From the moment we trusted in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ for our salvation, we became beneficiaries of God's power to us. For at that moment God by His own power and grace forgave us our sins; justified us; reconciled us unto Himself; sanctified us in Christ; made us members of His "new creation"; worked the exceeding greatness of His power towards us by "delivering us from the power of d...arkness, and translating us into the kingdom of His dear Son"; seated us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and more. We have already been the beneficiaries of God's tremendous power to us. However, the power of God doesn't stop there. Rather, there is a Divine power source available to us which God has designed for us to be partakers of on an ongoing basis, and from which we are to derive the strengthening of our inner man in our daily lives.That power source is the word of God to us. It is the excellency of the power of God's word operating in our souls. As Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)says, ... "The word of God is quick and powerful ..." God's word, because it is God's word, is "powerful," with the capacity not only to bring things into existence and uphold all things, but also to work within our inner man and effectually work there to produce proper motivation, encouragement, comfort, joy, along with stability and peace in the face of the most trying circumstances. God's word is able to function within us, as the verse says, ... "to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." As such, God's word is to be an effective worker within our inner man. It has the power to do things with, and within, our soul and spirit. Paul understood this and spoke about it to us in I Thessalonians 2:13. (KJV) "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, THE WORD OF GOD, WHICH EFFECTUALLY WORKETH ALSO IN YOU THAT BELIEVE."
Hope is built upon faith. Faith is that by which we know God exists, that we are Elect, and that we are loved by Him. Faith is also that by which we walk, live righteously, and are sanctified. By faith we are justified before ourselves. But faith also is the substance (hupostasis) of things hoped for (Heb. 11:1). Hope is much more than the modern definition and usage of the word (a wish or desire). Scriptures call Hope the anchor of the soul (Heb 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we [that is, the author and Hebrew audience of the epistle] might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;). Paul says we are saved by Hope (Ro. 8:24). He also prays that we may given the spirit of the truly revealed wisdom in the detailed knowledge (epiginosko) of him, that the eyes of our understan
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