29/12/2023
Patience Wins
Devil has studied humanity from an early age, and he knows, that for him to win men, he must wait at the border of patience. There he will catch many illegal migrants. You can have faith, but without patience, you won’t reach your destiny. Everything will be aborted right before your eyes until you quit. Having patience makes us perfect and complete so that nothing is lacking from us (James 1:2-4). In that way, we can beat the devil on the open ground. Taking an example from our Lord Jesus, the Devil waited for him for 40 days to tempt him. He waited until he was physically hungry and weary so that he could bring great offers (Mathew 4:1-11). Likewise, the Devil will exhaust us and strike when we are mostly weak. This practice was employed by ancient counsellors, slave masters or kings; After the first capture (arrest) they would know a prisoner was still strong enough to resist, so they would keep him in prison until he got weary, and forget about his kingdom and everyone he ever cares about. When he gives up on himself and his previous positions, that’s when they will bring offers. The Devil is also that patient, that is why we need to be far more patient to defeat him. Patience makes us well-aligned, positioned and liable to win.
Like any parent, God spends most of the time developing patience in us. We never see the purpose of patience as we are living in a world ruled by time. The flesh doesn’t have patience, for beyond patience it sees blind glory. In my last message, I spoke about idolizing our problems. Idolism does not only end with troubles, but even goals can be idols. Have you ever seen possible situations become immediately impossible once you start idolizing them, feeling like you are dying to see that day of such great achievement? Don’t get me wrong, it is good to set goals, affirm those goals and be ambitious. I only brought up the word ambition to justify my point, so it is not a harmful word in this context. The ambition here implies aiming above normal (mediocrity), which is the first stimulant for any man who wants to be prosperous.
It is easy to set goals, but achieving goals takes not only effort but patience at its mighty stand. I don’t remember who said this, but one Pastor jokingly called Christians of today, “microwave Christians.” I think this doesn’t only apply to Christians but to the whole present generation. We want to be drivers of time, if God could ever ask us, what is it that he should do for us, we would manipulatively tell him to put us in charge of time, so that we never have to wait. One won’t be surprised that most of our generation enter into marriage having fornicated with more than one person because it was difficult to wait until we stand before elders and pastors and say “until death does us part”. What is done in marriage is what this generation is already doing, they can’t hold themselves any longer. Anything that requires patience is the worst alternative for us. We don’t have permanent jobs, relationships, settlements or any other thing because they were not built on a foundation of patience. We can’t expect anything to be sustainable if we wake up tomorrow to build and finish the same day.
We are full of regrets, for the consequences resulted from lack of patience. We never weighed options, we only accepted available offers and we got bitter fruits. Even so, we still fail to repent, we repeat the same mistakes over and over. I came to a season when I realised God blessed me with a lot of gifts, but patience was never part of those or perhaps it took long to manifest. I had to learn it the hard way, after being broken into pieces. Every part of my body was broken to Mold me into a new creation. I died of myself and Jesus was born in me, that’s how patience received an apartment in my heart.
We die, because we want things so bad, within a short time frame. We subdue anything rather than ourselves. We never try to tame our flesh. We are always in tremendous frustration with God, parents, friends and nature because times do not align well with our desires. We believe we are more organized than God, and for that, we feel betrayed every day. Likely God cannot be manipulated by our emotions, he is not a man to fall into a trap of human emotions. I often see parents letting kids cry until they stop crying yet they never received what they wanted to trick parents to provide. What more of our heavenly father? You come up crying and using emotional blackmail thinking he will buy your Story? No, God is smarter than that, he is all-wise. He lives in eternity; time doesn’t rule in his presence. He is more organized than a man can ever think.
Let’s demonstrate how organized our God is. But first, I want us to understand the meaning of being well organised. In real life, when we speak about well-organised events or people, we refer to those people who planned ahead of time or events that were planned long before they came. In that way everything will look perfect, no shortages will be encountered, and no unforeseen things will catch us by surprise. Let’s make an example of a newly married couple, before this couple has their first kid, they will first sit down and plan how many kids they want and what kind of education they want for their children based on the current economy. After an agreement, they start preparing everything for the future of their children before they are even born, so that the minute kids are born, raising them and meeting their needs won’t be a problem. You see, you plan for kids before you build a house, buy a car or anything since their future is the priority.
Now that we understand from the earthly perspective, we can move on to the heavenly perspective. God, my lovely father, planned our future before the foundation of the world. If parents plan the future before they build the house, God also planned our future before he created the world. We see the world as a big thing above God’s capacity, that’s because we are spiritual kids. Infants also see a house as the biggest thing. If they get old enough to see Tonato taking away the rooftop of their house, they will see an impossible situation because they don’t know that their parents have savings or insurance cover. Have you got it? Yes, our God knew us before we were formed in our mothers’ wombs. He planned our lives before our great-grandfathers were born, so nothing catches God by surprise. Nothing can abort his mission. He told Abraham before Abraham could even have the first child, “Your descendants will take 400 years in Exile” (Genesis 15:13). Then Israelites as they were suffering, may have thought God had abandoned them or perhaps failed as per his mission not knowing he knew long before they were even born. How many Years? Isaac was born, Jacob was born, and then Joseph was born, that’s when the children of Israel entered Egypt where they would be exiled.
The Bible calls Jesus the Lamb of God who was slain from before the foundations of the world (Revelation 13:8). So, God, knew before he created humans that at one point, they would sin against him, and he already prepared his son to die for the nations to reconcile with his people. No sin, I don’t care how many worst sins you have committed, killed, robbed people whatever, and you think you are beyond repair. God has long prepared your deliverance, just accept it. You will be a new creation. Our failures and all sufferings were long written in his book, we are living according to the book when we are in Christ. When Christ was living in this world, he lived according to the scriptures, everything that was going to happen was already in the book, so nothing ever happened which was not written. Let’s pick one simple example, when he died on the Cross, his bones were supposed to be broken as the practice in those days to let people die quickly, by breaking their legs (shin), so they can lose balance of the weight from the cross. The people who crucified him, broke the legs of the other two thieves, and then when they got to Jesus, he was already dead, so the scripture that says, “None of his bones will be broken” will be fulfilled (John 19:31-37 and Psalm 34:20). His being crucified with thieves as though he was wicked, never caught God by surprise because he did write, “He is counted among the wicked” (Isaiah 53:12).
God knows that at one point you will fail at school, he knows your parent will die in the middle of your studies or exams. He knows that one day you will lose your job or even be a dropout. This is why as all these are happening you need to be far closer to him so that he will direct your path. There is a living for all and living was never placed in the palace for kings, even low-borns have enough for living. A street kid without parents can still have a bright future. If we can ask people to testify about where they come from, we will hear many didn’t have what it takes except their life. They chose what to do with that life not cry over what they lost or don’t have. Everything you need is right here in this world. He created the world; he knows every part of it. When he placed us in this world, all that we needed was already in place. Money, clothes and all that we need don’t come from heaven, it is right here on Earth. Walk with him, and he will lead you to green pastures—Chase purpose, not money. Life is not about chasing money, for it is like chasing wind (patience killer and source of frustration).
Brethren, our God is far organised. Live every day without fear, knowing that what is coming your way is soothing he has seen before. Walk with your head up straight for he is still in charge. God like to let the Devil go first believe me. Why, because God is too sure of himself. Only the devil rushes because he doesn’t have certainty. He knows if he lets your children grow in the house of God, he has already lost them, so he starts to influence them from a young age. He knows if your things go well at the beginning, you will resist him when he tries to bring afflictions, so he starts first by turning against God. But God will catch you, do not worry. There is time for the Devil to rule and mess up your life, but it shall surely turn out to the Lord, and the Devil’s time will be over with you. Assurances stand: darkness is followed by light, having a share in sufferings gives us a share in comfort, and a day of jubilee (restoration) comes to all of us through our lord Jesus Christ. We approach the throne of grace with boldness because we know that at the right time, God will set us free in all our sufferings (Psalm 34:19).
“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” Ephesians 1: 3-6
Have patience, live and do all that is within your capacity the rest to God. When people ask you how long are going to wait for an unresponsive God, tell them, he is coming to set you free. Halleluiah.
God Bless You!!!