The Radiant Power of Spiritual Hope

As you walk with Jesus, you have hope that consists of a spiritual nature; hope that is not reduced to mere “wishful thinking” but a powerful and confident awareness that joy and goodness are awaiting us in the future. Our hope is a deep conviction that our destiny and our future is secure and good.

How often we forget this, and just like Peter our eyes return to the waves… but if we would allow our perspective to remain fixed on Christ, our Eternal Hope, then it would have a powerful radiant effect on every aspect of our lives. We are invited by the Lord to encounter His hope every single day. We have true spiritual hope that springs forth from the Fountain of all Life. This is more substantial and effective than all other types of “hope” the world has ever seen. Spiritual hope fills you with joy when you wake, it calms you with peace as you fall asleep. It changes the underlying sense of reality itself: a triumphant procession of victory is ahead; no matter what, ultimate victory and goodness is ahead. No matter what we face, we know with every fiber of our being, that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives… and beyond. (cf: 2 Corinthians 2:14; Psalms 23)

Do you crave a bit more hope in your life? If one lacks this hope, one might simply ask (and persist in asking) and the Father gives generously. (cf: Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-8; James 1:5). Let’s look at some resources by Walter Brueggemann and Henry Nouwen for building a stronger, more indomitable hope!

Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile by Walter Brueggemann

Walter Brueggemann has increasingly been a voice of hope for me in recent years. I had written him off earlier in my life due to some theological differences, but in 2016 I began to discover that Brueggemann has a lot to say to our chaotic times. His book, “Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile” is a book that speaks perfectly to the “church in exile” within the western, first world context. He understood the timeless nature of the prophetic writings and took insights from the major Prophets and translated them into words of wisdom and inspiration for people of any chaotic time of turmoil. Here are some key points from his book:

• Jeremiah: “Without Grief there is no Newness”

He unpacks Jeremiah’s grief and lament as a foundational movement that one must go through in the journey toward establishing hope: by grieving with a heart of faith, we acknowledge the brokenness of reality and we open ourselves up to the hope that the Lord hears and knows and sees our brokenness and offers an open hand toward those who are willing to have eyes to see. Without a Biblical sense of grief, then, there is no opportunity for newness, for our perspective must connect with the issues around us (with honesty) before we can begin to see new solutions and new perspectives. According to Brueggemann, Jeremiah reveals this to us throughout his entire process of engaging the Lord over his grief.

• Ezekiel: “Without Holiness there is no Hope”

Brueggemann then illustrates Ezekiel’s example that without true holiness, we have no hope. He isn’t speaking of legalism or false holiness, but true holiness which is the deepest invitation into the beauty and goodness of God (an invitation to become who we are meant to be, as God intends us to become). In pursuit of this sort of “beauty of holiness,” we come to the end of our efforts and find God as the Holy One and Savior upon whose holiness all hope resides. There is no hope if God is not the Holy One, so says Brueggemann, interpreting Ezekiel so pointedly. How helpful then, in our times, that we can move through our grief to the awareness that there are solutions, then we can move beyond seeing “solutions” as mere abstractions and behold them as the overflow of a good and holy God of all beauty who is inviting us into those solutions. Hope increases exponentially upon these foundations that the prophets have shared with us.

• Isaiah: “Without Memory there is no Healing”

Finally, Brueggemann looks to Isaiah and takes this entire process a bit deeper revealing that, until we remember the good and the bad, we are not open to allowing the healing work of the Lord to come into us (or our society). So we must remember. We must remember the pain in order to allow space for the healing of the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts. We must remember the good and the wonderful things that the Lord has done in our past so that we may find renewed healing in our faith itself: our faith is built upon the remembrance of His goodness and the recounting of testimonies that reinforce our awareness that God has been good and will continue to be good and that He works things out for our good.

I highly encourage the reader to take a look at Brueggemann’s book and find yourself exploring the depths of these major prophets with renewed interest. They speak powerfully to our times but also to the spiritual leader who finds themself in a place of influence and having the ability to sow seeds of hope in those who are despairing (inside and outside of the church).

We can participate in being the Hope for the World!

Hope from within the heart should boil up and spill over onto those around us. True spiritual, radiant hope cannot be kept quiet but must shine forth. It is the inevitability of hope to overflow. Consider your calling as spiritual leader, you are invited to not only cling to hope in Christ, but to participate with Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God in the work of ongoing hope-building in this world. You can be part of the Hope.

"You are invited to not only cling to hope in Christ, but to participate with Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God in the work of ongoing hope-building in this world." ~ Jeremy Chambers Click To Tweet

In Ezekiel 34, we see the concern of the Holy One of Israel that there were some poor quality “spiritual shepherds” overseeing His people. So the Lord challenged those spiritual shepherds to rethink their calling and also promised a Good Shepherd to truly guide and care for His people. Using this passage as a key prompt in my life and in our times (when so many “spiritual shepherds” have done great harm to society), I am reminded of the deeper hope of our calling as shared with us through Henri Nouwen’s small book, “In the Name of Jesus.” This book is a must read for every spiritual leader. It shares the depths of how we can be vital parts of spreading hope to those around us.

Nouwen calls the spiritual leader to move from a preoccupation with “relevance” toward a healthy obsession with prayer. He doesn’t leave this as simply intercessory prayer, but invites the spiritual leader to discover contemplative prayer (thoughtful, silence before the Lord) as a means of connecting even deeper and renewing our minds with the true nature of our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This “contemplative prayer” isn’t some mystical ambiguous thing, but rather the simple engagement of a heart that finds stillness before the Lord. A great additional resource for contemplative prayer is “Sanctuary of the Soul” by Richard Foster.

Nouwen proceeds to invite us to move beyond mere concerns of our popularity to discover the depth of what it means to truly spiritually minister to people. True ministry is a product of servanthood and the working of the Holy Spirit. Nouwen also reminds us that we are invited by the Lord to move beyond “leading” to actually being led by the Spirit of God. This invitation throws all our ministry into a new paradigm: we are followers of Jesus first and foremost. An excellent resource along these lines is, “I am a Follower” by Leonard Sweet.

It is our prayer for each of you who read this, and for the entire world – that the beautiful and radiant power and reality of true Christian Spiritual Hope may become all pervasive and overflowing in your lives!