Hope Floats: The Watch Letter

"I guarantee you there is a change in you. A change in your ways and your outlook. No matter the past. No matter the fault." Chief Apostle Gunn preached this five years ago during a message titled "Hope: A transforming word."

Change is born of hope. He taught us that when we confess our sins, fears, and unbelief to God and Godly people in hope, we can be transformed and set free. He said we must pray in hope and receive miracles, deliverance, and God's acceptance in hope.

He reminded us of Romans 5:6, which says hope maketh not ashamed. To be ashamed means to dwell in guilt, confusion, inferiority, failure, disappointment, unsettledness, agitation, worry, and disorder. If we still feel these things after sincere prayer and receiving the word, encouragement, and salvation, then somewhere, we have not been operating in hope or left it on the pew.

It makes me think of hope as a stamp. A letter or package can only be delivered with the right postage. How can we see ourselves being changed, delivered, set free, and transformed without hope?

After being saved for so many years and listening to Chief Apostle Gunn preach about hope year in and year out, replaying that message and going over that scripture, caused me to repent for not getting a grip on hope. He said the message was one of the most important words God has sent and that he had preached.

There is a saying that goes: Hope floats. It's like a dolphin; it cannot stay down unless we force it to. When we don't hold on to the word of God, we allow hope to drown.

In fact, Chief showed us during that message that we throw down hope when we throw down the word of God and not take it to heart.

Sometimes we can get so used to being encouraged we take it for nothing. We don't receive it in hope, but instead, we receive it in vanity. We can find ourselves turning God's encouragement for our change into dope instead of hope. Like a drug, we let it give us enough feel-good to make it through the day or face ourselves in the mirror, but by the end of the week, it wears off like makeup.

But hope is eternal. The Lord demonstrates hope's enduring power through the tree. Have you noticed that there have been trees for as long as the universe has existed? No storm, fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic, or anything can stop trees from existing. They will sprout again somehow.

Job 14:7: For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

This is a scripture Chief Apostle always reminds us of often, and we also sing it as a part of a song we sing in our choir. Hope is fruit-bearing. It makes us tender enough to keep growing in adversity. Hope also makes you tender enough to be pruned and purged to be revitalized. If nothing you read in the word or hear preached or taught activates the change that's already inside you, go back after hope and see where you left it.

Despite dying the worst death anyone could die in human history and bearing the entire load and weight of the world's sins, Jesus was resurrected with all power in his hands. Chief Apostle Gunn said if we keep this in mind, we can "rise in hope with Jesus" daily.

Jeremiah 17:7: Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

Listen to "Hope: A transforming Word" from 2018 here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=6102769117167616&wix-music-comp-id=comp-j3hyec8g.

Love, Apostle Kanya