Hope Is the Blueprint — Faith Is the Builder

I’m excited to get this into your hands today — because if you’re going to walk by faith, you’ve got to understand something first. Faith doesn’t build in a vacuum. It needs a blueprint. And that blueprint is hope.

We’ve been in this series for several weeks now, walking through exactly what Abraham did to receive from God. And we’ve arrived at one of the most important pieces of the whole recipe — hope. Real, Word-based, positive expectation. Without it, you can pray all day long, but faith has nothing to work with.

Here’s what I want you to see today: hope is the blueprint that faith builds.

Fear is not what most people think it is.

I’ve heard it said — and you’ve probably heard it too — “Fear is false evidence appearing real.” It’s a cute little acronym. But I’m going to tell you straight: that’s hogwash.

If a real gun is pointed at a real head, that is not false evidence appearing real. When the Egyptians are at your back and the Red Sea is in front of you, that is not false evidence. When the doctor tells you that you have cancer, that is not false evidence. That is real.

So what is fear?

Fear is the expectation of a failure of a promise of God. That’s it. When you are afraid, you are expecting God’s promise to fail. You are not expecting the word of God to come to pass — you are expecting something else to come to pass instead.

And that means the answer is not to pretend the threat isn’t real. The answer is to find the promise that covers it and start expecting that instead.

If you are afraid, there is a love problem.

I know that’s hard to hear. But look at what the Word says — perfect love casts out fear. So anytime I find myself afraid, I know exactly what’s happening: I am not believing the love that God has for me. I am not accepting and expecting His love to operate in my life.

That is not condemnation. That is a diagnostic tool. Fear tells you where your expectation has slipped — and expectation is always something you can change.

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.— 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV)

Every promise God has made — every single one — His answer is yes and so be it. When you lift up a promise of God, Heaven responds. When you declare that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made you free from the law of sin and death, God’s answer is yes. So be it.

You have to decide which law you’re expecting to produce.

There are two laws operating: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and the law of sin and death. One of them is going to produce in your life — and the one that produces is the one you expect.

The doctor says cancer. Okay. That is real. But so is this: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made you free from the law of sin and death. Your body has been bought with a price. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Cancer has no right to infiltrate it and stay. You have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb.

Now you use your authority. Body, you listen to me. I command every rebellious cell to come into alignment with the word of God. I command you to be cancer-free in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. When you use His name, you are using every promise His name guarantees.

Which law are you choosing to expect?

Hope changes the way you act right now.

Here’s a real example. Years ago, I made a deal to buy a building. I had less than a thousand dollars. The down payment was $10,000. I had 45 to 60 days to come up with it.

I believed this was the will of God. I believed that building was ours. But it was on the opposite side of town from our current location, which meant our post office box wouldn’t work anymore. So I drove to the post office closest to the new building — the one I didn’t have yet, the one I had no visible means of purchasing — and I rented a P.O. box for $200.

Because I was expecting the building to become mine.

That is what expectancy does. It changes how you think. It changes what you plan for. It starts making you move as though the promise is already on its way — because according to God’s Word, it is.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.— Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

Hope is the blueprint. Faith is the builder. If you have no blueprint — no expectation — what exactly are you asking faith to construct?

Stir up your hope. Stop rehearsing the problem.

I know some of you have had what feels like faith failures. I know some of you have believed God and it didn’t turn out the way you expected and now your actual expectancy is — maybe it’s just not going to work this time either.

I get it. Contrary to hope. Abraham was there. Decades of nothing. A body that was as good as dead. A wife in the same condition. No natural reason to expect anything different.

But then he met a God who made a promise. And Abraham spent enough time with that God, and enough time with that promise, until he began to expect God to fulfill it. That is what changed everything. Not his circumstances. His expectation.

...who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken...— Romans 4:18 (NKJV)

He believed the word. He became what the word said he was. He expected God to fulfill His promise — and God did.

Start painting a picture of the promise coming to pass.

Right now, I’m believing God for a significant financial need for this ministry. And while I’m believing, I’m doing something specific: I’m meditating on writing the tithe check when it comes in. I’m seeing myself doing it. I’m painting a picture on the inside of me of God’s Word coming to pass.

That is not fantasy. That is expectancy. That is hope doing its job.

You need to start asking yourself — what are you going to do when God fulfills His promise? Not if. When. Start thinking about it. Start planning for it. Start taking the steps you can take right now that only make sense if you’re expecting God to come through.

Because He is. His answer is yes. His answer is amen. So be it.

Fight To Win. Start today.