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What I am going to share with you in this devotion today is going to change your life if you can hear it, comprehend it, apply it and live it.   This one principle will set anyone on this planet FREE from the rut of being over run by circumstances and always having to 'take' what life dishes out at you.  If you don't get this the first time you read it, read it again, read it until you get it. 

Hebrews 11 says that FAITH is the substance of things HOPED for.

What is substance?  What does that mean the substance of things hoped for?    The Word substance there in the original language is HYPOSTASIS meaning:  an underlying reality or substance, as opposed to attributes or that which lacks substance.

Without HOPE faith has nothing to bring into reality in your life.   

Here is an example.  When we were just sinners someone shared with us the HOPE of the Gospel.    When we heard them share about Jesus,  the hope within them sparked hope within us  and FAITH was born within us.   That faith lead us to an action, we accepted Jesus as our LORD and Savior.   Until hope lead you to faith, you didn't have the will to ask Jesus into your heart.  But once the Gospel brought hope into your life, that hope birthed faith in your heart which lead to the action of receiving Christ Jesus.

Here is another example of how this scripture works.    When you hear someone saying they made money on a  business adventure and you can make money too, this may spark hope in your life.   That hope may lead you to a faith to start that business yourself.    But until hope sprung up, you didn't have any desire or understanding or will to call that company to open up a business.  So we see that faith is the substance of things hoped for. 

Here is another example of how this scripture works.   Your friend gets a hair cut.  You love this hair cut.  Hope rises up in you that you could get your hair done at the same place.  This hope leads you to faith that moves you to action.  You call the hair dresser and make an appointment.  You didn't have any desire to call this hair dresser until you saw your friends hair.  You gained hope for your own hair style when you saw your friends hair and that lead you to an act of faith, make an appointment for yourself.   Hope drives us to faith.  Hope leads us to action.  Hope causes us to believe.  

It is hope that sparks faith.   There are those today that are trying to do the acts of faith, but honestly you have lost your hope.   You may say what difference does that make?

Let's say that I pray and ask Jesus to come into my life but I really am not sure it will do much good.   Ok, I did the action of faith, I prayed, but without that spark of hope the prayer had no energy.  I acted in faith out of duty instead of out of a child like hope that believes.  And believing is seeing.  Did Jesus say all things are a possible to those who pray?   He said, "All things are possible to those who believe."

Or look at the second example.  Lets say you call to set up a business that you heard about, but, you don't really want to put a lot into it, because maybe it won't work...That is doing the act of faith without the spark of hope.  Hope is what makes us jump in head first.  Faith is action but hope is energy.   People say, "Oh  I don't have enough energy to have a dream."  What they fail to realize is that hopes and dreams make their own energy,  they make us ALIVE on the inside, and become reality when we add faith and action to them!  

I look at Thomas Edison trying to make the first light bulb.  

1. Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb.

He had a hope, a theory, a plan, a dream, an idea...you see those things spark faith in us.  You can call it hopes, dreams, plans, ideas, a theory, no matter what you call it, if it energizes you with child like faith to get up and DO SOMETHING, it is the very thing that will POWER your actions and bring what you desire into substance, into REALITY.

When we don't act on our hopes and dreams they DIE, and when they die, we die on the inside and fatigue and hopelessness runs our lives.  In the same way that hope breeds energy, hopelessness breeds fatigue.  Please someone hear this!  

Faith is the substance of things hoped for...in other words faith is the actions we take to make our dreams and God given plans a REALITY.     So without hope, without dreams, without plans, without something to believe in there is NOTHING for our faith to do.  

People often come to me with the problem that they have been walking in faith for years, but they can't seem to get their faith to produce what it should produce.   They do the actions, but it seems to come to nothing.   They pray, give, go to church, and help others, and yet things seem to get worse instead of better.   

Often the answer is that they have lost hope inside.   They no longer are dreaming, planning, hoping, eagerly waiting...without hope faith will have nothing to bring into substance.  It isn't the works we do that brings the blessings, it is the HOPE and BELIEVING that does so.

Does the Bible say that Abraham offered a Sacrifice, or did a work and it pleased God.  No it says that Abraham BELIEVED GOD and God counted that as righteousness.  Abraham's actions were the result of his hope within Him, and not a religious duty required by the law.   When our actions of faith spring up out of religious duty instead of a living hope within us, it is dead and unproductive.   Faith is not the substance of religious duty.  Faith is the substance of things HOPED for.   Now you know why the devil is after your hope.  He doesn't mind you doing religious duties as long as you don't get your hopes up.  Come on now.  Somebody please hear this.  This is the answer that many are needing today.  

If you have been struggling, and getting no where back all the way to the beginning of your faith because the beginning of all faith is hope.   It is time to start hoping again, dreaming again, believing again.  You will know when hope comes alive in you.  Hope is a spiritual thing.  It resides in your Spirit and when hope comes alive that fatigue and the feeling that it is all useless, hopeless feeling is going to lift off of you and a supernatural energy is going to spark inside of you.  Wow.  There is no thing like being full of hope!