November 12, 2006

• Patience – by Pastor Ted

  Pastor Ted taught Friday’s Bible study. He pointed out that Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

  James 4:13-14 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

  Things on this earth are here one minute and gone the next. So why is patience so important considering the fleeting nature of life here? Patience is what holds us up until the glory of God comes. It is the devil’s plan to get us to move by a sound. There are two sounds, the sound of the enemy and the sound of God. We can only listen to one.

  Satan got Adam and Eve to move by his suggestion about the forbidden fruit. Man was made in the image and likeness of God and put in the Garden, able to have dominion over it. They were given one simple rule which they disobeyed because of the suggestions of satan. When God came into the garden, He called out and asked “Where are you?” God knew where Adam and Eve were, but He wanted them to realize that they had moved out from under God’s perfect will for their lives. They moved from dominion of the earth to oppression under satan.

  The devil wants to get us impatient. In a previous Bible study, Pastor Ted spoke about two dimensions Time (where satan is) and eternity (where God is). Satan’s time is short, so when he sees that we are patient it frustrates satan, and he moves on to try and stir up impatience in someone else. Satan has no time to waste on those who have decided to wait on God. Satan wants us to think about our past, to let our past distract us so that our past becomes our present, and we do not move to the future, to the promise of God.

  Time is the realm of possibility – and not all possibilities come true. Eternity is the realm of the Promise, and all of God’s promises come true.  If satan can stir up stuff so that we begin to doubt God and focus on possibilities, he has succeeded. We cannot be double minded, we cannot let fear, doubt and confusion in because of what we perceive our circumstances to be. We need to focus on what God is saying. We need a revival in our Spirits, not listening to false spirits.

  So often, when we go from place to place seeking where the current move of God is, we are in error. The true revival is within us, with our relationship with God, not chasing someone elses’s revival. What so often we want is a cheap imitation of effects, not working for the real relationship. It is more than just a feeling. We want to come in through the back door, where others have worked for the revival. But for real revival to occur, we need to be the ones working towards it. It isn’t about going to a church where revival has caught on – God can create revival where we are. He can move wherever we are. We need to carry our cross, to die to ourselves. To realize that there are three levels of salvation – salvation that we accept when we accept Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. But then there is resurrection (where the old self dies and God revives the new creation in Christ within us) and ascension (where we are worshipping in Spirit and in Truth).

  When there is a true worship atmosphere, we move out of the realm of time and into the eternal realm of God. And eternity then touches our time.

  Have you ever gone to church and been buoyed up by the worship to a point that you lose track of time, then you reach the parking lot and someone cuts you off or you are blocked in and have to wait – and you lose that sense of worship that you just had?The question is, how can we sustain that atmosphere of worship and be in it all the time? We need to have the presence of the Lord, and that entails hoping, believing, and knowing.

  We see this a bit in Peter. Peter heard Jesus curse the fig tree (and he listened, hoping), on the way back he saw that the fig tree had withered (and he believed), then it helped him to Know that Jesus’ words came to pass. Peter heard and saw.

  Peter was in the boat with the disciples, all the disciples heard Peter ask Jesus to tell him to walk on water, only Peter believed and got out of the boat.

  How does faith come? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

  When the atmosphere of God invades time, you become whole. It is a place of deliverance, and we do not want to go back to the past.

  The woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was made whole. Jesus Christ, in His fleshly form, revealed the deep things of God to the people, but He also concealed them (which is why He spoke in parables.)

  You have to cross the border or you are dealing with carnality. You get a KNOWING when you cross the border. Worship is important to God. When we are in true worship we will not worry about circumstances. Faith brings us into the presence of God. We have two different choices, we can focus on the past or on the future. The atmosphere of God swallows up the past.

  Pastor Ted pointed out that you can’t just read your Bible or just go to church and expect this atmosphere of God to arise. You must seek it.

  If you look at the order of worship in the Old Testament you see that the High Priest does not give a word to the people before he goes into the presence of God. First the Priest goes into the temple, the glory of God fills the temple, then the priest comes out and gives the Word. Only then is the glory of God in the Word given.

  Peter would not have had the revelation of who Jesus was without the anointing of God to show him the revelation.

  Pastor Ted reminded us that we would be judged for every idle word we speak. (Heather’s note, every time I hear that verse quoted I think idle/idol for so often our idle words are really remnants of idols in our lives). Don’t forget that satan is listening to what we say, and some words are good, others carnal. Satan will pounce on those carnal words seeking to accuse us before the Lord, or making those carnal statements come to pass.

  The Words we speak quicken and there is little time here on earth. If our mind is focused on the past, it will never catch up to eternity. Faith is outside of our time frame. When the Promise and destiny kiss, you have what you say. You are saved by grace, through faith, and that allows us to step outside of circumstances. All things are in bondage until we step outside of time.

  People are most comfortable hearing preaching that deals with common, everyday circumstances, so that they can stay in their comfort zone. But God takes prophets to speak words that can shake up our circumstances. God works from the end to the beginning. We look at life from the seed to the harvest. God sees the harvest and looks to the seed, calling the harvest into existence. My destiny is moving toward me because of my faith. Unbelief can keep me going around and around in the wilderness, never going forward to meet my destiny.

  God puts us in the wilderness for seasons to develop our character, and to help us move toward our promise. PATIENCE helps the Body of Christ. For it helps us to hold fast to the promises of God and move toward our destiny, even when circumstances do not match what we see is the promise. Patience is cheerful, hopeful, endurance. Joseph did not understand that the prerequisite for the promise of God was to be in the pit and a slave to Potiphar. Unless our insight lines up with our foresight, we won’t have what God has promised. In the pit you sometimes forget about the dream, you get distracted. So you have to keep your focus on the promise and patiently endure the pit.

  Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

  In the pit, we can get distracted. Joseph went from the pit to be a slave, and then seduced by a woman, and falsely accused, ending up in jail. He had to keep his focus on God or he could have been lost in the wilderness.

  Church, prayer, and reading the Bible can only take you so far to the border, but you have to cross over the border, part the veil to see what is on the other side. We have to be firm so that satan and others cannot talk us out of our peace and bring us to fear and torment. Fear and torment make us move outside of God’s will. Nobody can stop the promise of God unless we give them permission to stop it. If we listen to the carnal voice, we stay on this side of the veil. And the flesh is enmity against God. We have to discern.

  Job held fast to God, no matter what satan threw at him.

  In spiritual warfare there is reaping and sowing. If we get lost, lose the focus on God, how do we get back? We have to keep track of what God has said when satan is sifting us like wheat. God has a plan, and God allows satan to tempt us to help us stand on faith, and bring us to another place, it is a way of helping us to grow.

  Believe it or not, the church is used not only to provide comfort, but to persecute us, people in church are used to kill our fleshly nature, to point us to areas that we have to work on. That is why other saints rub us the wrong way at times. So, when we have trouble in a church situation, moving to another church is not always the best option. See, God uses other believers to refine us, to finish us for His kingdom. If we move to another church, we bring our problems with us, and we will most probably have the same issues in the new church.

  Every day we are moving towards God’s promises if we keep our focus on Him, and go deeper into the Spirit. The Glory of the LORD , is an inward expression that gives us the image of God. We do not focus on the outward circumstances. Remember, it isn’t about signs and wonders. Jesus gave a parable where he mentions people who say, “But I cast out demons in your name, etc.” and Jesus will tell them, “I do not know you.” More than the signs and wonders, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, want relationship.

  Matthew 18:21-35 is the parable about the servant who owed his master a large sum of money (millions of dollars in today’s currency). This servant begs the master’s patience to give him time to pay back the debt. The master forgives the servant of the whole debt. Then the servant finds a lesser servant who owes him a small sum of money (about $20 this day’s currency), and requires payment from the servant. When the servant begs for time to pay back the debt, the servant who was forgiven of the large debt throws the other servant and his family into jail. When the master hears about the what the servant did, the master puts this servant into jail, into the hands of the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. And Jesus ends with verse 35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

  This is the process, when God has touched our lives, we are to give Him all of us, we become the Body of Christ. We often do not have patience with who we come into contact with in our lives. Yet, God wants us to extend the same level of patience and forgiveness that He has given us, with each other. We cannot do it in our own strength, which is why we need the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit. Our body has pores – so the Spirit passes outward from us, and in order to keep filled with the Spirit, we need to keep filling ourselves with His Spirit through prayer, the Word of God and our Spirit language.

  Isaiah 45:7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.

  God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. Our lives and plans are ordained by God. we can run from the border. We are not given the anointing for our own selfish purposes, but for God’s glory. If we are not yielded to Him, He cannot use us.

  Sometimes we don’t see God when He shows up, or become aware of His anointing, because we are so caught up in our own programs, that we miss Him. One example was during kids day at our church a few kids who normally don’t do much worship, grabbed banners and were waving them, God was in that worship. Some adult chided the kids for doing that and being disruptive. It was the adult who was disruptive, not the kids, for the kids were doing the pure worship, not the adult’s agenda.

  We have to realize that the Word will judge us. When we are broken, God will reshape us with the potter’s hand, and apply heat and pressure to get us to become what He wants us to become.

  When Jesus was baptized, he was then brought to the wilderness to be tempted. And every temptation satan gave Him, Jesus responded with, “It is written.” Satan did not completely give up, but satan is powerless against God’s Word. Satan left Jesus until a more opportune time. Satan deals with us the same way, waiting for moments of weakness, moments of doubt, moments of fear. That is why we have to hold onto faith, and the promise. Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but he was not chosen until Moses chose to turn aside and see the burning bush. Our adversary is waiting to pounce at any moment of our weakness. Just because we have been saved, or received the anointing of the Spirit, does not mean that our life will be without trouble.

  Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were put into the burning fire of the furnace. They did not know if they would survive the experience, but they chose God over their lives, and when the king looked in the oven he saw four people in the fire, for the Angel of the Lord (a pre-incarnate Jesus) was walking in the fire with us. Our walk with God will have problems, but the difference is that when we walk through the problems, He is walking with us.

  We have to have patience in our trials, knowing that God will show up.

  I hope this lesson blesses you. It is so encouraging to be reminded that God is always there, even when I am faced with challenges. Hope you have a blessed day!

  Heather

  • 7:34 pm
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