Patience and Faith in the Last Days

The Bible promises over and over that two things will be tested in the hearts of those that profess Jesus in the last days:

1. Patience
2. Faith

If you study the passage about the last days leading up to the return of Yeshua, you will find patience and faith are the two qualities needed.

God is keeping the crowns on the head of the saints by patience!

Luke 21:17-20 NKJV — “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. “But not a hair of your head shall be lost. “By your patience possess your souls. “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.

When God 'shakes everything that can be shaken' the fleshy reaction is impatience.

Many, right now, feel like the return of the Lord is very near.  The natural reaction to that is to erroneously believe we are running out of time.

We are not.

God is never running out of time.  He is the ancient of days.  He isn't slack, and He isn't hurried.  He is.

Jesus isn't wringing His hands trying to figure out how to save the world, how to save your friends, or how to save your family.  He has THE perfect plan.

God's way of saving is very unusual.  He uses the LEAST intense means necessary to reach the most people at the deepest level without violating free will. (I'm thankful for this phrase coined by Mike Bickle several years ago).

I love the Good News Translation rendering of this passage from Isaiah 28:

Isaiah 28:22 Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the Lord Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country.
23 Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you.
24 Farmers don't constantly plow their fields and keep getting them ready for planting.
25 Once they have prepared the soil, they plant the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. They plant rows of wheat and barley, and at the edges of their fields they plant other grain.
26 They know how to do their work, because God has taught them.
27 They never use a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead they use light sticks of the proper size.
28 They do not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and they know how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains.
29 All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed.

God's plan is good! He is looking for those that learn to wait with Him IN it. His eyes are searching for those that don't try to make themselves safe from it.  God is looking for those that, when they see all these things, they lift their heads and get heaven's perspective.

If in the shaking of all things you don't get heaven's thoughts, heaven's emotions, and heaven's will, you will have failed the test between wheat and tares.
God is gathering both to each other right now!

Matthew 13:40-43 NKJV — “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, “and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

The Lord is looking for SUPERNATURAL patience and faith... Not what you can do without Him.  The fleshy counterfeit is to grit your teeth and try to be patient and try to believe this is gonna be ok.

That won't pass the test.

No. We need the fruit of the Spirit to be considered fruit-bearing by heaven.  To get the fruit of the Spirit you have to make some room in your heart for the Spirit.  You do that by telling God how you DON'T have patience, but that you want it; how you  DON'T have faith, but you want it.  You come clean on all the little subtle manipulations you are guilty of to try to save this life and get out of his shaking.  You sit before Him naked... Exposed... Waiting for Him to do what only He can.
If you don't, if you react like the world, He will make sure you aren't counted with the patient and faithful:

Revelation 13:4-10 NKJV — So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 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.

Revelation 14:9-13 NKJV — Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, “he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. “And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

We must fight the enemy in this hour.  The enemy isn't human. The enemy is mostly our own flesh and the demonic host that inspire us to impatience and doubt about how things will work out.

You can't be certain about God and uncertain about your future at the same time. We must move into certainty... Not by our strength or our delusion... But by asking and receiving.

This is what the House of Prayer is for.  This is what David did in David's Tabernacle.  Search the Psalms and you'll find Psalmists that come clean...that express real emotions to God and let him change their mind, their emotions, and their will.  The house of prayer isn't meant for us to tell God what to do with the world. It's meant for us to come to our Father's house and be changed. God needs no advice on what to do or when... We do.

Things are about to get MUCH worse in the natural, but glorious in the Spirit.  You will only benefit from that if you live and walk in the Spirit.

That is why John, exiled for His faith and patience, exhorted all who were willing to become a brother with Him in those very characteristics of Jesus' personality.

Revelation 1:9 I am John, your brother, and as a follower of Jesus I am your partner in patiently enduring the suffering that comes to those who belong to his Kingdom. I was put on the island of Patmos because I had proclaimed God's word and the truth that Jesus revealed.
10 On the Lord's day the Spirit took control of me, and I heard a loud voice, that sounded like a trumpet, speaking behind me.

The gates of hell are about to open. They won't prevail against those who use the keys.

Matthew 16:18-19 NKJV — “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Revelation 3:7-11 NKJV — “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”: “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. “Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall 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.

If now isn't enough to get us boldly before the throne of grace together...using the key of David... Stirring up one another in love and good works... Nothing will be enough.

It's one thing to preach the kingdom, and quite another to enter it. You know you are under the shadow of His wing by your patience and by your faith.

Hebrews 6:12 NKJV — that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

2 Thessalonians 3:3-5 NKJV — But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

Am I growing in patience? Am I growing in faith?