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Endurance
By Bobbie Jean Merck
We are called to restore to this generation what has been stolen
of the knowledge, the goodness, and the blessings of Almighty God.
What makes the difference to cause us to endure and not faint, and so
fulfill the assignment of God upon our lives? In Ben Campbell Johnson's
paraphrase of Matthew 11:28 Jesus says, "...Come into fellowship with me
if you are tired and burdened, and I will refresh and release you. Take
the burden of responsibility I give you and thereby discover your life and
your destiny. I am gentle and humble; I am willing to relate to you and to
permit you to learn at your own rate; then, in fellowship with me, you
will discover the meaning of your life. My fellowship will release you,
and my companionship will direct you on your journey."
In the passage of scripture above, we discover our
destiny simply by spending time in God's presence, and by taking the yoke
of responsibility He assigns. We can successfully carry no other yoke of
responsibility but that which has been assigned to us in Christ Jesus. It
is the Holy Spirit, and His infusion of the anointing for the assignment,
that enables us and removes the enemy's burden from off our shoulder,
literally annihilating it (Isaiah 10:27). Endurance is a by-product of
Holy Ghost anointing, Holy Ghost power!
To endure we must be willing to pass the test. Tactics
the enemy used to try to break down Jesus' endurance while in the plan of
His Father are illuminated for us in the account of the testings of Jesus
in the wilderness in Matthew Chapter 4. The enemy attacked Christ's
identity when he whispered, "If you really are the Son of God." God
had already spoken that Jesus is His Son at His baptism. The enemy tries
to get us to doubt all things related to our identity in Christ our Lord,
with such whisperings as, "Are you really who you think you are? If you
are, why is this happening to you, or why are you not doing this or that?
If you really are, prove it!" Jesus responded with the Word of the Living
God, being sustained by His faith in the Word versus manifestations.
Many are now back-slidden who came into the Body of
Christ with an expectation of constant blessing with no testing. They were
as the parable of the seed-sower describes, initially receiving the Word
with joy, but when difficulties came they had no depth in the Lord, no
faith in His Word to them, and as a plant with shallow roots, they became
scorched, parched and unable to endure. One's identity in Christ must be
firmly established.
In the second test, the enemy placed Jesus in the city
of Jerusalem on the uppermost part of the temple saying again, "If you are
the Son of God, jump from this height, surely you can trust the ancient
scriptures...." In the first test the devil was defeated by the Word,
therefore, in the second test he came after Jesus as an angel of light,
speaking the Word to Jesus. He said, "God will send his special messengers
to catch you lest you injure yourself." It would also be interpreted as a
fulfillment of prophecy by the Jews concerning the Messiah, but it would
not be orchestrated by God.
In this test, the enemy was attempting to tempt Jesus to take things into
His own hands, forcing God to conform to human orchestration to gain
credibility with the people. Jesus calmly answered, "You shall not force
God to prove Himself." "Try Me, test Me, prove Me" does not
translate "force Me," by taking things into your own hands.
You will not endure if you take ungodly "short-cuts" to
try to fulfill a godly plan. For the third test, the adversary placed
Jesus on a high mountain and pointed out the various seats of power in the
world. God's plan was to give Jesus all power and authority, and God had a
way to accomplish that ~ through the cross and resurrection. Satan came
and offered the power and authority now to Jesus, and tried to tempt Him
to betray God by preserving self and skipping the cross, out of God's
times and seasons. It is God's will for the Christian to have power and
authority, and to exercise this authority on behalf of God with power. It
does not depend upon the enemy's offers or stipulations.
It is God Who ultimately raises one up and brings
down another. Satan said to Jesus, "I will give you all of these and all
the adulation that goes with them if you will give your adoration to me."
This final test has to do with your destined place of authority and to
whom you give the glory - God, Satan, or flesh. God has a path for you
that leads you into your inheritance. Satan has a counterfeit path that
leads to destruction, ministered in a spirit of self-preservation.
The Book of Revelation tells us that we overcome the enemy
"...by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by loving
not our own lives even unto death." Satan is lying when he tells you the
results God promises can come through shortcuts. God is a 100% surrender
God. Either He is in control or we are. Are we serving self and this world
system with money and position, or God alone? Have we sought position
outside of God's will through ungodly means or are we trusting in Him to
bring His will to pass as we simply obey Him and follow His Holy Spirit?
If you will stick with God and obey Him, it
matters not what befalls you, with God you will come out on top. You will
come out with more, with increase. The increase will not foster pride, but
thankfulness to God that you were able in Him to stand ~ to endure and
inherit His promises.
We read a very profound thing in Matthew 4:17 in the
Ben Campbell Johnson Paraphrase. From the time that John was in prison,
Jesus began his ministry saying to all the people, "Change your attitude
and actions because an invasion of the Spirit is imminent...."
Endurance, success, and everything good is wrapped up in our relationship
to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was led
into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit to be tempted, tested, and
proven He spoke the Word of God by the Spirit. Jesus did not speak vain
repetitions born out of a carnal understanding of scripture that He hoped
might work, but out of His belly came rivers of living waters. He was the
Word made flesh by the help of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish elite wanted to
know where Jesus learned the scriptures, and His response to them was,
"You do not know the scriptures, nor the power therein!" Yet they knew the
written Word frontwards and backwards, but it did not work for them, for
they did not know the Word as revealed by the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 4:14 Jesus came out of that time of testing in the power ~ that is
the fire ~ of the Holy Ghost! He was not only full of the Holy Ghost, but
He now had the power in Him, on Him, around Him! Everywhere He went, power
went! No wonder when they were going to throw Him off the cliff, He walked
right through them and they did not even know He had passed right through.
No one with only natural sight can get a hold of this. It is supernatural!
We must have the eyes of the Spirit and be willing to
pass the test. Every test you have had, every persecution, every
disappointment, every shame, and every betrayal was an opportunity to turn
you into somebody more like Jesus, until God says, "Now I can use you, and
now you can be who I have created you to be!"
The devil has no new witty inventions. The same wiles
he used generations ago, he uses today. I heard in my spirit, "People are
defecting." Timothy was eaten up by fear of failure, betrayal, and fear of
people defecting. It was undermining his capacity to endure.
Watching people leave their appointed places in the
Body of Christ after one has poured out the whole counsel of God
faithfully to their lives can tempt us to weaken ~ particularly if we do
not absolutely trust God for the results of our labors in Christ. We are
not responsible for what others choose once we have faithfully ministered
in obedience to God.
There has to be a time for God's promises to come to
pass. We are called to rebuild the "old waste places" which includes all
that has been stolen from our generation that God desires to restore! For
some, that means being born-again, for even in the churches in America
many mistakenly believe that membership in a congregation equals
salvation. The time now is for the truth to penetrate the Church of
America that there is but one Way, one Truth, and one Life in Christ,
where Jesus is Lord of our lives and we live it 24/7!
Another thing the enemy has tried to hide and
steal from this generation is the fire-baptism in the Holy Ghost, and
praying in other tongues, whereby we wage a good warfare, speaking unto
God, and building ourselves up on our most holy faith. That has been lost
from many in this generation.
Another area in the life of our nation that
must be rebuilt is in commerce, politics, the education system etc. where
we have allowed by default the opportunity for many wicked to fill the
gap. We have forfeited strategic positions of influence and authority in
this nation long enough. The church retreated behind four walls and
allowed the ungodly to guide the nation. It is time for the righteous to
rise and take hold of their places of influence in every corner of every
community. The results are for God to work as we do our part and leave the
rest to God, resting in the faithfulness of Almighty God!
We are called to restore to this generation what has
been stolen of the knowledge, the goodness, and the blessings of Almighty
God. To do this, it will take the Holy Spirit. It will take an enduring
faith continually fanned by His fire.
We inherit the promises of God through faith and
patience (a supernatural endurance). Consider Luke 18:1-8 where the widow
puts a demand on the unjust judge. She did not ask, but told him to avenge
her. Secondly she persevered, for it was through her "continual coming"
that she wore him down. The Lord addresses us in light of this encounter
of the widow woman and the evil judge in this manner, "And shall not God
avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear
long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless
when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Vs. 7-8).
What faith is Jesus talking about here? The kind of
faith the widow demonstrated. The kind of faith that stands before the
unjust judge (the enemy) and tells him how it is going to be. We can
decree the will of God according to Job 22:28 and John 14:13,14 with
absolute confidence that whatsoever we demand or decree, ask, and command
shall be done in heaven (see this in action in Acts Chapter 3). This kind
of faith is confident in the Father, trusting Him to "speedily avenge" his
elect, and so presses in even night and day to see His wonders performed
in the earth! This kind of faith fights, and stands in complete persuasion
of the veracity of God's Word, unwaveringly trusting in God. It is an
enduring faith.
As we do as this widow woman did, we, too, put pressure
on hell. When you put pressure on hell, and doctrines and traditions of
men that make the Word of God null and void, hell puts pressure back on
you. The pressure some of you have been feeling is the resistance of the
enemy, trying to deceive you that you are not making headway, but it is
because you are making great headway ~ and you are taking hold of the
hidden treasure the enemy has been hording behind the gates! It was after
Pentecost that the disciples were able to do what they were called to do,
as the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit enabled them. We have indeed
come into a place of authority in the Word and in the Spirit such that as
the anointing is loosed in our lives, the authority and action of Christ
is mightily at work through us.
No matter what shame you have endured, no matter what
has brought disappointment to you in others or self, or in a dream not
actualized at this time that seems broken into a thousand pieces ~ if you
will take this message to heart, you are going to turn this world upside
down and none will be able to stop you from fulfilling all that God has
called you to.
Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us that it was for the joy set
before Jesus that He was able to endure the cross. As I have studied grace
during so many different times in my life, I have found that the one
leading word associated with grace is joy, a true rejoicing that partners
with the operation of grace in us. We are going to have more joy than we
have ever had before, we shall rejoice more than we have ever rejoiced
before, and we are going to be stronger than we have ever been before. We
have joy because of what is set before us!
Do not surrender your hope for your future. You must
see beyond now, beyond present circumstances, beyond the natural and into
the supernatural of God. We must see the future and we must see the
fulfillment of God's promises; for it changes the way in which we respond
now. It brings us to the place where we, even as Paul, glory in our
weaknesses in which Christ's strength is made strong in us as we move up
higher into another dimension of our walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
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