THE KEY OF PERSEVERENCE

THE KEY OF PERSEVERENCE

“Because you have kept the Word of My Perseverance”

(Rev. 3:10)

Tuesday Morning Bible Study

January 18, 2011

Like many other Christians, during the month of January, I fast and pray seeking the Lord for His Kingdom Will and Purpose.  This year by the Grace of the Lord, I began fasting in September 2010 and am praying daily for the Grace to continue.  I have been experiencing resistance in the spirit since the first of the year.  One of the areas where the devil is trying to sabotage is “perseverance”.  The assignment against the Body of Christ is apathy, complacency, boredom and drifting from their “first love”.  The universal church wants more excitement, entertainment, thrills, coddling, and adventure.  Ministers are expected to go Hollywood with a gimmick, lights and pizzazz.  People are seeking the Lord for breakthroughs.  He wants us to seek Him.

“Rev. 2: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:  The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lamp stands, says this:  I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

Those of you who are familiar with Eastgate Ministries know that we experience consistently the Presence of the Lord.  We are a church of worshippers.  We are a church of the uncompromised Word of God.  We are a church where the Holy Spirit has total liberty and all of the Gifts of the Spirit are operating in the Body ministry.  We train and equip the Saints for the work of the ministry.  We take care of our own within the church body and help many missions and outreach ministries.  In short, we are not just talking about the Kingdom of God.  We are operating in it.  The Lord has built this church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ as the Chief Cornerstone.  We are a lamp stand church with our lamps lit.

Some could say I am boasting, except those of you who have been here know this is just the way it is.  So, why am I pressing in for more of the Lord and His eternal purposes for the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven?  We have come to a new season.  We have come through another decade.  The past decade has been a time of trials and testing for a first fruits company before the Great Harvest of the earth begins.  We are at risk to fall because an assignment of apathy and complacency has been assigned to the Body of Christ.

Rev. 2:5: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lamp stand out of its place---unless you repent.”

I have been before the Lord seeking Him to give me the heart and love of His Bride.  If we do not have it, we will miss this visitation.  It is a temptation to kick back, curl up around our fireplaces and snuggle to our televisions.  After all, we are blessed, walking with the Lord, experiencing His great Grace, His Gifts and His Presence.  If we give in to complacency, we will miss God and destiny for the next decade.

Without perseverance we will not fulfill our purpose to press on to the mark of the high calling.  All who are attending this Bible Study have received great prophecies of how the Lord will give you a future and a hope.  Prophecy to the church reveals the heart of God to restore and bless His people.  He has a plan and a destiny for each of us.  He is working all things together to position us properly so His plans will be fulfilled.

However, even if we hear through prophecy the heart of God, we must have a persevering Spirit to breakthrough the assignments of hell that have been set against our promises and our destiny.

First, there must be a persevering faith to believe the Lord.

Then the covenant promises will be tested.  The test of a promise is an inevitable step in prophetic fulfillment.  In fact, if we don’t get past this step, our promises will not be fulfilled for ourselves, our families, our nation and our ministry within the Kingdom of God. 

Our role is obedience to the Lord; the rest is up to Him.

Once we pass the test, provision comes.  The ram in a thicket was Abraham’s provision, after the Lord tested him about Isaac. (Gen. 22:14).  Abraham named that place, “The Lord will Provide.”

Perseverance is difficult!  It means “to tend to, to give steadfast attention.” Patience means to “stand up under.”

When standing for a promise, we allow faith to put patience to work.  This Faith enables us to “stand up under” God’s promise.  Perseverance differs in that we “tend to the thing for which we are believing God.”

John Hagee in his book, “Lead On” tells the story of three young ministers of the gospels in the late 1940’s.

Two of the three had already received notable influence.  Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford were preaching dynamos.  Both preached to crowds of thousands and to universities.  Both started out strong but by 1950, both left the ministry and their stories are tragic.

The third evangelist was Billy Graham.  His life has been one of perseverance; a decision to walk in obedience to God’s Word and revealed Will.  He is an example of a Godly legacy, an obedient life, a spiritual parent and one who refused to quit in the midst of the battle.

Refusing to quit can become one of our greatest acts of spiritual warfare. 

The scriptures about perseverance in the Bible are extensive.  I have listed a few that ring sure with a promise:

Jas. 1:25:  “Whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

Prov. 4:18: “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more to the perfect day.”

Col. 1: 21-23:  “You are reconciled to God and presented holy and blameless in His sight---if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.”

1 Co. 15:58:  “Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord…for your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Ch. 16:11:  “Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face continually.”

Jer. 32:40:  “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me.  And I will rejoice over them to do them good and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all My soul.” 

Jn. 8:31:  “Jesus said, if you continue in my word then you are my disciples indeed.

1 Ti. 2:3:  “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

11 Tim. 2:12:  “If we endure, we will also reign with Him.

Acts 14:22:  “Strengthen the disciples and encourage them to remain true to the Faith.  We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God”

Eph. 4: 1-4:  “Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of doctrine and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming.”

Heb. 2:1:  “we must pay more careful attention, to what we have heard that we do not draft away.”

Heb. 10:35:  “Do not throw away your confidence.  It will be rewarded richly.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will received what He has promised.”

We all have balanced a love/hate relationship with perseverance.  It is one of the Keys to the Kingdom to seeing God’s promises fulfilled in our lives.  Persevering is not for the fainthearted.

Charles Spurgeon said, “By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.”

Ministries start out with a burning desire in their hearts, but a few years later find themselves ship wrecked, burnt out and failing to persevere.

In the early years of this ministry, satan tried to discourage me with criticism; sabotage from fellow Christians; spirit of Cain; Jezebel; Pharisees; Philistines; Wolves;  Korah and Miriam; Moses’ attitude of just giving up on the Israelites; choosing the easy life of a homemaker over ministry, etc. 

Through the years, the assignments have not lessened; they just take on different faces.  Satan and his demons try different strategies. 

If excitement is what you want, fulfilling one’s calling is the greatest challenge anyone will ever face.  One of the challenges of perseverance is we don’t get to choose our calling.  We will be called to a work that requires us to lay down our life.

Paul refused to quit.  1 Co. 6: 3-10:  “Giving no cause for offense in any thing, in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love;  In the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left; by glory and dishonor; by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known; as dying, yet behold we live; punished, yet not put  to death;  as sorrowful yet always rejoicing;  as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing yet possessing all things.”

Message to Philadelphia:

Rev. 3:7-11:  “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:  He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:  I know your deeds.  Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My Word, and have not denied My name.  Behold I will cause those of the synagogue of Stan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie---behold, I will make them to come and bow down, at your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of my PERSEVERENCE, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth.  I am coming quickly, hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown.”

Are you being tested in perseverance?  We are at a critical time prior to a visitation of the Lord.  If we will continue to persevere, we will be kept by the keeping power of the Lord Jesus Christ from the hour of testing.  Jude 24: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and  to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.  To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all  time and now and forever .  Amen

Preached by:  Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.

www.eastgateministries.com