Keep Your Faith Anchored
Today, I want to talk with you about your faith. We must continue to anchor ourselves to what God has said He is doing at this time.
In my book, The Power of Hope, I state:
Hope does in our hearts what seeds do in the earth. Without hope, life is sterile and unfruitful; dreams won’t be conceived, and destinies won’t be realized. Hope is essential because it is the seed, the starting line, the genesis, the launch pad. It is, in fact, the incubator where faith is birthed: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” God tells us (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). If there is no hope for the future, there will be no faith to face it - let alone build it.(1)
Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” Strong’s concordance tells us the word ‘hope’ in this verse is the word tiqvah. It has two meanings: ‘an expectancy’ and ‘a cord, as an attachment.’(2) The second definition is especially fascinating. Hope connects us to our future.
In this same book, The Power of Hope, I share the following story of God encouraging my faith for America.
As I write this, I’m sitting on my back porch [2014 in Dallas, TX], drawing inspiration from an amazing picture of hope. It’s a tree in my backyard that I named The Hope Tree. I gave it that name because it used to be dead - or so the previous homeowners thought.
I remember talking with the former owner when we were considering purchasing the house. He told me that not only had the tree died, but he had cut it down. There was nothing left but a stump! It doesn’t get much deader than that!
“Then I put in the sprinkler system,” he said. “I placed one of the sprinkler heads next to the stump, and the tree grew back.”
I stood next to him, looking at the tree. This was not a wannabe tree consisting of two or three small sprigs, mind you, but a complete tree. Immediately, I thought about the Scripture where God talks about this never-say-die kind of tree:
“For there is hope for a tree when it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and its shoots will not fail. Though its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the dry soil, at the scent of water, it will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant” (Job 14:7-9).
Why had this passage from Job come to mind so quickly? Amazingly, in that season, I had been encouraging myself with these exact verses as I prayed for America. “You can revive America’s destiny and cause us to be great again, Lord,” I prayed often.
You can imagine my shock and amazement as I looked at the tree before me, a perfect picture of the Scriptures I had been standing on. “Sold!” I said. I hope Ceci likes the house because I’m buying it, I thought. That tree is now my daily reminder of the validity and power of audacious hope.
Many people in this season are looking for hope. Life can be difficult and, at times, brutal. The struggling economy is stealing jobs and destroying the dreams of many; diseases have ravaged the health of some and taken the lives of others; our kids cut themselves and shoot their classmates; our government is broken and refused to reform; and the entire world, it seems, is filled with unrest and war.
Stumps abound….(3)
God has been faithful in giving me anchor points like this tree over the years regarding His plans for America. And, of course, His plans for America are joined to His plans for the world. It is easy to lose sight of these plans if we focus on the circumstances around us, especially when we see evil at today’s level. The anchor for faith in these times is the Word of God, what He has promised. When I stake my faith in His words, faith displaces fear.
God Wants to Save!
Do not underestimate the power of God’s love. He loved the world SO MUCH that He gave His only Son to save us. God sees the fallen earth through this lens of compassion. His passion is to redeem, not destroy. Hear Him say to Abraham, Sure! I’ll spare the city for only ten! (Genesis 18:32; my paraphrase). Revival to America and the world is not being wrestled from the hand of a hesitant God, but offered from His merciful heart.
Most definitely, we live in a time of great evil, and the wickedness of some is hard to fathom. But DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO BLUR GOD’S HEART. Yes, He will shake down the wickedness, but He will also release His abounding grace.
Anchor to this!
When a demonized, evil Herod killed the babies in Christ’s day, God did not abandon His plan and bring Jesus back to heaven. He stayed the course, and He will do so today. When His followers were murdered, burned at the stake, and fed to lions, God didn’t throw up His hands in frustration and destroy the planet. He stayed the course and allowed their blood to become seed He would use to turn the world upside down.
It is appropriate to grieve in difficult times. It is reasonable to experience righteous anger. But it is not okay to give up. Our Redeemer is on a mission, and He needs us to stay focused on that mission. Speak His words. Remind yourself of His promises. Worship. And stand!
Pray with me:
Father, we know how the story ends: You conquer evil once and for all, banish the serpent, and restore the earth. And we know how the story of this season will end: You will shake down evil and bring the greatest revival planet Earth has ever seen. You will NOT be outsmarted, out-maneuvered, or overcome. The worthy Lamb is also the conquering Lion; the gentle Shepherd is also the white horse Rider. He holds the keys, and He is the Supreme Judge.
We are following Jesus. We represent Him and His victory at Calvary. We are His reaping force, His liberators, and we move in His authority. We bind every strategy of hell to stop this great harvest, confuse the church, and steal our faith-filled hope. We are and will continue to release living water to the “stump” called America, and this stump will grow into a tree once again. Then, we will release this living water as a river to the nations of the Earth, and entire nations will be saved and transformed. Nothing can stop this - it has already been decided.
We send these words into the airwaves, the atmosphere of the earth today, and declare that they will accomplish everything You intend. Not one word will return void, because we do so in the name of Jesus. We command a shaking into the strongholds of darkness in the Middle East and around the world. And we release the love and salvation of God to people there and elsewhere.
We ask for all of this in Yeshua’s name. Amen.
Our decree:
We decree that we, the Ekklesia, are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; this will not change.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
Sheets, Dutch. The Power of Hope: Let God Renew Your Mind, Heal Your Heart, and Restore Your Dreams. Charisma Media, 2014. p. 3.
James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990. ref. no. 8616.
Sheets, Dutch. The Power of Hope: Let God Renew Your Mind, Heal Your Heart, and Restore Your Dreams. Charisma Media, 2014. pp. xiii-xv.
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