Steadfastly Endure!! 2006/10 04/09/06
There are a lot of things in the daily scheme of things for all of us to try our patience, test our faith and in general bug us good. I used a verse several weeks ago and it still sticks for today, and we will concentrate on the bottom line of this for this lesson. Turn in you bible to Luke 18:1 & 8b;
“Then He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Note: In the first verse, the Lord is indicating that our prayers will encourage a steadfastness that we don’t ordinarily function in and it also helps to guard against distractions.
If you will read the six verses between these, you will find God will always respond to persistence. In this case it was an unjust judge who refused to meet the widow’s needs. But God responds to His promises and our endurance to believe in spite of all the obstacles to their coming to pass. God is always faithful, but so many faint and lose sight of what is laid up for them [us]. I quoted both these verses from the NKJV, but if you look at the latter in the Amplified, you will see in the brackets the words [persistence in] added.
Alma has a sign on her refrigerator, (or it was there) that says in bold letters; NEVER GIVE UP, and that is God’s call on our faith, especially in His promises. Our confidence, because of basic human nature, is completely founded on our depth of trust in our God. God, in His perfect will, has a perfect plan to perfect us, to bring us through, a people lacking in nothing. (those made up of faithful individuals.)
The word in greek; (peitho) An ironclad trust, a true reliance on, a fidelity to. This is confidence that pierces through the darkness of all the hindrances, that will surely try our faith. These hindrances will test our patience and, if yielded to, will allow the spirit of fear to raise its ugly head in our lives. Negative circumstances are ahead of us daily, even if we decided to stay in bed, with our head covered.
This is all about choices, who and what do I trust. I must come to the place where I put my full, unconditional trust in God, because without that in my heart, all the confessions and professions that I can come up with will not profit me, for it is heart belief that receives the answer. It must develop into that unconditional trust, a fully persuaded attitude, and that is what is going to be tested, and it is not to show God that we mean business, no, the test will be in place to show us how far we have come or not, God already knows.
I have come to the place, where I have a more firm grip on the truth that His ways and His thoughts are so much higher than mine, all this from Isaiah 55:8 and 9, but in verse 6 we find this direction;
“Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while Hs is near.”
[He is near always, but here, you will find, the implication is, from verses ahead] that this means, ‘while the word, that meets the need, is in your heart, and confidence in that word, must also be settled in your heart. This is ‘fully persuaded’ faith. Now see verse 10 and 11;
“For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”
I have always believed that most have a problem dealing with the thought, that it is impossible for Him not to keep His word. Build that into your spirit man and it will develop a trust that is the Rock stable basis for a ‘Holy Perseverance’, a set apart faith that will never waver.
I really don’t want to be persistent or redundant, but it is most important that we get really grounded in this for the days ahead, because we do not know what they hold, but we need to truly get hold of Who is going to hold it.
Like all else in our walk on His holy highway, trust, like faith is not a virtue that just sneaks up on us by happenstance. It is a learned, developed experience. I can’t help but think of the three facing the fiery furnace. The threat was that they were going to be thrown in if they did not worship the pagan gods, but their response is a lesson. Listen to their answer; (Dan. 3:17-18)
“If that is the case, our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O King.
But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
The gods, or the gold image may represent the things that the enemy tries us with. Things that try to cause us to fear, and to doubt in our God and compromise our faith. We must come to the place where we absolutely know that God is able to deliver us from the most difficult of circumstances and the most impossible of situations. We must be willing to endure and persevere during any event rather than let go of our faith in our God and His faithfulness. We need a daily, fresh commitment to His call on our lives.
Note: These men were operating in fully persuaded faith that was still in force even in the fire and brought the manifestation of the fourth man. The fourth man is always near but the manifestation comes when the need is met with faith.
One thing that I like to do, is either journal on paper or in the recesses of my heart the times that He has answered needs that seemed to have no answer, making a way when there seemed to be none. His provision when there was no way. These can become a solid platform you can step out on, to bolster you in times of need.
Note: The carnal mind can take the simplest circumstance or situation and fantasize and build it into an impassible, impossible obstacle or mountain. We must develop our “KNOWING”.
One place to practice our faith and build it up at the same time is in confession of His word and I love to practice confession, when I don’t necessarily have a need, because I believe that it builds a depository that we can withdraw from in times of need. Turn to Romans 10:10;
“For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
I have heard that this is basic bible, but then as I think on that statement, did Jesus teach basic bible or did He teach total truth? The latter is the one that holds completely. Look at another verse and see what Jesus thought about the subject above, Mk. 11:23;
“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”
Call that basic if you care, but Bro. Kenneth Hagin believed that verse unto life and he lived his ministry on the truth of that ‘basic’. It is interesting that Jesus mentions believing once and confession three times. Kenneth said the Lord told him in the early days that he would have to preach three times as much about the saying part as he would about the believing part. He further told him that believing is not where His people miss it, they miss it in the saying [or confession part]. See Romans 10:8 below.
“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith, which we preach.)
It has to be in your mouth as well as in your heart. Saying activates what you believe and puts the process of receiving in motion. Listen to what confession really is;
First, it’s affirming something that we believe.
Second, it’s testifying to something that we know.
Third, it’s witnessing to a truth that we’ve embraced.
Confession centers around five areas;
First, what God in Christ wrought for us in the Plan of Redemption.
Second, what God through the Holy Spirit wrought for us in the New Birth and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Third, what we are to God the Father in Christ Jesus.
Fourth, what Jesus is doing for us now, seated at the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for us.
Fifth, what God can do through us, and what His Word will do through our lips.
There is a verse that pertains to all this that has always grabbed my attention and let me quote it for you, from 2 Cor. 4:13;
“Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, I have believed, and therefore have I spoken, We too believe, and therefore we speak.”
The bottom line here is that ‘Rhema’ speaks. The word of God in your mouth is just as true as it is spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself. When the word that is settled in the heavens, becomes settled in our spirit and we speak it, it prospers for that in which it was sent. Rhema is the anointed word that breaks yokes and removes burdens. God is in His Word and is jealous to perform it. (Jer 1:12)
Let’s go to another level for a moment. Get this in your spirit. Always know that God will not call us to do anything that we can ever accomplish without Him and when we speak a Rhema Word, He is in the power and authority of it.
We also understand from Galatians 5:6b that faith works by love. So the fruit of the Spirit is to be our life priority and it is a sign of the crucified life, but there is also the priority of the Life (fruit) of confidence in our God – endurance, perseverance, patience and faithfulness are all in the plan of His process of growth and maturing.
Unconditional love will bear fruit of an unconditional trust in God. We are to become, as Abraham, fully persuaded that what He has promised He will perform – but – it is His perfect time and in His perfect way! It is not up to us to understand first, but to obey what His word and His Spirit directs and then He will add to us all we need to go forward in His call. He is totally able to bring His Life to pass in us.
I am going to read Paul’s prayer to you and make only several comments and then let you mull over this very familiar with an added demand, and it is in Eph. 3:14-20;
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be *strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height –
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
Note: This is the same ‘riches in glory in Christ Jesus’ as we find in Phil. 4:19. He is the “strengthening power” in our inner man.
I read these verses because I know what Paul was sensing in his spirit. If we could but truly, experientially know the absolute fullness of the love God is, and has for us, there would be no way we could lack confidence in Him or His call. He could literally ask us to do anything and there would not even be a question about it. His love is so broad, deep, high and long that it will encompass all that it sees and fulfill any call and provide all that is necessary to fill the bill. He longs for us to trust Him with our very life.
Knowing His love, will produce, when developed, an unconditional obedience and that will bring about a marvelous manifestation of His Presence. Our ability, bolstered by His Presence will empower us to persevere through any test and any trial, patiently enduring all that He allows in our life. It is His strength that empowers us with, that takes us through. [2 Cor 12:9]
In the above scripture that I just read from Ephesians 3, Paul wrote that He would strengthen us from His riches in glory in the inner man, and this is all to bring us to enduring faith. There is a promise in the Old Testament that will fit here, for us now in this season that we are in. Isaiah 41:10;
“Fear not, [there is nothing to fear],for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, Yes, I will help you; I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.”
Jesus told Jairus, when he was told his daughter had died, “Fear not, only believe.” And the Lord added out of His love, “for I am with you”. How can we believe that He is with us and yet fear or be afraid of anything?
We may be weak and fainting, but He said; “I will strengthen you and harden you to difficulties”.
We could always add now, pray for me that I’ll be able to hold on and be faithful till the end. And then He answers; “I will uphold you”. I will retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice. What is my confession? “God is with me!”
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world, knowing that we can then confess; “God is now in me.”
Now we are coming to the last of what I have been given to tell you today and that is first from Romans 8:31;