Because you have kept My command to persevere. I will also keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold I AM coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown, ( Revelation 3:10-11).
I know your works, your labor, your patience and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary, ( Revelation 2:2-3).
I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first, ( Revelation 2:19).
In the Lord’s love letters to the churches in the Book of Revelation, we notice the importance the Lord puts on upon the patience of the saints. The word itself is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament. However, the word patience is written 34 times in the New Testament according to Strong’s Concordance.
The Lord commends the saints on their perseverance or endurance that comes from keeping their eyes on the Lord. We wait for His return and the completion of the full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. All will see the One whom they have pierced…. We wait and pray for what our heart yearns: Him.
I, John, your brother, and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island of Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, ( Revelation 1:9).
Beloved, we are living now in the Kingdom of God and the patience of Jesus Christ. Please remember as written in 10:12-13 of Hebrews, But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
We know we are hated by the world because the Lord is also hated by the world. He warned us in John 15:18-19, If the world hates you, you know that it hates Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Patience is proven in persecution and trials. If all was easy and comfortable, we would never grow in our soul towards the character of Christ. You have kept My the command of My patience….. This is a written command from the Lord….. It is not an option. We have to keep our patience in our wait and rest…..
Our command is to have His patience as we rest in Him. Jesus Christ is our righteousness…. We rest in Him, in His work in the cross regarding our sin. We wait on Him on His return, yet resting in the work His Spirit is doing within us. His work is magnified in our growing patience. We stand on the work of the cross against the attacks of Satan….. We just remind Satan that the work is the Lord’s not ours….. We have nothing in ourselves that is good but our Lord and His blood over us….. We have been placed in our Lord and abide by His righteousness. Satan cannot touch us with his evil as we are found resting in the work and love of our God found through Jesus Christ. This is how we rest in Him…. by faith in what the Word has spoken of our Lord’s work, which is finished! His side is finished, we are being made complete in His plan, by His Spirit and our trust in resting….in patience.
In Revelation 13:10, He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. We abide in the shelter of the Most High, His Risen Lord. God will have us perfect the longsuffering of our Lord within. So when all is said and done. God is justice and mercy. The judgments of God as written through out the Word as warning to all that breath on this earth. Justice is served by God and the glory is God’s…. Period…. There will be no doubt that those that raise their fist against our God, will know God is and knows them…….
So we are the body of Christ, we are also waiting for His and our enemies to be made the footstool of the Lord….. We inherit His enemies as well as the greatness of having the Eternal God as our Heavenly Father, who we cry out – Abba! Abba!
The pain of longsuffering will birth great glory to come. Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God interceding for our behalf….. He knows what we are going through for He has gone through the same suffering………. Let us be strong and courageous as darkness increases for the glory of the King will be known by all right around the corner….. Just wait, do not give up or do not give in, for He is coming quickly.
The way of the Lord does not bring easy and comfy roads and paths. We travel a stone and rock filled road…. We climb the cliffs and are held by His love…. We are called His and we are automatically in a battle: the Lord’s…. So we rest in His Word….. His Word will never fail to be fulfilled so:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle by both reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and of joyfully accepted plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession in heaven.
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but it anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him, ( Hebrews 10:31-38).
We know Paul and John were put through horrible persecutions. Paul and many others were martyred…… They were the Lord’s witness. We, beloved, are the companions of Jesus Christ and our brethren. We are living in the patience of Jesus Christ and….. living in the tribulation and kingdom of Jesus Christ.
When we are finished with our schooling as in a university, we graduate. Then what happens? Well, we go and live what we learned, right? In our time of peace, we learn and grow in the knowledge of God….. Now, we are to live Him….In Jesus Christ, there is no stagnation, there is always increase of His Spirit within as we continue on the climb. Beloved, we are ascending on the highway of holiness. It is written in 2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Time of great opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father is at hand….. Our lives may start to resemble many that are suffering for their faith in other nations….. So it is good for us to bring their great protection and eternal place to these precious saint’s mind in their tribulation by reminding the Lord.We ask our Father to manifest Himself to our brethren that are currently in prison or in horrible conditions, literally running for their life….. As it is written, if one hurts in the body or is suffering, we all hurt….. or are we to busy to pray?
If we live with them in prayer now, asking the Lord to bring their patience and courage to the fullness of Him. Reminding the Lord, that in their weakness, His power is made perfect….. So, please Lord, go for Your glory through their lives. Sustain them so they may not let go of You. Give them the endurance to run their race. Give them the faith to replace all fear so their patience and love may be perfected in You.
If we pray for them now as if we were praying for ourselves…. We will be prepared for the days ahead and prove the patience of Jesus Christ in us, when the cup comes our way. As our Lord told His disciples, they will surely drink of His cup…… Are we willing and prepared to keep our allegiance to the Lord, when all is coming against the Lord and His Christ as written? Are we? Let us be prepared for the battle to keep our souls in Him.
Our King has been waiting many years, though a year is as a day to the Lord, for His enemies to bow down…. He is still waiting and manifesting to us, the God kind of patience that is growing within us. We will grow in faith and patience of God. If the Lord commanded us, He always presents us all we need by His Spirit to obey His word.
Our family is the body of Christ….. So it is time to widen our view past our congregations at church. There are many suffering today for the Lord’s sake. The Lord is watching our concern and prayers or lack of for those we do not know but are our beloved brethren in other countries.
Can we join with them and others as written in Acts 5:41, So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Can we stand and lose our rights for the rights of God and His glory be known by all? For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 1 Peter 3:17-18.
So we continue in the strength and patience of Jesus Christ, preparing our focus like flint upon the Lord…..Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that you when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory rest upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
For the time has come for the judgment to come to the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Now If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him doing good, as to a faithful Creator, ( 1 Peter 4:12-19).
May I present this scenario before you this day…… The approaching days, may be our chance to approach the high calling of the Lord……We may be found in His righteousness and none of our own…..No pride left in our soul…Let us be found totally refined in our soul to His image.
The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ has totally abolished the knowledge that any good can be found in us alone; whether in our service, our works, our heart….. We stand completely sold out to the Word that only God is good which our Savior spoke in Luke’s Gospel……If there is any good in us It is Christ within.
So as we agree there is no good in us, but God…. We are not even worthy of His love and forgiveness….. but when we see the only True Reality found in Christ Jesus, we then run into Him and grab His love and mercy as we bow in tears at the foot of the cross. As I keep reminding us, our only hope of glory is Christ in us…… There is no glory in our flesh. God will not share His glory with any flesh as written.
So the patience of Christ grows in us as we live in and by the Truth of God, His Word is manifested within us…. The Spirit causes the Word of God to raise us into the new creation of Him, the image of our Lord Jesus Christ….. Not our image for we died….. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me, ( Galatians 2:20).
All of our Lord’s commands are great. Blessed are we who receive His grace to obey….. The Lord’s patience reveals His majesty….. We are our God’s royal priests and kings…… Let us strive to enter and remain in the rest of His righteousness. Then we allow His Spirit to work the Lord’s patience within us as we wait for the fulfillment of His promise in the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May we Lord, grow in the understanding of Your ways. Father, we want Your patience to possess our souls…. May we rest in Your greatness and neverending love until Your glory is revealed to all through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our only boast and glory is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, where we have died and live in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ…..forever and ever. Thank You Heavenly Father, for your great neverending love. You are worthy of all our praise all our livelong days and nights.
May Your Words be found in us: Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus written in Revelation 14:12.
Lord we want to be found by You allowing patience to have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing….. because we are found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and none of our own. We thank You and praise You for the work of Your cross which is being wrought out in our souls.
Learn of Me, children. I AM took the darkness of men’s spirits if they believe. I Am cast the darkness as far as east is to west…. Why do you doubt My work? Are the trees not producing of their own kind to this day? Does not the sun keep circling the universe night unto day and on, never stopping….? If all the universe is kept by the power of My Word, why are you doubting I Am can not keep you?
Knowledge of I Am pours forth great grace to walk in the high places where there is only I AM. Did I AM say leave all else to follow Me? Do not question or try to reason with I AM. I AM never changes, children. The closer to I AM you come, the increase of My glory grows in you to another new found glory in I AM. I Am is ever growing never ending. Why do you hold back from leaving all else? What are you holding that is greater than I AM?
When you find you have nothing but I AM, then children, you will have open arms for all I AM. But if you have something, then My heart saddens, for you will hold on to something. Alas, that something cannot save and raise you…… I AM came to save you from the corruption of the world and to awaken you to a risen life in I AM….. I AM is more than you can ever imagine as well as My purpose for you is greater than your something.
Will you let go to get I AM to receive all that you are in I AM? I Am asks you. I AM never lets you go, but do you let go of I AM for your something?
I AM has grace as a beautiful flower, as you inhale, the fragrance becomes you. Alas, then there is another beautiful flower with a more beautiful fragrance, and as you delight in this fragrance, it becomes your soul…..Then there is another beautiful flower waiting for your inhaling, and thus is your life in grace and glory in I AM.
Come to I AM and become the fragrance of the Lord. As you inhale, then your hold on the something will diminish, as I AM.
Learn of Me.
