Patient Endurance by Faith

So I was looking through my files tonight and I found this lil nugget.  It's something I wrote almost 2 years ago while in Mexico.  Hope you guys enjoy it, it is really long but it certainly encouraged me while reading it over again.

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Patience.  It’s a word that is often over looked.  It is something that we see as valuable, “it’s a virtue we may say.  We know it’s important, but how patient are we really?  In a world that is about high speed internet and fast food we have become very impatient people.  If we are a people that are impatient about little things like this how much harder will it be for us to be patient for the big things of God? 
Patience is something that is clearly necessary throughout the Bible.  Sometimes we read the Bible and because we can read the whole story in a matter of minutes we fail to see the details and the patience required for the people involved.  Let’s start with Noah.  The Bible doesn’t say exactly how long Noah was building the ark for but at my guess is it was probably at least 20 years at the most 100.  I’m reading 1 Kings and it took Solomon 7 years to build the temple and 13 to build his palace and he had the best materials and work force of his day.  So maybe it took Noah 100 years maybe it took 20 I don’t know. (More info: http://www.godspointofview.com/public/qanda/how_long_to_build_the_ark.htm)  Either way 20 years is quite a long time to build a boat in your backyard with everyone asking him what it was for.  And Noah’s response would have sounded quite ridiculous to people who hadn’t even seen rain before (Gen. 2:6).  How many of us would have the patience to get up everyday for 20 years (7300 days at the least) and build this huge boat that you probably aren’t even sure you’re going to need to use it.  But Noah had faith in God and through patient endurance he was rewarded and saved from the flood. 

I want to share a couple more stories from the Bible but first let’s talk about the term I just used.  Patient Endurance.  Using e-Sword (most awesome free Bible app ever) I found 4 times in the ESV Bible where these 2 words are used together.  All are used in Revelation. Three of them are used by Jesus in talking to the churches and commending them for their patient endurance. 

Rev 2:2 “'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

Rev 2:19 “'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

Rev 3:10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
The last time John uses it he is talking about himself.

Rev 1:9  I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I think it is significant that these words are used together.  Doing a little e-Sword work, the Greek for these words is actually one word meaning patient endurance.  It also means a cheerful endurance and waiting.  This Greek word is used 32 times in the New Testament.  Therefore this means that other times in my Bible where it talks about patience it is talking about a patient endurance or waiting that is done with cheerfulness.  Well what do these words mean?  What is patience what is endurance and why does the Bible group them together?  Dictionary.com has a few definitions for patience.  I like these:

1.    The quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2.    an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner
3.    quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience

Now what about endurance?
1.    The fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.
2.    the ability or strength to continue or last, esp. despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions

Sometimes we think as Christians that life is going to be easy.  When the truth is it’s not.  It’s going to be hard it’s going to be rough and everything is not going to go just great all the time.  Both these definitions talk about being able to withstand hardship.  Therefore if we want the approval of Jesus we must be able to withstand hardship.  We must be willing to wait, to endure, to continue or last despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions.  How many of us use the excuse to God I’m tired, I’m sick, I’m stressed out.  I know I do because I did yesterday…Jesus I repent.  Also we need to have the quiet, steady perseverance or diligence, being able and willing to be okay with delay and waiting, 

Back to the Bible.  John is chilling on this island he got exiled to.  Who knows what is going on.  We usually just think about the big Revelation God gave him.  What was he doing before he got it.  I don’t think there was a whole lot to do on this tiny little island in the middle of nowhere, maybe he went swimming a lot I don’t know.  He probably got bored and there were probably times he was wondering why God let him be put on this island where there weren’t many people to tell the great message of Christ too.  I don’t think John was seeing a lot of fruit.  Maybe he was the Bible doesn’t say.  Maybe he didn’t get bored but I bet I would’ve.  Anyway he’s chilling on this island for who knows how long and then suddenly BAMB!!! Revelation happens.  John probably wasn’t expecting this huge amazing thing to happen he was probably just like, Jesus told us to be patience and to endure so I’m going to keep seeking God even though I’m tired, I’m bored, and I’m on this stupid little island in the middle of nowhere.  The BAMB!!! doesn’t happen all the time and it doesn’t happen right away but if we lose focus during the chilling on the island time we miss the BAMB!!! 

I could give a million examples of this in the Bible, God has just been showing me patience pretty much every time I read my Bible in every place of the Bible.  The disciples waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit, Paul building tents for 3 years after the road to Damascus before beginning his ministry, the list goes on and on.  But I’m only going to share one more story.  John the Baptist had a life that was mostly lived in the desert with patient endurance knowing that his time would come.  He lived in the desert eating honey and locusts waiting until finally it was time for his ministry.  When it came he baptized people for 18 months before getting his head cut off.  How many of us would see that as a fruitful life?  If you did ministry for only 18 months of your life and didn’t see a single miracle how successful would you claim to be?  Yet Jesus said in Matthew 11:11, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.” 

I think a lot of the time we just want everything now.  We want to see revival now.  We want to see miracles now.  We want to see our ministry in full swing now.  We want people to change now.  We want our hearts to be changed now. Now now now.  We want everything now.  God doesn’t work that way.  If we want to see things happen we have to put in the work.  We reap what we sow.  One of the biggest revelations that God has given me is about His character.  Why does God want us to be patient?  Why does he want us to endure with all patience and steadfastness?  Because God is patient.  God is so patient I don’t even understand it.  The first time I got this huge revelation of how big the patience of God was I was praying asking God to give me patience.  While I was praying I got distracted and started thinking about other things and about 10 minutes later I was like wait a second, I was praying.  Have you ever tried to talk to someone and then they get distracted for 10 minutes with other things before they remember they were talking with you.  You get annoyed, maybe you leave and don’t talk with them anymore.  But God is always there just waiting for us.  God is a God of patience, a God of endurance (Rom 15:5) Think about your own life.  How has God been patient with you?  With your sins?  Your character?  Your actions?  Anything.  God oozes patience, otherwise He would have blown us all up by now.  He could do everything by Himself but He has so much patience that He chooses to work WITH us.  Have you ever had something you could do really fast and easy on your own but instead you had to do it with someone else who had no idea how to do it.  Yeah it’s dumb, it’s like I could be done with this 3 hours ago but no I’m not.   We have a God who is unlimited, but loves us so much that he limits himself to us.  God can only move as much as we let Him and want Him to move.  That is ultimate patience because we are really good at not allowing Him to move.

Well this has now gotten super long and I feel like I’m kind of all over the place but I hope I am getting my point across.  Without patience, it is impossible to run the race and receive the reward.  The inheritance of God is not instantly won it is not a 100m dash.    “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Heb 10:36) 

God has a plan to do things, and God will answer all our prayers if they are in Jesus name and according to His will.  The problem with us is we want God to answer them and do things our way.  When really He maybe has already done what we’re waiting for we just haven’t seen it.  Or maybe if He waits and does it later it will have more impact.  Whatever it is we have to have the patience and the faith to allow God to work His way on His timing trusting that His way is the best way.  God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Isa 55:8-9)  Do we have enough faith in God to trust He is going to answer our prayers even if we don’t see it right away or maybe at all?  Do we have enough faith in God to believe God is who He says He is and that He truly keeps ALL of His promises?
  
By being patient we allow God to move in the way He wants to.  It means we have to rely on God that He is moving even when we can’t see it.  We have to trust God more, we have to be dependant on God more because we cannot see all the work that is being done.  The Bible tells us to bear fruit with patience.  Luk 8:15:  “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” Jas 5:7:  “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”  There are also many promises in the Bible for those who endure, for those who are steadfast, for those who are patient.  There are also many examples.  For example the disciples prayed with patience and endurance for 10 days straight, their reward?  The Holy Spirit and Pentecost, not bad.  Elijah in 1 Kings 18 prayed 7 times for rain before the fist of a cloud came.  He could have given up after praying a couple times.  It didn’t come right away so it must not be coming.  No he kept praying and he kept sending his servant out to look until the rain came.  Most of us would be too impatient to pray for the same thing 7 times in a row.  After a couple times we would probably be more like try again tomorrow instead of having the patience to sit there and keep praying and keep praying until something happens.  Pray until something happens is a phrase I have heard a lot.  I usually take it as if you are praying for healing you pray until something happens.  But it works in all areas.  If you are praying for revival you should pray with patient endurance until something happens.  If you are praying for someone to turn to Christ, you should pray patiently until something happens.  If you are praying for the power of God to fall you should pray patiently until something happens.  If you are praying for greater intimacy with God you should pray and seek His face patiently until something happens.  I have a list of verses below that you can look at for more good nuggets but my favorite is this.  “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”  (Gal 6:9) 
 
One of the enemy’s biggest tactics is to try and get us to give up.  To try and get us to coast and be complacent.  To think that we are not having an impact on people even though we are.  We read a story in DTS this week.  It’s found here: http://spiritlessons.com/Documents/Frank_Jenner/Frank_Jenner_of_George_Street.pdf read it but you may cry.  Mr. Jenner reached people by pure simple patient obedience.  He didn’t need fancy technology or lots of money.  He did what he knew he could and offered God what he had to offer.  Mr. Jenner could have given up.  He didn’t see with his eyes one single person come to Jesus.  He could have said I don’t have the patience for this, I don’t have the endurance, I’m not making a difference anyway, I give up.  If he had done this thousands of lives would not have been touched by the love of Jesus Christ.  We are limited in our perceptions.  We can only see a fraction of what is going on around us and the true impact we have on other people.  Who knows you could have smiled at someone today and completely changed their day around.  This is why it is so important that we have patience and we endure and we honor God with everything we do at all times because we never know when we may be having an impact on people.  But God knows, and through this patient endurance we will receive our reward in full, we will reap the harvest, and we will make a difference in the world, if we do not give up.
  
I have so much to say on this I could probably write a book but I’m going to try to wrap it up here.  Why am I talking about patience?  Well patience is probably the biggest thing God has been showing me and teaching me while being here on DTS.  As stated in my blog post Sculptures and Deserts, my growth in God during this DTS is not something easily seen, it is not black and white, it is not a fast easy process.  It is something that takes time, that is delicate, and requires patience.  Secondly, I’ve been learning a lot about hearing God’s voice.  If we want to hear God’s voice then when we pray we need to actually shut up and let Him speak.  And this doesn’t always happen right away, sometimes you got to sit there for 5 minutes before God says anything, sometimes half an hour.  I know stories of people staying up all night and not getting anything till 4 in the morning.  Hearing the voice of God takes patience.  Why doesn’t he just tell us and yell it at us and scream it at us.  I don’t know I wish He did sometimes.  But that wouldn’t be much of a relationship if He always was like do this.  Okay do this.  Okay do this.  God wants to reason with us and He wants to plan with us and work with us.   I think if he just instantly told us all the time our relationship would become limited to us just getting orders from God like a private in the army getting orders from a General.  God doesn’t want us to be privates in His army He wants us to be in His secret council (its somewhere in the Bible I couldn’t find the verse). 
  
God has also been teaching me patience with other people.  The biggest part is that sometimes I want everyone to be where I’m at, or where I think they should be.  I want them to be completely on fire for God and going after God in everything and I want it to happen right away.  I don’t think this in itself is bad but God likes to work in what we call a process.  Sometimes we learn more from the process than the actual end result.  Other times I wonder why its taking me so long to get where other poeple are at.  However when I look back on where God has taken me He didn’t instantly just take me from being complacent in my faith and then a week later I was on fire for Him healing the sick, speaking in tongues, consecrated in all areas of my life.  No God is doing it in steps and through each different step I learned things and grew in my character.  We need to realize that God wants to work on people and us in this process.  Sometimes the process can be faster depending on how hungry the person is for God and that is where we can come in and encourage, but we also have to allow God to work and act in a spirit of grace not impatience or legalism.
  
Okay so I’ve talked a lot about why we need patience and the importance of patience and what is patience but how do we get patience?  This is probably the biggest thing God is still teaching me.  I think that if God is trying to teach us patience He will throw us into situations where we are forced to be patience.  Or we’ll ask for patience and instead of just giving it to us He gives us a situation to be patient in and by being patient in situations we become patient.  We become people of patient endurance by not giving up day in and day out.  Each time we resist the temptation of the enemy to give up we are becoming more and more patient.  Another way to get patience, maybe easier than the first is to ask for more of the Holy Spirit.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Gal 5:22-23)  So if we want patience just ask for more of the Holy Spirit because one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is patience.  If the Spirit of God is truly alive in us we will be patient and have endurance because God is patience and God is a God of endurance (Rom. 15:5). 
  
Patience is something that is very important for our walk with God.  With it we will gain eternal life.  Rom 2:7: “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.”  With it we will grow closer to God and rely on Him and trust on Him more.  With it we will reap the rewards not only of eternal life but the rewards of this life as well.  If we truly want to make a difference in the world and bring this generation back to Christ we need to realize it will not happen overnight.  This is not God’s fault for not acting big enough or fast enough but our own fault for getting ourselves into this big of a mess.  Paul realized that patience was the sign of a true witness of Christ.  2Co 12:12:  “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.”

With patient endurance we can not only reach those around us but we can see the beauty of God working His plan through us in His way on His timing.  With patient endurance we can not only run the race, but finish the race and receive our reward in full once we cross the finish line.  Therefore my brothers, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 15:5-6)

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(Ecc 7:8)  Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

(Luk 8:15)  As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

(Luk 21:19)  By your endurance you will gain your lives.

(Rom 2:7)  to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;

(Rom 5:3)  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

(Rom 5:4)  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

(Rom 8:25)  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

(Rom 12:12)  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

(Rom 15:4)  For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

(Rom 15:5)  May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

(1Co 13:4)  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

(2Co 1:6)  If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

(2Co 6:4)  but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,

(2Co 12:12)  The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.

(Col 1:11)  May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,

(1Th 1:3)  remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1Th 5:14)  And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

(2Th 1:4)  Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

(2Th 3:5)  May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

(1Ti 6:11)  But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

(2Ti 3:10)  You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,

(Tit 2:2)  Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

(Heb 10:36)  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

(Heb 12:1)  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

(Jas 1:3)  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

(Jas 1:4)  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

(Jas 5:7)  Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

(Jas 5:8)  You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

(Jas 5:11)  Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

(2Pe 1:6)  and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,

(2Pe 3:9)  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

(Rev 2:3)  I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.

(Rev 13:10)  If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

(Rev 14:12)  Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.