Today I am led to start a new series. It is actually something I have taught before. I have done 3 series on Faith and Patience. I am calling this installment “Faith and Patience Volume IV — The Wonder Twins”. The “Wonder Twins” moniker is just a fun reference to an old cartoon. But this is not to make light of this subject in any way. In this season, more than ever, we need both faith and patience.
As we go through the series we will cover the following scriptures and many like it.
(Hebrews 6:12 NIV)
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
(Hebrews 10:35 AMPC)
Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward.
(Gal 6:9 NIV)
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
In this series, we will review what it means to live by faith and what it means to have and develop Godly patience. I will briefly address both today.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things:
1. What is Godly faith?
First of all, Godly faith begins where the will of God is known. Therefore, faith requires the ability to perceive or discern what God has already planned to do in your life before the world began. The things God has already planned have already played out before Him within the annals of eternity, although many of those things have not happened yet in the earth, in your life, in time. Faith then becomes a human’s ability to receive spiritual insight concerning the things God has already planned, and to then make human decisions in the present based on what God revealed about your future.
Faith sees the future God planned and comes back from that moment ready to allow what God revealed to become the foundation for your decisions and actions today.
2. What is Godly patience?
Patience is not simply the ability to endure or bear the challenging things that happen to us as believers. Many believers simply see patience as the ability to withstand suffering. As a result, they suffer long. However, Biblical patience is more than just long-suffering. Biblical patience is actually the divine ability to remain the same while you are waiting on God. The Greek word used for patience actually means “the force of consistency.”
When you develop Godly patience you are not moved by the challenges you face in this world. Further, you are able to remain consistently the same, day-in and day-out, no matter what you face.
3. Why do you need faith and patience together?
If you have faith without patience you will believe God, you will stand on His promises, you will make decisions that align with His will, and you will speak the language of faith. However, since most promises from God come with a SPACE between the promise and the performance, if you don’t have Godly patience, you will GIVE UP on your faith before seeing the manifestation of God’s promises.
If you have patience without faith you will develop the ability to suffer, to endure, to stand, and to withstand all the attacks of the enemy. But’s that all you will be doing. You will suffer and you will suffer long. Because patience without faith produces a person that endures, but this person lacks the ability to CHANGE his/her situations. Without faith added to your patience, you will never tap into God’s power.
So a person with faith and no patience will eventually burnout. They will experience faith-failure after faith-failure when days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and months turn into years. The person with patience without faith will suffer and endure, but that’s all they will do. They will “hold to God’s unchanging hand”, without any true sense of what God will do. However, when you have a person who has faith AND patience (the Wonder Twins), they will have the ability to believe God, to exercise the faith required to make decisions that line up with their destiny, and to hold on long enough to see every promise from God come to pass! When you have faith AND patience, you will see the manifestation of the promises of God in your life (Hebrews 6:12).
Applying this to the present day and what we are facing with COVID-19, we need faith AND patience. If you have faith AND patience in this season you will have the faith to tap into God’s healing, saving and protecting power, and you will also have the patience that will empower you to remain consistently the same every day. You will not be moved by Coronavirus or anything else. You will be spiritually strong, mentally sharp, emotionally stable, and psychologically at peace. We need faith AND patience in this season, which is why the Holy Spirit has me teaching on it. Get excited about this series. I promise you, the Word you will receive in this series will bless you richly!
That’s enough for today!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, it is through faith and patience that I inherit Your promises. With faith and patience both at work in my life, I am convinced that I will see everything You promised before I die. I have the faith to believe and the patience to endure. Through the Holy Spirit, I am able to perceive and discern what You planned to do in my life. These are plans You made from the foundations of the world. For You, in eternity, these things are already done. They have already played out before You. For me, in time, they have not happened yet. But they will. I have the faith to believe everything You reveal and I have the patience to hold on long enough to SEE, IN MY HANDS, what You REVEALED, IN MY HEART! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
