What can you do when God’s promise seems delayed? Here are five strategies to help you go from hope to harvest.
Are you in the middle of a faith stand? Maybe you’re believing God for a miracle in your finances, healing in your body or the restoration of a struggling marriage. You’ve been standing on the Word to see a manifestation of God’s promises in your life, but the time between waiting and reaping a harvest has grown longer and longer, leaving you wondering what went wrong. You may be even losing hope.
Maybe you’re firing off faith confessions like a machine gun, but the delay in the manifestation of God’s promises has caused them to be spoken more out of desperation than faith. You may even feel like your faith has failed.
Here is something that will change your life. What you’re experiencing is not the failure of your faith…it’s a breakdown of your hope.
The good news is that hope can be rebuilt. You can go from hope to harvest when you develop a supernatural expectancy that looks eagerly for God’s promises with courage, and puts the ingredients of victory to work.
So, what can you do when God’s promises seem delayed? Here are five strategies to help you go from hope to harvest.
1. Have a Supernatural Expectancy
“Hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” –Romans 8:24-25, NKJV
Most believers don’t pay much attention to hope. They don’t think of it as very important. They certainly don’t consider it to be as important as faith. But the fact is, faith won’t function without hope.
You may think you have hope for your situation, but is it natural hope or Bible hope? Real Bible hope involves supernatural expectancy. The kind of hope the Word of God talks about is much stronger than natural hope because it’s not based on wishing or wanting. It is based on your covenant with God and the anointing God has provided to carry out that covenant in your life.
Just knowing God’s promises, however, isn’t enough. Hope comes when you begin to see yourself with what God has promised you, instead of seeing yourself without it. Real hope stands firm. It doesn’t move, and it isn’t distracted by natural circumstances. It is an expectancy that keeps your faith alive until those things you are believing for are pulled from the spiritual realm into the natural.
2. Stick Your Neck Out
“So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.” –Acts 3:5, NKJV
If you’ve ever seen a child waiting at the window in eager anticipation of the arrival of his grandparents, you’ve seen someone stick his neck out in hopeful expectation. That’s what real Bible hope is—a stick-your-neck-out kind of expectancy. It’s a knowing that what is expected will surely arrive.
The reason many people don’t have more success receiving from God is their hesitation to get into the Word, build up their hopes, and tell everyone what they’re going to receive. They don’t want to be disappointed, so they play it safe.
Real Bible hope stands up and says, “I believe I’m going to get it with my faith. I won’t accept anything less. I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to lose. The devil is not going to take it from me. It belongs to me, in Jesus’ Name.”
How do you develop that kind of hope? You stay in the Word until you’re so confident and expectant that your neck is stuck out in anticipation.
Don’t ever be afraid to get your hopes up. Why? It’s the secret to victory.
3. Stand with Courage
“This is my command–be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged.” –Joshua 1:9
Living a life of faith takes courage. Most people don’t realize it, but it does! It takes courage to stand up in the face of sickness and declare you’re healed by the stripes of Jesus. It takes courage to believe for prosperity and put your last dime in the offering plate when poverty is staring you in the face.
There are going to be some days when you’d rather pull the covers over your head and hide than take another faith stand against the devil. But you can’t. Because the battle of faith isn’t fought once and then forgotten. If you want to keep living in victory, you have to fight it again and again.
We need to keep fighting the good fight of faith. We need to take that promise and put our name in it. After all, it’s ours! We’re the seed of Abraham. Don’t ever let the devil discourage you and push you around. Instead, say: “Fear not, [your name]. God is your shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great!” (Genesis 15:1, AMPC).
4. Mix Hope With Faith and Love
“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love….” –1 Corinthians 13:13
When people refer to the “secret sauce” of a company or organization, they’re referring to those factors or techniques that make it a great success. Well, the Bible has given us a “secret sauce” for victory in every area of our lives.
Equal in potency, unparalleled in power, and unchanging from generation to generation, these three ingredients are unstoppable. What are they? Faith, hope and love. Not one at a time, or one instead of another—but all three mixed together in beautiful harmony.
Why do we need all three? Well, faith is not the same thing as hope. And, it isn’t the same as love. God is Love. Hope is expectancy. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. And all three are connected.
So, remember to mix all three ingredients of the secret sauce into your faith stand. Don’t leave any of them out. FAITH + HOPE + LOVE = Harvest!
5. Put in the Sickle
“When the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he sends forth [the reapers] and puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready.” –Mark 4:29, AMPC
Now that you’ve developed your hope—it’s harvest time!
Once you’ve developed real Bible hope, you can be sure your harvest will come. But even collecting a harvest takes work!
Mark 4:29 tells us to “put in the sickle,” to reap a harvest. What is a sickle? It is a sharp instrument used for cutting crops during a harvest. Our sickle is the Word of God coming out of our mouths. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow….”
Our words of faith cut down the crops and bring in the harvest. The words you speak today will dictate tomorrow’s harvest. So, be sure your words are calling in your harvest with faith. They are powerful harvesting tools!
Looking for more ways to call in your harvest? Find them here.
When you have supernatural expectancy; stick your neck out in hope; stand with courage; and mix it all with faith, hope and love, you will have everything you need to put in the sickle and reap your harvest. Whatever you’ve been standing for—no matter how long you’ve waited—today is the day to renew your faith stand. God always keeps His promises. So, get your hopes up! Your victory is on the way.
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