“…If you believe you have received it then it shall be yours.” Mark 11:24.
In a previous article I spoke about hope and why I thought it was so important. In this article I want to talk about how to turn hope into faith. Faith is one of those simple to do but hard to understand things that most people need to use and develop in their own life. I believe there are four key steps you need to master to do this.
1. Know what you want
I can’t say this with any more words: KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. If you know what you want… then you will know that you know that you want it. Putting aside all the stuff you may have heard prior to this. The bottom line is that you can create desires and believe for things you want. If you don’t know what you don’t want then you have nothing tangible to believe for. Rev. Paul Yonggi Cho says it this way, ‘have a clear cut objective’. I believe without knowing what you want you can never get what you want. When you have a hope for something better, that’s the starting point for faith. When your dream begins to grow inside you and you see yourself with it then you are beginning to turn hope into faith. Knowing what you want, is the starting point. It is supplemented by hope because hope is faith in embryo form.
2. Ask for what you want
The second most important thing about faith is that you ask. It says in the bible that you don’t ask so you don’t get. I think in reality we think we haven’t earned what we want or some other poisonous belief slips through the crack to show itself in our thinking. You have nothing because you haven’t asked for it. Are you asking for it? Have you asked for it? If you want something from somebody (i.e. God) what do you do? You say, ‘can you please pass me the salt?’ So why should life goals be any different. Ask for what you know that you want.
3. Believe that what you want is yours… already and be thankful for it
This is a tough one. When you hope you defer things into the future. That means that ’someday’ you will get it. Not so with faith. When you have faith you know it because you can call those things which don’t exist yet as though they did. Why can you do this? I don’t know. I know that it works, that’s about all I can tell you at this stage. Once you have asked for what you know that you want you have to believe that you have it. I think of it this way for me. When I put in my request, I think of it as an order. When was the last time you walked into a fancy restaurant and was served the moment you sat down? Or putting it another way when was the last time you were given a cheque and you went and bought a loaf of bread with it. No, you have to cash that sucker first. Faith says, ‘I have placed my order, now I know it’s mine… God granted it to me.’ Beyond that point the how and the why are out of the realm of your concern.
Here’s something that works for me: Close your eyes for a moment and think of something that you really desire. Can you picture yourself with it? I mean really can you see yourself having it, holding it and using it? If you could then what’s stopping you from taking that imagination and using it to be thankful to God that you have it now? What’s the hold up? If you can’t see it then you are still hoping. Don’t worry. The time will come when the desire will overwhelm you and you WILL see yourself with it. I will post on this soon.
4. Begin speaking, acting, thinking and feeling as though it was yours already
A long time ago I thought that when you believed for something that was enough. I have since learned that when you want something you have to focus yourself to the extent where you begin to talk, think and feel. Say you want to be healed of something. So you know what you want and ask for it believing it has been granted to you so now what you have to do is create the atmosphere in the natural order for things to change. You see, it’s a complete cycle. This world is one thing split into two parts. The underlying essential elements (what I call the spirit) and the natural structure. If you hold to the biblical account (as I do) then you recognise the spiritual underpins and gives birth to the natural.
However, whilst the two orders operate on different principles they are inexplicably connected. Back to my healing example: you see the solution (the healing), you believe you have it (you can see yourself healed), you now need to take that inner spiritual concept and release it to create in your life. You see, we create things that come from the inside out. The light bulb, the wheel and so on began as an ‘inner’ conceptual frame which worked it’s way to the outside. Here is an example from my own life.
Faith in Action in my own life
Once upon a time I suffered from very severe dermatitis, at the start of the disease my hands were cracked and small blisters appeared on my hands. As I live in a very humid climate the cracks were exposed to the elements and somehow severe infection set in. A pastor friend of mine told me that he was healed from sinus when he believed. So I thought it was time to give it a good aussie go.
The next thing to happen was things got worse. The infection became so bad that I was in constant pain. So back to the doctor I went. I got a new supply of skin cream which at first worked then after a while a new infection set in and I was in even more pain than before. At some stage I just snapped! I couldn’t write or type and had a new born baby to contend with. I actually took the medication and threw it away. It wasn’t helping, it only made things worse. After I threw out my medication I began to say ‘I will get my healing from God!’. Things just kept getting worse and worse.
Then one day about one month later the pain began to subside and within two weeks my hands were restored to normal. During this time I thanked God that he had given me the healing and from there things began to incrementally improve. I still bare the scars on my hands of that time and from time to time it comes back but I always remember what I said and it never lasts long. Certainly, it’s nowhere near as bad as it was before and it will never get on top of me again. It was like the moment I began to let the words tell me that I had it, the world around me sat up and took notice.
You can put this to work
I have heard it said that we don’t get because we don’t ask. That was me for many years. Now, I am paying debts I could pay ($20, 000 this year alone) and getting opportunities that I never had before. Does it always work? No. But it works more often than not. Should you throw away medication? No, I still use it in other areas and have many hurdles that I can’t see my way out of. Nevertheless, trusting God works more often than it doesn’t. What’s the alternative… leave your life in the hands of the world? No thanks. Tried that and I wound up almost bankrupt. I would rather use my faith and walk with God thanks.
My advice is to start with something you hope for that is just out of your reach not four hundred years out of your reach. Stretch yourself so that you ask for something you can’t do that is not completely ridiculous. So it may be a pay rise at work, help for your relatives, moving a small obstacle or even believing for a pair of socks. Remember there are really four stages at work:
1. Know what you want
2. Ask for it
3. Believe that it’s yours and be thankful for it
4. Speak, act, think and feel as though you have it now.
I want to stress that this is a summary of turning hope into faith. There are many ways you can do this and a lot of things you can achieve if you begin to stretch your faith. I am reminded on something that Jesus said to his disciples when they had problems curing the epileptic child:
“All things are possible to him who believes” Mark 9:23.
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