I Chose the Subject HOPE
Psalms 71:14-15 As for me, I will always have hope. I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell OF your righteous deeds and saving acts.
This Psalm is why I share my experiences whenever asked. And why I wrote my book. Audio, Paperback, or Ebook
During my time as a street preacher, I was knocked around by spiritual warfare because I really didn’t have a church structure that supported what I was doing. BUT I experienced the Power of Jesus’ Name over and over, saving my life more than once.
What Does AI SAY?
I asked AI for the DEFINITION of Hope, and this is what came back.
HOPE refers to an optimistic expectation for a positive future outcome of the desire for something to happen.
HOPE can also describe a person or entity that serves as a focus for these desires.
OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION
Let’s focus on OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION. First, here is my background. I met the Lord(Jesus) in 1st grade when Sister Mary Carmel told us about the Passion of Christ. MY expectation! It was a simple friendship with Jesus. I was a scared little kid. Being afraid, I would cry hysterically whenever I heard the fire engines go by. I saw a bus accident and was nervous about riding in cars. BUT through this fear, I developed a habit of constantly praying or dialoging with the LORD. Without knowing the bible, I learned: Psalms 56:3 WHEN I AM AFRAID, I PUT MY TRUST IN YOU.
I was raised catholic but fell away.
FAST FORWARD to My College Days. I was Still Living for Myself.
But always because of my childhood habit and conviction, I continued to pray.
COINCIDENTALLY, My Freshman roommate was a Christian, and after my semester of partying and not adjusting very well, I realized my selfishness was not what I wanted. I turned to my friend, Jesus, who was there as my hope.
I joined a nondenominational charismatic church. It was a very radical church. But very real. The Positive? I began to read the Bible and learned about Faith.
Because of the church’s lack of structure and accountability, their teachings, my OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION developed into something extreme: I expected God to defeat all the power of the devil in the name of Jesus NOW by Faith. This is a good expectation, right? And even though Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT SEEN…
I was experiencing that power often. SO, I was all in. This was it. God is Powerful.
Things Started to Change
BUT eventually, the teachings I was receiving changed the focus of my OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION. The focus of the church began to be teachings that God would HEAL everyone who had faith, and no one had to die. Everyone could be rich and problem-free. But there was a catch. You needed STRONG faith and needed to be sinless. This was the answer to why some people did not get healed or receive their riches.
We are ALL Searching
People are searching. People are hurting. And will BOW to all kinds of ideas, philosophies, and self-help instruction. Their OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION? Being free of worry, low self-esteem, failure, pain, etc. They will do almost anything and spend lots of money to get any results….
As long as THEY are in control.
But if it involves the Lord Jesus Christ as GOD in the flesh … they will scoff at it as worn-out controlling religion.
My point is, we can have hope we can meet the AI definition, BUT hope in what or in who? Many put their hope in all kinds of people, places, and things. EXCEPT in Our LORD. The God of the Universe.
Most people put their hope and faith in their own minds, positive thoughts, abilities, and Spirituality. They ask for help from the universe, the latest meditation, or a self-help methodology. But not the Creator of the Universe. The Creator of the body, mind, and spirit.
And yes, the Mind, positive thoughts, and people’s abilities are powerful and are result-driven. Remember the story of the Tower of Babel?
Where is the Inner Peace?
They can do all these things, but it does not bring Inner Peace. SO they move on to something else. Pushing against the reality that ONLY the KING of KINGs can bring true inner peace.
Back to my story.
My hope. My OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION was shifting from hope in God to hope in never being sick or defeated. Hope in getting anything I asked for. God was my vending machine.
Now, in my defense. I was experiencing God’s power. Angels intervened and saved my life from gang members, Witches, Hells Angels—Breathtaking! AMAZING.
BUT What was more amazing ???
All of God’s intervention wasn’t enough. My hope was being dashed.
I was delivered from evil spirits —-AMAZING, but that wasn’t enough.
Frequently, delivered from all kinds of attacks, AMAZING, but again, that wasn’t enough. I was always looking for God to do something bigger.
God was doing all these unbelievably POWERFUL interventions, but
My hope, my OPTIMISTIC EXPECTATION, was not focused on HIM, it was on did He do what I asked?
And so my hope was crumbling. I began losing friends to illnesses many times because of the teachings of this church.
The straw that broke the camel’s back.
A friend who was seemingly always filled with joy at church changed. Because of a sickness he was battling, pain and depression.
I Received a Call…BOOM!
He took his own life. BOOM! BECAUSE his hope was in the result, he lost all faith and hope.
People were leaving the church.
And because my hope was in the OUTCOME and not in the LORD. I was crashing.
Proverbs 13. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. AND my heart was sick.
Psalms 42.5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? PUT YOUR HOPE in GOD, for I will yet again praise Him, my Savior and my God.
But My Hope was in Results, Not God.
Causing me to a place where I turned my back on the non-denominational church and its teachings. I turned my back on their teaching about healing, on the prosperity message, and on positive thinking. As a result, I stopped preaching, and I stopped playing all my music. I turned my back on everything I was taught over the 10 years I attended,
Until I Came to Jesus on the Cross.
This was a crossroads for me.
My friend hit the same crossroad and DID turn his back on our Lord. I pray for him daily.
My other friends left the church and left Colorado. There was so much collateral damage from the church’s teaching.
But I couldn’t turn my back. I knew Jesus from the time I was in 1st grade. And with all the powerful interventions of God in my life. The angels are defeating the demons and attacks. How could it be that I was still on the fence?
BUT The CROSS. No way was I turning my back on Him.
God started putting me, Humpty Dumpty, back together again. And where did I find myself being rebuilt? Back in the Catholic Church. The Eucharist, the actual body and blood of our LORD, was my rebuilding block- through the Spirit. When the priest in Mass declares and lifts the Body and Blood and declares BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD. My spirit leaps every time.
Ok, Simple. The Secret.
My hope. Our Hope. My Optimistic Expectation? That God IS.
GOD IS
Hebrews 11:6 Anyone who comes to Him must believe that HE EXISTS and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
Faith is to believe that God exists, and we have no excuse not to believe.
We are Children of God
We Are Children of GOD. Romans 8. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Divine Mercy – For Jesus is our Hope. Through His merciful heart, as through an open gate, we pass through Heaven.
Romans 12:12 Rejoice in your Hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in Prayer.
Our HOPE: God exists, and as a result, we can look into the heavens and pray in faith:
Psalms 103, Bless the Lord
Bless the Lord, all my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, all my soul, and forget not all His benefits.
He forgives all my sins.
He heals all my diseases.
He renews my life from the pit.
He satisfies my desires with good things, so my youth is renewed like the eagles
He is slow to anger, abounding in Love
, separating our transgressions as far as the east is from the west.
Yes, this is our Hope. God exists, and we are His Children.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
AMEN