Some of the material for these lessons comes from the book Faith and Patience: The Power Twins by Kenneth Copeland.
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.
The difference between faith development and patience development:
Matthew 7:24-27 | TPT “Everyone who hears my teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation. (25) When the rains fell and the flood came, with fierce winds beating upon his house, it stood firm because of its strong foundation. (26) “But everyone who hears my teaching and does not apply it to his life can be compared to a foolish man who built his house on sand. (27) When it rained and rained and the flood came, with wind and waves beating upon his house, it collapsed and was swept away.”
As the man dug deep and was obedient to the Word of God, that is when faith was developed.
When the storm came and the man stood on what he had heard, believed, and obeyed, is when patience was developed.
Faith is developed before the trial comes. Patience is developed in the trial or tribulation and undergirds, or keeps the door open for faith to work and overcome whatever is put before it.
Being sound in patience is to answer every doubt and fear with the firm assurance and confession that God’s Word is true, no matter what we feel or see.
Regardless of what storms may come our way, the Father’s Word cannot fail. In that kind of atmosphere, faith is free to move and overcome whatever Satan has put in our way.
For instance, when you receive your healing by faith, the symptoms do not always leave immediately. Faith is in operation when you do what the Word said: you believed, received and confessed.
Now you have need of patience so that you will perfect and entire wanting nothing (James 1) Through patience, you hold fast to the Word, regardless of the circumstances, knowing that patience will produce the experience of healing. Working the power of patience is the difference between success and failure in the faith walk.
How to develop endurance:
- You must train before the competition begins to develop the endurance necessary to win and not quit.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 | AMPC Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours. (25) Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither. (26) Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary. (27) But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 | TPT Isn’t it obvious that all runners on the racetrack keep on running to win, but only one receives the victor’s prize? Yet each one of you must run the race to be victorious. (25) A true athlete will be disciplined in every respect, practicing constant self-control in order to win a laurel wreath that quickly withers. But we run our race to win a victor’s crown that will last forever. (26) For that reason, I don’t run just for exercise or box like one throwing aimless punches, (27) but I train like a champion athlete. I subdue my body and get it under my control, so that after preaching the good news to others I myself won’t be disqualified.
- You cannot be entangled with the affairs of this life (taking the cares). If you are worried, you are contemplating how you can solve your own problems.
2 Timothy 2:3-4 | TPT Overcome every form of evil as a victorious soldier of Jesus the Anointed One. (4) For every soldier called to active duty must divorce himself from the distractions of this world so that he may fully satisfy the one who chose him.
Learn to cast your cares or worries on Him.
Mark 4:18-19 | NKJV Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, (19) and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
1 Peter 5:6-7 | AMPC Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you, (7) Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. [Psa 55:22]
- You must develop a root of consecration to the Word by spending time meditating on the Word before you can stand on it.
Psalms 1:1-3 | NKJV Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. (3) He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
- If you won’t quit because of weariness, you will win.
Galatians 6:9 | NKJV And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Galatians 6:9 | MSG So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.
What is the weariness described? Discouragement.
Discouragement is a product of repeated disappointment.
Disappointment – the frustration of expectancy.
Disappointment leads to discouragement leads to despair leads to death.
Disappointment is always rooted in the past and we must forget the past.
- Count it all joy when the test shows up.
Nehemiah 8:10 | NKJV Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Know that when we choose to be joyful in the midst of the trial it will provide the supernatural strength that you need to make it to the end of the adversity.
Hebrews 12:2 | NKJV looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Steps to cultivating endurance:
- You must train before the competition begins to develop the endurance necessary to win and not quit.
- You cannot be entangled with the affairs of this life (taking the cares). If you are worried, you are contemplating how you can solve your own problems.
- You must develop a root of consecration to the Word before you can stand on it by spending time meditating on the Word.
- If you won’t quit because of weariness, you will win.
- Count it all joy when the test shows up.
It took Abraham 25 years to receive the manifestation of the Promise God had given him.
God’s desire is for you to receive the promise as soon as possible because the sooner it enters into your life and then can flow out of your life into the life of someone else.
Abraham did do one thing right: HE DID NOT GIVE UP!
These are the reasons that it took 25 years for Abraham to receive the promise:
Genesis 12:1-5 NKJV Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. (2) I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (4) So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (5) Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
- Abraham disobeyed the Lord from the beginning in that he did not separate himself from the worldly relationships he had before his relationship with God.
Maintaining those relationships will always prolong you receiving the promise.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 AMPC (17) So, come out from among [unbelievers], and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor, [Isa 52:11] (18) And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. [Isa 43:6; Hos 1:10]
Please understand that you don’t burn your relational bridges but you must sever the fellowship.
Don’t offend them with your spiritual superiority.
Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom (he was attracted to the world revealing where his heart was – Gen. 13:12)
Genesis 12:9-10 NKJV (9) So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. (10) Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.
- Abraham had arrived in the land of Canaan, where he was supposed to be but when pressure showed up in the form of a famine, he turned towards Egypt, a type of the world.
The natural human tendency is when famine comes, even though we may be right in the middle of God’s will, when insufficiency shows up we turn to the world.
We tend to begin to operate like the world.
God never wants us to run from a famine in our lives but we should stay right in the will of God and continue to trust Him.
Our spiritual decisions should never be based on economic indicators.
Abraham’s child, got that part right:
Genesis 26:1-4 NKJV (1) There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. (2) Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. (3) Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. (4) And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
Genesis 26:12-14 NKJV (12) Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him. (13) The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; (14) for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
Genesis 12:11-13 NKJV (11) And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. (12) Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. (13) Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
- Abraham was willing to compromise his integrity by lying about Sarah.
The reason that he was willing to lie was because he was concerned what people were going to think about him.
You can’t trust the Word of God to any greater degree than people can trust your word.
If you know your word is no good, it undermines your ability to believe God’s Word.
This is why God hates lying so much because of the way it undermines your ability to believe God.
It is a tendency that we all face.
Genesis 16:1-4 NKJV (1) Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. (2) So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. (3) Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. (4) So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.
- After the passage of time, Abraham felt the need to help God out accomplishing the promise.
Someone might ask about going to the Doctor or the Bank, are you endeavoring to help God with His promise.
As long as you are not altering the condition of the promise you are not in danger of doing this.
God said that Abraham would be the Father of many nations THROUGH SARAH.
They altered the promise by Abraham going in to Hagar.
Anytime that you do this you will always give birth to a product of the flesh, and Ishmael that will dog you for the rest of your life.
When you make an effort to help God out, it will always be in the strength of your flesh.
- Come out of fellowship with unbelievers
- Don’t turn to the world in a time of insufficiency.
- Don’t compromise your integrity because of what others may think about you.
- After the passing of time, don’t fall into the tendency to want to help God out and cause the promise to come to pass.
If you will allow faith and patience to work they will bring you to a place of wanting nothing.