Spreading - Hope, Faith, Love

This message is to honor the Heavenly Father who has shown me hope, faith, and love spiritually through his word and who also imparted it to my dad in whom we just recently lost to express what hope, faith, and love would look like in the natural.

I don’t know about you, but there are times, when I think I have gotten to a place where I thought I completely understood some scriptures. One of those scriptures was Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The problem with understanding some of these scriptures is we’re not living them out.  I would like to share this scripture and a few more.

One day the Lord spoke to me and said, “Your dad understood hope. It was being used like a short parable.” Dad would say “Son, it will all work out in the wash.” My dad knew that no matter what things looked like at the present time, it would eventually work itself out. Before long, it did come to pass. He didn’t just fulfill Hebrews 11:1. He also fulfilled Hebrews 11:2 “For by it the elders obtained a good report.” See, what happened is my dad hung onto hope until it came to pass. Dad lived long enough to know by experience you had to keep hanging in there. There are still things that dad hoped for even though he’s not here with us anymore. One of his hopes was to get enough done, so that we would be okay. This came to pass for me in a dream and by a vision.

Many may think dreams and visions are not relevant today, but I know that they are because I have had many dreams and visions by the Holy Spirit.  Joel 2:28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:” This verse says many things to me. I want to break down each part of Joel 2:28 and share it with you.

“And it shall come to pass afterward” - This part fits in with “the evidence of things not seen” and “by it the elders obtained a good report.” How should all this work? To begin with, we can’t expect our dreams and visions to come to pass or begin to come together to believe it without faith. How come? It’s about living by faith not by sight. This means we should be giving out a good report; not a negative report while waiting for it to come to pass. We have to accept Jesus and all of His truths by faith. That’s where our journey of hope begins in Him and that’s when He carries out His love towards us to fulfill that hope within us. That’s what faith is all about.

“that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh” -  This may be about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I see it another way too. Oh, what a wonderful place to be in knowing our hope in his truths will be poured out onto us, because of our faith working through His love towards us.

“your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” - Wow! It tells me I need to keep speaking His truths into my life, so it can come to pass by working my faith in Him. Hope is activated by accepting His truths, which is faith in him. Remember Jesus loves us.

“your old men shall dream dreams” -  Now, I want to clarify something. We don’t have to be old to have dreams. They do start when we’re young. It’s when we’re mature in God’s word and truths that some of our dreams end up having a Godly meaning to us. Take time out and ponder on those dreams and recognize any details that may be valuable. Then get with God; He will give you an understanding to those dreams. There are times when we may need a Godly person in our life to help us with the understanding of our dreams. Please make certain you know that they hear from God.

I would like to share a recent dream from God. I was working on a ditch line on the side of the yard by myself.  As I am writing this God gave me an understanding on the ditch line. We live on top of a good size hill, some call it a mountain. Anyways, as I was digging, it didn’t take long to start hitting rocks right away. When I came across those rocks I got frustrated. I was also thinking about my dad in this dream. I remember saying, it would be nice if my dad was here to help me so I wouldn’t feel alone working on this ditch. Then all the sudden my dad came walking up to me. The dream was so real that I told my dad “what kind of joke is this” due to knowing he had passed away even in my dream. He responded to me saying “I will always be there for you.” There was a second person who was standing behind my dad. I couldn’t make out who it was, but I knew by the Spirit it was an outline of Jesus. Jesus spoke to me saying “your dad will always be with you and so will I.” Jesus continued saying “Everything my dad taught me would be inside of me and to recall on those memories to get through it naturally. I (Jesus) have guided you spiritually: continue to call on me for spiritual things.” I would also like to add when the Lord called me to ministry, I asked for double portion and nobody knew about it. The minister who did our ordinations walked by and said “And the Lord will give you double portion.” The Lord told me this was part of that double portion.

“your young men shall see visions:” - The same applies here as in the dreams concerning age. The Lord gave me a vision of my dad and Him speaking to each other. Again, I just saw an outline of the Lord, but knew by the spirit it was Him. The conversation went like this “I can’t leave until I know that they will be okay and the Lord replied they will be okay.” Again, the Lord was confirming to me that everything would be okay right along with my dad. Now, all I have to do is keep my hope in him and activate that faith that He has already instilled in me because Jesus loves me as He loves everyone else. I also learned that when working hope and applying faith it creates a love for someone or a love from somebody to someone.

Let’s look at a scripture referring to love. John 5:20 “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.” The Lord is pointing out something very interesting in this verse. For God loved His son so much He didn’t just show him many things and yes, Jesus did those things, but things that would amaze people. These amazements were the miracles Jesus performed when walking on earth. These miracles would leave people wondering to the magnitude that no man could even comprehend or understand at the time. We later see how this got passed down to His disciples. Recall Peter and John with a crippled man, who got well and walked away in front of 5000, plus Jewish rulers, leaders, and scribes. Take notice what it says in Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” See, Peter and John didn’t understand everything about healing, but their hope in what Jesus had taught them about healing; along with working their faith in the power of Jesus to heal; created love and it was poured out through Peter and John into this crippled man as he received healing. This showed everybody that Jesus’ healing power still works even after He ascended into Heaven and this amazed those who saw it. Jesus’ healing power continues to work today, if we begin to put our hope and faith in him. Remember we have to work it and don’t look back.

I would like to share something that would honor my dad. He didn’t just show me many things, but showed me some amazing things, especially when I was young; even at times when I got older. It amazed me because I couldn’t even comprehend it or understand it at the time, eventually I learned.

The amazing thing is that everything comes from God. So, God blessed me in the spiritual as well as the natural, because his love was shown through my dad to me. Yes, that same bonding love that God has for His son is the same bonding love that was given to my dad towards me and vice versa. The reason for it was because my dad also believed in the Lord, although he didn’t understand everything in the word. What amazes me is that what my dad taught me in the natural I was able to teach him spiritually to help him understand God’s word and His love. My mom shared with me that it did have an effect on him.

Now, my dad served and honored me with hope, faith, and love. I was able to serve and honor him back with that same hope, faith, and love because of the Heavenly Father’s love towards us. Let’s work that same process with the Heavenly Father. Praises God and give Him Glory for His love towards us and to spread it too those who we love.

Eventually, I will be able to take what I learn from our Heavenly Father and what was imparted to me by my dad on natural things and pass it down to my kids and grand kids. My hope is it will have the same effect on them as it does for me. Now, this is spreading hope, faith, and love.

I want thank you Heavenly Father for one of your gifts you have given me and that was my dad, love Jason.

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