Keep Hope Alive

By Femi Aluko

ABOUT THIS BOOK
No mater how painful our trials may seem; the last chapter of our lives has not been written. God will yet turn all things around for your good. One day we shall see that all has truly been worthwhile. Life can be viewed as a tapestry woven in strands. Now we see only the reverse side. All the strands of our lives are crisscrossed; there is neither rhyme nor reason to the mixture of colors. But one day the tapestry will be complete. Then the weaver will turn it over for all to see. Instead of the mess that we have observed, we will see a glorious picture of incredible beauty!

When God writes the last chapter, all the strands in the story will be drawn together. Events that appeared meaningless, pains that seemed senseless, will take on meaning beyond imagination!

There are bumps on the highway to glory. We need to keep hope alive to arrive at the place of destiny.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE Volume 2 is a collection of additional inspired insights from the word of God by the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664265165

Femi Aluko

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Femi Aluko is an Attorney turned Preacher who has had the privilege of serving as chapter President and Field Representative in the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International before he was called and ordained into the pastoral office in 1997, and today, he is honored to preside over the LIVINGWAY MINISTRIES in Nigeria and the United States. He is happily married to Funmi, and they are blessed with three children- Tomi, Tomiwa and Timi.

Book preview

YOUR SUN WILL RISE AGAIN READ: JUDGES 16:16-22

Samson was a very special person before God. His coming was announced to his mother by an angel. Right from the womb he was filled with the Holy Spirit. At birth, he became a powerhouse who could do practically anything normally humanly impossible. He was an achiever.

However, Samson had a problem. He could not abide by rules. He broke all the rules that surrounded his Nazarite consecration. He was not to touch a corpse, but he took and ate honey from the carcass of a lion. He was to abstain from wine, but he refused. He was expected to be pure, but he slept with harlots.

God was watching him. Then God became dangerously silent until Samson married Delilah, who discovered his source of strength and revealed it to his enemies. They caught him and shaved his hair and plucked out his eyes. Israel’s deliverer and hero became a fool in the company of his enemies. God could have left him like that. But through his mercy, Samson’s hair began to grow again. His sun began to rise again.

Are you sick? Your sun will rise again. You will be healed and restored to good health, because by Jesus’ stripes you have been healed. I am reliably informed that there are 39 classes of illnesses all over the world. Jesus received 40 lashes, one for each class of disease and an extra one to cover any other new classification that might evolve.

Have you been in captivity? The word of God assures us that the captives of the mighty will be taken away and where you were preyed upon, you will be delivered. That sad news will turn to joy. Your account will be full again. Your business will thrive again. It will be well with your family. Your country will bloom again. Come to God and make your crooked ways straight.

"Instead of your shame you shall have double honor,

And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.

Therefore in their land they shall possess double;

Everlasting joy shall be theirs…" Isaiah 61:7 (NKJV)

Shame and disgrace on one hand. A double portion on the other hand. They don’t seem to have anything in common. But then, we serve a God with whom swinging between two extremes is no big deal. The same way He turns night into day and gross darkness into a bright glorious morning, so God can turn the fortunes of His covenant children when they are humble enough to leave their shame and disgrace on His altar.

It grieves the heart of God to see His children wounded and defeated when He has made adequate provision to equip them to rise from the ashes of their failure and recover back everything the devil had stolen.

Don’t let the guilt of yesterday destroy the joy of your tomorrow.

The scar in your life is only evidence that you had once brutally lost a battle. But here is the good news: you may have lost a battle, but you have not lost the war!

Indeed, you have been destined by covenant to win the war. God already declared you the winner even before the war began. Rise from the ashes of your failure, defeat and disgrace and teach the devil the lesson of his life by becoming all that God destined you to be!

SEE BIG PROBLEMS AS

BIG OPPORTUNITIES

Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this p uncircumcised Philistine, that he should q defy the armies of r the living God?- I Sam 17:26 (NKJV)

Goliath of Gath had challenged the camp of Israel to produce one man to fight him. But most unfortunately, all the supposed men had been paralyzed by the fear of Goliath and they must have considered Goliath’s invitation as an invitation to suicide. There was, in effect, no man in the camp. The only man was David, a ruddy, handsome boy who had enough confidence in his God to take up the Goliath challenge.

While others saw Goliath as a giant too big to confront, David saw him as an opportunity, too big to miss.

See big problems as big opportunities. Others saw Goliath as a giant problem, David saw him as a giant opportunity so he was more interested in what will be done to the man that kills Goliath.

In the 17th Chapter of the book of first Samuel, Giant Goliath appears as a devourer. The whole camp of Israel was terror – stricken at his intimidating pedigree, boastings, and appearance. He is a type of satan, a liar; both in word and appearance. You must not believe what you see or hear over and above what God’s word says. His stubbornness and loudness are all intended to frighten you.

It looked risky for David to go against Goliath but think of removing this story of his encounter with the giant from his biography. It was a major turning point in his life. Indeed, out of the eater comes something to eat and out of the strong comes something sweet.

Your present problem will end up promoting you if you do not run from it. Face your challenges with absolute confidence in God and never forget that every Goliath has an exposed forehead.

Right in the midst of that big problem, is a BIG opportunity awaiting your discovery!

VICTORY IS CERTAIN

They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.-Psalm 118: 12(NKJV)

David boldly declared in a few verses before the above text, The Lord is on my side; I will not fear what can man do to me (PSALM 118:6 NKJV).

Oftentimes we go through so many challenges in life that we lose count of them. For how can one explain a situation where you move from one sorrow to another? Sometimes just as one is over, the other comes knocking. At other times, there are too many issues to confront at the same time that one lacks what to say.

This is the time to keep quiet because you do not want to curse God or truncate the process. You have exhausted all the ‘whys’ in the world and yet no answer at the moment. It is time to sing of His goodness and recall His infinite mercies.

Listen to David’s story. All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. – Psalms 118:10(NKJV). David was a man who saw and experienced plenty of troubles from his teenage years and throughout his days on earth. But as tough as they were, so were his triumphs.

Look at the pain he had to go through. In most of his songs, he referred to his enemies, to his pains, failures, and sorrows but he knew beyond any doubt that his God was able to save him. He always saw beyond the troubles and the wars. He saw victory. He thought victory. He spoke victory. In addition, he had victory. For every trouble David had, there was a victory. Because he was always certain that victory was on the way, and he never relented.

However bad it is right now, child of God, He can see you through. The Lord is your strength and song, and He is becoming your salvation.

THE LIMITS ARE BROKEN

"It shall come to pass in that day

That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder,

And his yoke from your neck, And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing..." -Isaiah 10:27 (NKJV)

When we received the Holy Spirit, we received the anointing that removes burdens and destroys yokes. That anointing changes everything in our lives. It guides us, leads us and destroys every limitation such that we’re able to face life with the giant killer mentality.

Your life as a Christian has been programmed in one direction only: Upward and forward. No wonder the Bible says … the path of the just is as the shining sun, that shines more and more unto the perfect day -Proverbs 4:18(NKJV)

This is the path of your life; this is the road you’ve been called to travel. Refuse the up and down life; refuse sickness, poverty, failure, and everything that’s inconsistent with the glory-life we’ve been called to live.

The Lord Jesus brought us a life of rest, peace, and fulfillment, where there are no limitations; we’re at liberty to excel and live a glorious, purposeful and victorious life in Christ. Our lives have been programmed to move from glory to glory and from faith to faith. Our tomorrow should be better than today, and our next year should be greater than this year.

Remember, we’ve been brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; you’re at liberty to succeed!

Every hindrance in your life has been destroyed; the limits are off.

Nothing can hold you back anymore. It’s time to give a shout of victory to the Lord, for every wall of opposition has been knocked down, just as the walls of Jericho crumbled before the children of Israel.

YOUR FAITH OVERCOMES

THE WORLD

‘For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. - 1John 5:4(NKJV)

Please read this verse carefully, ‘for whatever is born of God overcomes the world!’ This means we have been born to overcome, to win, to conquer, to walk in victory! Whoever has come into a new life in Christ Jesus automatically gets the victory over the world.

A Christian is no longer a born loser but now once in Christ he has become a born winner because God’s new heredity within us will always conquer the world outside us.

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, are you born-again? Then you are an overcomer. God has put His life, His heredity, His power, His authority, His ability within you so you are now an overcomer by nature. 1John 4:4(NKJV) says, ‘Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.’

Now the key to releasing Christ, the ultimate Overcomer, who abides in us by the Holy Spirit, is faith. From our text above, we see that the victory that overcomes the world is our faith. Faith takes the things of God and makes them ours. Faith links us up with the overcomer within.

By faith, Christ’s victory becomes our victory, His power becomes our power, His wisdom our wisdom. Faith is the key that unlocks the door to all of God’s grace. As a matter of fact, our faith in the finished work of Christ is the only way which the world has been conquered.

Release the Overcomer today by believing that Jesus has made you an overcomer by nature! As you believe it, think it, practice it and confess it, the Holy Spirit will produce it.

A MESSAGE OUT OF YOUR MESS

So he said to them: out of the eater came forth something to eat and out of the strong came forth something sweet….." - Judges 14: 14.(NKJV)

Right inside the above passage is a deep divine wisdom. It was a riddle Samson gave to the Philistines from an experience he had on his way when he went to deck the hand of a Philistine girl in marriage.

He had an encounter with a young lion in the vineyard of Timnath. The spirit of God came on him and he tore the lion to pieces with bare hands as he would tear off a kid.

Much later when he went back to take back his wife, he branched off by the vineyard to see what had become of the carcass of the lion. He was met with a pleasant surprise!

He sure was not prepared for what he saw. Instead of finding maggot in the carcass, he found honey. The wisdom and inspiration I am drawing from this is that, if you will allow the spirit of God to take control of that seemingly impossible situation you are facing, the result will be a pleasant surprise. Your mess will become a message.

Out of that situation that seeks to eat and consume you, something to eat is coming out. And out of that strong adversity will come something sweet.

The Lord is fighting for you, all you need to do is just to hold your peace. The giant is becoming bread for you!

GOD IS TAKING YOU

SOMEWHERE!

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. - Deuteronomy 8:2(NKJV)

I am getting to understand the above scripture in a very personal way. This year has been the most challenging year for me and my family. Ironically, it is the most fulfilling! Through the aches and the Pains, I am getting to know God in a way I cannot even put into words.

Back to the scripture. God had covenanted to take the children of Israel out of bondage to the promised land- a land flowing with milk and honey.

He had painted a wonderful picture of their destination, but said nothing of the wilderness experience-(the process of getting to the promised land). We can see from the scripture that God took them through the wilderness not because He failed Geography, but so He can ‘humble’ them, ‘prove’ them and expose the very stuff they were made of.

When God shows us one of His numerous promises, we get so carried away by the blessings we are seeking that we forget the process. Blessing us is no big deal to God, but he is more interested in the process.

It is the process