If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, [b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.  And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Corinthians 13:1-3 &13).

There are three things, the bible says abideth and they are faith, hope and love but the greatest of the three is love. In definition Faith is the ‘how’, hope is the ‘what’ and love is the ‘why’. The intent of your heart, which is the why is called love because a person can give all his worldly goods to the poor but if the intent of the heart is wrong, he gains nothing. This means I have used my act of giving as a string to tie your soul to mine. This is why as a believer you cannot say I did this person a favour, see how badly he is responding or treating me. How the person treats you does not matter because it is on them. But for you to say what happened shows you have placed an expectation on that person as a result of your giving. Love must always be the why or the intent of whatever action you carry out and leave it at that because God is the only one that rewards.

The next is hope which is the ’what’ and it is about what you want to accomplish and you must be specific about those desires which means you can itemise them in prayer. Hope is always manifested or present in your declarations. One of the mistakes we make in prayer when making our confessions is that we call it a confession of faith but really it is actually a confession of hope. When you call certain things into existence as though it were, it is a confession of your hope. Hope is always revealed in words; as the scriptures says, ‘hold fast your confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end’ (Hebrews 3:6). This means you must be declaring it. You must constantly be declaring words of hope because as you declare them, they become an anchor to your soul.

Now, if you are not declaring God’s promises, they do not get anchored to your soul. In 48 hours, you may have drifted into other things and forget what your goals and aspirations are. This is the main reason you must continuously declare God’s promises in other for it to be anchored to your soul. The more you say it, the more it is integrated into your soul and steadies it. For instance, if you need finances and you begin to pray ‘I am going to get this money; using scriptures that says ‘he will supply all my needs according to His reaches in glory or Jesus is my ever-present help in the time of need etc.’ Those scriptures are declarations of your expectations. They are declarations of your hope and faith. Paul said, “I know that this shall turn to my salvation, through your prayers and the supply of the spirit of Jesus – meaning according to my expectation and my hope.”(Philippians 1:19). Therefore, your declarations are the expectations of your hope. However, it is not the words in itself that are going to produce the manifestation of your hope rather the word is the anchor of your soul that will take you within the veil where manifestation will happen.

If you want to constantly see the manifestation of God’s power this is the pattern that you must follow. Your heart has to be right with God. Which means there must be no animosity inside your heart towards anyone.  Pray for people daily that might have offended you and as you exercise yourself in prayer, carrying those people’s burden you are setting yourself free from the hurt you feel towards them. This is one act of love that God wants us to practise in our daily life and as we continue to do so abiding in love, hope and faith we open up ourselves to God’s intended manifestation in our lives.

‘Poju Oyemade