Now faith is the substance (title deed) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Never give up on My mercies. They are unfailing.
Many are giving up on being healed, prospering, having joy, and being set free of captivity to addictions or situations you cannot seem to get free from or see any way out of. But have confidence in My promises. I never allow you to be tried beyond your strength but I provide for you a way out and His Name is Jesus, a new and living way.
NEVER GIVE UP HOPE.
How do you do that? By faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. So if you are ready to give up and stop fighting the good fight of faith there is an answer. The answer is simply to build up your faith in the dark valley and soon and very soon you will be lifted up to the heights. “I waited intently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” Psalm 40:1-3. If you are begging, pleading, and bemoaning for the result you want and are sinking down into a miry swamp about to give up, it is time for you to step up and sing a new song, a song of praise to Me, the God of your life. I desire that each one of you show the same diligence until the end so as to realize the full assurance of hope, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:3.
When Jesus was among you in the flesh, on one of the days He multiplied loaves and fish for the hungry crowd, when evening came, Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” Mark 4:35-41.
Many of you have been believers for many years and I ask you the same question about the challenge you are facing, or may have been facing for a long time that seems it will never budge, “Why are you so terrified? DO YOU NOT YET HAVE FAITH?
I have given every born-again believer a measure of faith, Romans 12:3 (“as God has allotted to each a measure of faith”), the same one. It is like muscles, everyone living has the same muscles in their body, but some build them up and maintain them better than others. The same is true of faith. There are those that build themselves up in their most holy faith so that they have great faith. Some have little faith. Some have no faith. And some have lost their faith. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5. Just like Jesus was in that boat with the disciples in the storm so is He with you. He is in your boat. You have nothing to fear. And who is He? He is My Word. You have My magnificent promises found in My Word which are all “yes” to you in Him.
“NOW faith is,” so right now what is faith to you? Read on with My definition of faith found in the book of Hebrews. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Let Me show you this passage in the language it was written in, that is, Greek. Faith is the “substance,” the Greek word used that is translated substance is “hypostasis,” which is from the word “hypo,” meaning “under,” and “histemi,” meaning “to stand,” properly “standing under a guaranteed agreement,” a “title deed,” title to a promise or property, under a legal standing of possession giving substance to, or guaranteeing, your confidence and assurance of the result.
“the evidence of things not seen.” The word translated “evidence” there is “elegchos,” which means proof, persuasion, an inner conviction, evidence.
So what am I telling you in this Scripture? That it is your faith in My Word that gives substance to your hope and causes you the confidence to stand firm in obtaining what is promised to you in My Word, knowing that it is rightfully your possession already, even before it manifests in your life. Like owning a property you have never actually walked on or seen but to which you were given the deed from the owner (grantor) with you as the grantee. But it may be when you go to legally take possession you have to evict a squatter and if you allow him to stay there too long without checking on what you own, he may have taken adverse possession. But what I promise you is like registered land (in Hawaii in the Land Court system) and that can never be adversely possessed, it always belongs to the owner of record, which is you as My heir and a joint heir with Christ. As I instructed the Israelites in the desert on the way to the land I promised them, “drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places. You are to take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.” Numbers 33:52-53. It took a fight of faith though they had been given possession. “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence (“spoude” in Greek, which means to move quickly, speedily, with earnest swiftness) so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Hebrews 6:11-12.
But you have to know what you have before you can take it by faith. If you never know you have the title deed to a property you will never even try to possess it, let alone believe it is yours and you can legally take it. The same is true of My promises. If you never heard or read the good news of Jesus you do not know your sins are forgiven having been punished on Him, and, because other that, I remember them no more when you are in Him. If you do not know that I have told you that I am the LORD YOUR healer, that Jesus bore your sicknesses and pains, and that I have redeemed you from the curse of the law in Jesus, you have no faith for being healed. If you do not know about your good Shepherd and great High Priest, you will not come boldly to My throne to take mercy and grace for quick help in time of need. If you have never read the benefits listed in Psalm 103, how can you have the faith to take them with joy and thanksgiving?
Faith comes only one way, by hearing and hearing My Word and most particularly the good news about Jesus and all I have done for you in Him. Until you know Him, you do not know Me. In seeing Him you see Me. And when you behold Him in the Bible and what He did and said, you can be confident that I love you, that I heal you, that I provide for you, that I work miracles for you, that I have forgiven you, and that I was willing to give His life in order to give you eternal life.
Now, let us go back to the incident of the storm on the lake when Jesus was asleep on the cushion in the stern of the boat. What was the Word they were to have faith in? Look back again. What did Jesus say to them, what was the Word He gave them, when they set out on the lake? “Let us go over to the other side.” If I tell you, and Jesus only spoke My Words, that we are going to the other side, then you can have confident faith that no matter what storm arises, you will not perish, but you will get to the other side. You may recall another boat and another storm that involved My apostle Paul. I had told him years before when he was arrested in Jerusalem for preaching the good news there that, just as he had witnessed to Me in Jerusalem, he would also do in Rome. It took some years for him to get there, and many trials on the way, and when he was finally sailing to Rome a terrible storm hit. All the crew lost hope, but Paul did not. He knew I had told him that he was going to witness in Rome and that was enough. No storm, no snake, no evil could make him lose his faith for a successful journey. Why? He had My Word. And so do you. A whole book of them.
I love you. And when you know and believe in the love I have for you, you can overcome anything, for you are loved by the One that made you, sustains you, forgave you, saved you and makes you a new creation in Christ. Faith, hope, and love work together and are eternal, but the greatest of these is love. Faith and hope are not firm in Me until you know that I love you no matter what you have done or do and am willing to make all things new for you.