Breakthrough and belief — Hannah Viviers

A monthly column on purpose, passion and power in Jesus.

“Hope for the best, but expect the worst.”

It’s a line I’ve heard before, in different ways.

- Advertisement -

I believe it’s probably the number one reason we don’t consistently experience the breakthroughs we hope for.
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about this line.

When I decided I was going to go all-in pursuing my passion as a health and detox coach this year I knew “all-in” meant bringing belief into my work.

I know I can’t force others to believe what I do, but I bring it up with every person I work with because it is my utter conviction that this aspect of believing is something we often underestimate.

- Advertisement -

When I embarked on my own journey to healing eight years ago I came across a woman who taught me that if I wanted to experience the breakthrough I sought, I needed to only believe.

She taught me to forget my past experiences where I’d trusted for healing and hadn’t seen it happen. She also advised me to completely ignore the negative experiences of others- and only believe.

For six months after being introduced to this way of thinking I buried myself in the Scriptures to saturate myself with God’s promises regarding my health.

In that period God’s Word renewed my mind to believing, without a shadow of doubt, that I would heal.
So full was I with belief I left no room for doubt.

To this day one of the remarkable things about Jesus that has stayed with me is that when He walked this earth, He healed “all” who came to Him for healing. Not some, not most, all.

I clung to that word “all”.

I reckoned that if Jesus healed all who came to Him then surely He would heal me too.

During that journey with God I learned the power of speaking, repeatedly, what I hoped for.

I would speak God’s Word over my body reminding it that it was fearfully and wonderfully made.

Repeatedly, I told it how it was meant to function according to God’s original design.

It was during this time I began to discover the connection between what I ate and how my body functioned.

Writing this now sounds like a no brainier but at the time I’d had no idea that what I was eating and drinking was causing my body to dysfunction.

While God’s design of my body was perfect I was stuffing substances into my body it was never designed to consume.
Learning this, I went on a month long body detox.

Within three months of that every ailment I’d had in my body was gone.

I believe it was God’s goodness and my utter conviction that I’d heal that brought this to my attention.
In total it was a nine month journey to finally get the breakthrough I sought.

While there were various things that came together to bring me to that point I believe the most vital catalyst of that entire journey was I believed I was going to get better. Not healing was not an option for me.

I can’t force the people I coach on health to have the same conviction but I share with them my story and encourage them to only believe.

At times I come across stories of remarkable people who loved God, trusted completely for healing but didn’t get it.

I don’t have answers for why that happens- and I fully admit that my knowledge is extremely limited when it comes to healing.

But as harsh as I may sound, I was taught to not look at the experiences of others but to only believe.

I was listening to an Andrew Wommack teaching where he told of how Smith Wigglesworth never allowed himself to be influenced by anything but the Word of God.

It is said that Wigglesworth was a hard man.

His response to that was that he had hardened himself to anything that stood outside the Word of God.

I wonder what would happen if we too hardened ourselves to anything outside of God’s Word?

When I think of that line: “Hope for the best, but expect the worst”, I find it tragic because the second part of that line makes the first part impossible. We cannot hope and fear at the same time.

Whatever challenges face us I believe God has an answer.

The reason we might be afraid to only believe is we may wonder: “But what if this doesn’t work?”

The Bible has this answer for us from Romans 5:5 — “… and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”