THE VALUE OF PATIENCE

Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

God’s Word is a seed. When you plant a seed, you wait for the seed to grow. That waiting, in other Word, is someone being patient. Hebrews 10:36. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

When we have no patience, we destroy the seed. Most times, we dig out our roots through our negative actions. Inpatient is not godly, and it takes patience to enjoy the fruit of life.

2 Timothy 2:3 says, “Thou, therefore, endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” In various Bible translations, different words are translated with patience. However, the best synonym that describes patience is “endurance”; the ability to be patient in tribulation, that is, enduring hardship with hope. It means you’re able to face any opposition and remain unflustered, knowing the Lord is with you.

Proverbs 24:10 encourages us against giving up or giving in, in the day of adversity; instead, we’re to maintain our victory. Maybe you’re at the beginning stage of developing your faith, and things may look tough and very challenging, so have confidence in the Word. Be patient and give the Word time to work in your life and circumstances. That situation is for your testimony!

And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Luke 21:13.

Some people don’t know how to stick with what they believe. For example, once they’re criticized for their faith, they tend to be discouraged; that’s wrong! Endure such criticisms, for they’re designed for your promotion. Don’t renounce the faith just because a colleague at work made derogatory remarks about you or Christianity. Instead, be proud of your identity and association with Christ. Keep winning souls, and be doing all that a Christian should do.

It won’t be long before those who may be criticizing you will acknowledge the glory and power of God in your life. Therefore, endure with hope the tests or trials you may be experiencing right now. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 21:19, “In your patience, possess ye your souls.” Endure challenges with hope, knowing that you’ll never be disadvantaged or defeated. Be hopeful and confident of a better and brighter day ahead! Create that picture in your mind—the image of victory and triumph, and hold on to it.

Hebrews 10:36. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

DON’T REMAIN A BABY

One thing all babies have in common is a lack of patience. Whatever they want, they want it now. So when they get hungry in the middle of the night, they don’t just wait quietly in their cribs, confident that someone will feed them in the morning. Instead, they cry at the top of their lungs and demand immediate attention.

That was exactly how one of my daughters was when she was still a baby. If she was the first child, I don’t think we should have gone for the second one. That is how terrible it was, and that is how most Christians are in their response to God’s promises.

When Christians are first born again, they, too, tend to demand that things change immediately. So if they pray about a negative situation in their life and it doesn’t disappear overnight, they’re likely to kick up a fuss. “I don’t know why God hasn’t fixed this situation for me yet,” they whine. “I thought He promised me healing.”

There is no condemnation in that. We all start as spiritual babies, so we have all been there. We don’t want to stay there. We need to grow up, as Apostle Paul advises us in 1 Corinthians 13:11.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

Immaturity limits how much we can receive from God; we must grow past that stage. We need to feed on the solid meat of the Word and become, as Hebrews 6:12 says, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and patience.

Sadly, believers don’t always get excited about the patience part of that verse. They are eager to develop their faith because they believe faith changes things. But they assume patience is just putting up with whatever unpleasantness comes along.

But that’s a misconception, brother. Patience is faith’s power, twin. It is not just rolling over and letting the devil beat up on you. It’s spiritual endurance that enables you to triumph over him. It’s a fruit of the Spirit that empowers you to stay in faith and keep the devil under your feet even in the face of contrary circumstances.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Romans 16:20.

When you put patience into operation, you can take a victory stand on God’s Word and refuse to back off, come what may. You can withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand (Ephesians 6:13), and instead of whining, you can keep the Joy of the Lord in your mouth the whole time.

When the devil asks you what you are laughing about, you can tell him, “I am laughing at you trying to convince me God’s not going to heal me or supply all my needs according to His riches in glory. Those things are already a done deal, the devil. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. So, ha-ha-ha on you”.

“But Brother Felix, can I be that certain? Can I truly be sure that even if in the natural it looks impossible, God will still bring His promises to pass in my life?” for sure, the truth is that God has, and not He will; but He has fulfilled all of His promises through Christ.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 2 Corinthians 1:20.

In the days of Abraham, it was his faith that activated God’s promises in his life. That is why it is referred to in Bible as the Father of our faith. Abraham stood confidently on God’s promise to him, even when it looked like the worst was about to happen. His faith stand was unwavering because he knew how serious God was about His Word.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35.

For when God made a promise to Abraham because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Hebrews 6:13-15.

Notice those verses connect Abraham’s patient endurance with God swearing by Himself to bless him. They indicate God’s sworn oath is what kept Abraham’s Faith strong. In our days, as a new testament, we should put our faith in what Christ has done for us. Christ’s sacrifice was not only for the forgiveness of sin. In as much, it begins from there, but it doesn’t end there.

LIES FROM HELL

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Genesis 22:1-3.

The scripture we just read didn’t happen at all like you may have seen in the movies. They show Abraham crying and begging God to change His mind. That is not how it was. Abraham was a faith man. Once he had heard from God, there was no argument about it. He just set out to do what God said.

When they got to the place, God had specified for the sacrifice. So Abraham said to the young men who had accompanied him and Isaac. “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” verse 5.

Did you get that? Abraham did not say he would come back by himself. Instead, he said he and Isaac would be back. He was confident of that because God had already given him a promise about the boy’s future, and he fully believed God would fulfill it even if it meant God had to raise him from the dead.

When Isaac (who didn’t yet know the plan) spoke to Abraham, his Father said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. Genesis 22:7-8,11-13.

After the ram had been sacrificed, the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham again. This time, to declare the oath of assurance, we saw in Hebrews 6:14. Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

He continued again in Genesis 22:16-18. and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me.”

What did God mean when He said, “By myself have I sworn”? He was saying, “There’s no one bigger than Me b which to swear. So, I swear on My own life that I will keep this covenant of blessing I’ve made with you. If I fall to keep even one Word, even one promise, of this covenant, I will destroy Myself.”

Talk about a solemn oath. Picture the scene. God is making this commitment over the ram’s blood that was the substitute for His covenant partner’s only son. There’s no way He can unbind Himself from it.

Any argument about it is over; it’s been settled forever. God cannot break this promise and still live. Because Abraham understood this, his faith in God’s Word was unshakable. So, “fully persuaded that, what God had promised, He was able also to perform; after Abraham had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”

He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promised. Romans 4:21.

Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised. Hebrews 6:15.

IT BELONGS TO US, TOO

“But brother Felix, God swore that oath to Abraham in the old Testament. It doesn’t have anything to do with us, as new testament believers.” Yes, it does. God had us in mind when He made that oath. His desire to secure our redemption was the motivation behind it. God knew if Abraham proved he was willing to sacrifice his only son, then He’d be obligated to do the same. Because of His blood-backed covenant and the oath, He swore. He’d be bound to send Jesus to the cross to save Abraham and his seed.

Who is Abraham’s seed? We are. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29.

It means the oath God swore to Abraham was also declared to us. It means we can be as confident as he was that God had brought all His exceedingly great and precious promises to fulfillment through the gift of Christ.

For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:16-20.

The Word translated consolation in that scripture means “courage.” What then is courage? It is inner strength. The strength anchors our souls to believe in God and not let contrary symptoms and emotions shake us.

That is what we see in Abraham’s life. He didn’t get emotional about sacrificing his son. His emotions were anchored entirely in the promise of God. As believers, ours can be too.

We don’t have to get all upset when natural circumstances make it look like God’s promise can’t be possibly come to pass for us. We don’t have to agonize when God tells us to do something we don’t understand, like Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.'” we don’t have to cry and say, “Lord, how could you tell me to say, “I am strong when I am feeling

pain all over my body? Is that not a lie? No, it’s not a lie. It’s a lie when you say anything contrary to the Word of God.

God’s Word is truth. We all have God’s nature in us, so when God speaks, He speaks to His Spirit in us. Arguing God’s Word and crying over God’s instruction is baby stuff. It is treating God as if He is not a trustworthy Father. As if there is something wrong with Him and His plan. It is time we outgrew that attitude. God can keep His Word no matter the circumstances, and He knows what He is doing. We need to believe Him and do what He says.

“But sometimes that is hard,” someone might say. I know. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it and aren’t. As a born-again child of God, though, you were born to do it. You are an heir of God’s promise. You are the seed of Abraham, and you are fully equipped to follow in his footsteps.

You have even more going for you than Abraham did. After Jesus was raised from the dead, when He established the new covenant, He reenacted the same scene we saw in Genesis 22. He went into heaven’s sanctuary with His blood and “having obtained eternal redemption for us through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” Hebrews 9:12,14.

Picture it. Jesus stood there in the holiest place in the universe and was judged spotless. He was considered victorious, declared to be God, and the Father swore an oath to Him as The Lord Advocate Head of the Church and to us as His Body. He promised to fulfill every Word of the new covenant for us in His own life.

That is what Galatians 3:13-14 is talking about when it says.

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

We have God’s blood-sworn oath: The power of the curse has been destroyed by Jesus’ stripes; we have been healed. Therefore, my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

When your soul gets anchored in the fact that God has sworn an oath over Jesus’ blood that He would destroy Himself if He ever failed to bring to pass for you even on of those promises, there’s no way you can stay sick. There’s no way any attack of the devil, no matter how fierce, can stand against the faith and patience that assurance inspires in you.

Not knowing these things has hindered us and kept us living like spiritual babies. When we believe the lies of the devil-like, “Maybe God wants me to learn something from this sickness that’s been the problem.

God didn’t put that sickness on you to teach you something. By His blood sworn oath, that’s an impossibility. So instead of focusing on symptoms and circumstances, get your mind over on that oath.

How To Change Your Circumstances

I encourage every one of you to start fellowshipping with God over the price Jesus had paid for your redemption. Sit before these mighty truths until, like Abraham, your soul is anchored in God’s promise and lay hold of all that Jesus has provided for you.

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; Romans 4:20.