Change the Image by Kenneth Copeland “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Romans 8:24-25 According to Romans, hope is actually looking at something you can’t see. How do you do that? You do it by looking at the promises of God in the Word until with your inner eyes―the eyes of your spirit―a picture is formed. For example, one of the hardest things I ever had to do was face the fact that the inner image I had of myself physically was fat. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to change, it wouldn’t go away. I was always on a diet. I must have lost (and regained) hundreds of pounds over the years. I finally had to admit that as long as my inner image of myself was fat, my outer self was going to match it. Remember, it’s faith that changes things, and without the inner image of hope, faith cannot work. So I decided to fast for seven days. I searched my Bible for every scripture I could find on food and eating and I found many. I meditated on every one of those scriptures and prayed in the spirit for seven full days. What was I doing? I was laying hold on a different inner image. This is not something you can do overnight. It takes time. Especially if the inner image you’re changing has been there for years. But you can do it. Go to the Word of God today and begin to change the images inside you. Change them from images of despair to images of hope. Get a blueprint in your heart and your faith will build on it! That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:16-21 ESV)
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:19:59 +0000