Spiritual Anticipation Expectancy - C. R. Oliver (novel books to read .TXT) 📗

1 John 2:28-3:1
And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

1 John 3:21-23 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight

Notice: in the two passages in John's epistle he uses the word "confidence" rather than "hope."

NT:3954 parrhesia (par-rhay-see'-ah); from NT:3956 and a derivative of NT:4483; all out-spokenness, i.e. frankness, bluntness, publicity; by implication, assurance: (In order to continue in hope, one must have assurance in his heart-which is the faith part of Hope: this is believing for the unseen as though it had already appeared!) The Bible engenders our confidence level!

The writer of Hebrews concurs with the witness of John. He cites Moses as one who embraced the word of God in confidence and hope. Notice the huge "if" clause in v. 6, v.14. (Baptists deplore "if" clauses.)

Hebrews 3:4-6
For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. 

Hebrews 3:14-15
For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:

Hebrews 10:35-36
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise

Paul maintains the whole of the Bible was written in order to keep hope before us, in us and surrounding us. Sunday worship should be a resounding affirmation of the hope within us. Our singing, praise, preaching and testimony ought to sound like "one voice." (Alas, many times it doesn't! Too many fail the "if" test.)

Romans 15:4-6
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

All Scripture is given to embolden the saints in Faith, Hope and Love. However, an element of "saint power" is also in the mix.

Jeremiah 17:7-8
'Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. 
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,'

Zechariah 9:12-13
Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare  That I will restore double to you. For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim,
And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man."

Yes, let us all be "prisoners of hope!" Let us return to the stronghold! Let us be restored double! Let us be on the cutting edge, like the sword of a mighty man! Let us be like the tree planted by the waters-strong, positioned, supplied, nourished! Let us, with confidence, withstand the elements around us! It is time to be an emboldened people of Hope!

2 Corinthians 3:11-12
For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech

The Psalmist was bold in his trust in the "word of God!" Covering many of the passages in the Psalms there is repetition of his reliance upon the Word. Perhaps it is time for the saints to sound out to the world our repeated testimony about our blessed Hope.

Psalms 119:49-50
Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life

Psalms 119:114
You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word. 

Psalms 130:5-8
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.  My soul waits for the Lord

As our expectancy level rises, along with our expression of the hope within, we join the masses of saints who have gone before us and we identify with those found in Scripture. Our own identity changes, and we are more likely to be in fellowship with Paul than our next door neighbor. We join into the inheritance of the saints and become co-workers with those who throughout history have stood in faith.

1 Corinthians 9:10-12
For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?

We may connect more with Abraham than we do a local group. We may have more in common with Peter and Paul or Daniel than we do our pew associates.

Romans 4:16-22
To those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations') in the presence of Him whom he believed - God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness." Our Patriarch, Abraham, became a living example of confidence toward God.

(Ah, that is what is needed in our congregations---testimonies about our hope in Him. Lost to the crowds of "churchies" are those bold affirmations of faith-called testimonies. "Churchies" are weak in faith and must be mentored by those who have great confidence toward God. 

"Churchies" need to be taught that hope is given by the Spirit. They need to be taught that hope carries with it a wide spectrum of aspects, such as righteousness, grace and power. Unless someone demonstrates these factors in their life, the life of the church will remain dormant and lukewarm.

Romans 15:13
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit

Hope, in action, leads us to greater awareness of our spiritual life. Somehow, we are transformed into realms of the Divine that lead us to obtain for ourselves these greater elements of grace. These elements are unreachable in any other way. Literally, we are transformed by the Spirit to become the embodiment of expectancy! 

It is now time to look at the qualities produced by Hope generated through the Spirit.

Galatians 5:5-6
... we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith 

Ephesians 1:17-19
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, 

Colossians 1:26-27
but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

1 Thessalonians 5:8
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 

Titus 1:2-3
... in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching. 

Hebrews 6:18-20
by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Our High Priest has ushered in to us a better hope and better covenant than Abraham!

Hebrews 7:19, the bringing in of a better hope.

Hebrews 7:22, by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. 

1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

Hebrews 3:6
... but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end 

Titus 2:12-15
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:23
if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, 

Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 

Heb 6:11-12
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promise

The times we are living in have an aire of expectancy in them. The whole world is filled with a sense of mass change, and because of this flux, we are going to be called upon to give witness to the hope within us.

1 Peter 3:14-17
But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. 'And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.' But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed

THE FOLLOWING IS FOR THOSE WISHING CONTINUED STUDY ON THE SUBJECT

Allow these final wrap up words to rest in your Spirit. What God gives as Rhema to you personally will come to pass. Let those items build a fortress of expectancy within you. First, let Webster's definition soak into your spiritual