Him. There are other scriptures also affecting this, like you must believe without doubting. James says any man who doubts or wavers will get nothing. (Jms1:6,7) So when Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (Jn14:12) You have to think, “If I can attain to the faith that He’s looking for when He says ‘He who believes in Me,’ I’ll be able to do those works.” Or “If I can be sure I’m abiding in Christ and His words are abiding in me, then I can ask what I will and it will be done.” So it isn’t just blindly saying, “He’s promised we can ask anything and get it, any way or anytime we want to,” because He’s not going to do it unless we meet His conditions. So the beginning of attaining to this promise isn’t faith but hope. In order to see your prayers answered according to these scriptures, you must first have a hope that you actually can abide in Christ and His words abide in you. And you must pursue that hope until your hope becomes truth; that in truth you’re abiding in Him and His words in you. That’s not usually what’s going on in most “churches.” Most “believers” read these verses and think it’s already done! They think “We’re already abiding in Him!” because of some idea that they’ve prayed a little prayer and have asked Jesus into their hearts and they think they’ve fulfilled these scriptures and His Word is abiding in them because they claim to believe His Word about Him being the Son of God, etc. And on the basis of this very superficial obedience to only a few of the many scriptures where Jesus commands us, they think they can claim these promises when in actuality they’ve diluted the scriptures to a place where they believe they’re fulfilling them when in fact they aren’t. For there are many other commands of Christ that we must obey if we’re truly to abide in Him and have His Word abiding in us. Then they wonder why they don’t see their prayers answered. And the fact is that they’ve not come to the place where His words really abide in them. This is evidenced in many by the obvious fact that they’re believing heresies, like once saved/always saved. We can also see this in “believers” where a true witness comes to them who knows the Word of God and so often they reject it because they don’t recognize it as the Word of God! Many people get offended when they read the printed introduction to our church. (See our Glory of His Grace Publication “The First Shall Be Last”) They don’t realize that the Word of God is in every line and they’re offended by the very Word of God which they don’t know and which they falsely claim abides in them. Now here’s an example of how we might properly approach these promises, “Lord Jesus, I do believe in You and I’m asking You to help me to abide in You and to grant me grace that Your words may abide in me. Please show me what I’m lacking, where I’m not measuring up to abiding in You or having Your words abide in me, and help me correct it so indeed I can have faith that whatever I ask in prayer I’ll receive.” The beginning of attaining to the promise is to enter into a hope that Jesus will help you to attain to abiding in Him and having His words abide in you. This is a work you need Jesus’ help to do. So the first step is, “Lord Jesus, show me how to abide in You. Lord help me to know Your Word and keep Your Word abiding in me.” It’s obvious many people who claim to be “christians” actually demonstrate by their behavior that they don’t abide in Christ nor does His Word abide in them because any place where they violate the Word of God that proves the Word doesn’t abide in them. And anytime you’ve done something Jesus wouldn’t do you’ve shown you’re not abiding in Him and that can be as simple as murmuring or complaining or speaking an idle word because no idle words come out of Jesus’ mouth; there’s no coarse jesting, no wasting time! Jesus wouldn’t do anything that doesn’t flow from continual faith and prayer. He’s praying without ceasing, connected to the Father in everything He’s doing, and if you’re doing that, that’s abiding in Him. So if we can tell by your behavior and the things you’re doing that you’re violating the Word of God and not abiding in Christ, there’s no way you can claim that you have the right to this promise, of ask what you will and it will be given to you. What often happens with immature Christians is they jump into this promise and in a very short time they become discouraged where they just throw up their hands and forget it. They figure it just doesn’t work or, “I just don’t understand,” and nobody in the “church” is teaching what the real problem is. The truth is most believers don’t become instantaneously abiding in Christ. It takes time. You have to study the Word and take steps of faith to have a close relationship with Jesus and abide in His Word. You have to learn to stay in faith to maintain that relationship with Him and His Word. Recently one of the believers said, “Maybe if I’m not abiding in Him I can’t have an expectation of a healing.” This saying is true! So the thing you need to do before you can believe you receive your healing is you’d better pray and ask the Lord if you have straight accounts with Him. If, in fact, you’ve been doing things that aren’t acceptable to Him, you need to repent and get back to where you’re walking in the Spirit and obeying His Word. It isn’t that you have to be an expert in everything in God’s Word to qualify for answered prayer but you must be doing everything you know to do as in, if we walk in the light as He’s in the light. (1Jn1:7) Meaning you’re doing everything you’ve been taught to do, everything He’s shown you to do; that His Word abides in you and you’re in His Spirit obedient to all you know He’s called you to do. Then you can have every expectation that when you pray He’ll answer your prayer. But if as so many today, you’re disobedient to God’s Spirit or His Word, sluggish about pursuing godliness, making excuses, following heresies; how can a heretic fulfill this scripture when it’s not the Word of God that abides in them but the word of the Baptists’ “once saved/always saved” or the foolish doctrines of “grace without obedience to God?” It’s heresies, presumption and lies that abide in such people. It’s not possible for God to fulfill His Word to them when they’re blatantly not abiding in His Spirit nor allowing His Word to abide in them and they hold to excuses, lies and heresies instead! So God has promised to answer our prayers if we’ll meet the conditions but you can’t believe you receive until you know you’ve done that. And if it’s going to take a process to get you to meet those conditions, then you have to stay in a place of hope and perseverance, praying to Jesus and asking Him to keep you in His Spirit, to teach you how you may fulfill the conditions of this promise, that you’ll abide in Him and His Word will abide in you. You must persevere in hope until Christ can assure you that indeed, “You’re abiding in Me and My words are abiding in you! You’ve met the conditions and you have the right to pray and expect to receive.” And one of the things we’ve been hearing in our church recently is the Spirit saying, “You’re meeting the conditions! The promise is for you!” It isn’t there for everyone or every church. Most haven’t qualified. But the prophecies that have been coming to our church are Christ telling us, “You qualify. You’re abiding in Me and My words are abiding in you. Now ask what you will and it will be yours.” Do you understand the process now? All things are available to the true believer but we have to get to a true faith and we get to a true faith by having a hope we can get there and then following that hope until we meet all the conditions to attain to faith. When you get to faith the Lord will let you know and then you can believe you receive. That’s when you can have faith – when you’ve met God’s conditions. Then you can say, “Lord, we’re in You and Your Word is in us and we’re asking and we believe You’ll do it, so we believe we’ve received!” The apostle John in speaking of Christ’s true church says, “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” (1Jn3:22) At that time John’s church had been attacked by the Gnostic heretics and he’s protecting them from that attack by emphasizing the truth that he’s given them the real gospel and it’s the heretics who are outside of God. So John encourages his church to hold on to what they have. These things I’ve written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life, and you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. And we know the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1Jn5:13,20) Concerning his church John says, “We’ve got the real thing and those that went out from us weren’t of us. They don’t have the real thing. If they were of us they’d have remained with us. (1Jn2:19) They don’t hear us because they’re not of God but we are of God.” (1Jn4:6) So he’s emphasizing to his church, “We’re the ones who are of God and our prayers are answered because we keep His commandments. We do His will. We abide in Him and His Word abides in us and we ask what we will and He does it because He keeps His Word to us when we fulfill His Word.” Now if we have what John’s church has, if we’ve met the conditions, then we too can believe we receive. Not all of you have entered into this but to you who haven’t yet come into the place you can believe you receive, you still have every hope of attaining if you’ll ask the Lord to help you. If you’ll seriously pursue the things Jesus has promised, you can reach the place where you can ask, “Jesus, am I qualified? Am I abiding in You and Your Word abiding in me in such a way that I can now believe I receive? And He’ll confirm if you have. Then your hope can become faith when you know you’ve met His conditions. And our hope will become faith concerning the resurrection, after the conditions have been met on our side, that we must be holy and blameless, and on His side that the trumpet must sound and the Archangel shout! So before that trumpet sounds and the Archangel shouts, we must get holy and blameless and do it as quickly as possible to hasten the coming of the Lord. Hope is not faith, but there’s a reason for hope and you can’t put faith in the place of hope without cutting off your hope. That’s what many of the so-called “churches” around us have done. They’ve turned the resurrection into an expectation instead of a glorious hope. The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. (Pr10:28) When hope became their expectation, it stopped being something they pursued. And when they stopped pursuing it, they became disqualified from the race. But if we rightly understand the gospel, then we know we haven’t attained yet, but we have Jesus to help us attain and our faith is in Him. So we put our faith where it belongs; in the Lord to perfect us and to finish us, that we can run this race in a way to win and attain to the blessed hope. We must run a lawful race, (2Tim2:5) and if we do Christ will bring us to the place we can be acceptable in His sight in the day of His appearing. (Rom8:24,25) So our hope will become faith and our faith will become sight! Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom15:13) Prophecy: It’s not just believing that Jesus is the Son of God that will save you. What will save you is asking Him to live in you and having faith He’ll conform you to His image, and make you perfect. That’s what will save you, not just “believing” Jesus is the Son of God. What saves you is Jesus living in you, having His being in you, moving you, speaking through you, thinking through you, that’s what saves. It’s My Spirit. It’s My Son supping with you. But you must obey Him for He’s life. He gives eternal life. And you can’t have eternal life without obeying My Son. So it’s more than just believing Jesus is the Son of God. It’s having faith that He’ll change you, perfect you and make you holy and blameless before the Father at the judgment. That’s what I’m looking for - the Christ in you, not the Christ outside. It is the Christ in you who will perfect you, saith the Lord! (Prophecy delivered at “My Father’s House”)
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