Patience – Longsuffering

I thought that a suitable introduction to this teaching would be to remind you that God does everything at the exact right moment in time. Regarding patience, this is a most important principle that you need to understand and apply in your life. If you are not patient with yourself, you do not understand this former principal. Example: You pray for some need that you have in your life and you become aggravated with God and with the whole situation because your prayer has not yet been answered. God knows when it is the best time to answer your prayer. So what we have here is a lack of renewed mind. God will give you exactly what you need exactly when you need it. We do not know more than God Almighty. He created life and only He knows how to live it correctly. Let me go to a Scripture that is absolutely relevant to this subject.

Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. -- Philippians 4: 6

I am sure that you have read this Scripture many times, but did you understand it completely? That is why I am here to help you to rightly divide the Word of God. Take notice of the word ‘careful’. It doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the Scripture because it is a concept used in the olden times called old English. If you have a lexicon available to you and you should have one, you can look up the word ‘careful’ and you will be able to see it is referring to usage one. Usage 1 states the following: to be anxious about, to have anxious or distracting care. Now the verse begins to make a lot more sense. God is trying to tell us that we are to be anxious or distracted for nothing. Distractions and anxiety originate from the god of this world, who is the devil. The verse goes on to tell us that when we pray, we should pray with thanksgiving and that is how we are to make our requests known unto God. I had someone teach me once that when you are thankful, you cannot be negative. I should point out that patience and the word longsuffering are very similar to each other. They mean about the same thing.

Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible defines patience in an unusual way, but it still makes sense. Young’s defines patience as the ability to bear trials without grumbling. When you stand for the true God, you may get a lot of tribulation which is mental pressure. Don’t complain about it. This is when you must remember that the Christ in you is greater than what is in the world. You are always more than a conqueror if you would just have enough patience. The definition states that it is an ability. Many times to have an ability, you must practice to acquire that personality trait.

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy. – Colossians 1: 11

The final word in this Scripture is ‘joy’. This is the proper translation according to usage and according to the Greek and Aramaic texts. But what I want to stress here is of course the context of the verse. God says we are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. This is why we should never get on a head trip. The power that we have is God’s glorious power. Without that spirit of God in Christ in us, we have nothing and we are constantly losers. But the opposite is true. We have the spirit of God in Christ in us and that makes us more than conquerors in every single situation. The verse goes on to say that we are to accomplish all things with patience and longsuffering and we do this with joy. People talk about happiness, but happiness is a fleeting emotion. It comes and it goes. Happiness is a temporary emotion. We, as believers, can experience true joy. Now I want you to understand that joy is an inside job. A lot of joy emanates from our heart because of our love and obedience to the true God. The point I am trying to make is that joy is a much more valuable emotion than happiness. We talk about mental tribulation and our lack of patience because we do not understand fully how our God works. Patience is a fruit of the spirit and I am going to show you that verse, but first I would like you to take a look at a verse that is in the book of Romans.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. -- Romans 8: 37

This verse is telling us clearly that in all types of situations where there is tribulation directed toward us, that if we have enough confidence to wait on God, we then become more than conquerors through God who loves us. Actually the text says we are super-conquerors. I understand that many times we pray and it seems like our prayers never get answered. But many times it is God who is making you wait for that exact right moment in time when you need that prayer answered. This is a difficult concept for many Christians because they do not understand the way God operates. This is because they do not study His Word like you are doing right now. I have seen some of my prayers answered maybe five or 10 years down the line. But let me tell you, when God answers a prayer, he goes all the way to help you.

I don’t like to get into personal situations, but if it helps you learn, I’m going to do just that. I was what some people called a ‘hot shot’ when I was younger and even after I learned the Word of God. People misunderstood acting without fear to be someone who was trying to show off. You see, I take nothing from the devil. Whenever he hits me, I strike him back twice harder. But I’m going to tell you that I had a great need in my life. That was for a strong woman of God that I could share my life with. Well let me tell you, I went through all the disco queens and the great-looking girls. I sometimes think they liked my hot rod ‘68 Camaro more than they liked me. That was fine by me and I just kept moving from one girl to another praying to God for Him to please give me the right type of person that I can marry and move the Word of God with. I had to have so much patience that I honestly thought that I would never get married. Through a most unusual negative situation, I met someone who has always been a treasure. She wrote me a letter when I had no idea what was going on. I was quite far away. At the end of the letter, she had her phone number. That was the beginning. She studied much of the same material pertaining to the Bible and to this day is a very strong believer with amazing discipline – better than me. She set this whole website up and learned HTML by herself. I thought I did well in college with a very high GPA and honors - she excelled above me. If it weren’t for her discipline in physical activities, I might be just a fat load laying around every day. But when you live with marathon runner, it’s just totally embarrassing to be out of shape. I can walk 6 miles – I can swim a mile – but I could never equal my wife’s 300 trophies and medals when she ran races. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to know that when that perfect time comes and you are walking with the true God, I will guarantee you that He will meet that need you might have prayed for three years ago. Never lose patience with God.

Let’s take a look at what God refers to as the fruit of the spirit. There are nine fruit of the spirit and they are the result of the operation of the nine manifestation of the Spirit that are mentioned in Corinthians. The way this fruit of the Spirit concept operates is by a simple principle. The more you operate the manifestations of the spirit, the more fruit you will bear in your life. You will understand all of this in a very short time. I will tell you that one of the manifestations of the spirit is faith or believing. A second manifestation is speaking in tongues. If you only operate two of these manifestations and you are very adept at both of them, you will then manifest more of the fruit of the spirit that is mentioned in the book of Galatians. If I speak in tongues morning to night in my private prayer life, I will then manifest a great deal more of the nine fruit of the spirit. Let me get to those verses in Galatians.

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. -- Galatians 5: 22, 23

I took you to this verse mainly to show you that there are some fruit that you should clearly recognize. One of the fruit of the spirit is longsuffering. I could put it this way. If you put up with a problem for a long time and then it was resolved, you probably developed patience. Many believers ask the question: How do I get more patience? God has the answers to everything that pertains to the more than abundant life. All of the fruit of the spirit mentioned above and of course including longsuffering can only be realized in a believer’s life if that person is operating the nine manifestations of Holy Spirit. The nine manifestations of Holy Spirit are mentioned in I Corinthians 12: 8-10. Even in my present situation, I cannot operate all of the nine manifestations because the fellowships that I attended are no longer. And you need three or more people in a believers meeting to operate certain manifestations such as prophecy and speaking in tongues with interpretation. But you can always operate faith which is believing in you can always speak in tongues much in your private prayer life. This will help you manifest the fruit of the spirit. In this teaching I am only concerned with longsuffering or patience.

Now I would like to share with you another basic Scripture which will help you and motivate you to learn how to be patient.

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. – I Peter 5: 7

God wants you to take all of your cares and problems to Him. God likes when we do that or He would not state it in His Word. When you lack patience in an area of your life, this verse can be quite a comfort to you. When you give your problems to God because you cannot handle a certain situation, He will take care of it for you. Simply knowing this Scripture should help you to acquire more patience in your life. Many times we worry about things that we should not worry about. We can’t understand why this problem has not been taking care of. You need to understand that we are simply not relying on or believing that God is going to help us. I myself, have worried about so many ridiculous things and then God just comes along and takes care of it. I don’t want people to feel foolish because they lack patience, but we need to learn to apply God’s Word literally to our everyday lives and to our everyday problems. We live in a world that is presently being run by the devil himself. That may seem hard to believe, so I’m going to show you another basic Scripture that backs up what I just said.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. – II Corinthians 4: 4

Satan blinds the minds of people who refuse to believe the Word of God. Why? Because if these people believe God’s Word the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. Then what happens? Those people who then belonged to do devil get born again of God’s spirit and get set free from the clutches of the god of this world. So be patient and wait for the second return of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, when or if you share the Word of God with people, then Satan cannot blind their minds any longer. He cannot steal kill, or destroy their lives any longer. But we must make an effort to study and to apply God’s Word every day of our lives. It is the only way to live. What else is there? Satan is the god of this world. Do you want to live by his rules and regulations or do you want to be set free mentally and physically by following the true Word of God? You have free will. I cannot make up your mind for you. You can either study these teachings or you can make copies of them – I do not care. They are free. I sit here hour after all because that’s what God wants me to do. Because I can’t do anything better than this. But you can take these teachings and you can throw them in the trash and you could go out in the world and live for the devil. God will never overstep your free will. A lot of people depend on a teacher to get them to walk on the Word of God. These teachings are keys for you to learn how to live the more than abundant life. I cannot do this for you, but I can pray for you and I can help you as much as possible. I cannot see going any more into this subject matter of patience. I have taught you everything I know. And remember, as I said many times before, you do your best and God will do the rest. God does not make losers, he makes winners.

What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

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