Some of the material for these lessons comes from the book Faith and Patience: The Power Twins by Kenneth Copeland.
James 1:2-4 | AMPC Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. (3) Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. (4) But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.
Hebrews 6:11-12 | NKJV And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, (12) that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hebrews 6:11-12 | TPT But we long to see you passionately advance until the end and you find your hope fulfilled. (12) So don’t allow your hearts to grow dull or lose your enthusiasm, but follow the example of those who fully received what God has promised because of their strong faith and patient endurance.
KCM – “The power of patience is a working power. When faith has a tendency to waver, it is patience that comes to faith’s aid to make it stand. The power of patience is necessary to undergird faith.
Faith and patience are the power twins. Together they will produce every time. Patience without faith has no power to call into reality the thing desired. Faith is the substance of things we hope for. Patience without faith will have no substance.
On the other hand, faith without patience many times will fail to stand firm on the evidence of the Word that gives deed to things not seen. Without the power of patience at work – we will allow the sensory knowledge – the things we see – to overwhelm our faith.
Patience undergirds faith and gives it endurance to persevere until the answer comes.
Traditionally, we think of patience as knuckling under and being satisfied with whatever comes our way. That is not at all what patience is. Patience is a real force (just like faith). It has to be developed.”
It is important to note that tradition teaches us that trials build our faith, but the Bible does not teach that.
It is vitally important that we realize the difference between the development of our faith and developing patience.
Trials do not develop your faith. They never have.
Romans 5:3 | NKJV (3) And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
Romans 5:3 | ERV (3) And we are also happy with the troubles we have. Why are we happy with troubles? Because we know that these troubles make us more patient.
Faith is developed as we act on the Word of God.
Hebrews 12:2 | NKJV looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…
Satan never has been the developer of our faith.
Faith should be developed on the Word of God before the trial or testing ever comes.
Luke 6:47-49 | NKJV Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: (48) He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. (49) But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
Notice the man dug deep to build his foundation on what he heard. This is where faith was developed.
During the storm is when patience was developed. He knew his house would stand because it was built upon the rock of being a doer of the Word of God.
The force of patience is developed in the trial or tribulation and undergirds or keeps the door open for our faith to work and to overcome whatever has been put before us.
KCM – “The definition of patience is being constant or being the same way at all times. James says in Chapter 1 that we are to be single-minded. We must always respond or react in every circumstance of life the same way – on the Word of God. Regardless of what may be thrown at us, we must become so Word-of-God minded that we do not act in fear or doubt but always act on whatever the Word of our God says.
The Word says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus has always and will always respond to the Word rather than to circumstances, reason, or fear. This is the way that we should be. Being sound in patience is to answer every doubt and every fear with the firm assurance and confession that God’s Word is true, regardless of what we feel or see. Regardless of what storm may come our way, my Father’s Word cannot fail. In that kind of atmosphere, faith is free to move and overcome whatever Satan has put in our way.
In order to properly develop the power of patience, we must know what the Bible says about testings and trials. If you read the first chapter of James, the Greek word translated temptations is the same word for trials and testings. It is vitally important that we know, from verse 13, that God is not tested by evil, and He does not tempt or test men with evil. We are warned never to say that we are tested of God.
Verse 14 explains what a test or trial is. A test or trial is anything that applies pressure on the lusts or desires of the flesh. Any pressure that draws us away from God’s Word is the beginning of a test. If we then act on that lust, sin is the result. Still, we have a way of escape, for the Word says we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. He is faithful to forgive us our sins when we confess them. We are still more than conquerors in Jesus.”
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will no suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
This scripture reveals three more important things about trials:
-
- Testings and temptations are common to man. No man is ever tested or tried with things that are not common to mankind. Satan does not have the right to call upon his experience as a heavenly being to apply things that are outside the realm of humanity as tests or trials.
- God is faithful. You will never face anything that you cannot overcome.
- God always provides the way of escape.
Satan cannot attack with any weapon that is greater than what God has provided for us as weapons. Thank God, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but powerful through god to the pulling down of strongholds. Satan is limited to the things that are common to mankind, but we are not. We have access to the full armor of God.
Our patience rests solidly on the full assurance that, no matter what comes next; Jesus has provided more than enough victory to put us over.”
The Bible is a revelation of the Promises of God that are available to each of us.
There are promises contained in the Word of God that address every human need and fear.
The thing that determines our experience in life is simply what we believe.
The quality of our lives is determined by our choices.
We make choices for our lives, either for life and blessing or death and cursing based on what we believe is in yours or your family’s best interest.
You create a belief system based on what you hear or have heard the most of throughout your life.
Romans 10:17 | NKJV (17) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We will begin by studying the principles of faith.
Romans 4:16-21 | NKJV Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (17) (as it is written, “I HAVE MADE YOU A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS”) in the presence of Him whom he believed–God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; (18) who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.” (19) And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. (20) He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
Faith is being fully persuaded that the Word of God is true and that the promise is as good as yours.
Being fully persuaded is a pre-requisite to receiving the promise of God.
To begin to understand these principles of faith, we must back up to the foundation of your faith and that is hope.
Hebrews 11:1-3 | NKJV Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (2) For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. (3) By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Hope – confident expectation something will happen
- Hope is the blueprint that your faith builds from to produce the quality of your life.
- Hope is the vision that we have of our lives.
- The vision we have of our lives is extremely important because it ultimately shapes the tomorrow of our lives.
Expectation – a looking forward to, or anticipation, prospect for the future, as of advancement or prosperity
The Promises made to Israel
Exodus 3:7-8 | NKJV And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. (8) So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Exodus 3:16-17 | NKJV Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; (17) and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ‘
Exodus 12:25 | NKJV It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.
Exodus 13:3-5 | NKJV And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. (4) On this day you are going out, in the month Abib. (5) And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
Leviticus 20:22-24 | NKJV (22) ‘You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out. (23) And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. (24) But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Numbers 10:29 | NKJV Now Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the LORD has promised good things to Israel.”
What the Children of Israel Actually Saw and Expected
Numbers 13:1-3 | NKJV And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” (3) So Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.
Numbers 13:17-24 | NKJV Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, (18) and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; (19) whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; (20) whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. (21) So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. (22) And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) (23) Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. (24) The place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.
Numbers 13:25-33 | NKJV And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. (26) Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. (27) Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. (28) Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. (29) The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” (30) Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” (31) But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” (32) And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Numbers 14:1-5 | NKJV So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. (2) And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! (3) Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” (4) So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” (5) Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
The vision that the children of Israel had for their lives was shaped by hundreds of years in bondage and was going to keep them in bondage.
Is the vision or expectation for your life keeping you in bondage?
You must change your expectation.
You must begin to frame the world of your tomorrow by what you see today and then take your faith and build it.
God has high expectations for us as His children.
Psalms 8:4-6 | TPT Compared to all this cosmic glory, why would you bother with puny, mortal man or be infatuated with Adam’s sons? (5) Yet what honor you have given to men, created only a little lower than Elohim, crowned like kings and queens with glory and magnificence. (6) You have delegated to them mastery over all you have made, making everything subservient to their authority, placing earth itself under the feet of your image-bearers.
Psalms 40:5 | TPT O Lord, our God, no one can compare with you. Such wonderful works and miracles are all found with you! And you think of us all the time with your countless expressions of love—far exceeding our expectations!
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 | NLT (9) That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (10) But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
Proverbs 23:18 | TPT Your future is bright and filled with a living hope that will never fade away.
Ephesians 3:20-21 | AMPC Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]– (21) To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).
We must take the blueprint of God’s Word and begin to see that continually for our lives so that we can frame our world for tomorrow today!