Have you ever been in the midst of a faith stand when suddenly it seemed like your faith just quit working?
Maybe you were believing God for healing or financial deliverance or the salvation of your family. Spiritually, everything was in place. You found the scriptures that promised you what you needed. You were firing off confessions of faith like a machine gun.
But as time went by, your spiritual battery began to weaken. The power you had when you first took your stand began to wane, and you developed a gnawing suspicion that nothing would happen.
In desperation, you tried to shove those doubts away by confessing louder and longer. You frantically tried to force your faith to work. But to no avail.
You wound up still sick, still broke, still surrounded by unsaved relatives...and wondering what went wrong.
In the end, you probably just chalked it up as a faith failure.
But I'm about to tell you something that will change your life if you'll pay attention to it. It certainly changed mine. It's this: What you experienced was not the failure of your faith...it was a breakdown of your hope.
Faith...or Desperation?
Most believers don't pay much attention to hope. They don't think of it as very important. They certainly don't consider it to be as important as faith. But the fact is, faith won't function without hope.
That's because "faith is the substance of things hoped for" (Heb. 11:1). Sometimes I say it this way, "Hope is the blueprint of faith."
When hope is lost, faith loses its aim. It no longer has a mission to accomplish. It just scatters uselessly in every direction.
I remember one time in particular some years ago when that happened to me. At God's instruction, I had given my airplane to another preacher and then ordered another to replace it.
During the weeks while the new plane was being manufactured, I began to believe God for the full amount I needed to pay for it.
I hooked up my faith to the promises of God and I was going along fine for a while. But just a few days before the plane was scheduled to be delivered to me, I realized I was $20,000 short.
As the delivery date grew closer, I became more and more alarmed. I started making faith confessions as fast as I could. I'd say, "Thank God, I have that $20,000. In Jesus' Name, I-have-it-I-have-it-I-have-it-I-have-it."
But the problem was, I was no longer confessing in faith, I was confessing out of desperation.
I knew something had to change, so I gathered up my Bible and my tapes, got in my boat, and went out to the middle of the lake to spend some time with the Lord. But when I got out there, I was still saying, "Thank God, I have that $20,000. In Jesus' Name, I-have-it-I-have-it-I-have-it-I-have-it."
Suddenly, the Lord spoke up on the inside of me: "KENNETH, BE QUIET!" He said, "I'm tired of hearing that. Just hush and let Me show you what I can do."
When He said that, something happened inside me. My hope came alive again. Suddenly I was expectant instead of desperate. I started eagerly anticipating what God was about to do, instead of fearing what would happen if He didn't come through in this situation.
Sure enough, the $20,000 I needed for that airplane came in and the pilot who delivered it to me ended up getting saved and filled with the Holy Spirit in the process. But none of that would have happened if I hadn't pulled aside, locked myself away with the Word for several hours, and let the Spirit of God rebuild and rekindle the hope inside me.
Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries