As Long As You Believe
The Nugget:
As long as you believe – you will keep your expectation alive.
Though we believe what the Word of God says about something, it is not always easy to receive what the Word does promise – especially if the answer does not come quickly. It would be great if what we were believing for would happen immediately. However, that rarely happens. Therefore we must stand in a constant attitude of believing – with high expectation!
We are all familiar with Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV). As we all know by now, Greek elpizo, which is most often translated as hope is also translated as anticipation and expectation. That means we are exercising our faith – which means a willingness to wait for the manifestation for as long as it takes! We may have to stand in believing faith a day, a week, a month or even longer. I have seen times it took a year or longer to receive the answer! For most, they have forgotten or have given up by then!
The question is – how long will we keep our expectation alive? If we let our faith weaken because of circumstances or events – our expectation will begin to wane, further weakening our faith and destroying any possibility or manifestation of the answer we are seeking. The fact is our faith and our expectation are connected together. One does not exist without the other. We must constantly check our belief system. Have we let some word or action of a family member, a friend or some other person creep in and undermine our faith and – expectation? God is moved by faith – NOT – wishful thinking. All too often we give up too quickly, often on the verge of actually receiving what we have been believing for. I have been waiting over 35 years for something God said – and my expectation is still high! My expectation will be met – because I am convinced what God said He will do – He will do! Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? (NLT). The burden of receiving is on us. God is never late, the problem is we don’t want to wait to receive!
Pastor NewVine