GLISTENING HOPE Steve Backlund

Francis Frangipane said,
“Every area of your life that does not glisten with hope means you are believing a lie and that area is a stronghold of the devil in your life.”
That is a revolutionary statement that changed the course of my life. Up till that time all my spiritual war fare guns had been pointing outward and I had been rebuking till my rebuker was worn out! I was binding everything that moved. At that time the Lord began to redirect my greatest spiritual guns at my own beliefs and He began to show me every area of my life that didn’t have great hope in, that area was under the influence of a lie and my hopelessness about the problem became a bigger problem than the problem. Then I came to the place where I am more concerned about my hopelessness than anything the devils doing. I don’t want to be dumb about the devil but my hopelessness comes from believing lies and if I can replace those lies with truth, Jesus said the truth will make me free. And if I get free it doesn’t sound as if the devil is bothering me much. Today is a day of breakthrough, it’s a day of saying ok today is a day if truth, it’s going to replace the hopelessness, I’m going to get free and my hope level’s going to rise and therefore my influence level’s going to rise.
Steve realized that almost every area of his life was under the influence of a lie and God used that to transform the way he thought. Our hope level determines whether we are believing lies or truth. If we have a lot of hope, we are believing a lot of truth. If we don’t have much hope, we are believing a lot of lies. If you don’t know what your problem is, you have a real problem! Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promises is faithful.” The more I believe He is faithful the more hope I will have in my heart and the more hope I’ll speak! Romans 13:15 says this, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” That verse can be simplified to this, now may the God of hope fill you in believing. So the moment I start believing truth is the moment I get filled, I get filled, I get filled until it gets to my eyes and I’m actually seeing things differently, I’m seeing me differently, I’m seeing people in my life differently, I’m seeing my circumstances differently.
I have this step that I would like you to take. I would like you to take a truth, I would like you to meditate on the truth of God like a promise that He’s going to provide for you or you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, and meditate that and get that in your mouth and keep doing it until you feel your hope level rising. Hope is the evidence that the renewing of the mind is working.