When You Are About To Give Up

Remember this:

When you have lost what seems to be 500 battles in a row and things don't look good, remember:

2 Cor 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight

When your strength seems to be at an all time low and you are not sure if you can make it even one more day, look inside yourself and ask if you have enough strength left in you to compare with a speck of sand or said another way:

Luke 17:6 He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.

Why are these questions and answers important?  Because you can lose every battle (seemingly) and still win the war.  This works on a micro level (your life) and the macro level (the battle between good and evil God and the devil).  Look around, seems like evil has been winning in this world for a long long time right?  Guess what?  Today it looks worse than ever but we know for a fact we win this war in the end.  Lose many battles but win the war....

If you can find enough fight/faith within you to measure with a mustard seed

then you can win your war (get your prayer/miracle answered).  Why?  That is the way this test which we call our lives has been setup.  Yes, everything is a test.  Everything?  Almost, yes.

1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

What are the test parameters?  Faith over time.  That is pretty much it in a nutshell.  It pleases the Lord to wait in order to test us.

James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing

And when we have been tested, and we have suffered in patience and great emotional and spiritual tribulation and we held on with the last mustard seed sized strength that we had not giving up, that is when out of nowhere, almost instantly our answer/miracle shows up swiftly.  Then we exhale with relief and dance before the Lord with tears and rejoicing.

Is  this ^^ all just theory or theology?  No, this is testimony from a brother who has been there and done that, many times.  Each time repeats the same pattern (more or less).

Its easy to move forward when you are full of strength and energy and everything is going right, but what do we do when things go wrong.  What decision do we make when we are weak and nothing is going right?  Do we hold on in faith with our last mustard seed worth of strength?  I pray that we do because at those moments when we have reached what feels like our last stand, it is those times when our answer is just a heartbeat away.  We can never ever give up.  When we feel the weakest is when the Lord is at His strongest in our lives:

2 Cor 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

It is always darkest just before the dawn.  The Lord is strongest in our lives when we feel the weakest.  Remember that this is a test.  The Lord can give us our answers any time He wants to but He is at work in many different ways in many different lives and each one is unique.  We are being perfected by the fire of patience and suffering in our spirits.  That said, our Father is merciful and tenderhearted towards us.  He knows how much we can handle and He knows how much strength we have.  We are expected to hold out and fight for our answer down to the last mustard seed worth of faith within us.

When you fight the good fight of faith and win:

1 Tim 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

you will have your answer and a testimony to help those who are going through what you are going through now.  Glory to God.

grace and peace

Promises Only an All Powerful All Knowing God Can Make

Isaiah 55:11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding [in the matter] for which I sent it.

Notice the Lord tells us something and does not have to hem or haw His way around the statement.  Notice what He does not say.  He does not say "sometimes it will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire."  No, His Word will not (ever) return to Him empty.  His Word will accomplish what He desires.

Which leads us to another similar statement:

Matt 7:7Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

This is what our Lord does say.  What did He not say?

Ask and (sometimes) it will be given you.  Knock and (sometimes) shall be opened unto you.  He did not say that.  Only an all powerful all knowing God can make promises like this.

So what?  So either it is true or it is not.  Either our Lord meant what He said or He was lieing.  Which is it?  Did our Lord intent to back up His promises?  We just read His own Word which tells us His Word always does what He sent it to do.

The Word will do what it was sent to do.  The question is will we have the faith and patience to see the promise fulfilled?

Hebrews 6:12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

What an interesting statement ^^^.  Think about what He says here.  We do not want you to become lazy?  What does lazy have to do with faith and patience?  He is clearly telling us this faith and patience business requires WORK.  Yes, being patient and remaining faithful requires work.

James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

How do we inherit what has been promised?  Through faith and patience and patience is work.  The Lord has promises many many things and He does not fall short on any one of them.  If we would see the promises realized in our own lives we must let patience have her perfect work and we must fight the good fight of faith.

1 Tim 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

So, wrapping this up patience requires work and faith requires a fight.  To inherit the promises we must work and fight our way to them.  Surprising?  What did the Lord tell us?

2 Tim 2:3 You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Chris

Eph 6:12 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, againstpowers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. 13Wherefore take unto youthe whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14Stand therefore,having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15And your feet shod with the preparationof the gospel of peace; 16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Armor? Soldier? Fight?

Sounds alot like a war to me, and it is.  Whats the point?

Through faith and patience we will inherit the promises, what the Word was sent to do.  Faith and patience require work and fight.  How many people are willing to work and fight their way to inherit the promises?  As many as want to see the promises fulfilled.

When somebody (like you perhaps) is in the process of working and fighting for their own miracle, they don't want to hear a sermon or hear someone's theory.  They want to hear somebody who has been there and done that, lived through the experience (sometimes many times over) which has resulted in a testimony.

This nobody that writes to you today has a testimony.  That testimony is: the Word is true, our God does not lie.  If we are faithful and patient, if we work and fight for our answer, we will certainly have it.

And what will happen when we ask, then we do receive?  We knock and the door is opened?  The Lord shows us what the experience will be like as we finish with the next verse from Isaiah 55

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.

12For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.

Yes, ^^^ you will jump, and shout and dance when you get your answer.  I know I did but what you are reading here is meant for you. This nobody was sent to testify to you that the Word that cannot fail to do what it was sent to do is for you and will work with you if you are faithful and patient.  Glory to God.

grace and peace