patience_power2overcome Not only has the Lord given us the authority to conquer the enemy and advance His kingdom on this earth, He expects each of us to walk out His victory and to be overcomers. This truth will become increasingly more important as the end of the age unfolds. When you look at the letters to the seven churches found in Revelation 2–3, the exhortation and condemnation for the deeds done belong to all of those who are part of the churches, but the promises of final blessings are given to a select group — a group of believers near and dear to our Lord’s heart — “to him who overcomes.” God’s Secret Weapon While the Bible clearly shows us many weapons we can use to overcome the enemy (such as the Word of God, the name of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony to name a few), there is a weapon of vast power overlooked and untapped by most believers. This secret weapon of God is the power of a thankfilled heart. When our hearts regularly express thanksgiving, it works to destroy the three-pronged attack of the enemy found in 2 Corinthians 10:4–6, which says: “The weapons we use in our fight are not the world’s weapons but God’s powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.” This Bible verse shows us directly the three areas in which thanksgiving is a strong weapon. A thankfilled heart overcomes false arguments, it helps us overcome pride, and it helps us take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. Overcomes False Arguments One of the schemes of the enemy is to use “false arguments” to discourage, confuse, and cripple the walk of believers. From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, Satan has used deception and lies to separate mankind from God and cause us to fail to fulfill our purpose as God’s precious children. But the Word of God promises that the powerful weapons God has provided for us will destroy the false arguments of the enemy. One of the false arguments the enemy uses to push back and prevent the Church from advancing in our day is the victim mentality. You can’t be part of any church for very long before you begin to discover those whose thinking has become ensnared in the enemy’s trap of a victim mentality. They are no longer overcomers — they have been overcome! Betrayal, rejection, falls, and failure have left them only a shell of the men and women of God they used to be, and a mere shadow of who they are called to be in Christ. When someone has a victim mentality, they are focused on others and how they have been wronged by them. Once they allow this weapon to be deployed in their life, they will soon find it a ready excuse and acceptable reason for anything and everything that is not going the right way. If they hadn’t been betrayed by so-and-so, this would’ve happened. They were unable to do something remarkable here because they were recovering from the rejection they received over there. Everything undone, every failure, every disappointment is viewed through the distortion of what has been done to them. But a thankful spirit quickly begins to erode the victim mentality because it causes us to view life in light of what has been done for us. Instead of seeing things we deserved but never attained, we begin to see things we attained but never deserved. It is impossible to have a truly thankfilled heart toward others and God, and at the same time maintain a victim mentality. The ongoing practice of being thankful will destroy the false argument that you are some pitiful victim … every time! Overcomes Pride Another one of the strongholds the enemy uses to ensnare the Church is that of pride. The very fall of Satan was due to his pride as shown in Isaiah 14:12–14, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.’” When you look at what the heart of Lucifer says in these verses — every sentence begins with “I” — this is the very epitome of pride. No one knows better than Satan how well pride works to make one fall and become far from God. If the enemy can get us to operate in pride, he knows that it will both distance us from God and cause God to resist what we are doing, “for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). When we operate in pride, we are focused on self. “‘I’ have accomplished this, and ‘I’ am responsible for that.” But the Bible commands us to “be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5), for this is how we overcome pride. You cannot wear pride and humility at the same time. The one will always remove the other. There are two ways to actively pursue humility; one is preventive — to be thankful, and the other is corrective — repentance. These two actions produce humility because both being thankful and repenting are acts of subjection. We choose to subject ourselves to, or under, another. False repentance says, “I was wrong and I’m sorry.” But true repentance says, “I was wrong. It was sin. Will you forgive me?” Do you see the difference? False repentance keeps you in control while in true repentance you have surrendered your right to be right, and are at the mercy of the other to grant you forgiveness. This is why true repentance brings humility (and why it is so hard for most of us to do). Likewise, thankfulness lowers our opinion of ourselves and elevates others and God. Thankfulness gets our focus off ourselves and acknowledges that others have had an important part in our successes and victories. Thankful hearts are a death blow to the prideful image of the “self-made man.” They help us to become God-made men — those who realize they have received many blessings from God and our dependent upon His grace. Overcomes Anxiety A third scheme of the enemy to keep us from being the men and women of God we were created to be is by invading our thought-lives. Never before has there been a time when mankind is so bombarded by the thoughts of others. Through the newspaper, radio, television, billboards, the internet, and more, our senses are being continually presented with thoughts others want us to think. Many of these thoughts present no moral dilemma, while others are obviously contrary to the will of God. While it is growing more difficult to stand against thoughts of greed, envy, lust, and covetousness in these days, the truth is we know they are wrong and we should actively resist them. One of the most wearisome and discouraging areas of thinking we need to stand against, however, is far more subtle. It is the area of worrisome and anxious thoughts. With the worldwide news of wars, natural disasters, economic downturns, etc. it would seem only natural for us to be anxious about the days in which we live. But we are not called to be natural, but supernatural. It is just as clear in the Scriptures that we are not to worry as it is that we are to love! Look at God’s exhortation not to worry found in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life … So why do you worry about clothing? … Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ … Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things” (Matthew 6:25–34). It seems clear from Jesus’ teaching here that He expects us not to worry or be anxious. Jesus doesn’t say, “Try not to worry.” No, He clearly commands three separate times in this passage, “Do not worry!” It is always possible for us not to worry (or Jesus would not have commanded it), and just as clearly, we are sinning by breaking Jesus’ command if we do worry. When we have anxious thoughts, we are focused on our circumstances, what threatening or concerning things are happening around us. But thanksgiving makes our thought obedient to Christ by putting our focus on the blessings, provision, and opportunities we have been given. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). This proper perspective can transform days of worry into days of worship. Having a thankfilled heart toward the Lord helps us to overcome pride, a victim mentality, and anxious thoughts because it takes our focus off of others, ourselves, and our circumstances and puts it where it should be … on God, and on the grace He has shown us directly and through others. Let us willingly pick up God’s secret weapon of a thankfilled heart so that we might overcome the schemes of the enemy and reveal God’s glory on the earth. As it tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “… give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Patience … the Power to Overcome, by Randall D. Kittle

Every believer knows we are to live a life of faith, yet most never receive even a good measure of what God has promised because they never add patience to their faith. Hebrews 10:36 instructs us, “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised.” In our spiritual struggle to be conformed to the nature of Christ and advance His kingdom, faith and patience are the 1-2 punch that knock out the schemes of the enemy and bring us into the promised place of victory. If we want to be all we were created to be and have all that the Lord has promised to give us, we must “… imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12).

Patience is essential if the promises of God are going to bear a fruitful harvest in our lives. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said, “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). God has promised that His word will bear fruit if we will patiently keep it. Faith must not fade, and patience keeps it alive even in the midst of trials. If by patience we maintain our faith, we will bear good fruit. Again, in Galatians 6:9 the apostle Paul writes, “Let us not become weary in well-doing, for at the proper time” (which is at God’s appointed time, not our convenient time) “we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” From these verses, we can see that an impatient person who grows weary of waiting will display a fruitless faith and produce no spiritual harvest. How much has been lost in the kingdom of God because of a lack of patience?

Impatience Corrodes Faith
Impatience is the opposite of patience, and is corrosive to true faith. Impatience is a danger to faith because the impatient man becomes weary and gives up. An impatient man may not say it, but his actions show that he believes that God should serve his agenda. But a patient man can say to the Lord, “Not my will but Yours be done.” An impatient man is restless and short tempered, while a patient man is a disciple who denies himself daily and takes up his cross to follow Jesus. A patient man bears pains and trials calmly and without complaint. He is steadfast, despite opposition, difficulty, and adversity.

Impatience is a work of the flesh, while patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It reflects His very presence in our lives, for He is a patient God. If He were not, we all would have been annihilated long ago. An impatient man is in a hurry and expects everything to go his way, but God is never in a hurry, and He expects His disciples to follow Him. We are to be still before the Lord without fretting. We are to wait patiently for His instruction and His direction.

Overcoming The Enemy’s Scheme
One of the schemes of the enemy to derail our walk with God and our inheriting the promises of God is Satan’s offer of a quick and painless shortcut. When we face almost any delay in fulfillment, he offers, “I’ll give you now what God has promised later.” He did this for Adam and Eve when he promised them that the forbidden fruit would make them like God. God had already given them god-likeness when He created them in His image and His likeness. Satan also offered Jesus a shortcut when he tempted Him in the wilderness. If Jesus would only bypass the cross and worship Satan, he offered to give Jesus the kingdoms of this world. However, Father God had already given Jesus a greater promise. In every shortcut Satan offers, we get the short end of the deal. We don’t want impatience to tempt us to accept the devil’s shortcut. Remember, “By your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19).

Sometimes, the shortcut impatience longs to take is to make God’s will happen in our time and in our way instead of waiting on the Lord. Many have been spiritually shipwrecked by taking this shortcut. One of the best examples of this in the Bible is the birth of Ishmael. God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of a multitude. However, when he considered his age and that of his wife, such increase seemed impossible. As much as they wanted to have a child, Sarah just was not able to conceive. Then she had a “good idea,” maybe God meant for Abraham and their servant girl Hagar to become intimately involved. The result of this union was Ishmael.

It is important to understand that Abraham was not some heathen or a false prophet. He was God’s friend. He walked in intimate relationship with the Lord, accurately heard His voice, had insight into His purpose, and believed Him. The problem was not whether Abraham knew the Lord. The issue was that he did not wait for God to do what He had promised. Similarly, one of our most difficult tests is whether we will patiently wait for the Lord to fulfill His promises to us. It takes faith to wait for the Lord; His timing is always different from our own.

The temptation to choose to take the shortcut instead of waiting for God’s will to unfold in God’s way, must be overcome by all followers of Christ, and patience can help us overcome it. One of the great overcoming Bible verses is James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” However, we inherit this promised victory only through patience. Only patience allows us to submit to God when everything in our being wants to flee away, faint, or fly off the handle. It is only through patience we can continue to resist the enemy when the darkness of delay and the discouragement of defeat loom in our faces. If through patience we will persevere, we will overcome the enemy.

Patience Overcomes Our Flesh
Patience not only assists us in overcoming the schemes of the enemy; it helps us overcome our closest adversary — ourselves. I think every one of us would confess that our earthly natures are prone to be impatient. One reason we struggle with patience is that we tend to focus on our own agendas and hold tightly to our own time lines. We find it difficult to trust that, for reasons best known only to Him, God may have a whole different schedule for us — a schedule He isn’t letting us in on. Our propensity to live with a short fuse is all about forgetting that God puts us in His waiting room on purpose, because He is often doing something we do not see behind the scenes while we wait.

It may take only a year for a construction crew to put up a tall building that scrapes the sky, but God takes a century to grow a sturdy oak tree. In like manner, it often seems to us that the Lord is working slowly to accomplish His purposes in our lives, but His grand designs take time.

One of the greatest stresses in life is this stress of waiting for God, but Isaiah assures us that “those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:31). Those who willingly wait for the Lord glisten like gemstones in the eyes of God.

However, the very thought of waiting is seen by most people as a torturous frustration that must be tolerated only if it cannot be avoided. In our society, we avoid the word “wait” like a contagious disease. We no longer even use the phrase “waiting room.” In offices, it is called the “reception room” or the “front desk,” and in hospitals, it is referred to as the “family area.”

One thing we can be sure of — God’s time is always the right time. His management of our situations is always the best management. Patience is not learning to wait for others; it is learning to wait on God and to cooperate with His work in our lives. Patience means awaiting God’s time … without doubting God’s love. The Lord is calling us to wait upon Him in confident trust. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7). We are to wait with hope-filled anticipation. You and I are in the “waiting room of God,” and as long as we wait, we must be expectant. If we live our lives as we are instructed in Psalm 37:7, waiting patiently for the Lord, we will find that He will give us what is best … in His time!

Recently, the Lord spoke to me this important prophetic word: “Those who wait and watch will avoid worry, for patience prepares you for peace. Only through patience can you possess peace, and only those with perseverance will withstand persecution.” Our good God knows that the end of the age will be a tumultuous time filled with persecution, but He wants us to be those who without fear can withstand the persecution and remain in perfect peace. The Spirit of the Lord is exhorting the Bride to be adorned with the beauty of patience so that through faith and patience we will be able to stand against the onslaught of the enemy and receive every precious promise the Lord has given to us.