Early in December I received an email about a writing contest on hope. It occurred to me to enter it, and I started looking up some Scriptures on hope. I never entered the contest, but I did find out some life changing things in the process. Hope means expectation or confidence; it means to anticipate. We tend to think of that as some “thing” we hope for and when we get it, everything will be okay. But I began to see much more clearly that the Lord Himself and dependence on Him is our hope.

Ps. 146:5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for His help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God.

When I asked the Lord what He wanted to show me about hope, I heard Him say:

Your hope is in Me.

When He said that, I saw the difference between having my hope in Him personally, and having it in any way in what I can do, understand, learn. My hope is in Him. When it is in Him there is a great deal of peace and confidence. One of the Scriptures I read talks about how that works:

Rom. 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The joy and peace come from believing, not only from seeing the outcome for which we hope. We need to have joy and peace “on the way,” because there are so many rocks on the trail. Hope is not a concept or faith exercise; it is a connected, interactive partnership. We follow Him while He produces the outcomes. Our confidence and expectation and anticipation is that He will do what He says, but all during that process, our hope is in Him and His love for us and others.

There is an aspect of this that is huge in terms of keeping us out of disappointment and shame. How many times do we go from great joy and excitement to hearing a disapproving or judgmental comment that plunges us into disappointment, discouragement, or shame? The kind of hope the Lord is offering would keep us settled with Him when such things happen, and it is only a matter of time before they do!

Rom. 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint (“maketh not ashamed” King James says), because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

While we are aware of and experiencing the love of God being poured out in our hearts, we are not disappointed or moved. It’s when our attention shifts to the “wisdom” of man, the events, and we cease to be aware of God, that derailing comes, sometimes kind of cutting us off at the knees. Do you know that feeling?

I have some experience of both—getting through challenges without losing joy and peace because I kept looking at and listening to Him throughout, and of “losing the farm” temporarily because I got caught up in comments or events that are more effective at working shame than life. Which brings me to another powerful scriptural expression of how focusing on Him enables us to maintain the condition of our hearts.

1 Peter 2:6 Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes in Him will
By NO MEANS be put to shame.

Shame means “to pale.” That’s a good description of losing our life—going pale. Again, if we are believing in Him, we will by NO MEANS be put to shame. That is, no authority of any sort would be able to produce false shame in us. Talk about empowering! When we are put to shame, it comes from believing someone or something other than Him. That is the simple reality, and seeing it could help us return quickly!

Seeing these things with the Lord has deepened my hope/faith levels, and there is evidence of that. Since being shown these things about hope I have started a newsletter, written a brochure, scheduled a class, set up some ministry meetings I thought I did not have time for, and am pressing through to new steps having to do with the vision the Lord has given me, which I have often regarded as next to impossible. For me it definitely is and would be impossible, but from the connected, believing, hope place, I see that He is the One actually doing it. I accompany Him on His project. That indeed gives me hope, frees my excitement over watching God work, and my zeal for the vision. Of course, it will have to be reinforced many times, if I’m to stay there. He seems not to mind reminding me over and over (Phil. 3:1). Bottom line: Hope is most intact and powerful when we are looking at Him and our heart is united with His. When our focus shifts to events and circumstances, hope quickly fades.

I call all of this the Lord equipping me to do something He has said to me numerous times in recent years: “Go for it!” and something He has said many times in this last year: “It is time.” So, I share these understandings, in case anyone else out there tends to get bogged down at various points on the journey.

Most of January I have been working on a brochure for PCM. Actually, it began because I felt prompted to make a statement about the ministry. Many people who have attended things at PCM have said that they have a hard time describing their experience or explaining the ministry to others. Since it took me the better part of a month to get it stated simply and clearly, I can see why they would have a struggle with it. I feel good about the brochure. Several people who have seen it said that it is the clearest statement I have ever made. That’s encouraging.

It incorporates something I saw several years ago. I was praying and asking the Lord: “What about PCM? What do You want to do with it?” I saw a picture at that point, like a sign. It said:

That’s what the new brochure says. If you want to read the text of the brochure, I have attached it as a file. If you want the actual brochure, with three-fold layout, pretty paper, and the orchard picture as its watermark background, let me know, and I will send you a copy(ies).

I have enclosed at the end a flyer for the Orange County Foundations Class. If you know anyone who is interested, please feel free to forward it to them. I plan to make every effort to video-tape this class, thus fulfilling one of the three outcomes I want to see happen this year—the Foundations Class on video, so the tapes and materials can be used by groups at a distance from PCM. You might want to advise people who are interested in coming that they may be part of a video-taped class. I hope that doesn’t mean that it is just me there! Courage saints!

I pray that the Lord pour out His blessing on each one of you, and that we all become more and more free to encourage one another daily, as He prompts us by His Spirit.

Love In Jesus,

Suzan

suzanpcm@verizon.net

1740 W. Katella, Ste N, Orange, CA. 714-538-1542 or
29729 Windwood Cr., Temecula, CA. 909-532-3379

Foundations for Hearing God Class

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