Spiritual Gifts part 301: The essence of service for the Lord is persistence in faith.

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Wednesday,
August 29, 2012

Spiritual Gifts Part 301:

Persistence in faith is the essence of service for the Lord

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

Point 4.
Developing the capacity you need to function effectively in your spiritual gift.

How does the Master produce a vessel that is fit for His use?

He uses situations of suffering to accelerate the production and manifestation of virtues.

He also has plans to develop our perseverance and persistence in believing what we have received from the word of God.

A cloud no bigger than a man’s hand.

Very often, after the word of the Lord has been given concerning something you need in life, there will be an intervening and unexpected delay before the promise is fulfilled.

1. God’s seemingly slow and hidden ways.

2. The demand for faith to be found in His servants.

Then Elijah built the altar of Israel, and put the parts of the ox on it, and drenched the offering with water, and called on the Lord.

The people shout, “The Lord, He is God!”

Don’t let the spectacle distract you from the most important things – orienting to the word of God, and letting Him perform His work in you.

The real tension is in the matter of the rain: of that which is needed for life to be sustained and to flourish.

We want the power. God wants the man.

A battle has been fought, a victory won, and yet, something still had yet to materialize.

Persistence in faith is the very essence of real service for the Lord.

After the struggle, after the conflict, and the prayer, and the ordeal, and the great assurance that God is awesome, after all that, yet nothing is happening?

Beware that you do not fall into the trap…
It is the fatal trap of bitterness.

Arrogance skills on the march:

self-justification,
self-deception,
self-absorption

Either you throw in the towel and say, “Well, I must have been mistaken about this whole God thing …”

…OR you simply say to yourself-
Go again.
Go back.

 

 


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