How to Cultivate Hope

We all hope for something most of the time. God gives lasting hope, but the devil destroys your hope. All of us have experienced the influence of the devil and demons in our lives, and many have given evil spirits power to control their destiny. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize how much power they give to demons. I explained how to overcome the power of evil spirits on the Spiritual Warfare Posts page. Have you experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in your life?

I will teach how to be controlled by the Holy Spirit’s power. Being controlled by the Holy Spirit requires submission to God. James 4:7 states, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” I am amazed by how many Christians do not know how to submit to God and resist the devil. This verse is key to living victoriously as a Christian. Obedience to the Word of God is how you submit to God and resist the devil (John 14:21; Rom. 8:7).

How to Submit to God.

Submission is a mindset that gives God authority to direct your steps. The following Scriptures describe where our thoughts are to be set.

Psalm 81:11 states, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.”

Do you desire to listen to God through praying, reading the Bible, and keeping His commands? When you don’t set your mind on the truths and commands of God, then your mind will be set on your fleshly desires and pleasing yourself, not God.

Romans 8:6-8 states, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

7) For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

8) Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

The flesh is our sinful nature and worldly pleasures (Titus 2:12). God wants us to set our minds on the Holy Spirit, which is the power of God. When you have peace and joy, then you know your mind is set on the Spirit, which is God’s presence.

Romans 10:3 states, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

You get God’s righteousness when you believe in and receive Jesus Christ as the ruler of your life (2Cor. 5:21). Doing works to obtain righteousness does not achieve God’s righteousness; instead, we are to submit our bodies as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13). If you do not believe in Jesus as your savior from the consequences of sin, then you are spiritually discerned, that is, unable to know or discern the truth. 1Corinthians 2:14 states, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” If you do not understand the things of God, then believe that He sent His Son into the world to be the savior of the world, and ask for understanding (1John 4:14-15). When you believe, then you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and have hope.

Hope is Waiting with Patience for God’s Will.

The Bible is filled with hope. We all need hope. Hebrews 11:1 explains, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:24-27, “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25) But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26) Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27) And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

We hope for what we do not see.
In this passage, they hoped for salvation and redemption. We don’t see it, but we hope for it with patience.
You may be weak in faith, but the Holy Spirit helps you.
The Holy Spirit helps us pray when we don’t know what to pray.
The Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God.

So when your faith is failing, pray for the Holy Spirit to help your faith and to intercede for you. You may not be praying according to God’s will, so your prayers may not be answered as you want. The Holy Spirit wants God’s best for you. I wrote about why prayers go unanswered on my page called Posts about Prayer.

Hope Gives Joy and Peace.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” I love this verse. We learn the following.

God is hope.
He fills you with all joy and peace when you trust in Him.
You will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How encouraging. Not only does the Holy Spirit intercede for you, but he will give you overflowing hope. And when you trust God to do His will in your life, you will have joy and peace. So, when you lose your joy and peace, it shows that you have stopped praying and trusting God.

Conclusion

The power of the Holy Spirit gives you hope. Satan and the demons steal your hope, joy, and peace, and lie to make you believe there is no hope. They want you to be depressed and suicidal. God wants you to have hope, peace, and joy. BUT you must submit to God by obeying Him and resist the devil. Where do you set your mind? Isaiah 26:3-4 states, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” Do you trust God and put your hope in Him?

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All verses are from the English Standard Version. If you find my posts and website helpful, please share this link with your friends and family: hopeforcompletehealing.com. The information is copyright-protected. Please do not reproduce any part of the posts or my book without proper citation to Joyce Hanscom and this website.

My latest book, Unlocking God’s Promises, explains 18 categories of relevant promises to each of our lives. It also includes the promises in Psalm 91.

If you find this website helpful, you would like to read Breaking Mental Strongholds, which expands on my website book and includes many of my posts.

Additionally, consider my book Fighting Unseen Battles, which describes the many unhealthy beliefs that control our lives and what the truths are. To learn more about this book, read the post How to Fight Unseen Battles. my post called Breaking Mental Strongholds Book. Also, check out Fighting Unseen Battles on Amazon. To learn more about this book, read: How to Fight Unseen Battles.

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com, and ask for a PDF of Eight Life-changing Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, non-believers, 23rd Psalm, and victory. I will also send you the Lord’s Prayer Model to pray effectively. Please leave your name, so I know you are a real person making the request.

SIGNS OF DEMON INFLUENCE AND SIX STEPS TO PREVENT IT

Can a Christian be influenced by demons? The signs of demon influence are all around us. Do you know what sign to look for? I will also explain how to remove demon influences. To understand if you are being influenced by the devil, you need to know that he is the source of evil.

We are all born with a sinful nature that influences us to go our own way and not God’s way. Our sinful nature is easily lured to please our fleshly desires for sex, drugs, alcohol, gaining wealth, power, and so on. When we sin, that is evil against God; evil is also harming someone sexually, physically, or emotionally. Evil is the opposite of goodness and love. Doing good things is loving and benefiting another person and helping them. All sin and evil deeds are punished by God. Sometimes, He allows Satan to have his way in you to hopefully bring you to repentance (1Cor. 5:1-5).

Submit to God and resist the devil.

Both my parents were Christians who professed Jesus as their Savior. They were even baptized by the Holy Spirit, yet they were both influenced by the devil to do evil. They were not submitted to God and did not resist the devil’s influence (Jam 4:7). My mother was a bitter, angry person and spoke destructive words, so I never felt loved or safe. My father was a thief and addicted to pornography, which led him down the pedophile path. How can this be? Remember, evil is harming people and not loving others as God commands. Evil actions begin as a thought that is within your control, which begins by submitting your mind to God and resisting the devil’s influence.

Six Steps to Prevent Demonic Influence.

Once you have acknowledged you are a sinner in need of forgiveness and asked God to come into your heart, you also need to follow these six steps to stay on the path of life that leads to heaven. James 4:6-8 explains, “But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ 7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8) Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

You must put off pride and put on humility (James 3:13-18).

You must desire to please God and fear Him by submitting to His authority in your life (Matt. 10:28).

Resist the devil by putting off sinful thoughts and putting on Jesus and making no provision for the flesh (Rom. 13:14).

Draw near to God. Hebrews 10:22 states, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Repent of all sin.

Renew your mind.

It is one thing to pray the sinner’s prayer; it is another to open your heart and let Jesus in to change your mind and heart. The Bible is clear that we are to put off our old life and put on a new life, in the likeness of God, Holy and righteous (Eph 4:22-24 and Col. 3:5-10). Colossians 3:5 states, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Jesus explains to the religious leaders in Mark 7:20-23, “And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21) For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23) All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’” The good news is that when you open your heart to Jesus and submit to Him, you have divine power to live a godly life (2Peter 1:3-11).

What fruit do you produce?

Jesus tells the religious leaders that a tree is known by its fruit in Luke 6:43-45 and Matthew 12:33-37. Mathew 12:35, Jesus says, “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” To know if you are being influenced by the devil to do evil, listen to what you say (Matt. 12:34). Also, ask God to search your heart and mind and show you what your treasure is (Jer. 17:10 and Ps. 139:23-24). The writer of Hebrews wrote in 3:12, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” This verse is about believers who have not submitted to God’s work in their lives to transform their thinking and actions. God wants to abide in us, and we in Him, to produce good fruit (John 15:4-6).

I met my first husband in church. He professed to be a Christian and got his license to be a pastor, yet he was very abusive and wicked. After our divorce, he went from one woman after another and no longer walks with God. Inviting Jesus into your heart does not mean you let him sit in the foyer, where you spend time with him occasionally. Jesus wants to dwell in the entire house and remove all that is not holy. 2Corinthians7:1 states, “Since we have these promises (2Cor. 6:14-18), beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” The fear of God is putting away all our evil thoughts and doing good. This is why many pastors and Christians succumb to the schemes of the devil and fall away from their faith in God.

Conclusion

Saying the sinner’s prayer and acknowledging you are a sinner in need of forgiveness is the narrow gate we all must pass through to walk the path of life (Matt. 7:13-14). But if you stop there, you can easily go back to the path of destruction. Walking the path of life requires putting off your old self and its evil desires and putting on your new self, which is the image of Jesus. Removing, putting off sinful, fleshly desires removes the devil’s influence in your life. Does your life reflect Jesus, who loves, forgives, and serves? Or does your life look like the devil, who hates, is bitter, kills, and destroys relationships with hurtful words and harmful, evil deeds?

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My latest book, Unlocking God’s Promises, explains 18 categories of promises relevant to each of our lives. It also includes the promises in Psalm 91.

If you find this website helpful, you would like to read Breaking Mental Strongholds, which expands on my website book and includes many of my posts.

Additionally, consider my book Fighting Unseen Battles, which describes the many unhealthy beliefs that control our lives and the truths behind them. To learn more about this book, read the post How to Fight Unseen Battles.

Contact me at hopeforcompletehealing@gmail.com and ask for a PDF of Eight Life-Changing Prayers from the Bible. The prayers are for the Spirit of wisdom, renewal, spiritual strength, knowledge of His will, virtues of God, non-believers, the 23rd Psalm, and victory. I will also send you the Lord’s Prayer Model to pray effectively. Please leave your name, so I know you are a real person making the request.

Prison Ministry Report 3

Today’s Scripture is James 4:7, “Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This verse gives the inmates hope to overcome their destructive thoughts and live a successful Christian life and overcome temptations. You submit to God by letting Him control your thoughts and actions. Our sinful nature and the devil will put tempting thoughts into our minds and entice us to sin, at this point put those thoughts out of your mind in Jesus’ name and focus on truth from God’s word or just pray for God’s help and mercy to resist the devil and sinning. The more you practice this, the quicker you will submit to God and not to the devil. In 1Timothy 4:7, it tells us to train ourselves for godliness, that is to train our minds to think godly thoughts, not sinful thoughts.

The women’s Bible study was canceled this week, so Sandy and I went to the men’s Bible Study, which was very enlightening. In the prison system, several blocks (A, B, and C) house different types of inmates. The women’s Block B was locked down for covid, so our women from block A had to work in the kitchen. Our husbands lead the men’s Bible study, and they were surprised when we walked in. I did not know what to expect. Usually, they have a large group, but they only had three because only one block can attend at a time to prevent covid spread. The men do their Bible study according to the questions the inmates have, so you need to know your Bible well.

Pres started with a question in Luke 12:54-56, “He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. ⁵⁵And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. ⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” Jim (Sandy’s husband) referenced the fact that Jesus “also said” at the beginning of the Scripture, so he suggested reading from the beginning of the chapter to get the context of the scripture. The verses prior to the above verses referenced the coming of the Holy Spirit by fire and baptism, which Gary (my husband) led us to read in Acts 2 about the Holy Spirit. The Bible study went from Scripture to Scripture as the Spirit led to answer questions the inmates had. To do this kind of Bible Study you really need to know your Bible. Sandy and I like to prepare a Bible Study to encourage the women in their relationship with Jesus but leave room for the Holy Spirit to lead or change our plans. Like He did last Friday night.

Pres commented about another Scripture referring to us as sheep, which led to another Bible discussion. My husband spoke about the passage in Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely he [Jesus] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Then Pres asked what iniquity and transgressions meant. Sandy explained them as a progression of deeper sinful behavior but how Jesus bore them all on the cross and forgives us, but Satan will cause us to doubt. I added James 4:7 that when we submit our minds to God and resist the devil, our thoughts won’t be influenced by the devil, which led to another discussion about resisting temptations. It was an interesting Bible study. Please pray for the inmates. Pres, who desires to grow in his faith. Chris opened up and shared the self-denigrating thoughts he has about himself for the things he did and still does, and how his depression led him to commit crimes. Please pray for John and his wife as they work through the current situation with him being in jail.

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All verses are from the English Standard Bible. If you find my posts and website helpful, please share this link with your friends and family; hopeforcompletehealing.com. The information is copyright protected. Please do not reproduce any part of the posts or my book without proper citation to Joyce Hanscom and this website.

I have written Breaking Mental Strongholds which you can order on Amazon. To learn more about it, read my post called Breaking Mental Strongholds Book. Also, check out Fighting Unseen Battles on Amazon. To learn more about this book, read: How to Fight Unseen Battles.