Patient Faith
35 “Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. 36 For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36 Amplified Bible
We are not a patient society and as a result we are not trained to know the value of patience. It is because we lack patience with our faith that we often fail to receive that which we say we are standing on in faith. Verse 35 above says that your confidence in God (your faith) carries the “compensation” or reward of the supernatural, from the spiritual realm to your natural reality. It carries it from promise to manifestation in your life.
Our tendency is to fling aside our faith and our confidence in Him if the answers and deliverances we are seeking do not come speedily. If I pray and stand in faith but don’t see the answer delivered immediately I then begin to doubt if the Word worked. As soon as I begin that process of doubt I am flowing in the wrong direction. With every moment that passes without seeing the answer, my doubts increase and my hold on the promise becomes that much more tenuous. Eventually my doubts cause me to forfeit the promise altogether.
We need to develop patience with our faith. In the book of Daniel, the angel Gabriel came to Daniel 21 days after Daniel had prayed, 21 days! How many of us would have held onto any promise of God if we did not see any results at all for 21 days? Each day that passed without an answer our doubts would increase and the ability to receive the promise would weaken daily. When Gabriel appeared to Daniel after the 21-day delay because of spiritual warfare, he said that the moment Daniel prayed the prayer was answered. The moment Daniel had spoken words of faith for what he believed it was already his. He just could not see the evidence of it yet in this natural world. Not seeing did not mean that it did not exist however.
We must learn to be patient and endure in faith, believing what His Word said, despite what we see in this life. Be patient and endure in faith. That is when we will be able to enjoy the fullness of what was promised and prepared for you by Jesus for your good and His glory. Satan knows that for most of us, if he can just delay the answer becoming manifested in this physical world, we will doubt and forfeit that which is already ours by right of relationship with Jesus.
What are you praying and believing for in the Word? Be patient and endure until the moment you receive.
J Todd Hostetler