TSP DAILY DEVOTIONAL
FREE FROM POVERTY
18th June 2020
Dr. Phil Ransom-Bello
KEY SCRIPTURE/MEMORY VERSE: Colossians 1:5(NKJV)
because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel
The hope that the believer is given is not saying that God is going to do something when you get there. It’s not a case of when you get to heaven, God will now start to do the arrangement. No, he has done the arrangement already. It is finished already!
So you are hoping in what is done.
This is why when we preach the gospel, one of the important elements we ought to declare is that hope.
When someone sleeps in Christ, when a believer passes on, there is a hope we have that is different from unbelievers. That’s why scripture says we don’t mourn like those who don’t have hope(1 Thessalonians 4:13).
The hope that the gospel grants the believer is talking about the realities and the joys of heaven.
We see from our text that the hope the believer has is the hope of experiencing what has been laid up for him in heaven. Because there are crowns, rewards that will be given to people who anticipate the coming of the Lord. So this hope makes us anticipate the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord(Titus 2:13).
This means the believer isn’t supposed to be afraid of heaven.
Why then are people afraid of the rapture in the body of Christ? It’s because there is poverty of teaching of what the rapture is. It’s a poverty of hope as a result of poverty of proper teaching.
The teaching of rapture should actually bring edification, joy and comfort at the fact that your husband is coming back again to take you, His bride.
If a woman constantly remembers that her husband who travelled to a far country is coming back, and she remembers because he keeps calling everyday, that gives her the hope that one day, he will come back.
But when we don’t teach rapture, we leave people to assume what it is. And so all they know is that a trumpet will blow and when it blows, if you were misbehaving, judgment awaits you.
Hear me, for the believer, judgment is not in front. It is behind. We don’t look forward to judgment because we are coming from it. That’s the gospel. We are not like the unbeliever who is fretting.
In fact, this is why when you preach the gospel to a person, you ought to preach with faith in your heart that this person will receive because if he/she doesn’t receive, he/she can’t escape the wrath that is to come.
Scripture speaks of the fact that Jesus saves from the wrath that is to come(1 Thessalonians 1:10).
So it’s for their good that they believe the gospel.
The believer, on the other hand has passed the judgement. There is no judgement for you anymore because everything that you should have been judged for, Jesus’ took it. And that sacrifice was so big, it swallowed the judgement of God.
Oh Hallelujah!
Friends, anyone who receives the gospel is free from the poverty of hope because this fruit of hope is abundant, overflowing, never-ending hope.
REFLECTION
Does my hope overflow or am I experiencing a poverty of hope?
DECLARATION
-I believe in the gospel, therefore the seed of the gospel produces fruit in my life.
-I don’t just know the gospel, I live the gospel. I am transformed by the gospel. The gospel is working through me.
-This gospel produces the genuine markers of authentic believers; of Faith, Love and Hope in me.
-The hope I have received is confident, abundant, overflowing and never-ending. The gospel delivers me from a poverty of hope.
-I am committed to bearing this fruit of hope because the declaration and expression of the gospel is incomplete without the declaration of this hope.
-My hope is not a subjective feeling but it is the guaranteed hope of experiencing the joys of heaven.
-This hope of heaven is the anchor for my faith and drives me to love like Christ.
-I hope in what has been completed. I constantly anticipate the blessed and glorious appearing of Jesus and what has been laid up for me in heaven.
-This hope comforts me from the fear of judgment because Christ has saved me from the wrath to come.
Hallelujah!
HEARING BY THE WORD
(Recommended Listening)
Listen to Fruits of the Gospel 2 >> Dr. Phil by The StandPoint Church on #SoundCloud
