For those of you who read my latest Instagram post about what God did at Heaven Come 2018 in Dallas, God bless you.  For the rest of you, here it is again.  🙂

“The first night of Heaven Come, I went up for prayer, and a girl named Jen said, ‘Have you heard the song ‘Get Your Hopes Up’ by Josh Baldwin?  God is singing that song over you.’

The last night of Heaven Come, I went up for prayer again (cause God is a God of abundance, am I right?) and a girl named Cassie said, ‘I just heard the words ‘Get Your Hopes Up’ over you.  It’s your song.  You might as well just say it.’

What’s crazy (amazing) is that neither of these girls knew that the first time I heard this song was at a Bethel Worship Night at the Verizon Theatre in June 2017, and it broke me.  I cried and cried at the goodness of God because I had been so disappointed, and needed His hope to arise in my heart desperately.  (Check out my blog Hope Deferred for the full story, and get ready for a song with that title to be released on #theseasonsep SOON!)

Now, in June of 2018, a whole year later, I’m in such a good place and am so thankful for all that He is doing, but He is showing me how much He loves me in a deeper way by SPECIFICALLY reminding me to get my hopes up like never before, and to never stop hoping in Him and His kindness for my future!

IT IS THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOU TO GET YOUR HOPES UP IN HIM.  Don’t let disappointment in your past keep you from receiving the encouragement and hope God is giving you for your destiny right now.

‘Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you – rise to a new life]!  Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!’ – Isaiah 60:1”

 

I wanted to explain a little more on HOW actually to get your hopes up, and what God requires of you in order to do that.  You see, I think I’m realizing that one of the main reasons we find ourselves unable to let ourselves get excited about new things that God is showing us – the possibilities and expectation of great new things beginning to happen to us – is simply because we have forgotten our worth and value in the Lord, and we do not think we are worthy of these things.

 

A little example of this happened to me on Sunday morning after Heaven Come.  On the drive to Upper Room, right as I was about to turn in, I heard God say to me:

“Favor ain’t fair.”

 

Obviously, I thought it was funny (as I do literally every time someone says this to me), but I also wanted to know what He was about to do to show me that.

Next thing I know, I was getting coffee with my friends at Hands+Rose, and after paying, I forgot that I wanted almond milk in my latte (HUGE first world problem)!  I asked the beautiful girl at the counter if they could add it, and she told me that it cost 50 cents more, but that she could do it.  I immediately said, “Oh, never mind, that’s okay,” but I STILL WANTED ALMOND MILK.  A few minutes later, after I noticed they hadn’t gotten to my drink yet, I scrounged around for 50 cents between my friends (this is a true story), and held it up to this girl like, “Actually, please, could I have some almond milk in my latte?”  She said, “I already changed your order.  Don’t worry about it.”

The crazy thing is, I actually protested (one time) to try and get her to take the 50 cents, until she ended it by saying:

“It’s already done!  Just receive.”

 

This may not have affected anybody else, but in that moment, those words hit my spirit like a ton of bricks.  After I got my coffee, during Upper Room’s service I began to ask the Holy Spirit why I reacted that way – why I tried to reject what I actually wanted, and why I then tried to pay for something that was already purchased for me.

 

He revealed to me that I was simply acting out of what I thought I deserved.  At first I thought that because it really didn’t matter I would just forget about what I wanted, but when I realized that it was stupid to pretend I didn’t want something I had actually asked for, I tried to pay for it in order to follow the rules and not look like I was taking advantage.  Let me be the first to say that it is never wrong to follow the rules when they are based on biblical morals and values.  However, it is also a biblical principle that when God is trying to teach you to receive, there’s nothing you can do to pay for it.

 

Favor ain’t fair.  Just receive.

…

Why do I share this?

We can never actually “get our hopes up” enough to make something happen.  We can’t speed up the clock or slow it down.  What we can do is simply receive the things the Lord gives us, and recognize that He alone has made us worthy to receive them all.  Our inheritance is bound up in the inheritance of Jesus because His blood paid for us to be a part of Him.  We are the heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ!

 

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” – Romans 8:17

 

Our lives are just one big conglomeration of years in which we are discovering Who He is, and what He truly has for us.  If you’ve suffered, you can begin to get your hopes up in Him because it doesn’t require anything, but just to receive and share in His glory.  Acknowledge the fact that you don’t deserve it, but He’s doing it anyway because He’s made you an heir.  Your story reveals HIS glory.  Don’t hold back from the glorious things He wants to give you and do in you.

 

“I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us…For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he can already see?  But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.” – Romans 8:18, 24-25

Get your hopes up.

Blog Pic: Snapped on a hike on Yellow Rock Trail in Fayetteville, Arkansas with my mom and brother