God Speaks…Hope, Faith and Grace Come Alive
Posted by Sandy in Blessed Life, Christian Living, Confidence in God, Discouragement, Faith, God's Faithfulness, grace, Hearing God, joy, Obedience, tags: Hebrews, Proverbs, RomansI have been captured by the song Word of God Speak by MercyMe this week. You can read about it in yesterday’s blog. You can purchase the CD here.
In yesterday’s blog, I included a YouTube video that intermingles images and Scriptures while the song plays in the background. The video includes great verses about God’s Word, but as the video was ending, I realized that the song brought a different verse to my mind:
Where there is no vision (revelation, prophetic vision, divine guidance), the people perish (cast off restraint, run wild), but happy are those who keep the law (whoever obeys the law is joyful).
Proverbs 29:18
The Word of God brings vision, revelation and divine guidance. Even when He is speaking discipline, that discipline comes wrapped in a package that includes vision for a better future – that we can be more than we are currently pursuing. It holds the hope of what can come next and the promise that God will help us get there.
By the way, that’s the difference between condemnation from the enemy and conviction from the Holy Spirit. When the enemy speaks it is in condemnation and it doesn’t come packaged with the vision for a better future. It doesn’t come wrapped in hope and a promise for help. It comes wrapped only in accusation, the sense of defeat and assurance of destruction. And in the face of such a future, we cast off restraint and step into that future of defeat.
When God speaks, good things happen:
1. Hope arises in our heart as we glimpse God’s vision. When He speaks, we begin to understand things from God’s perspective.
“He cares enough to speak to me, even though I have failed Him.”
“He has a vision for my future even when my sight is blurred or failing.”
“With Him, I can become the man/woman He wants me to be.”
“He has a part for me to play – a role in His eternal plan.”
2. Faith is ignited in our spirit when His Word speaks to us.
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17 (NIV)Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)
3. Faith brings an increased measure of grace into our lives enabling us to hold onto and step into God’s vision. Our God is a God of the future. Yes, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, but He forgives the past and enables the future. When He speaks, His message offers us an opportunity to enter into that future – that vision He has given.
Word of God speak. To me. To my readers. To Your people. We need to hear Your voice. We need Your prophetic vision. We need it to instill us with hope, increase our faith and activate grace in our lives.
We need these things because without them – without hope, without faith and without God’s grace, we see and hear only what the enemy is doing around us and whispering in our ears (“failure”, “defeat”, “no way out”) and sensing defeat we cast off restraint. We run wild because we don’t see God’s vision and our part in it. And we run into our own destruction.
Word of God Speak.
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