hope

Do you want to know how to depress the devil? Just follow the instructions in that last verse. When persecution comes, when friends or family criticize you because you lay hands on the sick and believe in healing, and when co-workers call you a fanatic because you love Jesus and aren't afraid to say so, rejoice! Shout hallelujah and leap for joy!

I tell you that will discourage the devil to no end. He's expecting that persecution to hurt you. He's expecting it to damage your faith, to wipe you out and to leave you in dismay.

Many of us, even though we're believers, have seen grief and sorrow as such a natural part of life that we haven't even questioned them. In fact, if we're honest, we'd have to admit there are times when we actually want to feel sad and sorry for ourselves.

Why would we choose to feel sorrow? Because sorrow has an emotional kick to it. It offers a surge of feeling that, in the beginning stages, is almost intoxicating.

You know, that's what I want to be...running over with hope! I want to dare to throw my whole life and everything I have into building a dream that comes from the heart of God. I want to get out there so far that without God's help, I can't get back.

Many people don't think that way though because they're afraid to fail. Fear of failure is dangerous. If you let it dominate you, it will cause you to do the one thing that inevitably guarantees failure and that's not attempting at all.

How do you counteract the fear of failure?

Faith-filled words. That's what changes things. They'll move mountains into the sea. They'll turn sickness into health. They'll turn a sinner into a saint.

They'll also take a sin-ridden nation and turn it into God's own country. That's right. Then, if we believers would back up the prayers we've been praying for this nation with words of faith instead of doubt and discouragement, we'd soon begin to see spiritual resurrection in the United States.

Did you know that the battleground for the problem you’re facing right now is in your mind and on your lips? If you’ll hit the devil with the Word and cast the care of the situation over on God, you’ll win.

Let me warn you though, hanging on to the Word isn’t always easy. The devil knows that if he doesn’t steal it from you, you’ll use it to enforce his defeat.

I’ve often heard people say, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” That’s nonsense. If you play the game right, you’ll win!

Any coach will tell you that part of playing the game right is having a winning attitude. That’s what God wants us, as believers, to have. He wants us to have so much faith in Him that we expect to whip any obstacle the devil brings our way. He wants us to expect to win at the game of life.

So many believers wring their hands and worry about whether or not they’re praying according to God’s will. “Oh, dear me,” they say, “I certainly can’t expect God to do something for me that’s outside His will.” And they’re absolutely right.

But they don’t need to waste time standing around looking puzzled. They need to grab their Bibles and find out what the will of God is.

Failures and disappointments. Aches and pains from the past that just won’t seem to go away. Most of us know what it’s like to suffer from them but too few of us know just what to do about them. So we limp along, hoping somehow they’ll magically stop hurting.

Truly, it’s time for us to stop looking for the living among the dead. It’s time for us to stop wandering around in the cemetery of sin, sickness and failure and to step into resurrection life!

As a resurrected creature, you’re no accident going somewhere to happen. Your life isn’t just a loose web of events and circumstances. God has specific plans for you.

Did you know that as a believer you’ve been redeemed from the curse of grief and sorrow by the blood of Jesus Christ? You don’t have to put up with them any more than you have to put up with sin or sickness or disease.

God started teaching me about this personally several months before my mother went home to be with Him in August 1988. Every time He’d show me something about it, I’d put it into practice. (You ought to do that with anything God is teaching you. Start practicing it now, and you can walk in it when the time comes!)

You and I are living in the most exciting days this earth has ever seen. All around us God is pouring out His Spirit in preparation for the endtime revival that will bring this whole age to a glorious close.

Some of God's children are just standing by as spectators, watching Him work. Others, however, have become a vital part of it all. They've volunteered for service in this great end-time army. They've become what the Bible calls the servants and handmaidens of God.

New Covenant. It's a familiar phrase to most of us. But do we really know what it means?

No we don't. Because if we did, every one of us would be faith a giant. Instead of struggling, "trying" to believe the promises of God, we'd be like Abraham: "Strong in faith...fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was also able to perform" (Romans 4:20-21).

You may be facing a giant today. He may be a giant of sickness or failure, of financial shortage or another kind of trouble. But don’t let him scare you. You have a secret weapon. A weapon that once turned a shepherd boy into a bear-busting, lion-killing, giant-slaying champion. That weapon was a blood covenant with Almighty God.

Back in David’s day, circumcision was the sign of that covenant. So, when he called Goliath uncircumcised, David was saying: “This guy may be a giant; he may be strong; but he has no covenant with God and that’s why I will defeat him.”

The Bible tells us that under Levitical law, an animal had to be offered every year to atone for the sins of the people. That word atone means "to cover" and it's used continually throughout the Old Testament.

But let me tell you something exciting. It's never used in the New Testament. The Greek word used to describe what Jesus did for us on the cross is a different word altogether. It doesn't just mean "to cover"—it means "to remit; to do completely away with something."

Prove yourself. In today's world, that's what you constantly feel you have to do, right? On the job, among friends, even at home you're always working to win the approval you need. Working to convince those around you that you deserve the salary, the friendship and even the love they give you.

Is there any escape?

You better believe there is! It's called grace. Unearned and undeserved favor and acceptance. And there's only one place you can find it—in the heart of God Himself.

How long has it been since you were backed into a corner, hemmed in by a seemingly insurmountable problem? If you're anything like most folks, it hasn't been very long. Some of us spend years trying to work our way out of financial binds only to end up more bound by debt than ever. Others work fanatically on marriages that, despite their best efforts, deteriorate from year to year. Still others fight battles against fear or depression, drug addiction or disease.

Like the bursting forth of waters. I love that phrase! It paints such a powerful and accurate picture of a breakthrough.

Do you remember the story of the little boy who saw a leak in the dam and plugged up the hole with his finger? He knew that the force of the water flowing through that one tiny hole would have enlarged the leak with every second that passed. And, as the dam gave way to the pressure, that tiny trickle would have quickly become a raging flood.

Jesus came to take away sin. Do you realize what that means? It means that God, through the blood of Jesus, has so completely done away with the power of sin that you, as a born-again believer, can live as if it never existed. You can step out from under its shadow once and for all.

Jesus is the beginning and the ending. He is the Almighty. When He told us that in the book of Revelation, He wasn't just giving us a general piece of information about Himself. He was giving us a powerful truth we can apply now, today!

Let me show you how. He said He is the beginning. So no matter what challenge or situation you may be facing right now, you need to start with Him. John 1:1 says Jesus is the Word. That means, if you're going to start with Jesus, you're going to start with the Word. Don't do anything until you find out what the Word has to say about it.

Religion is dangerous. Religion would rather debate about healing than see somebody healed. Religion would rather argue about deliverance than see someone set free.

You can see an example of that in Luke 13. Jesus healed a woman who had been bowed over for 18 years. Think of it, a dear old woman—a daughter of Abraham Jesus called her—set free after being bound by the devil for nearly two decades. You'd think the temple rulers would have been rejoicing at what Jesus had done. But, no! They were angry because He'd done it on the wrong day.