The Miracle Twins: Faith and Patience

by Mark Brazee

God is a promise-making, promise-keeping God. He has made promises

through His Word to us individually as well as to the Church as a whole.

He has promised to give us nations. Psalms 2:8 says, "Ask of me, and I

shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts

of the earth for thy possession." He has promised us truth out of His

Word. In Jeremiah 33:3, God says, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee,

and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." God has

promised prosperity. The Amplified Bible states, "And God is able to make

all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so

that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be

self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and

furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation]" (2

Corinthians 9:8).

These are promises from God available to the Church today! Yet possibly

there are things God has promised us individually that haven't come to

pass. Has God promised you something you still haven't seen in your life?

Has He promised you something about your family? Has He promised you

something concerning ministry, and it has gone the opposite direction?

Sometimes we have things in our hearts we know God has promised us. Yet

for every miracle, there is a God-ward side and a man-ward side. God gives

us a promise, but there is something we have to do to receive. Hebrews

6:12 says, "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through

faith and patience inherit the promises." Faith, in essence, is believing

and saying what God says. Faith is saying, "If God gave me a promise, then

I believe it." Faith takes hold of whatever God says, thanks God for it

and rejoices and declares it. We have thought it was just a work of faith

alone, but the Bible says it is through faith and patience that we inherit

the promises.

Hebrews 10:35-36 says, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which

hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after

ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." The

scriptures are talking about the reward, the promises, or the answers that

we need. "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will

of God...." What is the will of God? The will of God is always faith. In

other words, after we have stepped into faith, then we need patience. Here

is the pattern or progression: we hear the promise, we step into faith, we

walk in patience, and then we obtain the promise.

But what happens if the answer doesn't show up in a couple of weeks?

Anyone can get into faith. It's like a race: anyone can start, but not

everyone finishes. God is not looking for short sprinters right now; He is

looking for distance runners. He is looking for people who are going for

the victory. He is looking for people who will say, "I'm going for the

gold. If it looks bad today, tomorrow will be a better day. I don't lose

if I don't quit, and I never quit because I'm in this race for the long

haul. I will keep running until I win."

James 1:2-3 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers

temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."

The temptations or problems are not there to help us. The devil is trying

our faith. If the devil can get us to stop believing the Word of God and

confessing what we believe, then he has won. The trying of our faith is

not to perfect us; the trying of our faith produces patience. Verse 4

continues, "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect

and entire, wanting nothing." If we are to be perfect, mature, entire, and

wanting nothing, patience has something to do with it. It is not just

faith, it is not just believing and saying, it is faith and patience

working together.

What is patience? Many people think patience means to just sit still and

hold out until the end. But patience is not sitting back and saying "I'll

put up with this until it leaves." One definition of the word patience is

"unswerving consistency, unswerving constancy, or consistent endurance."

Another word for patience is "steadfastness." William Barclay defined

patience this way: "Patience is not simply the ability to bear

circumstances; it is the ability to turn them to greatness and glory."

Between the time when we hear the promise and believe, and when we see the

full manifestation, patience has to be in operation. Patience determines

whether or not we get the promise fulfilled. Patience is what we do

between believing and seeing the fulfillment of what we're believing for.

One way we are patient is through our words. When we get into faith, we

must keep our words consistent. Patience is consistency. It is not

passively sitting back, getting beaten up until the answer comes. That

means we don't change our words from day to day-one day saying, "Everything

is wonderful," and the next day complaining, "This is miserable, nothing

works right for me." Faith and patience is a life style of actively saying

"I believe I have what God says; and if I believe I have it, I'm staying

consistent, constant, unswerving and unwavering from now until I receive

the promise."

The men and women in the Old and New Testaments were not just heroes of

faith; they were heroes of faith and patience. God doesn't just tell us

what they did to get into faith. He tells us what they did after they got

into faith and until they received the manifestation of the promises.

When the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, God brought them to Jericho

and said to Joshua, "I'm going to show you how to take a city." The city's

walls were so thick they could have chariot races on them; there was no way

the Israelites could get into that city. But God said, "I will show you

how to take the city and give you a lesson in faith at the same time." God

said, "March around the wall once a day for six days, then on the seventh

day, go around six times, and during that time, don't say a word. But on

the seventh day, the seventh time around, shout because I've given you the

city." When the Israelites shouted, the walls of Jericho fell from the

inside out. God taught them that through faith and patience they received

the promise of the city. They believed God, stayed patient for six days,

and the seventh day they received the promise.

What about impatience? It came into Moses' heart to be a deliverer and

judge for his people, but he was impatient. He killed an Egyptian, and

then spent the next 40 years on the back side of the desert learning

patience-consistent endurance. When Moses received the promise of God to

deliver the Israelites, he did exactly what God said, and they came out of

Egypt. In the wilderness when there was no water, the Lord said, "Smite

the rock." He obeyed, and water flowed. But the next time they ran out of

water, God said, "Speak to the rock." Moses didn't want to do it God's

way; he wanted it his way. So he hit the rock again, and because of his

impatience or "un-steadfastness," Moses was not allowed to go into the

promised land.

Ishmael was born due to Abraham's impatience. God had called Abraham "a

father of many nations." But after several years, Abraham figured he had

better do something to "help" God, so he fathered a child by Sarah's

handmaid. Impatience can produce results that are not God's best.

The apostle Paul was a wonderful example of patience. Everything in the

world came against his faith, but yet he said, "I will not leave behind or

forsake the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19, author's paraphrase). He knew he

had one call, one goal, one focus-and that was to run his race, finish his

course, and fight the good fight of faith. Paul was beaten, shipwrecked,

left for dead, stoned, but in every situation that came along, he exercised

his patience-consistent endurance-until he completed what he was called to

do.

Another example of patience is Noah. God spoke to him and said, "It's

going to rain, there's a flood coming. I want you to preach it, prepare

for it, and build a boat for it." So Noah was in the desert building a

boat. People would say, "What is that thing going to do?" "It will

float!" "Where is it going to float?" "In the water!" The people didn't

believe because they had never seen rain, much less a flood. Noah kept

proclaiming "There's something coming that is bigger, greater, more amazing

than this world has ever seen." Noah preached for over 100 years and he

didn't have one convert. But he stayed consistent in his believing, in his

message, and in his attitude. Everyone thought he was crazy. He put the

animals in the boat and it hadn't even sprinkled yet. But all of a sudden,

God said, "Get in the boat." Noah and his family went inside, locked the

door, and the rain came!

In his letter, James wrote about patience in the last days. He said, "Be

patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the

husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long

patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also

patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh"

(James 5:7-8). The generation that is on Earth when Jesus comes will have

to be a patient generation. Just as God told Noah, "There's something

coming that is bigger, greater, more amazing than this world has ever

seen," God has spoken to the Church about our future. Something is

coming-a move of God resulting in the greatest harvest of all time. It's

what we've been praying and believing for and it is going to come to pass.

So now is not the time to get discouraged, impatient and give up. Now is

the time to dig in our heels and be patient in our faith. We are faith

people, and patient people. We are constant and steadfast! We are not

simply bearing the circumstances. Through faith and patience, we have the

ability to turn the circumstances to greatness and glory. We keep our

words, our thinking and our attitudes lined up with the Word of God because

it is through the miracle twins-faith and patience-that we inherit the

promises.

Graced for the Place

By Janet Brazee

God gives grace according to what He has called each individual to do.

Paul said in Ephesians 4:7, "But unto every one of us is given grace

according to the measure of the gift of Christ." One definition for the

word "grace" is: that supernatural ability to endure any circumstance with

joy! Paul was well aware that a grace had been given to him. He said in

Romans 12:3, "For I say, through the grace given unto me...."

We are not all called to do the same thing for God. God will grace us

individually according to the call that is on our life-not someone else's

life. One person may be called to the ministry, another person may be

called to a business position. Some may be called to stay at home and

raise their children. In Romans 12:6, we read, "Having then gifts

differing according to the grace that is given to us...." We are given

individual grace, according the differing gifts on each and every one of

us.

It is so important that we never try to compare the grace on someone else

to the grace that is on us. It won't work. Why? Because we all have

grace given to us according to what He has called us to do. Ninety-nine

percent of the time the call on you is different than the call on someone

else. If the call is different, then so is the grace.

I remember the first trip Mark and I took to the Philippines. Before we

left the United States, the Spirit of God said, "Ere this trip is over, you

will know what I have called you to do." We were newly married and willing

to do anything for God. We knew we were called to the nations, so when the

Holy Ghost spoke this to us we thought, Maybe we're called to the

Philippines.

We headed out on this trip with great expectations, but we hadn't been in

the country four hours when we realized we were not called to the

Philippines! There was not one thing we liked about the country. Nothing

seemed to be working and we didn't know how we were going to make it for

the next four months.

While in the Philippines, we met another missionary couple from the United

States. They had actually moved there a month prior to our arrival. I

remember looking at them and thinking, Thank God I'm leaving in four

months! We came for a short-term trip; they came to live-forever! To this

day, 20 years later, that family still lives in Manila. They are raising

three children there and successfully reaching the people of the country.

To them the Philippines is "home." Why is the Philippines home for them

when it was not home for us? The difference is they are graced to be there

and we were not.

While we were in the Philippines we spent much time in prayer. During one

of the times of prayer, the Lord showed us a map of Europe with fires

burning throughout the nations and said to us, "Go back to the United

States, base your ministry there, travel throughout the United States and

Europe, and don't go anywhere else until I tell you." We obeyed what the

Lord told us, and for many years we ministered throughout the United States

and focused the majority of our time in Europe.

But in 1997, God spoke to us about Asia. We had forgotten what God said

to us while we were in the Philippines so many years earlier: "Don't go

anywhere else-until I tell you." God began dealing with us that it was

time to expand to other nations, and after 16 years, the first place God

led us to go in Asia was Manila, Philippines. The most interesting thing

happened this time-we loved it! What was the difference? The grace of God

was on us for Asia. We had the supernatural ability to endure any

circumstance with joy!