Believing When Winning Takes Everything You've Got
Habakkuk 2:3 "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
- The time of tarrying and waiting for the end is most gruesome and faith belaboring. At least on the surface we believe that God will prosper what He said. Unfortunately, we do not know when the appointed time is, and normally that is withheld from us. The waiting period tests your courage and faith.
- Still, God informs us that the manifestation of the promised thing will not evade us one minute longer than it should. And we must also know that it will not come to us one minute sooner. There is an appointed time!
- It is important that we build our faith because faith builds our character. What we believe determines what we do, what we will not bow down to, who we will interact with and what we will allow to be a part of our life.
- Faith is knowledge based, so it is intelligent and very focused. Without a focus, there can be no faith. It must have something to believe on or in.
- Faith is based on what you know about you and the “promiser”.
- In this scripture faith is based on:
- The fact that someone believes in an invisible vision that has been communicated to them.
- In an appointed time,
- That eventually it shall speak or manifest.
- That it will surely come.
Hebrews 11:11 "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."
- What Sara knew about God energized her body. You’ve heard of people who claim to be weak in body or sick who suddenly, due to a positive cause or some catastrophic event, can respond energetically.
- This is why it is so important that we minister to the spirit of a person. It overrides the body. Want to pray for the sick? Minister faith to them. When faith is high, it rejects sickness, sin or our inclination to make foolish mistakes.
- It was her determination or conclusion of God’s character that led her to believe that, despite her and her husband’s age, she would be the mother of a child.
- What we truly, truly think about God determines how preposterous a miracle God can work on our behalf.
- Remember: This lesson deals with extreme circumstances and our having faith to prevail despite them.
Hebrews 6:18 "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:"
- We must know hat God cannot lie, no matter how ridiculous the circumstance or how incredible His promise to us is.
- It is impossible for Him to lie because He is truth. Truth is Who He is, not just what He tells..
2 Timothy 1:12, 13 "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
- Paul submitted to suffering. And no matter how easy it appears to us because we have read of his faith, it took all he could muster.
- For everyone there are certain trials that take everything we have in order for us to succeed.
- His total demeanor and even his emotions were subject to his faith. He said, “I am not ashamed”, meaning he was without pride.
- The faith you embrace is always enough for the issues God allows you to encounter. Things never become so tough or so intense that you cannot bear them.
- Paul believed that God was a God that could keep his trust—all the way to the end. He believed that God would keep what he committed to the Lord until that day—whenever that day came!
- The ability of our faith (and even our doubt) rests in the conversations we are exposed to and doctrine or things that make up our personal belief system..
- In this life we must suffer before we achieve. All successful people simultaneously subscribe to suffering when they engage themselves in a task or work of faith. If they are determined to succeed at their venture of life or faith, they must also subscribe to things and beliefs that assure their endurance. It is important that we establish a belief system that assures us that we will remain until the end is within our grasp.
- Even the promises of God come with inconveniences, mockery and pain as do all dreams and aspirations. There is a price tag.
- If you have a cause (as Paul stated) there will be suffering. Just make certain that your suffering is for the cause and to bring about a Divine conclusion.
- Like Sara, Paul knew in Whom He believed and was convinced of His ability to keep His promises.
Ephesians 1:4-14 "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."
- While God is the God of the present, much of what determines or motivates the Christian has to do with what God did in the past or promises our future. What we believe now is dependent on the past and the future.
- We must be fully aware that God performed and spoke things that define us before we come into existence.
- Our ability to live a Godly life and to endure our circumstances was predetermined—IN god and before all things.
- God has not left us inept but fully capable of prevailing under any circumstance.
- He has seen to it that we were informed and given an inside track on Divine matters.
- When time has fully satisfied the process God has set for us, God will make known what we have been waiting for—in its fullness.
- Waiting for God to gather all the components that fulfills His promise to us is what causes our faith to waiver.
- As is apparent, God waits until the last minute: the appointed time.
- Until the time of manifestation, God expects us to survive on only the earnestness (the down payment) of our inheritance, and trust Him that the rest will come to pass.
To us God never gives enough to hold us. But it is enough. Above all, God is more than enough!