Faith Bible Study Guide
Friends, hope is a good waiter, but a poor receiver. Too many times when it comes to prayer, folk say, “Well, I’m a-hoping-and-a-praying. I’m praying and hoping.” Did you ever hear that? Do you say that? Correct yourself if you do! Next time you say it, correct yourself, and say, “Stop that.” Because that’s not faith! You also hear folks say, “Well, all we can do is pray and hope.” If that’s all you are doing, you’re defeated already.
I remember several years ago I was preaching for a pastor in the state of Texas, and was staying in the parsonage with him and his wife. I believe that pastor was the world’s worst to say, “I’m hoping and praying.” He’d say that to me a half dozen or a dozen times a day. “I’m hoping and praying,” or “I’m praying and hoping.” What astounded me was that he sat in every service where I taught on the difference between hope and faith, and it just ran off him like water off a duck’s back. It was amazing!
That’s the reason I know you have to just keep going over and over these things, because for example, this man sat right there in the service and didn’t get it. One day I was with him alone, and he said, “Brother Hagin, I want you to pray with me about something, please.” I said, “All right, what is it?” He said, “There’s a Christian businessman here who wants to give me the equity in a cabin on a lake, along with a few acres of land. He only owes $900 on it and he said I could pay that monthly, or he’d pay it off and I could pay him back without interest. However, his wife had objected a little, and he asked me to give him thirty days to work that out.”
This pastor wanted me to pray with him that everything would work out with this businessman. The pastor said, “I’m just hoping and praying that it’ll work out.”
I had already preached meetings for this particular minister, and he still hadn’t gotten the difference between hope and faith. When he said, “I’m just hoping and praying,” I spoke up and said, “Well, Brother, if that’s all you’re doing, you’re wasting your time.” I didn’t say this to be smart about it, and for a minute there I didn’t know what he was going to do. We were traveling in his car when I said that. He batted his eyes, and I thought for a minute he was going to drive us off the road!
Then he said, “You know, that’s right!” He added, “Yes, that’s right.” Then he said, “I had started to say, `I’m wasting my time and God’s too.’ But actually I’m not wasting God’s time because He didn’t even hear me to begin with. I’m just wasting my own time!” To make a long story short, this pastor changed his hope to faith. And in the end, he received the acreage and the cabin because he quit hoping and started believing! You see, it’s faith that gets the job done! And faith is now. The Bible says, “NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for. ..” (Heb. 11:1). Hope is a good waiter, but a poor receiver. Hope won’t get the job done, but faith will! By faith you can receive whatever God has promised to you in His Word, whether it be salvation, healing, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or whatever it is you need from God.