October 27, 2006

• Patience by Pastor Ted

  Pastor Ted taught last night’s Bible study on patience. I love it when God, as the “A TEAM” says, has a plan come together. In the Beth Moore study that I am doing, I am in the week that is covering patience. Perhaps there is a message there for me? You see I want patience and I want it NOW she says stamping her feet! Just joking, but patience is an important fruit of the Spirit, for it allows us to wait until God’s timing. God does not work within our time frame.

  Pastor Ted pointed out that so many move from one place to another, but not all move for the right reasons. Some choose to move because they are wanting a better church, a bigger house, more money, better climate. If the call to move is because of the carnal mind’s idea of moving it may be out of order. If the move is in answer to God’s requests, that is a different story.

  Adam and Eve in the garden moved. God called out to them, “Where are you?” He didn’t ask that question because God didn’t know where they were, but because they had moved outside of God’s perfect will for them. They were not where God had put them, and they had lost the dominion over the earth. They had a promise and they moved out of that promise because of disobedience and they left the promise because of circumstances.

  So often, when circumstances become difficult for us, we scramble around trying to find a solution in our flesh instead of standing on the promises of God. When we are moving because of difficult circumstances we are reacting out of fear.

  We either move because of destiny (God ordained) or fear (circumstances). Fear brings you to possibilities, trusting in God brings you to His promise. Possibility is not a promise. Fear keeps us in bondage.

  Pastor Ted pointed out that we often spend several hours in church in an atmosphere of praise and worship, then we hit the parking lot and the atmosphere disappears. What we are needing to do is to maintain that atmosphere of praise and worship in our daily lives.

  When we react to circumstances we are in the dimension of TIME, when we praise and worship and focus on God we are in the dimension of ETERNITY.

  Time and Eternity do not coincide. When we are in eternity (praise and worship) then the circumstances are not as important. When we get bogged down by circumstances we lose sight of eternity.

  God shows us a vision and a dream (foresight), but if foresight is not in line with our insight (inner thoughts and feelings) it can produce fear. If we begin to fear we start being limited by our circumstances. What we need to do is to trust God, to know that the dream He gave us will come to pass (if not in our lifetime, in the lifetime of our kids – example David/Solomon and the temple). We may not see how it is going to come to pass, but God is ABLE.

  For us, our life on earth is short, but a vapor. Satan knows this, and tries to detract us from doing God’s will during the short time we have on this earth. He does that by producing fear and getting us to react to our circumstances rather than to what God is telling us.

  As it says in Job, satan is wandering to and fro on the earth. He is seeking whom he may devour. Now his time is also short, and he knows that his end is final, so satan will not waste time with someone who is holding strong to God’s promises. He will look for those who fear, who are weak in faith, who are looking at circumstances. Those who are strong in faith, who worship, who focus on God would waste satan’s limited time, so he will pass on by them to look for easier prey.

  Faith failed produces fear, which then causes us to speak negatively, leaving us open for a cycle of fear.

  God has a plan for everyone, and he gives us each dreams and visions. When we walk through our life, we will have hills and valleys, when we get a vision it must be walked out – it is a process. Faith is eternal, so faith NOW IS. When we walk out the process towards God’s vision for us we cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by the past. Our present will become the past, and you will never see the past in the future. Our promise from God is set in eternity. The past will never catch up to the promise because it is in a different dimension. The promises of God are yes and amen. We are all in the process of walking out the promise.

  Joseph had a dream, and he did not understand that the prerequisite to the promise was the pit. I am certain that he wondered about his dream while he was in the pit and the time in the pit must have seemed like an eternity.  He probably could not figure out how the pit would lead to his dream of leadership. But God’s Word will not return void. We don’t know the day, or the hour, but God’s promise is coming. Eternity will invade time and God will do what He said He would do.

  The devil was thinking that Joseph would be killed in the pit (for Joseph was of the lineage of Jesus), and the fruit of the bondage of Joseph would be the palace.

  PATIENCE produces the PROMISE.

  Joseph’s story is the same as ours, when God gives us a promise, we must patiently walk it out, sometimes on mountaintops, other times in the valley, but God’s promise will happen. God cannot lie.

  Joseph’s brothers would still get judged for what they did. They will reap what they sowed.

  With Job, the devil tried to get Job to deny God. God allowed satan to invade Job’s life, taking away the hedge of protection. Job did not know why God permitted this, but He still would not curse God. Job chose to stand on the promises of God, that God is who he says he is.

  When we are faced with difficulties we must stand in patience (not as a target, but an active standing). And the devil will work at trying to get us to move off of God’s perfect plan for our lives. If satan gets us to move, he then has authority over us. If we stand on God’s promises and focus on God, satan has no power over us. God’s plan is for us to endure and see the promise. If we respond to circumstances we are out of God’s will for us. God says to be still and know that I am God.

  Satan wants to keep us in the past, but to move forward to eternity we have to keep focused toward God. How do we sustain the glory of God through praise and worship throughout our day, how do we avoid being distracted by satan, what do we do when we think there is no way out of a situation? God will let satan at times test us to help us to see where we stand in faith.

  Sometimes when we face a trial in our life – say a person who gets on our nerves and we try to escape the situation, we find ourselves back in the same sort of situation with another person. We can try to abort the process, avoid the test that God is providing for us, but we can rest assured that the same situation or test will keep occurring until we finally get it.

  Pastor Ted then talked about Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. After an offer to build booths for the three figures, God told them to listen to His Son. Jesus was clothed in glory, the glory was not about the figures with Jesus, but about Jesus. Christ is the anointed one. We must seek Christ to sustain the glory.

  So many go from church to church trying to follow revivals. They seek men who they think will help to produce a revival. They do not realize that real revival starts with oneself. We cannot mimic anyone’s anointing. It isn’t about denominations. It’s about God. God is seeking to tear down denominational barriers so that the focus is on God, on the anointing of Christ.

  The anointing helps us to reverse bondage, to free ourselves from what is holding us back from fully embracing Christ in us, the hope of glory. We grow from faith to faith, glory to glory. When you are walking in the glory of God, that anointing on you is what attracts people to you. We have a promise and God moves us toward the promise.

  People are looking for signs. God’s sign is His Word and the Spirit and the Word must agree. If you do not act on God’s Word, you are not going to be able to stand in faith.

  We are to first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the rest will fall into place. We are to SEEK GOD, not to seek what God can do.

  Everybody is given a ministry. If we just sit with the knowledge of what our ministry is and don’t make plans and don’t walk it out, we are not doing our ministry. The church is lazy, we don’t want to work or walk out God’s plan for our lives. It isn’t given to us on a silver platter.

  If we move toward God, He will move towards us. We are still in time, dealing with circumstances. God can bring eternity into our situation, but it takes us moving towards Him.

  The healing anointing isn’t just about feelings (for example, feeling a tingling in our hands), the healing anointing is useless unless we lay hands on people for healing.

  Where we miss it sometimes is when the presence of God comes and we just keep moving with our agenda. We keep with the program instead of staying and fellowshipping with God.

  Peter understood this. He was the one that noticed that the fig tree died after Jesus cursed it. He was the one who got out of the boat and walked on water (and although he lost focus on Jesus and sank, he still walked towards Jesus and succeeded as long as he kept his focus on Jesus).

  We are not living in the realm of time forever. We want what happens to us to make sense to our senses. But that is not God’s way. He wants us to move from the carnal to the spiritual. The Spirit is way ahead of where we are at, it is not linked to our circumstances or time.

  John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan. In the Jewish culture it was tradition for the father to present his son to the temple with words like, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Well Joseph was not Jesus’ earthly father, so when Jesus was baptized, God in heaven came down and presented his son with those words.  Jesus began a new priesthood.

  When we focus on God and the Spirit it will mess up everything that we think we know. We will find that we can find peace in our circumstances and in the process, even though those who do not focus on God will see chaos.

  Matthew 18:21-35 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!” So this fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

  Pastor Ted pointed out that number 7 is the number of perfection, completion. So the disciple thought that that was a lot of forgiveness, the rabbis taught three times forgiving, so this was more than double. But Jesus wants more than the minimum. He wants us to have PATIENCE with those who trouble us, with those who need forgiveness. We were forgiven much by Jesus and He wants us to extend that forgiveness to others in our lives. It takes patience and perserverance to do so, but we need to begin to see others with the eyes that Jesus saw us with. We need to realize that God is in control. It is God who will judge. Everybody in our lives (the good, the bad, the ugly) is part of the process that God has ordained to bring us to His perfect plan for our lives. God will empower us to endure the process. And during our walk, part of the process is patience and forgiveness. Nobody will get away with anything, while we forgive them on earth, they will answer to God for what they have done. When we forgive and obey and have patience, eternity will interact with time and we will see the glory of God.

  If God gives us a promise, no one on earth will be able to prevent that promise from occurring. The only way we can stop what God is trying to do is when we step out of the umbrella of His perfect will for us. God gives us the vision, and even if no one in our life sees the vision that God gave us or believes that it can occur, God is the giver of the vision, and He will make sure that that vision will come to pass. We cannot get distracted by circumstances, by what others say, think or feel.

  Luke 21:16-19 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience, possess your souls.

  The soul is the mind, will, and emotions of a person. We need to keep our souls focused on what God has said about our situation. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, all he spoke was “It is written…” in the scriptures. When everything seems to come against you and you don’t see how things are going to happen, we need to understand the process. Focusing on God will keep us focused on His promise for us, not fear, doubt and confusion. We are to occupy until He comes.

  Romans 15:4-6 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  All that happens to us and all that was written in the Scriptures (which at that time was the Old Testament), is written for our learning. When we walk out our circumstances with patience focused on God, we are also showing others the goodness of God. How long is this process? We don’t know. We just know that God is faithful and trustworthy and will do what He says He will do.

  Sarai did not know how God was going to quicken her dead womb to produce a child. The carnal mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Everything that goes on in our lives God understands.

  Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

  Sometimes it is helpful to find someone who has the qualities of faith and patience to imitate. “Be still and know that I am God.” We need to move toward the promise, but it is not good to move in response to circumstances. Move because God desires you to move in a particular direction, because of compassion or love.

  The sound outside of Jericho was victory.
  The sound inside of Jericho warning.

  Sometimes we get comfortable with the carnal and think that we are ok, but we are not ok. We need to line up with God’s word and promises, and then we can keep joy in the midst of even dire circumstances. We will not have the joy of hope, but the joy of faith if we keep focused on God. We have to remember that the process leads to the promise.

  This was a powerful teaching by Pastor Ted. I am hoping that it blesses you. It certainly impacted me and today on TBN there was also a pastor preaching the same material. I think it is an important message for our day and age.

  Heather.

  • 12:04 am
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