Victorious Mindsets 3: I Am Repenting to Glistening Hope (Overcoming real spiritual strongholds), by Steve Backlund

I have always felt that one of the many reasons C.S.Lewis, influenced largely by George MacDonald, made such an impact on the 20th Century (a recent list of the US’s most influential Christian writers had every one of them list him in their top 10 strongest influences), was that he so clearly portrayed the prophetic: literally, God speaking the future into being, nowhere more clearly than in the Narnia books. I remember the shock of putting a tape of “The Magician’s Nephew” into my car some months after Rob’s death and being transported back to the morning of his death on the way to school as we listened to the story of Aslan singing Narnia into being on a barren planet with great carpets of flowers and birdsong!

Not that Lewis didn’t understand evolution: in his ‘Mere Christianity’ he talks about the Dinosaurs in a way that suggests his acceptance of their existence as a product of evolution; but then goes on to point out that in terms of evolution you would have thought we were heading into heavier and heavier armour! What happened of course is that the whole planet would be mastered by ‘naked, unarmoured animals which had better brains’ (Mere Christianity, p.182). Lewis sees this as evolution taking a ‘sharp bend’, and thinks that the Next Step will also be really new: ‘a change from being creatures of God to being sons of God’ (p.183), and he calls these “The New Men” (with apologies to women for Lewis was still caught in the patriarchal language of his day)!

For two or three years before that I had been listening (also in the car!) to Lewis’ ‘Screwtape Letters’, narrated by John Cleese (of all people!), where one of these ‘New Men’ is killed in a bombing raid, and yet Screwtape is livid because the young devil he has been coaching has let his charge get away at the very moment when hell appears to reign supreme and he is blown to smithereens by high explosive, because at the same moment his eyes are opened to heaven and he sees for the first time the angels whom he senses have ministered to him all his life long!

To hope in the face of all hopelessness is for me the greatest gift of the Spirit: to share with Christ the horror-struck cry – ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!’ – and yet a moment later to declare – ‘Into Your hands I commit my spirit!’ – sealed with the triumphant concluding awareness that ‘It is accomplished’, even as you take your last breath!

“I Am Repenting to Glistening Hope
(Overcoming real spiritual strongholds)

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

I remember reading the words “glistening hope” by Francis Frangipane (see The Three Battlegrounds). He was discussing our need to have “glistening hope” in every area of life (and if we don’t have this in an aspect of life, then we are believing a lie in that area and are in danger of having a stronghold of the enemy there).

This truth rocked my world. I did not have much hope in my life and certainly not “glistening hope.” I was being set up for a great journey into the importance of hope that would change my life.

“We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character,hope” (Romans 5:3-4). This passage leads us to Christian maturity. First, we “glory” (rejoice) in tribulation. Secondly, we continue (persevere) in this glorying. Third, we grow in Christian character (making good decisions). One would think that this character is the ultimate goal in Christian living, but it isn’t.

Our goal is ultimately hope (the confident expectation that good is coming). Our destination is not good actions, but a way of thinking called hope. It is the soil that faith and obedience put their roots into. Without hope, there can be little positive change in life.

“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Repentance is a change of thinking that leads to a change in actions. It is not a one-time event, but a lifestyle. We will know that our repenting in an area of life is complete when we consistently have glistening hope based on revelations of God’s goodness.

The kingdom of God moves forward primarily by what we believe, not by what we do. “Glistening hope” is a kingdom way of thinking that is foundational for having victorious mindsets (Steve Backlund, Victorious Mindsets (Thomas Nelson, 2008), 22).

I want to qualify this last paragraph because I don’t think Backlund is saying that faith is a matter of simply believing the right doctrine (and everything else will follow), but rather that our whole way of thinking and believing has a huge impact on the way we act (“be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Paul said).