I Corinthians 13:13 . . . now abides faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.

1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

What is your HOPE ? It is always good to delve into the actual meanings of the words God used.

Gk. for HOPE = ELPIS = to anticipate with pleasure; confident expectation (with the confidence coming from trusting). Thus HOPE is partnered by FAITH.

Gk. for HEART = KARDIA = the innermost being; the driving-nature within; the source of one’s life = THE NATURE OF JESUS CHRIST birthed in us.

 ‘sanctify the Lord God in your hearts’ = it did not say, ‘sanctify GOD in your hearts’, it says LORD GOD. It shows that this challenge to us is KNOWING WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST and KNOWING THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST IN YOU. A (daily) checkup separates (sanctifies) Him to be Lord. . .i.e. with His control and His will.

 Gk. for ANSWER = APOLOGIA = a reasoned statement or argument. So the answer we need is a carefully considered conclusion because of what the LORD GOD has said.

When He is in that place of FULL AUTHORITY in your life (heart), His word is easily believed and trusted in.

We need to know what our hope consists of for it is our vision. We know that those without a vision perish (Prov.29:18) . . .the word ‘perish’ in the original language means, ‘to show much flesh’!!! Christian people have a unique ability of filling the gap in their understanding if they have not received a revelation of what God sees their hope is.

This hope is already in you . . . ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col.1:27) . . . Christ abides within; He is not just visiting and leaving when you miss the mark of the prize for the high calling of God. He is the guarantee that you receive the full expression, for which He was the downpayment/guarantee, namely GLORY. The glory of being changed, transfigured and transformed has been ‘fathered’ in you by God Himself and is guaranteed to happen because He that declared it is in you to cause it to be.

HOPE IS CREATED BY A PROMISE which is A SURE & RELIABLE WORD. Such a word can only be given by God. Trusting the Speaker enables you to trust what He says. God has spoken and revealed His promise(s) to you . . . He enabled you to HEAR (that’s His grace) and He enabled you to believe what you heard (His grace again) [John 6:29].

  YOU TRUSTED BECAUSE YOU HEARD AND BELIEVED. ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick’. When our hope and vision fades, our heart-trust also fades. When we arrive at the place of ‘no hope’, we revert right back to the fleshly/natural thinking which spells death to the spiritual man within. Such natural thinking can only see the ‘letter-word’ of the scriptures. When someone enquires of you of your vision and hope, they are generally looking for a reason (carnal thinking) either to accept your vision or reject it. Because they are without a hope of their own, your answer must be clear if they are to be attracted to your’s.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

HOPE comes from . . . HEARING + BELIEVING WHAT YOU HEARD + whereby GOD seals it in you. This SEAL is a seal of promise from whence comes the HOPE. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the seal upon you which, when walked in, will bring you to the promise of His full life.

(14) Which is the earnest (GUARANTEE) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory.

We therefore have a confident expectation of the THE ADOPTION, TO WIT, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY— Rom.8:26.

HOPE will bring forth our inheritance which is ‘the redemption of our body’ . . . i.e. being changed from this CORRUPTION TO INCORRUPTION and putting on IMMORTALITY in place of MORTALITY. It will also enable us to move forward from being a possessor of earthly/natural realms to being a possessor of heavenly AND earthly realms —just like Jesus patterned for us AFTER He had risen from the dead AND after He ascended into the Father. The ascension was when the FULL Melchisedec calling on His life ‘clicked in’. He would then be fully ‘at home’ in both spheres as was evidenced when He joined His disciples in the room where they were assembled without using the door which was moving in the heavenly realm and eating with them on the lakeshore which was moving in the earthly realm.

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge (= the ACKNOWLEDGING) of him:

This dimension of His life, of possessing both the heavenly and earthly realms, can only happen as HE opens our eyes with a REVELATION of Himself and His purposes. God wants to be acknowledged as the One Who will bring you to your hope. Quit trying to make it happen yourself — relax and simply acknowledge Him as Lord.

(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

The Gk. word for ‘know’ is EIDO, which means to know as a fact. ONE CANNOT KNOW IT EXPERIENTIALLY UNTIL IT HAPPENS). ‘His inheritance’ = THE FULLNESS OF HIMSELF corporately expressed. . . in the set-apart ones called saints who usually can be referred to as ‘believing believers’!

We are ‘heirs of God’ (Rom.8:17). If you are an heir of $1000, that is what you receive when the testator dies and leaves you an inheritance. We are corporately to inherit GOD in all His fullness for He is our inheritance . . . our HOPE.

Because Christ is in us, He exercises His exceedingly great power to bring us to the hope of our calling. Actually it is the hope of His calling. Our assurance comes out of what He achieved and we too will achieve the same hope in Him. He is so certain about this hope, that He remains in us to ensure its happening right on time.

God is calling and drawing us towards this certainty . . . of being changed in every area to living in and with the power of an endless life. We have the calling, His calling, to move into being the corporate priesthood role of Melchisedec. As we believe the Lord’s word, we shall come to experiencing this hope of a redeemed body, which only can contain such a power-filled-unending-life seen both in the natural and spiritual realms. We shall not all sleep — some will — some won’t. The challenge is to those, at present, who live on the earth.

(20) Which he wrought (PAST TENSE) in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

THE PROVISION (=power to accomplish = Holy Spirit at work in us) CAME THROUGH THE RESURRECTION and ASCENSION. In regard to our hope, resurrection life is not enough as the testimony of Lazarus declares.

Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath (He - God) quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Dead in sins, buried with Him and raised with Him . . . yes experiencing ‘resurrection life’ in Christ BUT Christians still die! We have yet to grasp the revelation that the Christ-life in us has ascended and has already incorporated the life that moves fully in both the earthly and heavenly realms. . . i.e. both sides of the veil.

GRACE provides freely the WORD that is a sure thing: GRACE gives the hope, faith and love.

HOPE results in a GUARANTEED CONCLUSION OF WHAT WAS SPOKEN.

FAITH TAKES YOU STEP BY STEP TOWARDS YOUR HOPE.

IT IS FAITH THAT WORKS BY LOVE (Gal.5:6). . . one’s motivation.

Acts 24:15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

HOPE looks towards our inheritance which is God. We, being overcomers, have been chosen for the first and better resurrection, for the general resurrection of the remainder comes later. This first and better resurrection is also your hope.

The word ‘conscience’ is Gk. SUNEIDO = SUN (=with) + EIDO = knowing the facts.

Because of what has been revealed to you CONCERNING YOUR HOPE, your relationship with God and the people around you WILL BE AFFECTED. You will thus make an effort to maintain your vision. How? By keeping the Promiser and His promises in the forefront of your mind.

Eph 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

THERE IS ONLY ONE HOPE OF WHY WE HAVE BEEN SAVED. It is not to go to heaven when we die, but rather allow ‘heaven’ (the God-life in the spiritual realm) to come to us while we live here on earth. The heavenly life in the spirit realm is to be added fully to our redeemed earth-life that we now walk in. However we have only thus far experienced this ‘in part’.

Acts 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

You start preaching the RESURRECTION and ascended LIFE as your portion in God on earth , you will be challenged as to what you are! However such preaching leads to the fullness of the Feast of Tabernacles — a going through the veil. It is an on-going experience (not just a visit to the Throne) and it is scheduled to occur in the seventh day of God’s plan and this day is upon us!

Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We are to rejoice in the sure knowledge of what God has said which will release the glory of God from within. CHRIST in us is the sure hope of this glory-fullness coming forth. God’s original plan of having ‘man’ in His image and likeness will come forth in reality. Note the following ‘stepping stones’ that God uses to achieve this.

(3) And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

(4) And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

(5) And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Back to Ephesians chapter 1 where the HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM releases this word of HOPE. To bring it to pass, there is a journey through PRESSURE (Gk. meaning of tribulation) to

PATIENCE, then to EXPERIENCE and finally to HOPE (the end target, the high calling of God).

There is a PATIENCE developed in us because of our HOPE. We do not allow changing circumstances of everyday life to influence us because GOD is in control and HIS WORD will come to its full purpose.

In this journey, our HOPE acts as an anchor. An anchor holds the ship, picturing our renewed thinking, from being taken away by the currents in the sea of people’s opinions.

Hebrews 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

The ‘soul’ needs a secure, unmovable connection like an ANCHOR is to a boat.

It is a matter of following the Leader, Christ-Jesus.

OUR HOPE . . . vision of resurrection . . . vision of the fullness of Christ released from within us is a certainty because . . . CHRIST within you is the HOPE of this glory (Col.1:27).

We shall not all sleep (DIE) but we shall all be changed. . . God will do it.

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God.

God in a GENERAL sense is THE OMNIPRESENT, OMNIPOTENT AND OMNISCIENT GOD Who is in heaven, the unlimited Spirit realm . . . which He is) and our Saviour Jesus Christ , Who is God in THE SPECIFIC FORM OF FLESH, which is limited. It is not two Gods coming forth. . . but whenever Christ is seen, then the unlimited God is seen in Him. The glorious appearing (coming) of the Lord in myriads of Himself ( Jude 14 in the original text) will be the highlight and conclusion of our hope.

Hebrews 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

THIS HOPE IS INSEPARABLE FROM PERFECTION , maturity and completeness. It so moves on us and in us that we are constantly being drawn to God.

1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

(2) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Please note , it does not say, AS HE WAS !!! HE IS now in His new Body called the Church. HE, HIS VERY OWN NATURE will fully APPEAR. We shall see His being, nature, ability, resources come forth supernaturally naturally from within us, His Body.

1 John 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

This hope affects us who have heard the word of revelation from God about HIS CALLING IN US. He from within will constantly urge us to be PERFECT and therefore PURE . . . spotless and without any wrinkles. . . for His hope must come forth for it is also our hope. §