Romans 12:12
Joyful in hope, patient in tribulation and persistent in prayer.
If anyone will survive the storms of life, he must understand that he needs to embrace the culture of prayer.
Luke 18:1
We are instructed to keep praying and not faint. This is because we cannot be praying and fainting. Jesus was trying to say if we hold on to him, and on to his faithfulness, we cannot come to a place that we would faint. Pastor went further to say that as long as we hold on to God, we will not faint in waiting. He showed us examples from scripture examples of men who waited on God. They had a pattern of patience and persistence in prayer.
“…And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ…”
This scripture did not reveal to us what age Simeon was when the Lord revealed to him that he was going to behold the promise of the father with his eye but one thing we were told is that he waited patiently for his appearance.
Luke 2:22-38
How long can you wait on God to receive that which you desire of him?
We must embrace the culture of patience and persistence in the place of prayer to see that which the Lord has promised us and spoken to us about. It’s one thing to have a revelation and a prompting, it’s another thing for you to be willing to wait to see that thing. The problem is not what God has said sometimes, it’s THE ABILITY FOR MEN TO WAIT.
The major issue is not the integrity of who has spoken but the ability for the man to wait for what God has spoken, because he that has spoken has the ability to bring to pass that which he has spoken.
Many sometimes give up before God shows up and when they do that, that which God promised them, will elude them, not because he can’t do it but because they don’t have enough patience.
We know the story of Hannah who resumed the place of prayer when her husband died, she did that for 84 years, she showed up to corroborate what was spoken of Jesus’ birth.
Waiting is not easy, but it’s the way out. The only response to the promise of God is to keep waiting. God is waiting and looking forward to men and women who are willing to wait.
How you will know you are truly waiting is when you come to the end of yourself, when you are out of options and the only option you have is God. If you have not come to that point several things will take you away.
When men think they have options, the courage to wait will not be there.
There is a place in God, it’s a place of succour, a place of hope. It’s a place of confidence and assurance in God that God will do it.
Simeon must have experienced a complex and terrible situation and yet he was told He will not taste death till he sees the word of God come to pass.
Waiting concerning the will of God and to give birth to the purposes and mandate of God demands we not give up.
We cannot afford to give up on what the Lord has for us. This is why Hannah bursted out into celebration of praise. Celebrating what the Lord has done. She was corroborating all that Simeon has said. What she waited for has come to pass. It is what the Lord had said.
Luke 2:38
If we do not wait we will go for Ishmael as against Isaac. If we do not wait, Ishmael will look appealing to us. What we do not see is Eleazar. Abraham said he had no child to inherit his belongings. The Father of faith also made mistakes.
Genesis 15:2, 16:2.
The Bible said Abraham did not stagger- this is the report of the Lord concerning him irrespective of the action. Ishmael was not in the picture at first but as a result of the mistake he made. The picture that God did not ordained became a problem.
Romans 4:20
This is why it depends on our persistence and patience. Our generation do not have a record of praying on a matter for long. The question is that have we waited on a matter on God for five to ten years.
What we should do is that we should hear God over the matter.
When God speaks over the matter we should go and rest. When we stay long on the matter for long we would hear what God has to say concerning the matter. We must receive God’s word on the matter.
The word must be imprinted on our souls. When they were saying something concerning the matter, Simeon stood on his word by not going anywhere. He said he was not checking out. Some may think it was pride for him to have done that.
The man has heard from God that nothing will kill him until he sees the Messiah given birth. That is the beauty of carrying the thing or what we have waited for.
The Bible said Simeon said, “I have seen the word of the Lord.”
It is time for the fulfilment of the counsel of the Father. It is time to give birth to all that heaven has written concerning us.
There is a manuscript that God has written over our lives. God has done it that we should wait on Him. There are different areas that God has designed that we should wait for the purpose of God to be fulfilled in us.
We do not want to be less of what He told us. We do not to be less of what He has empowered us to fulfil.
Joshua in the same vein pulled out his score cards before the Lord on showing what he has achieved. The Lord said that there are yet more lands to be possessed. We should all be all what the Lord has made us to be.
There is grace to wait and to be patient.
Joshua 13:1
The mistake we make often in the things of the Spirit when it comes to praying especially for what we have longed for and then received, we tend to point the result to the testimony of what the Lord has said and done through another believer. We do not look out for how long that believers have waited. We most times focus on the external and not understand the process, which is a mistake.
The pattern described here is what happened to the children of Israel when they cried unto God and God heard and sent his word through Moses.
It was by their prayer that they got delivered by the hands of Moses. It was this same Moses that they said, “who made you judge over us.” That was the Moses they rejected at first and who later get them delivered by the hand of God.
Acts 7:34-35 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
We are in the generation in day and time that people do not want to embrace the process, people wanting quick fix.
It is possible that after a sermon the believer can behave unscriptural, far from what is expected concerning a matter.
Prophecy is not enough. Staying in the place of prayer consistently. It creates your own experience for you.
Since you have build up confidence in the place of prayer, you have all it takes to wait but when men don’t have what it takes to build up confidence and assurance in God and in the word of God in the place of prayer,any storm or distraction can move them because they don’t have what it takes to wait. Waiting may not be sweet, but please find and lay hold on what it takes to wait on God. Don’t be in too much of a hurry.
As an individual, you are either a member of a secret cult or a secret place.
Matthew 26:36-40- what happened from the moment Jesus was planning to give up and the moment the Angel of God came to strengthen him? There is something called persistence and patience in prayer. It brings you to a place where God shows up for you before you give up. Don’t give up before God shows up. Many give up before God shows up so they miss out on the realities and their portion in God. They left the spot and the space. So what God has for them in that location, they missed it.
TARRYING IS A CULTURE TO STAY IN THE PLACE OF PRAYER FOR LONG TILL YOU HEAR GOD. You don’t go to the place of prayer and just talk then walk out,it means you have not prayed. What makes prayers meaningful is that you go with a burden and come out with the peace of God.
Philippians 4:6-7.
It is possible that nothing changed physically but you are moving around with the peace of God that you cannot explain.
Jesus was tired, he came to the end of himself yet he knew it was the will of God. He knew that he must carry the cross and that is why he came.
Knowing, teaching and preaching a thing is not sufficient, what is much more efficient is that you have grace to do and to run with it to see the outcome that is supposed to be.
We have embrace the culture of patience and persistence in prayer. We have to learn how to hold on to and believe God until he shows up for us. And once God has spoken, we wait to see it come to pass. God is not limited in power and possibilities. That it has not happened does not deny that God has power to do so. So let’s settle on the path of God and face our own path that we are willing to wait on God. Let us judge God faithful.
In conclusion, Let’s stay in the place of prayer, it brings strength, it takes care of days, months and years to come. It provides wisdom ahead. The counsel of the father will be available unto us.
Jesus rose up from the place of prayer and Peter was from sleep. So their response to the same situation differed. Else, the salvation plan of God would have been aborted if Jesus had responded the same way Peter did when the soldiers came for him.
Mathew 26:47-54
God builds and trains us from the place of prayer.