The Key To Unlock Faith

Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 15 and meet me at verse 13.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 15, meet me at verse 13.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

The Apostle Paul tells us under the unction of the Holy Spirit,

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.

I want us to read this out loud together. Look at the screen,

read it out loud together.

Ready, read. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing

that you may abound in hope and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This year on New Year's Eve, the Lord had me bring a message and he told me

that I want this year to be a year of hopes fulfilled.

God declared to me that I want you to declare to people that this will be a

year of hopes fulfilled.

And there are four different type of people the Lord began to talk to me about.

And in my conversation, I've spoken with these people.

And even in my own personal life, I have been one of these four people,

you know, sometimes more often than I would like to admit.

And the first type of person is the one that feels hopeless,

the one that feels like there is no future for me.

They feel like things are not working out for them, and they have lost their expectation,

they have lost their intensity, they have lost their desire,

and they just feel like they're working almost like a rat race running around

chasing their tail, and they no longer have dreams.

Or they may be the person that never really had hope.

They've always been told what to do, and they've never really paused and considered,

what has God placed in my heart that he wants me to believe him for?

And the second type of person is the person that feels insignificant.

They no longer feel valued or important.

They feel like their life doesn't matter. They feel like what they're doing

doesn't matter and nobody cares about them.

The third person I've run into is the one that feels invisible.

They feel like nobody sees them. They could be in a large crowd shouting,

but nobody would even hear them.

Nobody would recognize them. Nobody knows them, and nobody even cares that they exist.

And the fourth type of person is the one that feels forgotten.

God has moved on. God has another plan, but doesn't include me.

God is working on this person's life, but not my life. God has forgotten what he's told me.

And these four different types of people are really emotions that if we're honest

with ourself, I think we all deal with these emotions of feeling hopeless,

of feeling insignificant, of feeling invisible,

or even feeling forgotten.

And I want to declare to you, this year is the year of hopes fulfilled.

This has to be the year that we pick our hope back up.

This has to be the year that we grab our intense, earnest expectation and our

desire, and we bring it back to the forefront.

This is the year that we go back and we read what the Lord has said many,

many years ago and bring that back to our attention and place it before God,

because I believe God wants to fulfill hopes this year. If you agree, say amen.

Now, some people say don't get your hopes up. Why do they say that?

Because they've been disappointed before.

Or they don't want to be disappointed, so they say, don't get your hopes up.

But I'm telling you under the unction of the Holy Spirit, get your hopes up.

Many of us have even come to the place where we really don't expect anything from God.

We're no longer expecting anything from God. We're just living.

We're just surviving. We're not anticipating or acknowledging any sort of expectation

that today could be my day and this moment could be my moment and this meeting

could be my meeting and this phone call could be my phone call and this text message, glory to God,

can be the text message that changes everything.

That's what expectation does.

It's like a magnet that draws possibilities to you.

Expectation is what God uses in order to fulfill the promises that he has given us.

But we're so often robbed because of low expectation.

The enemy has been able to rob us because we're no longer expecting anything

from him. And we're often ready to settle for much less than God wants to give us.

We're so quick to settle for much, much less than God wants to give us.

And so in Romans 15, 13, we find out that God is the hope or he is the source.

God is a name, which means creator or source. He's the creator or source of

intense earnest expectation.

God is the source. So if you no longer have expectation, go to God.

Find out what it is that you're lacking.

Wake up a little earlier. Spend some time with him.

Get in your Bible, read it, and find out what am I missing? What am I no longer

expecting? What have I put down?

Find out. Scripture says in Psalms 37, 4, that if you delight yourself in the

Lord, he will give you the desires. He's going to give you the expectation if

you delight yourself in the Lord.

So the God of expectation is going to fill you with joy and peace.

Expectation should fill you with joy and fill you with peace.

It should fill you with excitement.

You should be looking and like, I'm ready for something good to happen because

I'm expecting something to happen in my life. Somebody say amen.

I worked at a particular place, and it was hundreds of people that worked here,

and we were all sitting in cubicles.

And certain people got an email, and the email said, hey, meet in this room

here at such and such time.

Well, I didn't receive the email, and these other people received,

and I thought, well, I thought they was getting promoted, Don.

I thought they was getting a raise. I thought they was going to get a blessing.

I'm like, I'm not on that list.

Why am I not on that list? I'm not on the list. And they're like,

well, I don't know, but we're on the list. And at 10 o'clock,

they went to the room, and they all were let go.

I thought, well, thank God I wasn't on that list. But my expectation was something

good is about to happen, and I want to be a part of it. Say amen to that.

God wants you to abound in expectation.

More and more expectation. Overflow with expectation.

Bubbling over in expectation. Full of an abundance of expectation.

Expecting God to do what he said that he would do. Say amen to that.

God wants you to be the one that's like a giraffe with its neck stretched out

looking around the corner like what's down there?

I'm expecting something good to come that way.

What's going on there? Or looking over the tree, what's going on?

I'm expecting something good to happen.

I prophesy over you. Are you ready to receive this? You shall abound with hope.

More and more hope overflow with hope bubble over with hope an abundance of hope.

The Holy Spirit is enabling you to

hope so you have to ask yourself because he's enabling you to hope you have

to ask yourself what are you excited about I can always tell if someone is expecting

something or not expecting something I ask them this simple question what are

you excited about and more often than not people will tell me ain't nothing.

Nothing, really. Nothing really. I mean, if you ask me right now what I'm excited

about, I'm excited about taking my wife to State 48 today. Amen.

I'm excited about it. I know she's excited too back there, praise the Lord.

I'm excited about going out to eat. So you should always be excited.

If you get asked a question, what are you excited about?

Or what are you looking forward to? Have an answer to those questions because

that says that you are expecting something from God.

I'm always endeavoring to be expecting to receive something from Him.

He wants us to abound in hope.

Now, the English word for hope casts a lot of doubt,

You know, that it may not happen If we look at the English definition of hope

It's like, I hope it don't rain, you know I hope it snows today I hope you don't

catch a cold, you know I hope you don't get in trouble today Because, no, no, that's a wishing.

Biblical hope is confident It's secure

It is secure in the promises of God You can depend on it You can take it to

the bank You can rely on the biblical hope that God has presented to us because

it's bound to happen. It's just a matter of when.

It's going to happen. You just don't know when. So you wait patiently in expectation

that today could be the day.

Today could be. Today is my day. I used to wake up and I say this all the time.

I need to get back on and praise. I used to always say, today's my day for promotion.

And I'm working. I was working a nickel and dime job. Today's my day for promotion.

Today is my day. I wake up. Today's my day.

Today's my day for promotion today. day. And then I, you know my story,

I started working at Wachovia Bank making $28,000 and I started saying, today's my day.

Today's my day for promotion. And then they had a job that I couldn't apply

for because I hadn't been there a year, but they gave me an exception to apply.

And so I applied in six months and I went for the job and I said,

today's my day for promotion. And then they didn't hire me for the job.

But three days later, they called me back and said, we made a mistake.

We should have hired you.

I said, that's right, because today's my day for promotion.

And that job took me from $28,000 to $56,000 an hour. And then I had another opportunity.

I'm working saying, today's my day. Today's my day. I get a call.

And they're saying, hey, there's this job opportunity.

And I didn't know they was making over $100,000 in that job.

I said, that's how much they make?

That's my promotion right there.

I started saying, today is my day. And I get called. They were asking me questions

in the interview. I didn't even know the answers to the question.

And if you ever, footnote, if you're ever in that situation and you don't know,

don't try to act like you know what they're asking.

Just pause and say, can you rephrase the question? And I said,

can you rephrase it? I said, oh, okay.

And I went and answered the question. And then they hired me.

And then I doubled that, praise God.

Today is my day for promotion. I'm expecting to receive.

Before I married Stacy I was singing I said today is the day I'm going to meet my wife,

I say that every day. Today I will wake up. I say, today's the day I'm going to meet my wife.

Today's the day. So I need to brush my teeth and I need to get a haircut and

I need to look good because I might meet her in Walmart or I might meet her

at the gas station or I'm definitely not going to meet her at the club.

And so I said, no, I said, I said, no, I might meet her at church today.

Who knows where I might meet her? Because today's the day I'm going to meet my wife.

And I met her and it took me years to realize that was my wife.

But I finally realized, because we were good friends at first,

I finally realized that's my wife. Amen.

And then I realized, well, that day I said today was the day of like two years

ago. That was the day I met her. Somebody say amen.

Biblical hope says there's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it when

you have biblical hope. Biblical hope is not a feeling.

Biblical hope carries no doubt. Biblical hope believes that God always keeps his promises.

Biblical hope says I have an intense, earnest expectation that is rooted in the promises of God.

It's not rooted in any other man-made, self-manipulated thing that I came up with.

I have rooted this biblical hope in the promises of God. So if it's found in

the promises of God, it's just a matter of when it's going to happen.

In Scripture, in Hebrews, they were waiting for Jesus to return,

fully anticipating that he was going to return in their day.

And we are fully anticipating that he's going to return in our day. He's coming back.

And so biblical hope, it's sure, it's secure, it's rooted, and it's founded in the promises of God.

Now, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1,

Hebrews 11:1 Hebrews 11:1

it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I want you to notice here that hope is always future tense, but faith is present.

Hope is in the future. We're expecting something good to happen down the road,

but faith is in the present tense, and faith does not work without hope.

Now, you can have some hope and no faith.

You can expect God and then really operate with very little to no faith in that.

But if you want to see the promises of God come to pass, you're going to have

to have hope and faith. They work hand in hand together.

Your faith believes that I have it now. Faith is now. Faith always believes I have it now.

That's why on our Exodus Project, we called it paid for. For a whole year,

we called it paid for now.

And then now happened when now was supposed to happen. Amen.

And so faith says I have it now. Hope says I'm expecting God to do something in the future.

Faith is the evidence that you actually have hope.

And if you've run out of hope, you've run out of faith.

So you got to keep hope at the forefront. I'm believing that my child is going to be healed of this.

I'm believing they're going to make good grades. I'm trusting God.

I've got a word from God. They're going to begin to act right in school.

I'm believing that my kids will get off this medication. I'm believing that

my hip is healed. I've got hope, and faith now puts evidence,

which is undergirding material.

It is the foundation of hope. You have to have faith that's coupled with hope,

because faith is what's underneath the service that's going to bring the past,

what you desire from the Lord.

Your faith is the evidence that you're expecting God to do something.

Your faith is the evidence. Now watch this Hebrews 11 and 1 in the Amplified Classic.

Amplified Classic, guys, if you get a chance there. Did I give y'all Amplified Classic?

Oh, okay. They're good back there.

Well, I will wait on the Lord.

And be of good courage, he shall strengthen my heart.

I can't read it, though.

Not yet. It's coming.

That's Hebrews 1.11. I need 11.1. That's all right. You guys doing a great job

back there. Don't y'all appreciate them?

I'm going to pull it up on my Bible, Al. They got it. See, they beat me to it.

That's still Hebrews 1.11. I want 11.1.

Hebrews 11.1.

Y'all doing all right? You're fine back there.

We learned it's coming. We have hope. That's right. We have expectation.

There you go. Yeah, put your hands together for the team.

That didn't take no time. Good job, guys. Now, faith is the assurance, the confirmation,

the title deed of the things we hope for being the proof of the things we do

not see and the conviction of their reality.

Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

Hallelujah. Now watch this. Faith is the assurance, the confirmation,

the title deed of the things we hope for.

So sometime this month, Stacy and I are traveling to Texas for a quick trip, a ministry trip.

We asked Natasha to build our, what is that called?

Itinerary. Thank you so much. To build our itinerary. You can take that down, guys.

And we asked Natasha to build our itinerary, and she went out,

and she got us a car, and she booked us a hotel, and she sent us a confirmation number.

Now, I don't know what kind of car we're going to get.

I don't know what the hotel really looks like, but I have a confirmation number.

And so I hope to land in Texas and jump right from DFW into a rental car and

drive straight to the hotel,

don't know what the car's going to look like, don't know what color it's going

to be, don't know anything like that, just know I got a car, and go to the hotel.

It's going to be a nice room. If it's not, I'm going to fire Natasha.

No, I'm just playing. I never fire her. It's going to be a nice room.

And that's my intense, earnest expectation to happen. and I have a confirmation number on my phone.

This confirmation number is telling me that what you hope to receive when you

get to Texas is going to be available for you.

Now, if anybody tells me you don't have a car, I will give them my confirmation number, my evidence.

I have a car. Take a look. This is my evidence. If they say,

well, I don't see that, I would be calm because I'm mature, and I would say,

okay, let me show you my evidence.

It's my evidence. And if they said, okay, okay, we found a car.

Let's get, and I go to a hotel, and they say, we don't see a hotel.

Before I even call Natasha. I'm not even calling Natasha. I got a confirmation number.

This is my confirmation. Well, we don't have a room for you.

This is my confirmation number. We're looking. We don't have a room.

I don't care if you got to kick somebody out of a room.

I don't care if y'all need to build a room in the next 15 minutes.

Whatever it takes. I'm staying in this hotel. Why?

Because I have a confirmation number. I'm not going to quit because I have a confirmation number.

I'm not going to give up because I have a confirmation number.

This is how we are to act with the word of God. So you got to know the word

of God and then believe the word of God.

And when the word says, God shall supply all of your need according to his riches and glory.

And you, and you, you got more month than you got money.

You need to get the word of God and say, God said he going to supply my need.

That devil say, you're going to get evicted. You say, God said he's going to supply my need.

I got evidence. I've got a confirmation number.

I got proof, that's right, that God said he's going to do this for me.

And when you are bold enough to hang on to the word of God, that is your undergirding material.

That is your foundation that what you hope for is going to come to pass if you

will not quit, if you will not give up, if you'll hold on, if you'll keep fighting,

if you'll keep pulling, if you'll keep standing,

if you'll keep trusting, if you'll keep believing, God's going to bring you joy.

He's going to bring you peace, and you're going to see it come to pass in your life.

Come on, say amen to that. Hallelujah.

That's the evidence.

I own two vehicles outright. I have a title for these two vehicles that I own outright.

Somebody come to me. How many of you remember that show, The Repo Man?

They used to come on TV, and they was coming, picking up cars,

and it was with Stacey. I used to love watching that show.

And I said, they come to my house. I got something for them. I got the title.

I own this thing. You better get up out the house and get up out the yard. Why? I got evidence.

I got evidence. Y'all don't see my cars right now. May not even know what they

look like. Don't matter.

I got a title which is evidence that I have which you don't see yet.

This is what hope does. Hope, you don't see it yet, but faith is the evidence that it's already done.

It's already done. It's just a matter of when. It's already done.

And when has nothing to do with me. I can't do nothing to make it go slower or faster.

Well, I probably can do some things to make it go slower, but I can't make it go faster.

If I just keep obeying and trusting, it's going to happen in due.

Somebody say due season.

You're going to see your hopes fulfilled in due season.

In due season, your hopes will be fulfilled. And when you hold on with the evidence,

and yes, you may get tired.

You're human. Your physical body gets tired.

And yes, you may get weary. Your mind says it's not working.

The devil tells you it's not working.

Pookie and Ray Ray say, give up on that. It's not working. And yes, you may want to quit.

We all have a tendency to want to quit. But if you will just hold on and stick

to the evidence that faith brings into your life, you will see that hope come to pass.

Some of you believe it for a clean doctor's bill.

Get you some verses to stand on and say, this is my evidence.

Having done all the stand, I will stand.

This is the report I will believe. This is what God is saying.

And the doctor's report is going to match up with what my report from the Lord

is saying. Somebody say amen to that.

This is how we activate and invoke hope fulfilled this year.

It's going to take faith.

It's going to take believing God that these hopes are going to come to pass in our life.

And so real quick, Proverbs chapter 10, verse 24 in the New Living Translation.

Proverbs 10:24

Proverbs chapter 10, 24.

Proverbs 10 · chapter mention

Watch this. The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled.

The hopes of the godly will be granted. Somebody shout granted.

The hopes of the godly will be granted.

Get your hope back up. Get your hope back up.

Now, I want to make another announcement this year. The Lord's been talking

to me about hope, and on the screen, I have just written a brand new book right

here called The Hope Switch. Come on, give the Lord some praise.

In this book, I talk to you about hope, getting better.

Turning the switch back on to where hope is concerned.

Now, you can pre-order now at devonalexander.com. Pre-order the book.

Once the books are here, and they should be here sometime this month,

I'll mail the book out to you. But get a hold of this book.

I assure you that this book will be a blessing to you.

I have put a lot of me in this book.

And what I mean by that is a lot of experience that I, not all good,

that I have put in this book to help you understand how to keep moving forward

and how to turn your hope switch back on.

That's devonalexander.com. On your way out, there's a QR code you can scan to

pre-order the book as well.

And I thought at our welcome table online at the bottom of the screen,

there's a way right there that you can pre-order the book.

Let's all just pre-order this book for ourselves and for somebody else.

Think about somebody else that this book could be a blessing to you as well.

And I'm excited. Aren't you excited about this?

Come on, put your hands together and give the Lord some praise for it.

I'm excited about this product that I believe is going to go further than I can physically even go.

I believe it's going to go places that we are excited about.

Mystique is helping me get this out and getting material and we're blasting

it on social media so that we can get this book out. I believe it's going to

be a blessing to a lot of people.

This is how you experience true life.