Daily Devotionals

December 09

Faith...or Desperation?

Kenneth Copeland
Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Did you know you can make your faith lose its aim? You can have all the faith you need, yet let it scatter in every direction—without results!

“How?” By losing your hope. Most believers don’t pay much attention to hope. They don’t think of it as very important. They certainly don’t consider it to be as important as faith. But the fact is, faith won’t function without hope.

Hope is the blueprint of faith. When hope is lost, faith loses its aim. It no longer has a mission to accomplish. It just scatters.

I remember some years ago when that happened to me. I had given my airplane to another preacher, at God’s instruction, and then ordered another to replace it. During the weeks while the new plane was being manufactured, I began to believe God for the full amount I needed to pay for it.

I hooked up my faith to the promises of God, and I was going along fine. But just a few days before the plane was scheduled to be delivered to me, I was $20,000 short.

I became more and more alarmed. I started confessing as fast as I could: “Thank God I have that $20,000. In Jesus’ Name, I have it. I have it. I have it.”

That sounded like faith, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t confessing in faith, I was confessing out of desperation.

I knew something had to change, so I gathered my Bible and my tapes, got in my boat, and went out to the middle of the lake so I could be totally alone with the Lord. When I got out there, I was still saying, “Thank God, I have that $20,000. In Jesus’ Name, I have it. I have it. I have it. I have it.”

Suddenly the Lord spoke up on the inside of me: KENNETH, BE QUIET! He said, I’m tired of hearing that. Just hush and let Me show you what I can do.

When He said that, hope came alive inside me again. Suddenly I was expectant instead of desperate. I started eagerly anticipating what God was about to do, instead of fearing what would happen if He didn’t come through.

Sure enough, the $20,000 I needed for that airplane came in. It was a few days late, but it came (late because I let my hope get weak). The pilot who delivered the airplane to me got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. But none of that would have happened if I hadn’t pulled aside, locked myself away with the Word for several hours, and let the Spirit of God rebuild and rekindle the hope inside me. Hope is what took me from desperation to faith.

Hope is a divine inner image that is born inside your spirit from God’s precious promises. Faith is the heavenly substance that will bring that Word-born picture to pass. Without hope, faith has nowhere to go.

If you’re facing serious circumstances, and your faith and confessions are splattering in every direction, stop. Get your Bible, get alone with God, and let that hope come alive inside you. Let the Spirit of God rise up on the inside of you and relight that fire. It will stop the desperation…and get your faith on target again.

Speak the Word

Faith is the substance of things that I hope for and expect. (Hebrews 11:1)

Scripture Study: Romans 8:18-25


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