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Biblical
Prosperity in Perspective 25
Unleashing
Expectation for Prosperity
by Pastor John Hamel
Throughout His Ministry Jesus continually
expressed the necessity of using faith to have
one’s needs met. He was continually saying things such as, “According
to your faith be it unto you,” or “As you have
believed…” and “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.”
It is so vitally important for faith to be
developed in the area of Biblical prosperity in order for the child of God
to prosper. This is why this series has been developed on this
website. We want to see you develop faith for supernatural prosperity
so you can perform the will of God in the Earth.
The Bible says faith
comes by hearing or by looking at and listening to the Word of God properly
preached and taught. (Proverbs 4:20-22; Romans 10:17) You have heard
and seen much concerning God’s will for you to prosper in this
series. Your faith level is much higher now for supernatural
prosperity than it was back at the beginning of this series.
However,
there is still some more ground to cover.
Many Christians possess all the right
books, tapes, CDs and are making all the right confessions for
prosperity. Yet they are not in faith for prosperity because they do
not really know what faith is.
We will devote this lesson to
understanding what faith is and to the importance of unleashing faith for prosperity.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
There are three
words in this one powerful verse of Scripture that we will focus on.
These three words will help you to better understand faith, what it is and
how it operates.
I am not a Greek
scholar, but I am pretty quick with a Hebrew or a Greek dictionary. I
have been using them for approximately 25 years. They are as simple
to use as an English dictionary.
We will use a Greek lexicon /
dictionary to look at the three most important words in the above verse of
Scripture beginning with the word “faith."
Faith
“Now faith is …”.
Basically the Greek definition of faith is
“persuasion, to be convinced.”
If you have faith
in me, basically you are persuaded or convinced that I have
integrity. You are persuaded or convinced that I am an honest
person. You are persuaded or convinced that I am trustworthy.
The same is true with having faith in God. To have faith in God means
that you are convinced that He has integrity, He is honest and He
is trustworthy.
Anyone who is
persuaded of God’s promise to prosper them will embrace it and never let it
go. This is what all of the “heroes of faith” in the Bible did.
“These all died in
faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were PERSUADED of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13)
If you were to go
back and read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, you would see that this
chapter is referring to the great men and women of faith of the Old
Testament. It is referring to individuals such as Abel, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Sarah.
These are all individuals who were
fully persuaded and thoroughly convinced that God had integrity, that He
was honest and that He was trustworthy. These are all individuals who
embraced God’s promises for their descendants. There is much we could
learn about faith from any one of them.
However, we will just look
briefly at what the Bible says about Abraham’s persuasion, Abraham’s faith.
“And being not weak
in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He
staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in
faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had
promised, he was able also to perform.” (Romans 4:19-21)
Notice the Bible
says that Abraham was not “weak” in faith. Abraham did not “stagger”
at the great and mighty promises of God through unbelief. Abraham was “strong” in faith, giving Glory to
God. Abraham was fully “persuaded” that what God had
promised, He was more than able to perform.
Some people stagger
while they are waiting on God to fulfill His promises to them because they
are not fully persuaded of His integrity, honesty and
trustworthiness. How about you? Are you persuaded that all you
have been learning about God’s will to prosper you is true? Are you
persuaded of the integrity, the honesty and the trustworthiness of God’s
written promises to you?
Do you believe that you will reap lavishly
what you sow lavishly? Do you believe that God will meet your every
need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus? (Philippians
4:19) Do you believe that when you give it will be given unto you,
good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over? (Luke
6:38) Do you believe God will use other men and women to give unto
you proportionately as you have given?
Are you persuaded that this
will happen for you as you pay your tithes and offerings? If you are, tremendous
blessing is preparing to intersect with you even now.
To have faith is be
fully persuaded of the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of God and
His written Word.
Substance
“Now faith is the
substance …”.
The simplest
definition for this word “substance” is “a foundation.” Now, this is
not talking about a physical or a material foundation such as that which
holds up a physical building. This is referring to a spiritual under
girding.
Actually Hebrews 11:1
could be read like this, “Now persuasion of God’s integrity, honor and
trustworthiness is the under girding foundation of things hoped for …”.
Being persuaded of
the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of God’s Word creates a strong
foundation that will keep you from collapsing when circumstances temporarily dictate that you
are not going to make it.
The Berkeley
Translation of the Bible says, “But faith forms a solid ground for what is
hoped for …”.
If you know what
the Bible says about prosperity and you are persuaded of its integrity,
honesty and trustworthiness, you are on solid ground. If you do not
know what the Bible says about prosperity and therefore are not persuaded
of its integrity, honesty and trustworthiness, you are on sinking
sand. This is what Jesus taught about believing His Father’s
promises.
“Therefore
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a
rock [God’s Word]: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was
founded upon a rock [God’s Word]. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the
sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
(Matthew 7:24-27)
Some Preachers who
do not know what the Bible says about prosperity say things like, “It’s
foolish to believe that God wants everyone to prosper.” They say
ignorant things like, “It is God’s will for some
people to prosper but it is not God’s will for all people to prosper.”
To listen to that kind of preaching will undermine your faith
foundation. I call that “stinking, sinking sand” preaching. It
will cause your house of faith to collapse when the storms of life come
against it.
Jesus said we must hear His sayings only and not the
sayings of a Preacher who has not studied to show himself approved of
God. Listening to anything other than Jesus’ prescribed rules for
prosperity is tantamount to building on sinking sand. It will always
result in financial collapse, debt, lack and ruin when the storms of life
come. This is not what God
desires for you.
F.F. Bosworth was
one of the greatest healing Revivalists the world has ever known. He
was a pioneer of radio Evangelism from the 1920’s through the 1950’s.
He had tremendous faith for healing and prosperity. He once said,
“Faith begins where the will of God is known.” What he meant was,
“You can’t believe what you do not know.”
You now know much about
God’s will for prosperity and why He wills it as a result of reading
through these web studies on supernatural Biblical prosperity. You
are responsible for what you now know. You are now accountable to unleash expectation for finances in order
to establish God’s Salvation-based Covenant in the Earth.
Not only
are you responsible and accountable to do so, you are well able to do so
after having been through this Biblical prosperity in perspective series.
Hope
“Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for …”.
The Greek
definition of “hope” is “to expect, usually with pleasure.”
The world defines
“hope” as “I sure wish it was true. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, probably it’s not. Murphy’s Law says if anything
can go wrong it will. I hope it doesn’t, but it might.” That
certainly is not the definition of Bible hope.
To have Bible hope
is to expect, with pleasure, the best to happen. It is tough not to
have Bible hope when you know what the Bible says. It is hard to not
have Bible hope when you know the integrity, the honesty and the
trustworthiness of the Great Benevolent God.
It is tough to not expect with pleasure all good things when you know that
you are in Covenant with the God of Goodness.
Bible hope is to expect with pleasure.
When one is acquainted with the love nature of God and when one is
acquainted with the Word of God, it is a difficult thing to not get your
hopes up and to keep your hopes up.
Therefore, based on
all three Greek definitions, let’s re-read Hebrews 11:1 like this.
“Now persuasion of the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of our Good
God and His precious Holy written Word is the under girding foundation of
all things expected with pleasure and even ecstasy.” Wow.
Oh, I love those
original Greek words so much more than those archaic King James
words. This is why it is so important to learn how to use Hebrew and Greek lexicons. It is so easy, even
children do it.
This is why it is so important to learn how to
rightly divide the Word of God. This is why it is so important to
learn to handle the Word of God with excellence. This is why it is so
important to understand the love nature of God.
The Bible says that
God is love and love is God. (1John 4:8)
Only by understanding God’s love nature and knowing what He
promises in His Word can we be persuaded of the integrity, honesty and
trustworthiness of it and expect with pleasure those promises to be
fulfilled in our lives.
Say this, “Father,
I’m seeing so much more clearly from Your Word that it really, truly is
Your will for me to enjoy Biblical prosperity in perspective. I am
persuaded of the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of Your Word.
I expect with pleasure Your will to be fulfilled in my life. I am
unleashing expectation for prosperity to come to me. Money, you come to me now, in Jesus’ Name.
Father, the lost people of the world desperately need You to give me more
money so I can find them and set them free.”
Be blessed … John
and Barbara Hamel
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